As we start another school year, I’d like to begin this message by thanking you for being a part of the Cranston Public Schools community, whether you are a family member, a student, staff member, or one of our valuable community partners. I hope you have had a relaxing, enjoyable summer. Over the summer, our administrators, custodians, central office staff and many others worked diligently to ensure a smooth opening of school, and I am pleased to say that we have had a great start to the school year.

Our school community is brimming with excitement as we opened a newly reconstructed Garden City Elementary School, see improvements to Cranston West and Eden Park, begin building a new Gladstone Elementary School and plan for more opportunities for our facilities. The voters of Cranston, who have supported us on this path, can now see the amazing results of our school facility master plan as they come to fruition. To all of the teachers and staff who have been part of these efforts, thank you for your patience, flexibility and understanding as we transition through these challenging projects. I am grateful for your steadfast dedication, professionalism and positive spirit. In addition to our major projects, we have seen facility improvements at Cranston High School East, in Western Hills Middle School, and Oaklawn Elementary School.

We offer world class educational opportunities for our students from our Pre-K classrooms, to our vibrant and nationally recognized Career and Technical programs to our Cranston Transition Program for our 18-22 year old students. We pride ourselves on being student focused, and ensuring that our students and their needs are paramount. No matter which school our students attend, or what program they are in, our educators are dedicated and hardworking, and we are on the forefront of education.

We continue to focus our district and school-based strategic plans on proficiency in English Language Arts and mathematics as well as the importance of regular attendance. Having accessible and comprehensive curricula that balances equity and high quality is important, but all of the resources we have in place in our classrooms do not matter if our students are not present in school every day. It is critical that our entire community helps to reinforce the importance of daily attendance with our students. Our school-based attendance teams and our district support for students and their families have made a positive impact on attendance. Let’s keep that momentum going for this year and remind our students that showing up in school every day that they are well is important!

To that end, ensuring that all students feel welcome and important is a fundamental value we all share and is most certainly the keystone to our attendance improvement efforts. In addition to our attendance supports, we also seek to improve equity and access for all students across the board by seeking input from community partners in order to better serve all of our students.

Faculty and staff attendance is also a significant factor in our success. We were so proud of the many staff members last year who were able to maintain perfect attendance and were rewarded for doing so. We realize that perfect attendance is not easy, but we anticipate the number of our staff members who are rewarded for their perfect attendance to continue to grow in number each year. This is essential to the consistency of student learning and staff well-being and effectiveness.

In addition to our attendance goals for students and staff this year, another area of focus is ensuring that staff and students are respected, and that our behavioral expectations are transparent to students, families, faculty, staff, and to our community at large. Ensuring that our school communities are orderly places of learning and exploration is a shared responsibility for the entire community. We do not allow inappropriate or disrespectful behavior from our students, our families or from our staff. We foster an infrastructure of kindness and respect both in our schools, and on our online social media platforms, with policies governing our social media sites as well as our in-person school visitors.

With all of that being said, I look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks at our school and athletic events and our fall open houses. We are only as strong as our partnerships with our families and our community and our shared successes are important. When we work together to support our schools and our students, we see those rewards come back to us in spades. Our students share their skills, their time and their talents with our Cranston community, whether they are working, doing community service, or performing on our fields and on our stages. Remember we are all on the same team, building Cranston's future one child and school at a time.

Jeannine Nota-Masse

Superintendent

Cranston Public Schools