RPS Superintendent's Update

Dear RPS Community,

I hope this message finds you and your loved ones experiencing high levels of health and happiness. With summer in the rearview mirror and fall bringing with it shorter days and cooler air, I am reminded that it also includes beautiful New England scenery, tasty autumn flavors such as pumpkin and apple cider in all of their many forms, and of course a busy start of the school year that includes a renewed focus on academics, athletics, fine & performing arts, clubs & activities, civic engagement, and renewed and new friendships that will last a lifetime. For those of us who work in education, one of the most powerful “perks” is that we get to hit the “reset button” so to speak and start anew each year learning from and building upon our past experiences all in an effort to support the growth and achievement of our students in all aspects of their lives.

In order to best meet this goal, educators must continue to focus on their own professional growth and achievement. This past summer, members of the RPS district leadership team and faculty participated in a wide variety of professional development experiences that will enhance and strengthen their knowledge and skills in and out of the classroom. This included approximately fifty graduate courses; four hundred and seventy five in-service hours through workshops, conferences, trainings, and independent study; and travel experiences that are connected to content, instruction and students/families. While we often talk about students and staff using the summer to relax and reset for the upcoming school year, it is important to recognize that our RPS educators are working year-round on their craft and continue to demonstrate an impressive commitment to supporting our students and modeling life-long learning.

The School Committee and I have established common goals in the area of Community Connections and Advocacy. This is a continuation of the work we started last year that included a refreshed district website, weekly principal updates from each school, a purposeful social and print media presence, superintendent updates, and our new community newsletter, In the Loop. This year we plan to provide more avenues for connecting with the community to share the successes of our school district. This will include extending our In the Loop brand to include informational post cards, community engagement sessions, and digital or broadcast media productions. If you have any feedback regarding District communication with the community, please do not hesitate to contact me.

We are selling advertisement space in this newsletter to help offset publication costs. If you are associated with a local business and would like more information about advertising in our newsletter please contact Laurie McNiff at lmcniff@rpk12.org.

Click on the picture above to access past digital versions of In the Loop or access it through the District website.

The District’s work continues to be framed by our updated Strategy for District Improvement. While we remain committed to our District mission, vision, core values, and strategic objectives, the District Leadership Team updates our strategic priorities each year to ensure that we are responsive to the needs of our students by developing actionable outcome-based strategies. This year, our focus areas include:

• Developing Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) protocols and practices to incorporate academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support to ensure equitable access to high-quality instruction for all students.

• Ensuring that all RPS students will have equitable opportunities to access environments where they experience a sense of belonging, engage in deeper learning with access to grade-appropriate instruction, and are held to high expectations with individualized support.

• Implementing What I Need (WIN) blocks at all levels to provide opportunities for students to review, relearn, and/or master skills as they connect to grade-level learning, experience extensions of their content area classroom curriculum, and/or collaborate on interdisciplinary projects to apply and integrate their learning from the core content.

• Reviewing, rebranding, and implementing specialized programming to better meet the needs of all students with diverse learning, social-emotional, and/or behavioral needs.

We are proud to provide our students with an adaptive and expanding comprehensive program of course offerings and educational experiences intended to prepare them to be college, career, and/or service ready in a competitive, ever-changing adult world.

Click on the image above to view the complete 2025-2026 RPS Strategy for District Improvement.