Superintendent to retire July 13

Matt Bower
Posted 6/9/15

After nearly 33 years in the Warwick School Department, Superintendent Dr. Richard D’Agostino, or “Dr. D” as he’s come to be known, has decided it’s time to “let someone else captain the …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Superintendent to retire July 13

Posted

After nearly 33 years in the Warwick School Department, Superintendent Dr. Richard D’Agostino, or “Dr. D” as he’s come to be known, has decided it’s time to “let someone else captain the ship and serve as guardian of the school system.”

Taking a break from constant email updates and ringing phones on Monday afternoon, D’Agostino stepped away from his desk and sat at the table in his office to discuss his time in the Warwick school system and what it’s meant to him.

D’Agostino said he was ready to retire three years ago, when he was serving as director of special education, before the School Committee asked him to step into the role of superintendent following the abrupt departure of Peter Horoschak.

“It’s always a tough decision,” he said of retiring. “Being superintendent requires a 24-hour, seven-day commitment. You make sacrifices personally and in your family life.”

D’Agostino said with a number of challenges facing the district, including consolidation, negotiating a contract with the Warwick Teachers Union, and financial concerns, he had a discussion with his family about what he should do.

“In the best interest of my family, I decided to retire at this point,” he said. “I have a 10-year-old son and I’ve missed many of his school events and games being involved in meetings night and day.”

Up until his recent decision, D’Agostino had been a candidate for reappointment to the department’s top job.

D’Agostino received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Education from Providence College, where he also received a Masters in Guidance and Counseling as well as a Masters in Special Education. He also holds a C.A.G.S. as a Certified School Psychologist from Rhode Island College (RIC) and received a Doctorate in Education from Boston University.

D’Agostino said he was taking a course at RIC and working part-time as a special education advisor and counselor at the Community College of Rhode Island when he heard Warwick was looking for a guidance counselor.

“I called Henry Lemire and sent him my resume. He asked me when I’d like to start and I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

D’Agostino has worn many hats during his time in Warwick. He started out as a guidance counselor, but also served as the director of an alternative school, the principal of Oakland Beach Elementary School, a summer school principal, the director of Special Education Services, and finally as superintendent.

D’Agostino said there are a lot of challenges ahead for the district, but he thinks Warwick is headed in the right direction.

“We’ve moved into the right direction, there’s no question about that. Student performance has increased and teachers and principals have been trained to increase rigor,” he said. “The world is changing quickly and information is readily available; kids are using technology at lightning speed, so we need to keep up to be competitive with other districts.”

And D’Agostino feels Warwick is well equipped to meet that challenge.

“The teachers, the staff and the administration here in Warwick are totally committed people. They live in the community and they support one another; it’s what gives Warwick its edge over other districts,” he said. “Someone will reach out and help no matter where you go in Warwick.”

D’Agostino said he’s observed many changes to education during his time in Warwick.

“We’ve gone from a time when kids would memorize facts and multiplication tables or read a paragraph and answer specific questions, to being more sophisticated with what we’re doing now,” he said. “The depth of knowledge is tremendous compared to what it was.”

D’Agostino said the advancements in technology have been astounding.

“It’s amazing to think that a teacher can have a dashboard in their classroom, but they do and they can monitor the kids and check on what a student is learning and make recommendations or corrections while a student is working on something – it doesn’t get better than that,” he said. “We’re hopefully moving into a text-less society in the schools. There are electronic textbooks and other online resources. You can communicate with people halfway around the world. The resources out there are amazing.”

D’Agostino said the department has already purchased 3,000 Google Chromebooks for students, roughly one-third of the entire school population, and hopes to eventually provide a Chromebook for every student. But he said students aren’t the only ones benefiting from new technology.

“Teachers are getting more training on different ways of teaching and looking at things,” he said. “Before, there used to only be one solution to a problem. Now, teachers have a class with 20 different solutions; it’s not wrong just because it’s not the same solution the teacher has.”

D’Agostino said students are now being encouraged to be daring and risky when solving problems, calling it “an exciting time.”

“It’s exciting for the kids, but there are challenges for the adults with consolidation,” he said. “In 1968, we had 20,000 students. Today, we have 9,069. We’ve decreased by more than half and we still have the same number of buildings at the secondary level.”

He said the issue needs to be addressed, and while the Long Term Facilities Planning Committee attempted to do that two years ago with its recommendation to close Gorton and Aldrich and re-purpose Warwick Vets as a super junior high, sending Vets students to Pilgrim and Toll Gate, it ultimately failed when the recommendation was not approved by the School Committee.

“Consolidation failed two years ago because people didn’t want to believe that we had that much excess space,” D’Agostino said, adding that opinions have changed now that an outside consultant has been brought in to do a study and has reached a similar conclusion. “I think there are many people out there who support consolidation and they see that running half-empty buildings isn’t an efficient use of taxpayers’ dollars, and that spending money on excess space also prevents us from providing new programs for students.”

D’Agostino said there are many accomplishments he’s proud of during his time in Warwick, including having Oakland Beach receive national recognition for Title 1 achievement – something no other Warwick school has received; creation of the Drum Rock Early Childhood Center; implementation of alternative programs at the high schools as well as a credit retrieval program at the secondary level; the success of special education programs, such as Opportunities to Learn, which is geared toward phobic students that have a difficult time coming to school and will see four such students graduate this year; introducing the Parent Portal to improve communication between parents and schools and Aspen to record student attendance and provide reports online; adapting the central registration system to be open all year round; and starting a preschool at Oakland Beach 20 years ago, which became the district’s first all-day Kindergarten.

“We now have a total of nine all-day K programs and we’ll be adding two more in September,” D’Agostino said. “I’m proud of accomplishments like that to help the students of Warwick be successful.”

When asked if there’s anything he hopes to still accomplish between now and his retirement, effective July 13, 2015, D’Agostino said saying goodbye to the students at graduation and tying up any loose ends on the School Committee’s approved agenda for their next meeting, which will be held tonight at 7 in the auditorium at Toll Gate High School.

“If they approve the closure of Gorton [or Aldrich], then we’ll have our work cut out for us,” he said.

In a joint press release by D’Agostino and the Warwick School Committee, D’Agostino thanked the staff, both past and present, and community for the opportunity to serve the district. The committee said it wishes to recognize D’Agostino for his “commitment and dedication to the district” and wishes he and his family “much happiness and future success.”

There was no mention of how the committee plans to fill the post and calls to committee chair Jennifer Ahearn were not returned.

When asked what’s next for him, D’Agostino said he plans to do a bit of traveling with his family, including taking his son, who is an accomplished tennis player, to several tournaments.

“I plan to enjoy the time with family and recharge my batteries before looking into what’s next. I can only mow the lawn and paint the house so many times,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve had some offers at the college level as well as consulting in other districts at private schools.”

D’Agostino said 33 years went by in a flash.

“I’ll miss it. I spent a lot of time at Oakland Beach. I’ll miss the ties there and the outstanding people I worked with,” he said. “But I’ll miss the kids the most.”

D’Agostino said he always enjoyed visiting the schools and spending time with students, whether reading a book to them or observing what they were working on.

“One of the things I always enjoyed as a principal was after a difficult meeting with administration, it was nice to pick up and visit kindergarten and laugh with the kids,” he said. “They really lift people’s spirits.”

D’Agostino said he’s loved working in Warwick and respects the people he’s worked with.

“I’m so appreciative that Henry Lemire gave me my first job. I tried to make him proud and feel like he made the right choice,” he said. “There were a number of people like Lemire that came out and assisted to help us through, such as Bob Shapiro and Bob Bushell. I feel I made them proud and did the right things.”

Comments

5 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • Marccomtois

    Apparently they decided on a school closure option last night.

    http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150609/NEWS/150609333

    By Patrick Anderson


    Journal Staff Writer

    Posted Jun. 9, 2015 at 3:41 PM

    WARWICK, R.I. -- The School Committee has settled on a school building consolidation plan that includes closing one of the city's three public junior high schools at the start of the next academic year.

    The committee is slated to meet Tuesday night to finalize the consolidation plan - one of 10 alternatives presented by a consultant this year - and decide whether Aldrich Jr. High or Gorton Jr. High should be closed in September, Warwick School Superintendent Richard D'Agostino said Tuesday. Eventually, the plan calls for both Aldrich and Gorton to be shuttered.

    Known as "Alternative 5", the plan school committee members chose at a Monday night workshop moves Warwick over mutliple years from three high schools and three junior high schools, to two high schools and two middle schools.

    When both Aldrich and Gorton are closed, Veterans High School would be converted into a middle school.

    Tuesday, June 9, 2015 Report this

  • smh

    and this news in the aforementioned JOURNAL article and the news of D'Agostino's timely announcement regarding his retirement is shocking why????????

    Tuesday, June 9, 2015 Report this

  • smh

    and this news in the aforementioned JOURNAL article and the news of D'Agostino's timely announcement regarding his retirement is shocking why????????

    Tuesday, June 9, 2015 Report this

  • JohnStark

    So $250,000 and untold wasted space later, we're back to where we were on 12/13/2013; close Aldrich and Gorton and make Vets into a middle school. Next up, the mindless collection of candlelight vigils, protests, sign-waving and the like from those who can't seem to understand that the vast majority of taxpayers in Warwick saw a very clear rationale for this ten years ago. If you doubt the above, ask yourself the last time you were at a family or social event when someone said: "I'd like to move to Warwick so my kids can go to Vets." Exactly.

    Wednesday, June 10, 2015 Report this

  • jackiemama63

    Once again John Stark, "well, said."

    Thursday, June 11, 2015 Report this