Cranston Public Schools had a successful start to the school year. We are proud to have a Milken Award Winner at Glen Hills Elementary School announced in October. Maria Santonastaso is an outstanding educator, and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate her locally as this esteemed national organization recognized her.

We are fortunate to have so many talented, dedicated educators in Cranston.

Our RICAS scores have shown growth in many areas, and we are proud that the hard work that our educators and students do every day is paying off. Several of our schools have advanced from low or typical ranges to high ranges, demonstrating the tangible impact of our educators' hard work.

This progress is about more than test scores – it's about closing learning gaps and creating meaningful opportunities for our students. While educational headlines are often discouraging, our data tells a different, more hopeful story. Our children are making growth and accessing high-quality educational opportunities each day.

The district’s five-year master plan is becoming a reality as we continue to improve our facilities. We have a plan for the completion of Phase III of Eden Park Elementary School’s renovation, we continue to see progress on the new Gladstone Elementary School, and we are in the planning phase for the construction that will take place at our charter high school, the Apprenticeship Exploration School. We are also very excited about the plans for a new parking lot at Cranston High School West.

Despite these exciting improvements and new facilities, there is still so much to be done. We are a large district. Our annual capital improvement budget is frugal. Our facilities are aging and the equipment that keeps them running is often obsolete, making it difficult to maintain them through the seasons of the year. Although our annual budget includes a capital improvement line every year, it is insufficient to maintain several aging school buildings.

We need not only 21st-century teaching and learning facilities for all of our educators and students, we also need things like consistent, reliable heating and cooling systems. These are not things that can be accomplished in an annual budget, and the longer we wait, the more problems we have and the larger and more costly the problems become. We continue to do the best we can with the resources and funding that are available to us.

That said, January begins our public budget season. We start our budget process in November, looking at the current budget and staffing, and using it to make predictions for the next school year’s budget. Although it is difficult to make a budget on predictions, we have an experienced, competent staff of administrators and we have our budget development process down to a science.

On Jan. 23 we will have a public presentation of our 2025-2026 school year budget. The meeting will be held at Cranston High School East and we hope that our residents will come, and others to support our schools. We need you to take a vested interest in the finances of the School Department and the process that it takes to create a solid, responsible budget that supports 21st-century teaching and learning in a district such as ours with many diverse learners.

Our final budget will be adopted and sent to the City Council in February and the final version will be adopted by the School Committee in late spring. We look forward to having everyone’s support for our educators and students.