On June 10th, the Portsmouth School Committee selected Ana C. Riley to be the next Superintendent of Schools in Portsmouth. Currently Ms. Riley is Superintendent of Schools in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Ana Riley began her career as a High School chemistry teacher in Fall River, Massachusetts and moved on to serve as principal of first an elementary and then middle school over the course of 16 years. Since 2008, she has served the Dartmouth School District first as the Assistant Superintendent and then Superintendent of Schools.

The School Committee was impressed with Ms. Riley’s focus on improving student achievement and her ability to work with district stake-holders to develop a strategic improvement plan guided by core values and multiple measures of student data. In Dartmouth, Ms. Riley worked with her staff to bring trust and transparency to the budget, publishing a detailed budget aligned to the strategic improvement plan and directed at improving student achievement. These were all core qualities the Portsmouth School Committee sought in its next Superintendent.

During her tenure in Dartmouth, Ms. Riley developed leading programs including: an “Every School, Every Week” program that had District Administrators at all levels visiting one school per week; an Academic Summer School for grades 1 through 8 which was integrated with the Dartmouth Recreation Department; an initiative for every High School Junior to take the PSAT; the utilization of the National Institute of School Leadership to support professional development; and the implementation of the STAR assessment program in the Dartmouth Schools, a less time consuming common assessment tool.

The Portsmouth School Committee has approved a three year contract. Ms. Riley will receive a base salary of $152,000 plus benefits, a package comparable with other Districts in Rhode Island that are Portsmouth’s size. Ms. Riley will be succeeding Rear Admiral Barbara E. McGann who has been serving as Portsmouth’s Interim Superintendent this past year. The Portsmouth School Committee has also established a Transition Subcommittee to act as the liaison with the new Superintendent. Its members include: Emily Copeland, Chair; Fred Faerber and Andrew Kelly.

Ms. Riley received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Regis College, a Master’s degree in School Administration from Fitchburg State College, and is presently enrolled in a Doctoral Program in Education Leadership. She resides in Fall River, Massachusetts with her husband Kyle, a Special Education Director in Dighton-Rehoboth Regional District, and their six children.

Editorial note: Written from a press release.