PORTSMOUTH — Effective July 1, Jeffrey Heath will be the new principal at Portsmouth High School.

The School Committee Tuesday night voted unanimously to ratify Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy’s selection of Heath, currently the principal at Middletown High School, to lead PHS going forward. Kenworthy was not at Town Hall for Tuesday’s meeting, but the selection of Heath was announced by Deputy Superintendent Elizabeth Viveiros.

Heath, who was appointed to a three-year contract, was the assistant principal at East Greenwich High School before taking over at Middletown High in 2020. He’s also the former dean of students and a health and physical education teacher in Tiverton, and has taught at Rhode Island College, where he earned a doctor of education in education/education reform in 2017.

‘Dr. Heath is highly regarded throughout the state as one of the top high school principals,” said Viveiros. “He’s looking forward to starting on July 1 and having the ability of making a positive impact on PHS and the community that he and his family call home.”

Viveiros thanked “the close to 30 individuals — students, staff and parents — who participated in the selection process.” She gave a special shoutout to Kim Aguiar, the district’s director of Human Resources, and Charity Shea, the director of student services, who helped Viveiros chair the selection committees. The selection of Heath was unanimously approved by the Personnel Subcommittee, she noted.

Committee member Sondra Blank said she felt the interview process “was very inclusive (and) it was great to have the students involved.”

‘Difficult decision’

Heath told the committee he was “humbled and excited” to be selected PHS principal.

“It was really a difficult decision for me, honestly,” he said. “One of the things when I applied for the position was to see if Portsmouth High School was a fit for me. Being a member of the East Bay educational community through Tiverton, and Middletown, and living here for over 10 years in the community, Portsmouth’s reputation precedes itself. It is really a forward-facing district that has high rigor, a reputation for excellence, and it’s something that I’ve followed from a distance for a long time. 

“To be closer to the community and have those conversations and really get to the nitty gritty of what drives this public school district is something that really made the decision solid for me, personally — that this was a great fit. It makes me excited for the good things to come for us in the district and the partnerships that come along the way.”

Heath will succeed Paige Irwin-Clair, currently the school’s interim principal.

The previous PHS principal, Vanessa Reale, was on the job for only seven months after her appointment on June 7, 2022. She left in December 2022 to become an adjunct professor of psychology at Roger Williams University. According to her LinkedIn page, Reale was an adjunct professor at Johnson & Wales University from 2016 to 2022.

Before the winter break in December 2022, Kenworthy named Kirwin-Clair acting principal at PHS. She stepped away from her responsibilities as the district’s director of college and career readiness to take on the position.

At the Jan. 17 School Committee meeting, Kenworthy officially announced Reale’s resignation, and appointed Kirwin-Clair as interim PHS principal for the remainder of the school year.

No hand dryers

In other business Tuesday, the committee voted unanimously to scrap an idea to install electric hand dryers in the bathrooms at PHS and Melville Elementary School and to stick with paper towels.

Chris DiIuro, the district’s director of finance and administration, said the hand dryers were considered as a potential add-on to a contract for major bathroom renovations at PHS that were approved during the last meeting. DiIuro had rejected the hand dryers in place of continuing with paper dispensers, but the matter was nonetheless taken back to the Building Committee for further input.

“After those discussions and after feedback from the actual high school administration and the custodians, our recommendation is to still stay with the paper towels,” he said, noting the Building Committee voted 6-1 to also recommend against the dryers.

School Committee Chair Emily Copeland said using paper towels rather than hand dryers will save the district $4,200 because the paper is included in the cost of the contract; going with hand dryers would have required a change order.

Committee member Frederick Faerber III expressed surprise that custodians would prefer sticking with paper, since that’s trash they’re constantly dealing with.

According to Blank, however, custodians said hand dryers splatter water on the bathroom walls, and that was their objection to switching from paper.

Bathroom work will wait

The hand dryers weren’t the only items under school building improvements to either be rejected or delayed Tuesday. The panel also voted unanimously not to proceed with renovations to the Hathaway School bathrooms this summer.

DiIuro explained the district received two bids on the renovations, both of which were “unbelievably high” — over $800 per square foot to renovate under one bid, more than $1,000 under the other. “The lowest bid was over budget by almost $350,000,” he said.

He suggested rejecting both proposals and going out to bid again next summer or winter to hopefully get better pricing.

Copeland said one reason the bids were so high is due to the abundance of contracting work currently in the marketplace.

The committee also voted to table a bid award for the PHS Memorial Drive project, which is intended to improve traffic flow at the high school. 

DiIuro said three bids for the project were opened a few weeks ago. “There was some confusion amongst the bidders; perhaps some specifications were unclear. The feeling of the Building Committee was we should go back and refine some of our specifications and re-bid this project to get better pricing and better clarity around the requirements,” he said.

Following an upcoming meeting between school and town staff, the goal is to re-bid within the next month and hopefully carry out the project this summer and into the next school year, DiIuro said.