As superintendent of the Bristol Warren Regional School District, Ana Riley is certainly in the center of all things related to education locally and so it's fitting her office in the newly-located central administration branch of the Hugh Cole Elementary School is smack dab in the middle of the wing.

Recently, Riley sat down for a wide-ranging interview to discuss the happenings around the district, including the move of the administrative team to Warren about a month ago.

"I think we're finally settled in. It's good," Riley said of the switch while going down the list of her staff now occupying a renovated section of Hugh Cole. "We have a business office which is our CFO, Danielle (Carey) and she has an accounting manager and an account payables clerk. I have my one assistant (Kate Brown) and assistant superintendent (Courtney Monterecy). We have our HR person (Derek Swenson), who does double duty. This is what folks keep forgetting. They're like, you have this new position, a COO. And I'm like, well, we had to rename it because he now has two jobs. He is not the HR director or the facilities director. He's both."

Riley has also added another responsibility in her list of duties, that of the quasi-manager of the district-wide construction effort. The main component, the new Mt. Hope High School building, will soon reach the one-year milestone.

"It's really exciting," Riley said of the $186.4 million set of new construction and remodeling taking place at the district's six schools. "Over the summer they're doing all the capital work in our elementary buildings and middle school. And all they're going to have left is the high school to work on. So I, as not a person who's familiar with construction, I'm kind of awestruck by the fact that that's all going get done over the summer. I'm excited to see how everything looks come September when we reopen the buildings with all the work that's happened.

"Once this is done our facilities will be top notch. I mean, what we're upgrading in the elementary and the middle schools, particularly the elementaries, is a lot of like I'd say the bones of the building. It's all the mechanicals, what you sometimes don't realize because a building looks good on the outside, then the insides have gotten real old. So we're doing a lot of upgrading to that work.

"And then the high school, it's coming along. It looks like a real building now. You can actually, like, see it. You don't have to imagine what it's going to look like. You can see it. We're actually going to do a little tour ahead of our (second school committee of May) and walk the building just to show people here's how it's starting to really look like."

Riley said the new MHHS plays a significant role in the perspective of how residents in both towns feel about the district and the perception from those around the state.

"One of the things when I started here, we kicked off our strategic plan and ramping up CTE (Career and Technical Education) was a goal of this district. The fact that it was highlighted as one of the five major goals of this district made it a high priority for me," Riley said. "So we started adding programs, getting programs approved and built. And typically those programs attract students from other districts. But our facility was lagging well behind our programming. And so when I saw that the opportunity for those bonuses was going to close, I thought we have to move fast, because the ability to get a new high school built for an additional 20% off wasn't going to last much longer."

Riley was referring to the state's school construction aid formula. For any new or remodeling projects, the district was rated to receive 63% of financial backing from the Rhode Island Department of Education. By meeting a series of incentives, Bristol Warren is on target to gain an additional 20% above the 63% on about $135 million of the total it spends for the upgrades.

"We're eligible for 63% if we do nothing, but to be able to build a new high school and get 83% reimbursement, that's a once in a lifetime opportunity. And I knew if I didn't try to do that for our kids now that window would close and then it makes it much harder," the superintendent continued. "Our towns support it. I mean, I cannot complain about the level of support we get from the towns. But to ask the towns to pay for 40% of a $200 million bond is a big ask for towns that are doing their best to make these livable places for their residents. So, we couldn't let that window close.

"And now our kids are going to have a facility that matches the programming they're doing. So they're going to not just be doing those real world experiences. They're gonna be doing them in a site that also mirrors what that real world looks like. So that's the exciting piece of it."

Of those conceptions, maybe some misconceptions, of what Mt. Hope High School is, sometimes even from within, Riley said, "I think folks do not appreciate how high performing we are at this point. Our high school is one of the few 4-Star high schools in the state. Like, we are a very high performing district and we don't get the credit that we should be getting. And I want our families, particularly in our own communities, to recognize the fact that we are one of the elite high schools. We have done lots of work to bring up our programming, and again, part of it is environment. We're in an old building that doesn't live up to that. So I do think a new building is our opportunity to really remind folks that we are a top high school in this state."

The district is due to update its five-year strategic plan, the most recent one ending this year. The administration has touched around the framework of the next edition, teasing a new logo created to coincide with the principles of the plan.

"These won't be my priorities. They'll be the community's priorities. That's always the goal of a strategic plan. What does our community, our students, our staff, our school committee, what do they want to see for our school district in the next five years?" Riley explained. "I don't anticipate that we'll see student achievement come off the board. That is always a component. I'm not sure if I could identify a single strategic plan that doesn't have that as a component.

"The rest will be really targeted on the direction that we want to go in. We're always worried about funding and how we're going to close the gaps from year to year. And the idea of maybe doing some recruitment for our CTE programs and bringing in revenue via tuition might be something that comes up to the surface. How do we really do a better job of advertising what we have, showcasing our new building, and attracting students to Bristol Warren to help offset some of the costs by bringing in that extra revenue.

"I think an area that's in our current one that we also haven't made as much progress as I would like to see is really expanding pre-K. Right now, we still only offer part time. We tried to offer a full time, just the costs are heavy when you're bringing in four-year-olds. So that would be something that I may I think the community would like to see and that we may see in the future planning."

On the topic of expanding Kickemuit Middle School to include fifth graders in the fall, Riley said she's comfortable with the planning, led by Principal Dennis Morrell, put into place and that continues to evolve. The superintendent noted the district isn't setting a trend with the move, saying, "This is a very familiar configuration. It's about half of the middle schools in the state are five through eight."

She continued, "I think we're good. I think we did we did the right thing by doing a year of planning. We didn't just move them. So over the last, the course of the year, our middle school principal has been meeting with fifth grade staff, organizing with them what a schedule's going to look like, what what the day will look like, how we'll incorporate fifth grade into the life of the middle school? And I think they're ready at this point, like we are good to go."

The district teachers, in general, are "good" for the moment, having recently agreed with the administration and school committee to a one-year extensive their current contract into the upcoming 2026-27 term. The superintendent said it was the prudent move considering what's happening with funding at the state and federal levels.

"All we did was a rollover because my worry was committing to a three-year contract when we don't know how the General Assembly is going to react to what's been happening federally, with the grants monies, with the governor's budget," Riley said. "It's an election year. I just didn't feel confident enough to schedule raises out two and three years from now when we'll have our full bond in place. Also, everything's going up. I just didn't want to make promises the district couldn't keep. So what I asked was if they would consider a one-year rollover with no changes to the contract, a very small increase, really enough to cover the health insurance increase, to get us through one more year, just so we could see, have a better picture. And then we'll negotiate next year for the full contract."

Asked if there's any impactful legislation being considered on Smith Hill, positive or negative, of interest to her, Riley said, "I will be interested to see where the 'blue ribbon' commission work comes through. They've projected and predicted a better school funding formula for districts. It is a huge expense for the state. I hope it has at least some legs and people start thinking about it in terms of updating our funding formula. It's been 15 years since our formula's been updated. It was our first funding formula. Rhode Island didn't have one prior to that. I think all things need review and revision as the world is changing around us. And so I hope that it at least forces a conversation around looking at the funding formula to better support students."

Riley spent much of 2025 working on the study committee reviewing the state transportation funding formula, though nothing emerged legislatively from that effort last year or so far this.

"I thought it was a no-brainer last year. I hope there's an opportunity to revisit that. I think there are opportunities for almost every district in the shifts that they recommended. I'm not sure why there wasn't an appetite for that last year, and I worry with this being an election year there may not be an appetite for change again this year. But certainly, it's something that I think benefits 90% of the districts. It would be good for kids. Does it feel like a waste of time? Sometimes I do get frustrated that we spent a lot of time."

Back to the notion of the district needing to toot its own horn a bit better, especially when the new MHHS is finished at the summer's end in 2027, the superintendent related the educational and extracurricular successes the Huskies have garnered in recent years.

"We are one of the premier high schools in this state because we have it on both ends," Riley added. "We have a great music program. Our band is amazing. Then we have an awesome sports program. We just keep winning title after title after title. And then academically, our kids are top notch. I just want everyone else to know what I know about Bristol Warren."