NEWPORT — Jared Vance, the former principal of Kickemuit Middle School in the Bristol-Warren School District, is the new principal of Rogers High School. Vance, 41, said it has been a longtime goal of his to be a high school principal.“The high school is the flagship of the district, the culmination of the student’s years in school,” he said. .“I want to bring Rogers High School to a position of prominence,”Vance said.
Vance was at Kickamuit for the past two years and before that was assistant principal at Curtis Corner Middle School in South Kingstown for about 3½ years.“He said he is looking forward to working with the Newport Area Career and Technical Center. “It’s important that kids can follow different pathways to get to the end result — fulfilling careers.” Vance replaces Jeffrey Goss, who had been the Rogers principal since November 2014.
Before going into school administration, Vance was a special-education teacher at Barrington High School for about 10 years. During those years in Barrington, he was the varsity football team’s defensive coach,. Vance grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts, and after graduating from Walpole High School received a five-year football scholarship to the University of Rhode Island. He played defensive end for URI for four years and served as student assistance coach to the football team during the fifth year of the scholarship.After graduation, he coached football teams at Pilgrim High School in Warwick and at Walpole High School.
Vance majored in physical education and exercise science at URI, where he received a bachelor of science degree. His first teaching job was at Salem High School in Massachusetts, where he taught physical education for one school year. He later earned a master’s degree in special education at Cambridge College in Massachusetts, and taught adapted physical education at the Bi-County Collaborative in Attleboro, Massachusetts, for about three years.
Vance completed the administrative certificate program at Providence College.