Central Falls Celebrates Its New High School

By Steve Klamkin  Latino Public Radio

After years of neglect and disrepair, Central Falls has said goodbye to its nearly 100-year-old high school, as students and staff joined local, state, and federal dignitaries Monday to cut the ribbon on a state-of-the-art replacement building.

“The smallest city in Rhode Island made one of the boldest investments in our future,” said Mayor Maria Rivera, who spearheaded the drive to build the school.

The new school on Higginson Avenue was occupied after the winter break, and it has been met with rave reviews by some of its more than 800 students.

The building cost more than $100 million, its opening was pushed back to March 3 after the February blizzard. It replaces the 1927 high school building on Summer Street.

“This new Central Falls High School is more than just a building,” said Crystal De Jesus, a senior and a student member of the new school board. “It’s to show our students, including me, that they deserve safe, modern spaces where they can learn and grow in our community.”

“This building is more than a structure”, said Central Falls School District Superintendent Stephanie Downey Toledo “it’s a promise kept.”

She noted that fundraising campaigns are ongoing, to outfit the new auditorium with audio visual equipment, and to complete adjacent playing fields for athletics.

“Central Falls is a community that has had difficulties financially and really has not been invested in in the way that other communities have, so this marks a big day for us,” said Angélica Infante-Green, Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education. “It marks a new day in Central Falls, so we’re very proud of it.”

“The heartbeat of any community is in its schools,” said Nicholas Freniere, a teacher at the school and a 1998 graduate, adding, “the heartbeat of any school is its students.”