The Tiverton High School community is thrilled to welcome our new principal, Dr. Keough, who officially started his journey at THS. With a heartfelt commitment to providing students with an inclusive and nurturing environment, Dr. Keough is excited to engage with students, staff, and families as we embark on a new school year together as his main priorities are to get to know the students and community in order to provide the best possible leadership for the school.
After spending his first years in education working as a special education teacher, Dr. Keough decided that he wanted to embark on a bigger journey and take on a leadership role where he could make the voices of students be more heard. Before becoming a principal at THS, Dr. Andrew Keough was a superintendent in Massachusetts. Though that is considered a big role in school communities, he felt like he was not having a lot of direct contact with kids which is what he is most passionate about. After being retired for about one year, the opportunity of working at THS stood out to him. According to Dr. Keough, his favorite part of working with kids is that “kids make me laugh, they catch me off guard and are unfiltered.” Working with teenagers gives him hope, inspires him and makes him feel younger, kids are able to give people the chance to do things differently than what they did before and that is why Dr. Keough is passionate about working directly with the students daily.
Some of the new principal’s key values and principals that he hopes to introduce to our school are respect, be kind and say hello to others, and also the belief that every child can achieve high levels of success and they should feel valued and heard. Through his first job in education as a middle school teacher of Geography and English, he was able to learn that teaching and working with kids requires preparation and care which is also one of the things he hopes to introduce into our school this year. A fun and unknown fact about our new principal is that if he was not working on education we would probably work as a senator as he likes to help society and his own community.
Looking ahead, Dr. Keough hopes that by the end of the school year students will be able to look up to him and describe him as a “good guy who supports kids and society.” His first impression reminded him very much of his own school as he was introduced into an environment where students, teachers and the community in general were very supportive towards him and very welcoming so he hopes to fulfill his duties as a principal to the best of his abilities. As a final message to every student directly, Dr. Keough expresses his gratitude by saying “Thank you for being so kind.”
