After former Walpole High School vice principal Sean Powers left at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, students and teachers were eager to see who would fill his role. Dr. Kristina Kelleher-Bianchi was hired and, based on her first month of being an administrator, she is seamlessly adjusting to the Walpole High School Community.
Dr. Kelleher originally attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she received a Bachelor Degree in Art, History, Economics and Public Policy.. Dr. Kelleher first realized she wanted to work in education when she was a student at Brown and began tutoring students from a nearby high school.
“I enjoyed the process of working with students and helping them prepare for college and deal with the admission process.” She said.
She began teaching history before going to Boston University, where she received a Masters Degree in Education. Afterwards, she received her Masters Degree in History at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston) before eventually doing administrative work at Bridgewater State University. Dr. Kelleher later went back to UMass Boston, where she received a doctoral degree in Urban Education, Leadership and Policy Studies.
Before coming to Walpole High School, Dr. Kelleher additionally worked at Burke High School in Dorchester, Massachusetts for 13 years. She taught history to grades 9-12, worked with special ed students, taught English as a second language to students and taught a Slife (Students with limited or interrupted formal education) class for students who came from a variety of countries, all prior to a career as an administrator. Kelleher spent the past four years being an administrator where she mainly worked with juniors and seniors. Dr. Kelleher has had a great experience at Walpole so far and seems to
“Everyone’s been very nice, I’m enjoying getting to know the staff and students,” she said.
The wide variety of opportunities through various classes and extracurriculars at Walpole High School (WHS) is mainly what attracted Dr. Kelleher to WHS. This includes The Searchlight, Film and TV programs, woodshop, robotics, science olympiad and the culture of athletics, just a few among the WHS curriculum.
“It’s a great high school to provide lots of different opportunities for students,” she said.
Dr. Kelleher thrives working in education for a variety of reasons, mainly tying back to the students. She enjoys seeing students work in the classroom, doing their various activities and schoolwork, watching the students on the morning news and overall interacting with them. With her switch from a teaching position to an administrative role, Dr Kelleher has enjoyed getting to see things from a different perspective.
“It’s fun to be an administrator to interact with [the students] in a different way.”, she said.
When Dr. Kelleher is not working, she enjoys reading books or watching TV as well as traveling. She recently took a trip to Iceland this summer and she takes pleasure in visiting national parks here in the United States.
Dr Kelleher has been a great fit for Walpole High School in her new vice principal role while making her way around meeting the students.
