Joshua Romano was looking for ways to make a bigger impact on students. A career educator who had been teaching at area high schools for years, it was a post as dean of students at Lunenburg High School that inspired him to enhance his administrative credentials.
For this, he turned to Fitchburg State, where he received a master’s degree in 2010. He also got to know Fitchburg State undergraduates who were completing their own pre-practicum experiences at Lunenburg High. “I’ve enjoyed that I’ve always had that connection to Fitchburg State,” he said.
Two years later he was an assistant principal at Murdock High School in Winchendon, and later its principal.
Additional administrative posts followed at other schools, as did Romano’s own continuing education. He completed a certificate of advanced graduate study from Fitchburg State in 2014, and earlier in 2022 he finished a doctorate at UMass Lowell. In the fall of 2022 he greeted the 1,800 students at Leominster High School as its new principal.
The size and diversity of Leominster High represented a welcome challenge for Romano.
Fitchburg State was a phenomenal place for me to get the preparation for what I’ve done in education.
“I wanted to go somewhere larger, where you’re making a bigger impact,” he said.
At Leominster High, Romano looks forward to helping students navigate beyond the disruptions of the pandemic and restore the school’s traditions and culture while also supporting instructional objectives. “These students took such a hit on executive functioning skills and their ability to set goals and meet them,” he said. “Building up their resilience is going to be a huge effort.”
He said he feels ready to take on the challenges thanks to his own scholastic experience.
“Fitchburg State was a phenomenal place for me to get the preparation for what I’ve done in education,” Romano said. “What’s produced in Fitchburg State’s education program are practitioners, people who are going to go out and actually do it. You will find what you need to be effective in instruction, in developing curriculum, and in helping students. The success I’ve had as an educational leader is so invested in Fitchburg State. I look back very fondly at my time there.”