Promoting equity, happiness, and success for every student.
Vote for Keith Catone for Cranston Ward 1 School Committee on November 8th
Keith Catone is a Cranston Public Schools parent who is also an educational leader currently representing Ward 1 on the Cranston School Committee.
Keith has built a career on the belief in public schools as community cornerstones. In Cranston, our public schools serve as anchors for thousands of students, providing spaces where they are supported to learn, grow, and thrive. And, where this might not be happening, we must promote equity, happiness, and success for every student, all of the time. Cranston Public Schools should be the best in RI.
As someone who works with communities to advocate for improvements in their schools, Keith knows that communities care deeply about their schools and jump at opportunities to help make them better. In Cranston, we have stable district leadership, strong administrators, dedicated teachers, hard-working staff, wonderful students, engaged families, and supportive communities.
Keith believes that it is the responsibility of the School Committee to engage all stakeholders to promote equity, happiness, and success for every student. Your vote for Keith on November 8th will help achieve this vision.
Endorsed Candidate
Lammis Vargas, Ward 1 Councilwoman
“Keith's experiences as an educator and as a Cranston public school parent make him the best candidate to represent our voices and advocate for high quality education for all students in Ward 1.”
About Keith
Keith is a resident of the Edgewood section of Ward 1, where he lives with his wife Dulari, the Director of RI Childcare Training Program for the SEIU Education & Support Fund, and their son, a student at Rhodes Elementary School.
Keith has a doctorate in education and masters in school leadership from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree in public policy from Brown. He is also certified as a teacher for secondary social studies and history, and as a secondary school administrator. He is currently the Executive Director of Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education at Roger Williams University.
Keith comes from a family of educators and activists. His mother, Fely (Coleman) Catone, immigrated from Taiwan when she was 10 years old and studied to be a social worker. His father, Bill Catone, was a school psychologist in Cranston Public Schools for 30 years. His mother passed away before his third birthday, and his father remarried to Deborah (Josephson) Catone, an early childhood educator who, over the years, was the education director at a Head Start center, did child outreach screening, and coordinated a local Parents as Teachers program.
While studying at Brown, Keith worked for Breakthrough Providence (then called Providence Summerbridge) and coordinated their after school tutoring site at Roger Williams Middle School, plus taught in their summer program. He later taught at a public high school in the Bronx before moving back to Rhode Island and was a youth organizer in Providence before becoming the Associate Director of Community Organizing and Engagement at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.
Why Ward 1 residents are voting for Keith
Christina "V" Villarreal, Lecturer on Education, Harvard University
“I'm voting for Keith because I deeply trust his experience and expertise in education and know he will center issues of equity and justice in his work to support students and families.”
Dana Borrelli-Murray, educator and nonprofit leader, Edgewood resident, parent of four
“No one understands the power and value of families and youth voice like Keith. I feel relieved to know that we have Keith on the School Committee supporting our community.”
Priorities
Promoting equity, happiness, and success for every student.
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Partnering with families, supporting student leadership, and respecting educators as experts are ingredients for successful schools. The School Committee must support district priorities that include these concepts in formulas for success across Cranston Schools, including opportunities for engagement with families, students, and educators whenever possible.
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Cranston is an increasingly diverse city where residents have many different identities and cultural backgrounds. Diversity within our schools can be our community’s superpower if we support educators to develop students into leaders who know how to celebrate and work across difference; embrace all identities; combat racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of systemic injustice; and challenge white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and any belief systems designed to divide and diminish people.
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Not every group of students is the same; different schools have different needs, and no two individuals are exactly alike. Our district must be responsive and adaptive to these varied needs to provide the schools each of our children deserve. We need to identify and not shy away from disparities when they exist, then tackle them head on as challenges to be overcome.
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Public education is our most sacred resource as a community and a democracy. To preserve and improve our public schools, we must make the necessary investments to secure our city’s future. Funds are needed to maintain and upgrade facilities, recruit and retain top talent, keep up to date with relevant and responsive curricula and teaching practices, and provide reliable educational support services and operational infrastructure. These investments require advocacy at the city, state, and federal levels for increased resources for public schools.
Help power this campaign.
Campaigns are expensive, and ours is 100% funded by people who believe in Keith as an education leader. Any amount you can give will be helpful in getting the word out about Keith’s vision for Cranston schools. Click below to donate. Or, if you’re interested in volunteering, please reach out by email: catone.ward1@gmail.com
What do you think?
How do you think we should promote equity, happiness, and success for every student?
Representing the Ward 1 community is not only about offering Keith’s ideas, experience, and expertise. As your School Committee representative, Keith wants to know what you see as the needs in our schools.
We have three schools located in Ward 1 — Edgewood Highlands Elementary, Edward S. Rhodes Elementary, and Park View Middle — which mainly feed into Cranston High School East. And, many students who reside in Ward 1 attend other schools in our district due to a variety of circumstances.
No matter what school your family may be attached to, or even if you do not have children enrolled in the Cranston Public Schools, Keith wants to hear from you if you have questions, concerns, or ideas to share.