PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — When Patricia Royal was considering in 2023 whether to apply for the superintendent position at Pawtucket School Department, she said a colleague told her to be “careful.”
Royal, a Black woman, was going for a job that had only been held by white people. And while the majority of Pawtucket students are people of color, Royal said the majority of administrators are white.
Despite the warning, Royal applied and was hired to the district’s top job — accomplishing a goal she said she’d been working toward throughout her more than three decades in education in both Rhode Island and Florida…