Costa takes helm at LMS
New Lincoln Middle School principal eager to start year
LINCOLN – A fiveminute talk that new Lincoln Middle School Principal Adolfo Costa gave to incoming sixth graders at a recent ice cream social reveals a lot about how Costa ticks as an educator.
“I told them I knew they were probably nervous because it’s their first year going into a new school,” he said. “Then I told them I’m nervous because it’s my first year in a new school too. And because it’s your first year and my first year, I’m going to have your back and I need you to have mine too,” he said.
His openness with the newest class of Lincoln sixth graders underscores a pillar of Costa’s educational philosophy – the importance of meeting students where they are. If that means confessing to a case of nerves to build connections with students, he’s all in.
“I think it resonates with kids at this age when you share experiences with them because they’re still open to guidance from adults. That was what attracted me so much to being a middle school administrator – how tremendously I and the rest of the staff can affect how students develop,” he says. “At the high school level, where I’ve been for the last four years, the kids have already made up their minds about who they want to be. There are still ways they look to you for guidance, but it’s energizing to get them a little earlier and help shape them into what they want to be.”
Costa, formerly assistant principal for teaching and learning at Cumberland High School, started as Lincoln Middle School principal this summer. He has been an educator since graduating from Rhode Island College in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education.
Costa’s career started that year at St. Thomas Regional School in North Providence Middle School as a director, social studies and science teacher. He moved on to Davies Tech in 1999 and stayed for 12 years as a social studies teacher, department coordinator, and Positive Behavior Interventions and Support coach.
In 2012, Costa earned a master’s degree in school administration from Providence College. The next year, he became assistant principal at Cumberland High School. His responsibilities included coordinating professional development, assessment mapping, and performance-based graduation expectations programs.
Over the years, Costa has developed an educational philosophy rooted in treating students as individuals who should not be bound by the confines of their grade level. Instead, educating them should revolve around assessing their skills and development, then building from there.
“We need to be constantly looking for opportunities to build equity for the students. If one wants to push themselves, they shouldn’t be limited,” he said. “If there are seventh graders who want to take algebra, for example, we should be asking how to cre- ate a program that allows them to do it and ensures they’re ready for the class’s rigors.”
“We have a responsibility to think beyond grade levels. If we limit students to gradelevel expectations, we might be holding them back,” he added. “We need to be developing programs to help students who are struggling and push high achievers to do better.”
Costa says Cumberland High School had success when it encouraged students to take chances with their academics by pushing themselves. He’s interested in bringing similar thinking to Lincoln Middle School, but not until he spends a lot of time learning and observing how the school operates.
“I don’t want people to think I’m coming in with preconceived notions of how things should work,” he said.
Costa says the Middle School has a lot of strengths to build on and he’s particularly impressed at how it has built flexibility into the weekly schedule. Embedded common time gives teachers a chance to review data, meet and plan and the intervention block sets aside time to focus on specific student needs, he said.
“It’s system that embraces individual students,” he says. “Whether a student is struggling or high achieving, the intervention block gives teachers flexibility to respond to their needs. I’d like to observe how it’s used, because it’s very difficult to find time in the schedule and very important to get the most out of it.”
The other major asset Costa sees at Lincoln Middle School is an experienced staff that has dedicated years to making it excellent. He also hopes to log many years in Lincoln, to make a meaningful impression.
“If you look around you see fewer and fewer cases of administrators staying in positions for a long time. I want to be here for 10 or 15 years because I think we’re in a position to do great things for the students,” he said.
Costa lives in North Attleboro, Mass., with his wife Carla and two children. A Cumberland native, who lived in the town for 31 years, he says he has taken some good-natured ribbing for taking a job with Lincoln.
“There’s a rivalry between the towns, and I’ve heard some jokes about what it’s like to go from the Clippers to the Lions,” he said.
The most heated rivalry in his life at the moment, however, might be on the golf course with his 16-year-old son, Marcus. Costa is a dedicated golfer who regularly plays with Marcus and Marcus’ 10-year-old sister, Katelin. Marcus has gotten to the point where he’s a serious threat on the links.
“On any given day he could beat me and I may never beat him again,” Costa jokes. “Seriously, though, family is everything to me, and the concept of family is a big reason why I believe in humanizing myself to the students. I really want to be embraced as part of the Lincoln family, and as a leader who will work hard to do the right things for the students and the community.”