Davies director to leave for D.C. position
LINCOLN – Adam Flynn-Tabloff readily admits he dreaded the buildup to Nov. 25, and he felt he had a pretty good reason.
“I was pretty stressed about turning 40,” he sighed and giggled simultaneously, noting Thanksgiving Day itself didn’t help much because he continued to dwell on it.
Something happened the following afternoon, however, that made his spirits soar to new heights. That’s when Flynn-Tabloff, the William M. Davies Jr. Career & Technical High School Director/ Superintendent, discovered he had landed a job with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.
He will become the chief of the Program Administration & Accountability Branch in the Office of Career, Technical & Adult Education, which administers and coordinates programs that are related to adult education and literacy, career and technical education and community colleges.
The Program Administration and Accountability Branch regulates state formula grants under Title I of the Perkins Act not only to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, but also Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Palau.
“I was super excited, but – initially – I was shocked that this was actually happening,” he stated. “I thought, ‘Wow!’ I had always thought about a next opportunity and what it would be, but then it happened. It became very, very real, so I was kind of nervous about the implications of having to leave my current job, especially with everything going on in education right now.
“At the same time, I knew it was the right decision for me and my family.”
According to Jax Adele Ventura, Davies’ Marketing & Communications Specialist, its Board of Trustees already has begun its search for “both an interim and permanent director to fill (Flynn Tabloff’s) often colorful and fun socks.”
While tackling the difficult challenges stemming from the pandemic, Flynn-Tabloff has received two Providence Business News’ awards for Business Exellence in Workforce Development (2018) and Education and Learning (2020). He also secured a spot on PBN’s “40 Under 40” in 2019.
In addition, under his watch, Davies opened a new Career Center for Advanced Manufacturing including the Machine Technology Workshop and Biomanufacturing Technology Lab. He also has announced the opening of the Early Education and Childcare Program.
R H RP S H
hy, then, would he want to leave He said it all began on a whim.
Actually, that came about when I started searching for opportunities at state education agencies and at the 8.S. Department of (ducation, he said. I ve always had an interest in policy and program oversight, and I just stumbled upon something I found interesting. That was this job, and it was about two months ago.
I received an e-mail from the Department of (ducation with the final job offer – I already knew I was in the running to be offered the position – but then I got the final word the day after Thanksgiving. That s when I found out I had cleared security protocols and met all the criteria.
His final day of work at Davies, he said, will be Dec. . hen asked if he will be moving to ashington right away, he explained, ell, partly. I have a school-aged son who goes to public school in 5hode Island and my husband works out of Boston, so I m going to be bouncing back and forth. It s going to be a little hectic but I ll have to settle there in a more substantial way sometime.
5ight now, because of the pandemic, it will be a lot of remote work initially, but I love D.C. anyway, he continued. 0y husband used to work there at a law firm, so we re very familiar with the city and love it there. e ve always talked about relocating there one day when our son is in college. It s sort of a natural fit, but I will keep my 5hode Island roots because this is where my family lives, and this is where my son s friends are.
Flynn-Tabloff has an exorbitant amount of education to back the federal government s selection. After graduating from arwick 9eterans High School in arwick in , he earned an Associate s in eneral Studies from the Community College of 5hode Island in , then a Bachelor s of Arts in Secondary (ducation from the 8niversity of 5hode Island in
From there, he collected a 0aster s in (ducation Administration from Providence College in and another from Harvard in (ducation Policy and Administration.
Flynn-Tabloff indicated he felt proud of a number of accomplishments during his -year tenure at Davies Tech; he started as a science teacher in , then became the Supervisor of Academics in . He decided to take a sabbatical in due to his chase for another 0aster s at Harvard, then returned and became the assistant director for a year before landing the directorship.
So what, then, makes him the most proud
I know it may sound of like a clichp answer given where we are right now,
but I d say how my school community came together in these very, very difficult times, he noted. That is, our response to remote learning last school year and this year. It was such a challenge.
I actually e-mailed my staff last year when it first went down, and we all came together and just pivoted on a dime to meet the needs of the kids. I genuinely meant it. I told them it was the ost proud I ever was to be a leader of that school, seeing the way all of these professionals working in so much uncertainty came together and did what had to be done.
They all did it so professionally and with such grace yet urgency, he added. I thought, This is what I like best being the leader
of this school This is really a great group of people trying to do what s right for the kids.
Then again, he couldn t omit the Breakneck Hill 5oad institution s ability to finally create a football program. Heck, that had been on the mindsets of each and every class, teacher and administrator since the school opened back in the early s.
I m not going to lie, that was pretty exciting, too, because if you knew me, you d Tuickly discover I am in no way athletic, he laughed. I had been there years, and for all of those and more, everyone was saying, hen are we going to get a football team hen are we going to get a football team ou heard all the reasons why it couldn t be done.
Once I got the job, I was, like, ou know what I want to bring on a football team, and – luckily – I had the expertise in our athletic director, Bob 0orris, and the man who became the became the head coach, Henry Cabral , to make it happen. So I m proud of that, too.
I really do see the value it had for our kids, he added. It became an outlet for them. It boosts school spirit. For someone who knows nothing about sports, I m extremely happy I could be a part of it.
As for Davies future, Flynn-Tabloff will continue to hope for the best.
Before the pandemic, I really feel like everyone was rowing in the right direction as a school, he stated. e were getting laser-focused on improving outcomes for kids. e were collaborating around improving academic outcomes; we were talking about new programs to give our kids new opportunities; we were reducing absenteeism and suspensions. There was so much work coming to fruition.
If I wasn t moving on, I d be excited about weathering this storm and then getting back to the place we were before CO9ID hit, when we were all focused on making Davies the best school in 5hode Island.
I think we re on track to do that. It s a one-of-a-kind school, a wonderful place to work and a wonderful place to learn. I would have wanted to get back to that focus.