Dr. Kimberly J. Smith Scholarship Fund

This fund was established, to honor Dr. Smith, Wakefield’s Superintendent of Schools, by two former Wakefield High School music students.

Dr. Smith announced that she would be retiring on June 30, 2018 as Superintendent after a 35-year career as a teacher and school administrator, all but three of which were spent in Wakefield.

Dr. Smith told the School Committee at their December meeting, “I am deeply honored to have given the last 32 years of my professional life exclusively to Wakefield, where I have fallen in love with the community and schools I have been so fortunate to serve.”

As Wakefield’s Music Director, Dr. Smith built a state and regionally renowned music program, leading the high school bands to 15 consecutive years of championship titles and gold medals. She was even selected as a guest conductor for All-State Jazz Bands throughout New England. As assistant principal of the high school, she led a faculty committee to create an effective hybrid schedule of long-block and traditional periods to meet the complex needs of the school community. She also designed a unique, highly-supportive and effective educational program for students at risk with social/emotional/behavioral challenges.

As principal of the high school, Smith led the school community in a collaborative process to establish and bring to life shared core values, beliefs and 21st Century learning expectations; implemented curriculum alignment and professional development initiatives; and established the structure and culture of collaborative practice as a professional learning community. She led the high school through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation self-study and evaluative process and was commended by NEASC’s executive committee as “The principal who embodies the core values and beliefs espoused in the school’s mission statement.” She also took an active role in the five-year district strategic action plan as action team leader for student learning.

“Most people have the capacity to achieve excellence,” Dr. Smith has said, “and I have a sincere commitment to excellence.”

The sponsors of her scholarship welcomed the enthusiastic support of the Wakefield community to help to bring this scholarship to permanency. They especially encouraged Dr. Smith’s past music and band students, in fond recollection of her ’15-minute rule’, to make their donation amounts in a multiple of $15 to honor this tradition.