Cheryl Bernardo Vaughn

Community Elementary School
Cumberland School Department
Cumberland, Rhode Island
cheryl.vaughn@cumberlandschools.org

In her 25 years as a principal, Cheryl Bernardo Vaughn has learned that building a positive school culture begins with a deep understanding of the needs of students, families, and teachers. As principal of Community Elementary School for the past eight years, Vaughn has worked tirelessly to maximize teacher proficiency and leverage every available resource to improve student outcomes. Early in her tenure, Vaughn designed and implemented RTI protocols to help teachers collect, analyze, and use data to drive strategic interventions, efforts which have led Community Elementary to maintain High Performing status with the state. To ensure continuous improvement, Vaughn has prioritized setting clear schoolwide expectations, nimble structures for accountability, and ample avenues for professional collaboration. To ensure that funding is never a barrier to ongoing professional learning, Vaughn frequently leads research-based learning sessions in faculty meetings to stimulate reflection and innovation in instruction. She also strategically engages students and families to increase agency and collective ownership in the learning process, including through student-led open houses and ensuring equal representation of teachers and family members on the School Improvement Team. Vaughn recently joined a district-level MTSS team in creating a handbook for guiding responsive, data-informed interventions. Vaughn is an NAESP Certified Principal Mentor and holds an M.S. in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University and a B.S. in Special Education from Rhode Island College.