Growing up, Craig Powers was never the roving type.
While other suburban kids dreamed of busting out of southeastern Connecticut, Powers remained in Waterford.
“My family is here,” he said. “I wanted that regular contact.”
Powers not only stayed in town but prospered, and this year he began his tenure as the assistant superintendent of schools.
“It’s a new challenge,” he said from his tidy office in Town Hall last week. In his early 40s, tall and exceedingly polite, Powers gives the impression of always being prepared.
“I didn’t know what my morning would be like,” he said. “So last night around 11 p.m., I typed this up.”
He handed over notes on his biography, lucid in Times New Roman font.
Born in Staten Island, N.Y., Powers grew up near the Montville line in Quaker Hill, and attended the neighborhood school, then moved on to Clark Lane Junior High School.
Leaving the school district for four years, he graduated in 1986 from St. Bernard High School, where he is now on the board of trustees.
It was in junior and senior high school that Powers, who initially wanted to be an engineer, began to think about a career in education; like many in the field, he was inspired by teachers.
“I admired the teachers that cared about you as an individual,” he said. “For them it was more than about the content, it was about the personal connections that kept you focused on the work.”
Powers graduated with a degree in biology and education from Eastern Connecticut State University in 1990, and later got his master’s in education from Southern Connecticut State University.
Powers began his teaching career in Norwich, where he worked in the elementary schools, while working on his certification in school administration.
In 1998, he took a job as an assistant principal in Lebanon, before coming home as principal of Great Neck School in 1999.
Eight years later, Superintendent Randall Collins hired him as the director of curriculum, before that position was merged with Powers’ current job as assistant superintendent.
“It’s much more than a 9-to-5 job,” he said. “There’s many night functions, boards, and commissions.”
It’s from his office that Powers feels that he can do his best work for Waterford’s students.
“I’m here to try to increase the students’ capacity to learn,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re turning out productive citizens.”
Powers reflected a bit about how much education in Waterford has changed since he attended Quaker Hill School, which is now renovated with all the latest learning technology.
“Well, in the 1970s the metric system was the new thing,” he joked.
Powers said the main aspect of teaching that’s changed since the Day-Glo days of the ’70s is the expectations for students.
“They really have increased,” he said. “What we used to expect out of a sixth-grade student, we now want from our fourth-graders.”
Also, much of what used to be grade school boilerplate, such as pop quizzes and reading along with textbooks, is now passé.
Powers said the Internet has changed the way teachers instruct students, but in a way that goes beyond slick presentation on computers or electronic chalkboards.
“It’s not as important that students know when the Battle of Gettysburg is,” Powers said. “They can look that up rather easily; we want them to know why it took place and the consequences.”
Despite the technological advances, Powers said the school system is dedicated to “increased rigor” across the district.
Powers said the town has responded to the national concern about American students falling behind other countries in math and science.
“Our math programs are in a good place right now,” he said.
Powers said he thinks of Waterford as a professional learning community, but one that hasn’t rested on its laurels.
“The teachers here are always thinking of ways to make it better,” he said.
In his spare time, Powers walks his dogs and, fittingly, rebuilds stone walls, something that has been the fabric of the town for 300 years.
And like old stone walls, Powers thinks that Waterford’s “sense of community” will also endure.
“It will last throughout time,” he said.