On  Monday, March 23, 2015, Stamford High officials presented a report by the New England Association of Schools which commended the assistant principals and department heads of Stamford High School, but also said that there are still serious issues within the building and with its “maintenance, curriculum, and leadership of former principal Donna Valentine.” The report states that “cohesion and coordination” were criticized and that there were “staffing deficiencies” in the ELL program and elective classes, which kept some students from having a full schedule.

Interim principal of Stamford High Tony Pavia commented on the NEASC report, stating,

“I was generally disappointed; however, I realized there were circumstances that really led to criticisms in certain areas. I thought they were very accurate in some of their criticism and concerns. I was also gratified that they commended a lot of areas in the school. The main concern that NEASC had was leadership in the school, and there were really two areas. One was the discontinuity of leadership over the past ten years… NEASC really pointed out that that inconsistency led to a lot of other issues in the school. The other area of leadership had to do with the lack of unity and coordination and organization within leadership here, and I think those were very accurate concerns.”

But not everything in the report was negative. Pavia said that what he was happy to read from the committee chairman was that, “when she talked to students, they believed that the strength of the school was its diversity and that was always a point of pride for this school… she concluded that ‘diversity is your strength and diversity is also your biggest challenge.’ Pavia also noted that when she asked students to give one word to describe Stamford High School, they said “chivalrous, memorable, adventurous, and family.”

“And so that hasn’t changed,” Pavia said. “We have a long way to go, and there is no question that this school is a great place that can move to another level.”

Pavia also stated that although there have been changes in the school since he left back in 2003 (some that he wished had stayed), overall what remains the same is that “there is a certain pride among the students in their school and there’s definitely a certain pride among the faculty.”