CUMBERLAND – Christopher Leblanc, former assistant principal in the Foster-Glocester Regional School District, with extensive experience in special education, has been named principal at Garvin Elementary School. He replaces the recently promoted Michelle Carter, who is now assistant superintendent.
Supt. Phil Thornton described Leblanc as a high-energy leader who is a great fit for the diverse needs of Garvin.
At the Aug. 27 School Committee meeting, Leblanc said he was asked about what caused him to interview in Cumberland, and he said it was that his vision and the district’s vision are very much aligned. He said it was very important to him to go to a district that values supporting its most significant learners, while not limiting the rigor of its highest achievers.
“I think that balance is really important,” she said.
Leblanc told a story from exactly one year earlier, on Aug. 27, 2025, when he was sitting in the living room of a student who was about to die. He had been a life skills teacher for years before the previous two years as administrator, he said, and the youth had been his student for much of that. In that moment sitting with her parents, he said, he really wanted to go back to teaching, but the parents said the right things to make sure he was on the path he needed to be on.
The morning before his interview in Cumberland, he said, he was having a lot of feelings, and before he headed for Garvin, he put a photo of that student, who passed the day after he visited her home, in his folder, and said he felt more like himself during that interview than he had in a long time. He said he was relaxed and reminded that he was here for the students and to do everything for them.
Leblanc said he wants to make the School Committee proud, Thornton proud, and Carter proud, but he also wants to make that student and her family proud. Things in life sometimes just feel right, he said, and he couldn’t wait to call her parents after that meeting.
Leblanc said his first days at Garvin have been amazing, and he’s had tremendous support from Carter, Thornton, and all other elementary principals all day every day.
He said he’s 100 percent dedicated to students and the community, and follows three personal tenets: relationship, kindness, and community, which have never wavered. Other aspects of education such as learning and safety are important, he said, but those are above everything.
As Thornton maintains, said Leblanc, “we don’t go after low-lying fruit in this district.” As they go after high achievement, he shared, he will maintain the right balance of supporting all students.
Thornton said it was clear from Leblanc’s speech that he’s a “great, great pickup for us.”
