Rhode Island athletic director resigns, citing ‘unrealistic expectations’

A Rhode Island high school athletic director has resigned after one month on the job, citing ‘unrealistic expectations’ for a part-time position.

Christopher Branch resigned one week into the new school and one month after he was hired to be the athletic director of North Smithfield School Department

A recent story from NRI Now News detailed Branch’s resignation and what the school district plans to do in the interim. Below is an excerpt from the NRI Now News story.

Branch came to North Smithfield following a decades-long career as a coach, including time at Ponaganset and Smithfield High Schools. Most recently, he was working as a dispatcher for the Smithfield Fire Department, a job he reportedly recently left to start off the school year with a focus on his new, part-time position in North Smithfield.

School Committee Chairman James Lombardi told NRI NOW this week that news of Branch’s abrupt departure came as a surprise.

“I did talk to him within a week of the resignation and he said positive things about the position,” Lombardi said. “I don’t know all of the details of what happened. Unfortunately, we found out that he wasn’t happy with the position.”

Superintendent Michael St. Jean appointed Branch to replace Amanda Bean, who resigned after one year on the job. Bean had replaced Matthew Tek, who held the athletic director role in the district for some 17 years, working for a $15,000 stipend while also holding a job as a full-time health and physical education teacher at North Smithfield Middle School, before his resignation just over a year ago.

Branch’s appointment was announced at the School Committee’s August meeting, at the same meeting where St. Jean said that Bean would leave the district to accept a job as an athletic trainer at Toll Gate High School. He previously spent 16 years as a head coach at PHS and 11 as a head coach at Smithfield. Branch was named his division’s Coach of the Year on six occasions.

But his tenure in North Smithfield would prove abbreviated.

In a short note to St. Jean, Branch wrote, “Per our conversation this morning, I am resigning as the athletic director at the North Smithfield School District for mental and physical reasons.”

“The expectations are unrealistic and I will not (be) disrespected by people who have no clue about athletics,” Branch added.

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The subject of the demands of the position leading athletics at N.S. schools was a focus of discussion during town budget deliberations in June of 2023 when several residents lobbied councilors for funding for a full-time hire. A petition in favor of the more costly position that year garnered more than 200 signatures, but instead, $58,000 was ultimately set aside for a part-time hire.

Asked if the role might come with too many duties for a part-time employee, Lombardi said, “I don’t know the answer to that.”

To read the full story from NRI Now News about the Rhode Island athletic director resigning, click here.