|
|
|
|
January 2007
Highly Qualified Teacher Status
Posted Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Dear Colleague:
Once again the issue of Highly Qualified teacher (HQT) has surfaced. Many questions are still unanswered by the Providence School Department and in particular the RI Department of Education, regarding HQT status. The Union has sent a letter to RIDE asking for answers to concerns that have been brought to our attention. We have also shared these concerns with representatives from the Providence School Department.
In anticipation of getting answers on how teachers can become Highly Qualified, the Providence Teachers Union and Providence School Department have agreed to hold a workshop in March to provide you with as much information and support to reach HQT status. If you have already been designated as highly qualified, you do not have to recertify unless you transfer into a different certification area.
I will notify you with details of the workshop once they are determined. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to call your field representative at the Union Office.
Sincerely,
Steven F. Smith,
President
Big gains posted in reading, math scores
Posted Wednesday, January 31, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — For the first time in recent memory, the city’s elementary and middle school students have made significant progress in reading and math standardized tests, with some schools showing score increases of 10 percentage points and more.
“We’ve never seen gains of this magnitude across so many grade levels,” said John Mickelson, director of assessment for the School Department. .
Providence students made gains of 7 percentage points in reading and math and nearly every 1 of the 33 schools tested showed improvements in test scores. That said, student performance in Providence is still unacceptably low: only 37 percent of students are proficient in reading and 31 percent are proficient in math. Of all the state’s urban districts, only Central Falls performs as poorly as Providence.
This is the second year that Rhode Island students have taken the New England Common Assessment Program, a test developed in partnership with New Hampshire and Vermont. Reading and math tests were given to all students in grades 3 through 8 in October. The writing test was given only in grades 3 and 8. (The most recent results from high school tests were released last month).
Although test scores rose significantly across the state, the urban districts — Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket — showed the greatest gains. In fact, the gains in the urban districts were more than double those of their suburban peers.
The one sour note in this otherwise rosy picture was the writing scores, which showed a marked decrease in achievement. State education officials speculate that the writing test, which asks students to write on a specific topic, was more difficult this year than last.
“The really exciting piece is the progress in the urban districts,” Governor Carcieri said during a news conference at the State House yesterday. “Those districts are improving at a greater rate than the suburbans.”
“This is not an accident,” said state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters. “When you have a system like Providence, it takes the leadership of the mayor, the superintendent, the union and the School Board to make this happen.”
Even more noteworthy were the gains made by black students, Hispanic students and English language learners. McWalters has long talked about his frustration at not being able to narrow the gap between the two Rhode Islands — the haves and the have nots. This year, he said, the test data is moving in the right direction.
In Rhode Island, the reading scores of black students and English language learners went up by 6 percentage points from 2005 to 2006, while the scores for Hispanic students jumped by seven points. Math scores showed similar gains across the board for minority and low-income students.
Test scores don’t improve overnight, however. Supt. Donnie Evans said there are a host of reasons behind the district’s enhanced performance. First, the School Department standardized the curriculum from one school to another during the tenure of former Supt. Melody Johnson and her predecessor, Diana Lam. Before their arrival, content varied from school to school; now, students are expected to be learning the same skills.
During the same period, the district began collecting test data and analyzing how different subgroups performed. This allows the district to pinpoint which populations are having trouble with a particular subject. More recently, Evans said, there has been a “relentless” focus on holding all students to the high standards.
“You have got to communicate high expectations,” Evans said yesterday. “This message is especially important for children from high-poverty households.”
Evans, who was hired 14 months ago, said his emphasis on customer-friendly schools is beginning to change school culture. During his visits to schools, Evans said he sees students who are more serious about their learning and teachers who are dedicated to working together to improve instruction. Evans also said that parents tell him that the schools are more welcoming.
According to Evans, behind every high-performing school is a strong leader and a committed faculty. Last summer, he reshuffled a number of principals, especially in middle schools, where test scores typically fall off. Evans has also reorganized his top staff, assigning one person to be responsible for each grade level: elementary, middle and high school.
If the city’s schools are making so much progress, then why is the entire district listed as in need of corrective action under the federal No Child Left Behind law? Last month, McWalters told Evans that he must come up with a plan for improving the city’s lowest performing schools or face possible state intervention.
Three elementary schools — Alfred Lima, George West and Veazie Street — are classified as in need of corrective action, which means that Evans could step in and hire new staff or revamp the curriculum. Yet all three schools made double-digit gains in the latest round of tests.
Evans said that the data that the state used to determine which schools were in corrective action is now more than a year old. Based on the new test data, the School Department may reconsider taking drastic action in these low-performing schools. Evans said he will meet with Providence Teachers Union President Steve Smith to discuss what kind of intervention is called for in each of these schools.
For more information on school test scores, go to the state Education Department’s Web site, www.ride.ri.gov
Cicilline: ‘No alternative’ to renovating broken-down Providence school buildings
Posted Monday, January 29, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — An education consultant has proposed a bold plan to renovate or replace most of the city’s 42 school buildings to the tune of $792 million. The mayor wants it. The superintendent of schools wants it. And the teachers’ union wants it.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a done deal.
“I don’t know if it’s going to happen,” said House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino, D-Providence. “It’s a good starting point. But there is no guarantee that all of this will get done or that the plan as written will be followed.”
The state spends an average of $43 million a year subsidizing the cost of new schools, and the numbers keep growing. Although the state Department of Education has the final say over which schools get built, Costantino said the pressures on the state budget are greater now than they’ve been since the early 1990s. The state faces a $105-million shortfall this year and a potential $254-million deficit next year. Still, Costantino says there is no move to change the state’s reimbursement rate for school construction.
The report by DeJONG Inc., a company hired by the city, calls for building 19 schools, with at least 8 during the first phase of construction. It calls for replacing several landmarks, including the 1,300-student Mount Pleasant High School. And the proposal, announced two weeks ago, would change the face of public education in Providence, building schools that are not only smaller, but organized into houses or pods that spiral out like spokes in a wheel.
Mayor David N. Cicilline is so committed to the plan that he is willing to stake his political reputation on it. Although he is well aware of the political pitfalls associated with a project of this magnitude, Cicilline wants modern school buildings to be a big part of his legacy.
“There is no alternative,” he said in an interview last week. “We can’t let our schools crumble. We can either do this in a smart, thoughtful way or we can do it piecemeal, by responding to emergencies.”
Anyone who spends time in the city’s public schools would agree that they are in sorry shape. Almost half were built before 1930. Roofs leak. Heating systems break down. Hallways are dark and cavernous. Feinstein Elementary School, slated for replacement in the DeJONG proposal, was built in 1895, at the dawn of electricity.
Most city schools were built at a time when schools were designed to be educational factories, disseminating information in bite-sized chunks. But times have changed and so have educational practices. More emphasis is placed on problem solving and less on rote learning. Both students and teachers work in teams, and there is much more faculty collaboration across grade levels and disciplines.
School building changes would be designed to work in concert with the changes being made in educational approach to improve student learning. The state education commissioner has also told Providence Supt. Donnie Evans that he must come up with a detailed plan for improving the city’s lowest-performing schools or face possible state intervention.The question is: Can Providence afford the schools that Cicilline says it needs?
The consultants have proposed three financing timelines: $50 million annually over 37 years, $70 million annually over 20 years or $95 million annually over 13 years. Cicilline would like to get it done in 20 years.
Providence is already spending an average of $20 million a year keeping the schools warm, dry and safe. And it has spent an average of $30 million to $35 million a year, before state reimbursements, on new construction over the past 10 years. Last year, the city borrowed $54 million to pay for a new high school and athletic complex, as well as major renovations to Central High School. John Simmons, the city’s director of administration, thinks the city can afford the ambitious building plan. He said the city has more than $200 million in borrowing capacity from the public building authority. And, he says, the city’s debt capacity will increase over time because the ceiling increases as the city’s operating budget rises.
“We’re trying to approve this in phases,” Simmons said. “You don’t want to make all your decisions today because things like school enrollments change over time. You want your plan to be as flexible as possible.”
But Providence doesn’t foot the bill for school construction alone. The state reimburses the city for 80 percent of the cost of building schools. That’s why all school bonds have to be approved by the state Department of Education before a city or town can borrow money. The city has submitted the first phase of its plan for approval by the education department, and city and state education officials are already discussing the larger master plan. The first phase would cost $217 million in today’s dollars, which would be paid over 20 years. But the city’s annual cost would be only $2.1 million because the state reimburses 80 percent of the total construction costs.
“This is a wonderful start,” Education Commissioner Peter McWalters said last week. “Research has shown that school facilities are a powerful force for change in cities.” Although it’s hard to make a direct link between modern school buildings and improved student performance, there is a growing body of evidence that students who attend schools that are clean, quiet, comfortable and well-lit perform better academically.
“There is an emerging consensus among researchers that the condition of school facilities affects academic achievement, as indicated by higher student scores on standardized tests,” education researcher Jonathan Weiss wrote in a report called Public Schools and Economic Development.Another study found that better facilities can improve the percentage of students performing at or above grade level by 3 percent to 4 percent. According to the study’s author, improving facilities may be just as helpful as reducing class size.
New Haven, Conn., a city whose size and demographics are similar to Providence’s, embarked on a $1.2-billion school-reconstruction project in the late 1990s. Since 1998, the city has built or renovated 22 schools and converted all of its middle schools into pre-kindergarten through grade eight schools, a model favored by Evans. To help pay for its share of the borrowing, New Haven sold $23 million worth of buildings with delinquent tax liens.
As the city began rebuilding its aging school buildings, skepticism gave way to amazement, according to Susan Weisselberg, coordinator of the school construction program for New Haven.
“It’s been transformational,” she said. “There is a different attitude. You see orderly learning and kids who are engaged. We’re using our schools more like neighborhood hubs. Schools get used for summer school activities. We see a lot of weekend usage. It’s been transformational.”
Although the evidence is still largely anecdotal, Weisselberg said that the schools have seen improved attendance.
But Cicilline has a long way to go before any sweeping school-construction project could get off the ground in Providence. After a series of public hearings next month, the first phase has to be approved by Evans, the school board, the mayor, the City Council, and, of course, the state Department of Education.
The state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education is supposed to vote on the first phase in March. If the regents approve the plan, renovations would begin on the Hanley Career and Technical Center in July.
Down the road, the plan might run into trouble. The Regents are in the middle of revamping the regulations that govern school-construction projects. Right now, a school district must demonstrate that the new school is needed. Under the new guidelines, a district would have to submit a much more detailed proposal, including the cost per square foot. Districts will also have to prove that their buildings are energy efficient as well as educationally sound.
Simmons, the city’s director of administration, however, isn’t worried about the new regulations because he said the DeJONG report answers most of those questions. The consultants looked at projected enrollments and the condition of the existing buildings and compared the cost of renovation with new construction. After numerous discussions with teachers and staff, the planners created a new design for middle schools that allows them to be used in different grade configurations.
Costantino said the General Assembly pushed for these revisions because they wanted to standardize school construction across the board: “We don’t want to build a Cadillac in one community and a Chevy in another.”
Because the state is footing 80 percent of the bill, Costantino said he would like an outside expert to review the Providence school facilities plan. He also questions the wisdom of shutting down historic school buildings in favor of new construction, saying that the DeJONG proposal exhibits a bias against renovation.
“We want to make sure that there isn’t a let’s-go-whole-hog attitude,” he said.
Not long after he was elected, Cicilline attended a national conference of mayors where several veterans told him not to take on the cause of public education because it is fraught with political peril.
“I don’t think you can have a successful city,” he said, “while schools are failing.”
State orders detailed plan for improving school scores
Posted Thursday, January 25, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The state education commissioner has told Supt. Donnie Evans that he must come up with a detailed plan for improving the city’s lowest-performing schools or face possible state intervention.
Commissioner Peter McWalters said his department is not telling the district how to reorganize the schools, as the state Department of Education did with Hope High School two years ago. But he wants administrators to show how they are going to improve student achievement.
The entire school district is listed as a one in need of corrective action under the federal reform law No Child Left Behind. In order for a district to be classified as in need of corrective action, two of the three grade levels (for example, elementary and middle schools) must have large numbers of low-performing schools.
In Providence, three elementary schools — Alfred Lima, George West and Veazie Street — and five middle schools — Esek Hopkins, Gilbert Stuart, Nathan Bishop, Samuel Bridgham and Springfield — are listed as in need of corrective action. Under the law, schools that haven’t made adequate yearly progress toward meeting performance standards for four consecutive years face corrective action, which can range from changing the school’s leadership to hiring more literacy coaches.
Three middle schools — Nathanael Greene, Oliver Hazard Perry and Roger Williams — and two high schools — Mount Pleasant and Feinstein — haven’t improved significantly for at least five years and now face restructuring. Restructuring could include any or all of the following: replacing key staff, including the principal; reopening the school as a charter school; hiring a private firm to run the school or a state takeover.
“When Donnie first came,” McWalters said, “I could have hit the district with this right away, but that would have been pointless. It’s been 15 months. Now it’s time to say, ‘Let’s have a corrective action plan.’
“This is not an intervention,” he said. “This isn’t Hope High School. This is saying, “OK, Donnie, you have to do a self-assessment and share this plan with us.’ If we disagree with the plan, then we can get more aggressive.”
Evans agrees that Providence needs to jump-start its reform efforts. But he said some of the work has already begun. Evans has reorganized management and has almost finished hiring his own administrative team. He has commissioned several major studies to identify weaknesses in the district’s reading programs, special education programs and English language learner classes. His mission statement, “Realizing the Dream”, calls for a major overhaul in the way schools treat parents and teachers treat students. Evans is also reviewing grant programs to see if they deliver what they promise.
Evans emphasized that he can’t accomplish McWalters’ order without the help of the Providence Teachers Union. He said that he will form an intervention team, chaired by himself and Steve Smith, president of the union, to come up with ideas for how to reorganize the three middle schools.
“It doesn’t mean closing schools down,” Evans said. “It’s more like re-purposing. How is the school organized? How is curriculum delivered? Do you need a different administrator?”
Hope, he said, is actually a good model. The district divided the high school into three smaller schools, hired new staff and appointed three new principals. But it didn’t stop there. Hope formed partnerships with colleges, such as the Rhode Island School of Design, reached out to parents and began renovating its aging facility. One way to restructure is to ask the faculty to apply to teach at the school, as was done at Hope. That presents an opening for teachers who would prefer to be elsewhere and to administrators who may prefer that some teachers relocate.
All of this was accomplished without shutting Hope High School.
According to Evans, one of the challenges is figuring out what to change based on test scores that are more than a year old. The good news is that the latest round of elementary and middle school scores will be released next week. The latest high school data was released recently.
“It’s clear something has to be done,” he said. “Only one-third of our elementary students are reading at grade level. But I’m convinced that the vast majority of our children can perform at grade level.”
But McWalters and Evans say there may not be enough staff to get the job done.
“There is a tremendous underappreciation for what it takes to improve 40 schools,” McWalters said. “I honestly don’t think that there has been a terrible lack of progress.
“We have only one person who supervises math, science and physical education,” Evans said. “That’s very unrealistic when we have 2,200 teachers who need guidance in all three areas. It is a money issue.”
Teachers need to get test data in a timely manner so they can tweak instruction, Evans said, but that isn’t possible because there is hardly anyone on staff who can crunch that information.
McWalters hasn’t set a deadline by which the district must respond. And Evans said it is too early to say what restructuring might look like.
School targeted to close felt more like a home
Posted Wednesday, January 24, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — West Broadway Elementary School is a period piece, four stories of stately brick and mortar that fit nicely in a neighborhood of 19th century mansions, many of them restored to their original grandeur.
Step inside the front doors and you see 12-foot ceilings, ornate moldings, even a chipped statue of Jesus, a reminder of the school’s earlier incarnation as a Catholic elementary school. The principal’s office feels like someone’s living room, with an electric fireplace, a well-used couch and a fish tank burbling in the corner.
“It’s a place I love to come to,” said Principal Frank Piccirilli. “In my 25 years in the system, I’ve never see a faculty work as well as this one.”
Piccirilli doesn’t want to harp on the negative. He doesn’t want to add to the hype surrounding the school’s closing. And so he concentrates on what makes this school, in the city’s polyglot West End, so special.
First, there are the parents. When Piccirili arrived two years ago, the school didn’t have an active PTO. Now, as many as 60 parents show up for meetings. The key was figuring out how to get them into the building, then making the school feel like it was theirs.
Piccirilli greets parents in the gym every morning. He invites them to all kinds of events: first-day celebrations, writing celebrations and honors awards breakfasts. It didn’t take long for the parents to begin coming into the building. Now, the school can’t keep them away.
If West Broadway hadn’t been so successful in bringing parents back, there wouldn’t be such fervent opposition to the school’s closing, nor would there be standing-room-only crowds at two public meetings. Evans announced last week that he was shutting West Broadway because the fire marshal refused to grant any more waivers. The fire code requires that kindergarten and first graders be located on the ground floor; West Broadway doesn’t have one.
On a rational level, faculty and staff understand that there are reasons why the school must close. But that doesn’t get to the emotional heart of the matter — to the teachers’ profound attachment to a school that, for all its physical flaws, feels like a family.
“This is like home,” said Marie Nadeau, who has worked at the school for 20 years. “We’ve turned our dream into a reality. Why isn’t the department looking to find a way to keep us open? Our scores have been going up. Why not keep something that’s working?”
The facts back up the anecdotal evidence. Teachers stay at West Broadway. Grievances are rare. Students move a lot less than they do in many other neighborhoods. All of those things are a tribute to the school’s success, Piccirilli said.
West Broadway, however, is still struggling to improve student performance. On the latest round of test scores, the school, which has about 450 children in kindergarten through grade 5, missed 6 of its 19 targets. It is classified as not making sufficient progress, according to the federal No Child Left Behind law. But Piccirilli said West Broadway’s special education students have among the highest test scores in the state and that their students excelled on the writing portion of the tests.
West Broadway has the feeling of a building that is well-loved. Although the ceilings are peeling and the hallways dim, the linoleum floors are spotless. Classroom walls are covered with word walls, pictures and examples of student work. Each teacher has done something to make his room feel homey, whether it’s a plush carpet or animals made of pipe cleaners dangling from the ceiling.
In a special education class, Lori Santaniello asks why school is important.
“To get an education,” Yusuf Sissoko said. “And so you know what you want to be when you grow up.”
Santaniello said it breaks her heart that the school might close: “This is a wonderful learning environment,” she said. “There is no school like this one.”
Because of all the hubbub surrounding the closing, the children are aware that they may not be sitting next to their friends this fall. Nearly every student raised her hand when a visitor asked how they felt about the school.
“Everybody loves and cherishes this school,” one little girl said.
“The teachers have been here a long time,” said another. “They feel really bad.”
“I’ve been here with my friends a long time and I don’t want to leave.”
School closing prompts protest
Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — A standing-room-only crowd told Supt. Donnie Evans last night that they will not allow the West Broadway Elementary School to go gently into that good night.
But no comment was more wrenching that that of fifth grader Yusuf Sissoko, who said: “My teacher is the most wonderful teacher I’ve ever had. That school, people treat you great. I plan on working here when I grow up.”
With that, he hugged his teacher and they both burst into tears.
West Broadway Elementary School will be closed this fall because it does not meet fire code requirements for kindergarten students and first graders, whose classrooms must be on the ground floor. For years, the school received variances from the fire marshal, but last month, he told the School Department that he would no longer allow the violations to continue.
Evans met with a large number of parents on Thursday and promised that he would answer their questions. Last night, Evans emphasized that he did not promise to keep the school open. But the parents had apparently heard something else. They thought Evans had agreed to delay shutting the school until he had explored other possibilities.
That’s why many parents were stunned when they received a letter from Evans on Friday stating that West Broadway would be closed and the children reassigned to Carnevale Elementary School on Springfield Street.
Last night, one parent after another described West Broadway as a school that works, a place where children are nurtured, where teachers care.
“How did we get here?” Eric Rehder said. “It didn’t just happen overnight that this school is 70 years old. This isn’t about caring for the children. We demand input into the decision-making process.”
Brian Principe, another parent, said, “We have a good thing going here. You walk into this school and every child has a smile that stretches from ear to ear. I choose to send my child to West Broadway and I don’t appreciate having a decision shoved down my throat.”
One couple said they moved to the Armory District to be part of a real neighborhood, adding that West Broadway was one of the cornerstones of that neighborhood.
“I question the wisdom of closing an entire school because of egress issues,” Elise Jakabhazy said. “I believe in this school. I believe in this neighborhood. Taking it away just doesn’t make any sense.”
City Councilman John Lombardi implored Evans to reconsider his decision, calling the closing ludicrous and asking for a full discussion of the options. Janet Keller, president of the West Broadway Neighborhood Association, also expressed her opposition to the closing, adding that fire officials recently told her that the West Broadway problem is not insurmountable.
Toward the end of the public comment period, a parent organizer led to the front of the room a dozen West Broadway students armed with signs that said Save our Schools. The parent, Osiris Harrell, deposited before the School Board a red wagon stuffed with copies of Evans’ school closing letter. At that point, two police officers moved in and asked the students to disperse.
Afterward, Evans said he commiserated with the Bradway parents and said he did not make the decision lightly. He promised to schedule another meeting with parents in a few days when he had answers to their questions.
“I met with the fire marshal today,” he said. “There are other elementary schools that we’re looking at. But I can’t continue to violate the fire code.”
Parents have suggested a number of options, from renovating West Broadway to building a new elementary school across the street, where Bridgham Middle School is located.
Evans’ plan calls for moving West Broadway children to the Pell complex, which includes two school buildings, including Carnevale Elementary School. Students in kindergarten through third grade would be moved to Carnevale; fourth and fifth graders will be moved to the Del Sesto complex next door, which currently houses a middle school and a high school. The high schools students, however, will be moved to the new school on Adelaide Avenue.
Parents are also worried that the 450 West Broadway students will be split up. In Evans’ letter to parents, he wrote that, “in the event seats are not available [at the Pell complex], students will be assigned to schools in their neighborhoods.”
Some families are concerned that their children will attend school in a building with middle school students. The Pell complex will be reconfigured as a K-8 school next year, a model that Evans’ hopes to introduce elsewhere. But parents fear that their children will be intimidated or bullied by the bigger students.
Evans also pointed out that the DeJONG educational planners recommended closing West Broadway because the cost of bringing the building up to 21st century standards would be prohibitive.
RUNNING ON EMPTY
Posted Thursday, January 18, 2007
By Daniel BarbarisiJournal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Parents and children at the West Broadway Elementary School learned yesterday that the weeks of ominous rumors were true: their school will shut down next school year.
West Broadway will be shut because of fire code violations, Supt. Donnie Evans said. Specifically, the school does not meet code restrictions for kindergartners and first graders, whose classrooms must sit on the ground floor.
The school has long received one-year variances from the fire marshal excusing this problem, but last month, the fire marshal told the School Department it will not grant the variance for the next school year, Evans said.
“The fire marshal said to us, ‘you cannot continue to keep kindergarten and first graders in this building.’ They have specifically said we are not going to give you a variance after this year,” Evans said.
Evans said that the decision to close West Broadway was reinforced by the results of a study released yesterday by the DeJong Educational Planning firm discussing the future of Providence’s school buildings. The analysis recommends closing the school, and said that various plans for either rehabilitating or rebuilding the 102-year-old building were unfeasible.
The students will be moved over to a grouping of newer schools called the Pell Educational Complex, where they will be split among three different school buildings. The kindergarten-through-third graders will be moved into the Anthony Carnevale School, while the fourth and fifth graders will move to a combination of Del Sesto and Springfield schools.
The separate elementary and middle schools in the Pell Complex will be recast as a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, as part of a larger reorganization of the School Department.
Roughly 450 children are enrolled at West Broadway this year.
Parents and teachers first began hearing the rumblings that their school might close two weeks ago, and yesterday, at a meeting with Evans, they were told that the decision had been made, and there was likely no turning back. Many said they felt left out and blindsided.
“You say you want the parents to be involved, but we’re always the last to know. As parents we’re being left out,” said Osiris Harrell, founder of Project Future 2000 and Beyond, a parental advocacy group in the schools, and a West Broadway parent.
Teachers at the school were similarly shocked, saying they found out from outsiders and cafeteria personnel.
“The lunch people, everyone on the outside knew we were closing, and we were the last to know,” said Debbie McNamara, a second-grade teacher at West Broadway.
She said that the priority for the faculty was to keep the neighborhood school alive in some way, if possible, by moving the students and faculty together to Carnevale and Del Sesto.
“I really hope you can find some way to keep our students, parents and faculty together,” she said.
Evans said that he will work with the teachers union to make that possible.
But some parents don’t want their children moving to the Pell Complex, or joining a K-8 environment. John Zayas, a West Broadway parent, said that he does not want his children to go to the schools of the Pell Complex, which he said are more dangerous than West Broadway, and will have more bullying with the introduction of preteens in the same area as elementary schoolers.
“You have gang-bangers these days who are as young as 8 years old. The majority of them come from that neighborhood,” Zayas said.
“Putting our children in a somewhat hazardous environment — it’s not going to work … this move is going to cause a lot of parents to want to move,” he said.
Evans said that West Broadway parents will be given preferential status if they choose to enroll their children in another city elementary school, assuming that the school has room.
Parents floated several possible scenarios to save West Broadway, but Evans said that the decision is final. Next year, the school is already earmarked for housing displaced students from Central High School and the Hanley Career & Technical Center as those buildings are renovated. It will then be permanently closed.
“I really don’t see turning this train around, I really don’t. The fire marshal has given us our marching orders, and we’re marching.”
Harrell said that parents are not going to let their beloved neighborhood school disappear quietly.
“We’re not going to go away and say, ‘that’s how it is.’ This is not the end… we’re coming full force on this one.”
Harrell said that parents have scheduled two parental meetings, one at 6 tonight, the second at 6 p.m. tomorrow, in the West Broadway cafeteria to discuss the next step. Evans has promised to attend tomorrow’s meeting.
“You say you want the parents to be involved, but we’re always
the last to know. As parents we’re being left out … We’re not going
to go away and say, ‘that’s how it is.’ This is not the end …
we’re coming full force on this one.”
Osiris Harrell, RIGHT
founder of Project Future 2000 and Beyond, a parental advocacy group
“You say you want the parents to be involved, but we’re always
the last to know. As parents we’re being left out … We’re not going
to go away and say, ‘that’s how it is.’ This is not the end …
we’re coming full force on this one.”
Evans explains changes at Carnevale
Posted Thursday, January 18, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
Schools Supt. Donnie Evans talks with parents and teachers from the Carnevale Elementary School.
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Kris Craig
PROVIDENCE — Parents and teachers from Anthony Carnevale Elementary School tried to get their heads around the changes that will transform their building next year.
Supt. Donnie Evans told a small gathering yesterday that children from West Broadway Elementary School will be joining Carnevale this fall. Evans said he had no choice but to close West Broadway because of persistent fire code violations. The fire marshal put his foot down last month and told Evans that he could no longer grant a waiver from the fire code, which requires that kindergarten and first grade students be located on the ground floor.
West Broadway students will be moved to the Pell Educational complex this fall, which includes two buildings, one for elementary students and one for middle and high school students. Students in kindergarten through grade three will be moved into Carnevale Elementary School, while fourth and fifth graders will be located in the Del Sesto building next door.
Meanwhile, the current seventh and eighth graders will be moved to the upper floor of the Del Sesto building.
The Del Sesto High School students will be moved to the high school on Adelaide Avenue, which will open in September.
Evans said the Pell complex will be reconfigured as a K through 8 building, a concept that the superintendent has championed since his arrival here more than a year ago. He said he has never been comfortable with the Del Sesto complex, which put high school students in close proximity to smaller middle school children.
This fall, teachers complained publicly that Del Sesto was out of control, with high school students running down the hallways, swearing and disrupting middle school classes. Teachers complained that the older boys harassed middle school girls. The complex, they said, lacked an identity; no one was firmly in charge. A year earlier, high school students staged a sit-in when the popular high school principal, John Craig, was about to be transferred to another school. After speaking with students, Evans changed his mind and kept Craig at Del Sesto.
Yesterday, Evans told parents that the closing of West Broadway has created an opportunity for the district to try out the new K-8 model, which was popular in Tampa, Fla., Evans’ former school district. He explained that Carnevale Elementary School will be reorganized around teacher specialties. Under this model, two teachers will co-teach a classroom of 50 students.
According to Evans, the idea is that teachers will teach what they love. Under the current system, elementary students stay with the same teacher all day. If, however, a teacher isn’t comfortable with math, he will inadvertently shift most of his instruction to English. With the new system, teachers will teach to their strengths, Evans said, and students will be the beneficiaries.
Parents and teachers peppered Evans with questions yesterday: Will I have the same job next year or will someone from West Broadway get it? How will the principal make sure that the younger students are safe? Will English as a Second Language teachers stay with the same students? Who will run the buildings?
Evans explained that many of these details will be ironed out by the principals, adding that he will appoint one person to oversee the entire complex in addition to three assistants. Those appointments have not been made. He said he didn’t expect that anyone would be moved to another position outside the complex.
One Carnevale teacher asked, “Who teaches what? What if too many teachers want to teach math?”
Evans said in his experience, teachers are able to work that out among themselves, with guidance from their principal.
Most of the questions revolved around student safety.
“My child is not streetwise,” said Christine Clemens, president of the PTO. “I fear his mixing in with the West Broadway children. I cringe when they start yelling obscenities. I see the graffiti.”
Sharon Contreras, the district’s new chief academic officer, suggested that that the PTOs from both elementary schools get together for a casual gathering that would break the ice.
Evans promised that he would get back to teachers and parents when he had more answers.
Schools have stored instruments ready to be used
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Hey Providence, John Luca says, I have $225,000 worth of band instruments sitting in a climate-controlled room, just waiting for you to use.
When Luca read that the Providence School Department wants to restore its fine arts program, he decided to tweak the district’s memory.
“I got the instruments,” said Luca, an accordion player and the owner of a North Providence music store. “When I read the article in The Journal, I thought, ‘Maybe they don’t know we have the instruments being stored right here.’ ”
Providence Supt. Donnie Evans said he will appoint two committees to study how best to reinstate the fine arts to the city’s schools. He was responding to a Dec. 8 letter from state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters ordering the district to restore art and music offerings and make school libraries more accessible.
Starting in 2001, the VH-1 Save the Music Foundation donated thousands of dollars of musical instruments to nine city elementary schools over a three-year period. Since its inception in 1997, the foundation has provided more than $34 million worth of new instruments to more than 1,400 schools in 80 communities, affecting more than 800,000 public school students. The foundation is dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in the nation’s public schools and raising awareness of the importance of music in education.
In May 2003, when then-Supt. Melody Johnson announced she was cutting the instrumental music program, Robert B. Morrison, executive director of the foundation, urged her to reconsider and reminded her that the instruments were given on the condition that the schools maintain the program.
“We understand that, in these difficult financial times, your schools face many serious challenges,” Morrison wrote. “However, budget allocations that would compromise Providence’s instrumental music program would violate its contractual commitments and, ironically, would actually remove a source of support for school programs that would otherwise be available.”
But Johnson said she had no idea where else to cut. At the time, Providence was forced to make millions of dollars worth of budget cuts, including the elimination of the instrumental program, which was expected to save approximately $500,000. Roughly 1,000 students took instrumental music, a fraction of the district’s 27,000 students.
In spring 2004, hundreds of teachers and parents thronged the steps of the State House to protest cuts to the fine arts programs. Parents said that fine arts are the hook that keeps students engaged in their education, adding that art and music offer struggling students a path to success that isn’t always available in the classroom.
Meanwhile, Luca, in 2001, won the bid to provide the band instruments to the city’s schools. After the instrumental program was eliminated, the foundation asked that the instruments — all 192 of them — be removed and stored at Luca’s Mineral Spring Avenue store.
“When they took inventory,” Luca said, “a couple of instruments had disappeared and [the foundation] decided it would be more efficient to have them taken out.”
But Luca wasn’t happy seeing the instruments languish, so he called several large school districts, including Warwick and Pawtucket, to see if they wanted them, but none did.
The instruments — trumpets, trombones, clarinets, flutes, drums and symbols —are in mint condition because they were used only for a couple of years. They are being stored next to two grand pianos at Luca Music.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the Save the Music Foundation was hopeful that the instruments could once again delight young musicians.
“We’d be happy to consider restoring the music instruments to the Providence public schools as long as there is a concrete plan and timelines for reinstating certified music teachers and the music programs in Providence elementary and middle schools.”
And that, Luca says, is music to his ears.
Group to study ways of restoring school arts programs
Posted Tuesday, January 9, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Last month, Rhode Island Education Commissioner Peter McWalters ordered the Providence schools to restore art and music programs and increase access to school libraries.
The district had 30 days to respond. Yesterday, Supt. Donnie Evans promised to form two study groups — one to develop plans for improving library services and the other to figure out how to make fine arts programs available to all of the system’s elementary and middle school students.
Evans’ written response to the commissioner’s order was short of detail, but he did agree to address the critical shortcomings in the areas of media services, music and art. According to Evans, by March 1, his office will review music and art offerings in each school to assess the extent to which they do not comply with the state’s basic education plan.
In a Dec. 8 letter to Evans, McWalters wrote: “It is clear that many students in Providence public schools have no access to music instruction as a separate subject of study,” McWalters wrote. “This is particularly unacceptable given the regulation’s emphasis on access to music instruction for students with disabilities, students who are English language learners and students who are otherwise disadvantaged. In combination, these categories account for the majority of Providence school students.”
The commissioner reached a similar conclusion about art instruction. There is no evidence, he wrote, that high school students have access to courses that provide in-depth instruction in art history, criticism and career education as required by the basic education plan, which spells out the state’s education requirements.
Evans, in an interview last month, said he, too, was dissatisfied with the level of fine arts programs in Providence, something he noticed after his arrival last fall. He said that he has been discussing this issue with the commissioner on a regular basis.
Evans said he will appoint a fine arts task force to develop recommendations for expanding and deepening the district’s arts offerings, adding that those recommendations will not only meet but exceed the requirements of the basic education plan. Membership of the task force will include university faculty, state Department of Education staff and representatives from the city’s arts communities. The report will be submitted to the superintendent by Dec. 1.
McWalters also ordered the district to make its libraries more accessible to students throughout the school day. In his letter to the commissioner, Evans promised to review the hours each school library is open and make the necessary adjustments by March 1. Evans said that new no staff will be added this year.
Any additional costs to expand library access will be included in next year’s budget.
The superintendent said that he will appoint a school media task force to develop a plan for improving library services.
Membership will include school staff, college faculty, state Department of Education staff and members of the public library system. The task force will begin its work in March and submit its recommendations by Nov. 15.
“It is clear that many students in Providence public schools have no access to music instruction as a separate subject of study.”
Peter McWalters
Education Commissioner
“It is clear that many students in Providence public schools have no access to music instruction as a separate subject of study.”
Peter McWalters
Education Commissioner
Superintendent alerts parents to state encephalitis probe
Posted Thursday, January 4, 2007
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Schools Supt. Donnie Evans sent parents a letter yesterday, written in English and Spanish, informing them that the state Department of Health is investigating three cases of encephalitis among students in two schools in Warwick and West Warwick.
One student at the Greenwood Elementary School in Warwick died from the illness while another has recovered from it. A student at the Deering Middle School in West Warwick also contracted the illness and has recovered from it.
According to the letter to parents, the cause of the illness was mycoplasma, a common bacteria which most people recover from without treatment. The bacteria can also develop into walking pneumonia.
The letter advises parents and their children to wash their hands regularly with an antibacterial soap and to cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing. It urges parents to call their doctors if they see a combination of the following symptoms: fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
Parents should also watch for a combination of symptoms associated with meningitis and encephalitis including moderate to severe headaches, disorientation, fever and neck stiffness. Evans said that parents should call their doctors immediately if they observe any of these symptoms.
“We understand that this investigation is causing concern to all families with children throughout Rhode Island,” Evans wrote. “That is why we are providing information to help you understand and prevent these diseases from affecting our district. We will be very watchful in the upcoming weeks and will notify you immediately if these illnesses directly affect our district.”
The school district also mailed out a list of frequently asked questions about my coplasma prepared by state heath . The state Health Department also addresses questions including how mycoplasma is diagnosed, why it takes so long to get the results, whether a past infection provides immunity and what the treatment is for an infection.
School spokeswoman Maria Tocco said that Evans met with school principals yesterday to discuss preventative measures and protocols regarding encephalitis.
|
|
