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November 2003
SUMMARY REPORT
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2003
PTU BUILDING DELEGATE MEETING:
NOVEMBER 12, 2003
President?s Report: Steven Smith
? Steve reported on the Union?s upcoming public relations efforts. The first of which is a professionally produced quarterly newsletter highlighting the Union?s community projects such as the parent workshop focusing on ?homework? that was co-sponsored with the Silver Lake Community Center in October. The newsletter will also highlight the many teacher activities held at various schools throughout the school year. The mailing list, in addition to the membership, will include city council members, school board members, general assembly members, the mayor, the governor and key business leaders. Types of information formerly announced in the PROTEUN will be contained in Union bulletins as needed.
? Steve discussed that he has shared the information he received from teachers regarding micro-management practices of some principals with Superintendent Melody Johnson and Dr. Cheryl King. As a result, administration agreed to send all teachers a letter to clarify several concerns. However, two key elements that had been agreed to by the administration and the Union were not included in the original letter and will be addressed in a subsequent memo. The memo will address the protocols for dealing with schools in which noticeable improvement in the attitude and behavior of administrators is not visible and will announce that Steve will join the administration on learning walks and that central administrators will accompany Steve on school visitations. Each building principal has been directed by Cheryl King to schedule a faculty meeting within a month to further clarify faculty concerns. Steve requested that building delegates report at next month?s building delegate meeting whether or not principals have met with their faculty and whether positive changes have been made at their school.
? Steve reported on ?Working RI?, the AFL-CIO?s comprehensive media campaign aimed at offsetting the attack on labor by Governor Carcieri and other elected office holders. A kick-off letter was mailed to all members detailing the campaign?s priorities and citing research that shows that communities that have strong unions are more successful, especially in education, than those which do not.
? Steve recognized Michael Jarrett, a teacher at Textron Chamber, for his efforts as Elections Committee Chairperson, especially relating to the special election scheduled for November 13, 2003.
? Delegates were reminded that up-to-date phone chains should be submitted as soon as possible.
Executive Director?s Report: Paul Vorro
? Paul reported that at the last Teacher Evaluation Committee meeting, the administration requested an extension of the timelines for teacher evaluations. Due to the fact that extensions had been granted for the previous four years, PTU committee members denied administration?s request.
In accordance with a provision in the Teacher Evaluation Committee contractual language, the six-member Union/administration committee was joined by a mutually agreed to seventh member who voted with the Union regarding tenured teachers but with administration regarding probationary teachers. The following decisions regarding teacher evaluations for the 2003-2004 school year are the results of those votes:
1. All probationary teachers (years 1-2-3) will be evaluated during the 2003-04 school year.
2. Training for probationary teachers shall be ? day. Training is to be completed no later than November 7, 2003, so evaluations can be completed in a timely manner. If a teacher requests additional training, it will be provided prior to any evaluation being completed. Pre-observation conference/classroom observation has to be scheduled with his/her evaluator by November 26. Evaluations are to be completed by June 11.
3. Tenured teachers scheduled to be evaluated as of the start of the 2003-2004 school year will not be completed at this time. Tenured teachers scheduled to be evaluation, Cycle ?A?; will be evaluated under the new evaluation model, which is currently being developed through a joint Administration/PTU effort at a yet to be determined date.
Tenured teachers whose date of hire falls in the second semester of a school year, Cycle ?B?, will be evaluated following the guidelines in the evaluation handbook. Training will be ? day.
? Paul reported that the School Department has hired sufficient substitute teachers in accordance with our contractual language. However, he requested that building delegates return the Substitute Coverage Form to the Union office on a weekly basis whether or not teachers were absent and no substitute was provided.
? Thirty-six (36) grievances were filed during the month of October, a slight increase compared to October of 2002.
? Paul requested that delegates remind their faculties that it is each teacher?s ?right? to request Union representation if he/she is not comfortable with a meeting scheduled by an administrator.
Member Services: Maura Galvao, Don Gormley
? Building delegates were requested to post Don and Maura?s school visitation schedules on their school?s Union bulletin board and to make an announcement on the morning of their visits.
? A brief overview of the Union?s Annual Book Drive was presented to the building delegates.
Professional Development Coordinator: Fr. Nick Milas
? Fr. Nick Milas referred to his written report, which listed ongoing and upcoming workshops sponsored by the PTU.
40 Week Club: Jane Shugrue
? The 1st drawing was held at the Building Delegate Meeting. The $25 winners were: Crystal Swepson, Carl Lauro; Pat Maymon, Kizirian; Val Bento, Martin L. King; and Caroline Marcello, Vartan Gregorian. The deadline for qualifying for the special $100 drawing was extended to December 5, 2003.
Discussion:
? Elementary teachers spoke of having to provide a grade on report cards in the areas of science, social studies and technology when, in fact, there is no Scope and Sequence or time allotted in their daily schedules to teach these subjects. Directives from principals regarding utilizing ?N/A? for those subjects are inconsistent.
? There was lively discussion regarding the continuation of intense micro-management by many principals, the inappropriate use of coaches, the lack of uniformity and consistency relative to administrative directives.
Steve restated the commitments made by Superintendent Johnson, Dr. King and Dr. Gallo and that thus far only Dr. Gallo has addressed our concerns related to the middle schools. Steve anticipates similar action will be taken by Dr. King.
Steve has a meeting with the Superintendent on November 19, 2003 and micro-management will be the priority item on his agenda. Steve stated that he will provide each member with a status report of his November 19, 2003 meeting.
Finally, Steve asked all building delegates to keep him informed as to the progress/lack of progress with regard to micro-management issues.
Leaking oil tank leads Lauro School to shuffle classes
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2003
School officials say air-quality tests indicate things were back to normal by the end of the day.
BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- An oil leak in the basement of the Carl G. Lauro Elementary School forced teachers and students to evacuate the building yesterday, and later to hold classes in another part of the school.
Students and school employees noticed the leak, from a faulty oil storage tank which has now been removed, when they began arriving at the school's east wing before the 8 a.m. start of classes.
As a precaution, Principal Scott Sutherland directed youngsters outside, where they remained for a few moments before being sent to the west wing, where classes resumed in some of the empty rooms.
School Department spokeswoman Maria Tocco said she was uncertain how much oil leaked from the tank. She said it had apparently been leaking for a few hours.
Oil company maintenance workers were soon at the scene to drain the tank. On the school's first floor, a crew from the Fire Department and maintenance workers from Sodexho School Services moved to clear the odor by installing fans.
Tocco said an air-quality check later showed that the air had returned to normal. Still, the students were kept in the west wing of the sprawling building for the rest of the school day.
School officials made no changes in plans for a parent-teacher conference last night.
Sutherland said students would resume school in their regular classrooms at 8 this morning. The building remained heated throughout yesterday's incident.
Reminder
Posted Tuesday, November 11, 2003
The next Building Delegate meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at Via Roma, 308 Atwells Avenue, Providence.
The meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. For your convenience, there is valet parking available.
School will soon install cameras in corridors
Posted Tuesday, November 11, 2003
It's hoped that the cameras, at Roger Williams Middle School, will make students more accountable for their actions as well as provide additional security.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The fish-eye of the security camera has become a ubiquitous guardian over parking lots, innumerable workplaces, and even automatic-teller machines, where it photographs the face of every person making a banking transaction.
Soon security cameras will be placed in the corridors of the Roger Williams Middle School, helping teachers keep track of what their own eyes can't see, especially during the three-minute span when students change classes.
At least one other public school in Rhode Island has similar security. North Providence High School installed indoor cameras when one wing of the building was rebuilt after an arson fire in 1993 caused extensive damage.
According to North Providence High School principal Joseph Goho, the cameras in his school are an "absolute asset to maintaining a school environment conducive to safety and learning."
"We've had absolutely no complaints whatsoever," Goho said.
The American Civil Liberties Union, however, is opposed to having security cameras in public schools.
Steve Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island chapter of the ACLU, said last week that having such security cameras is "inappropriate."
"This type of surveillance can create the effect of making schools seem like prisons," he said.
"I don't think cameras will deter behavior, but just displace bad conduct to places where cameras are not available," Brown said.
The principal at the Roger Williams Middle School, Arthur Petrosinelli, said there are several reasons the school decided to install indoor security cameras.
The cameras will "make students more accountable for their actions in the hallways," he said, noting that there will be no cameras in classrooms or bathrooms.
And the cameras will protect students and faculty from intrusions by outsiders, he said.
Teachers stand outside their classroom doors to monitor the flow of students from one class to another, but they can't see everything, Petrosinelli said.
The cameras will extend their vision, he said.
The camera monitors, as well as video-recording capability, will be located in his office, the principal said.
Mark V. Dunham, the school district's chief financial officer, said the part of the school's discretionary funds will be used to pay for the video system.
The purchase does not imply that other Providence public schools will have indoor security cameras in the future, Dunham said.
"It was a school-based decision," Dunham said.
"It's their own approach," he said. Roger Williams has "the same budget allocation that everyone else has."
"My charge is to give schools flexibility to spend money whenever appropriate, if it will have a positive effect on teaching and learning," Dunham said.
The expenditure had received approval from district officials and the School Board as part of the overall budgetary process for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30.
At the district and municipal level, however, the authorization to request bids on the camera system did not come until several weeks ago.
Last week, the municipal Board of Contract and Supply received several bids in the mid-to-high $20,000 range, according to Alan Sepe, acting director of public property.
But in an unusual step, Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson personally reviewed the school's decision to buy the cameras, after the Board of Contract and Supply had opened the bids and after a reporter made telephone inquiries about them.
A spokeswoman for Johnson said that the superintendent wanted to ensure that money spent on cameras did not compromise the academic needs of students or teachers.
Petrosinelli, meanwhile, said he wants the indoor cameras "to make students more accountable for their actions in the hallway."
In general, young adolescents in middle school tend to have more disciplinary problems than older teenagers in high school.
And in Dunham's opinion, Roger Williams is not "the worst middle school by any stretch."
"But they did feel it was important to their school," Dunham said, noting that the faculty participated in the decision.
Petrosinelli said the school requested the cameras because "I'm concerned about the whole gamut" of student misbehavior, from "play-fighting that could end up in an assault" to actual fights.
Fights usually happen in the hallways, he said, and the cameras will be an additional deterrent.
For every floor there will be two mounts, with two cameras each, at opposite corners of the building. That arrangement will give school officials four views of corridors in the basement and the first, second, and third floors, Petrosinelli said.
At North Providence High, the indoor video-security system runs 24 hours a day.
The system has helped school officials and the police observe thefts from lockers, graffiti being painted on walls, and fights, said Goho, the principal.
"We burn the [compact disc] and give it to the cops," Goho said, explaining that the cameras record and store digital images that can be transferred to a compact disc that the police can play on their own computers.
The video-recording system extends to the outside of the school as well, Goho said.
In Providence, Roger Williams also had an outdoor security camera, but it was stolen last month from a mount about 15 feet off the ground, Petrosinelli said.
Brown, the ACLU director in Rhode Island, said police studies of high-crime areas show security cameras are ineffective in the long run.
"Sometimes they will show a temporary decrease in crime in the areas under surveillance, but there's a consequent increase in crime in the surrounding areas," Brown said.
"This notion of always keeping kids under the watchful eye of technology ultimately is very intrusive of the basic notions of privacy," he said.
Although schools must deal with disciplinary problems, intruders, and the like, "utimately, things like this treat kids like suspects instead of students," Brown said.
"It sends the wrong message in a school system," he said.
And Brown said that he would be "shocked if Roger Williams Middle School had taken care of all the academic needs of students and needs no additional funding."
"No matter what they say, this is money that could be better spent on academic efforts," Brown said. He said he will write the school a letter expressing the ACLU's position.
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