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March 2005
Budget proposal $13.7 million in red
Posted Wednesday, March 30, 2005
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The Providence schools are facing a $13.7-million budget shortfall next year unless both the City Council and the General Assembly kick in more local aid.
Mark V. Dunham, the School Department's chief financial officer, presented a $305.4-million budget to the School Board last night -- an increase of $17.2 million or 5.9 percent. The district's total proposed budget, including federal aid and grants, comes in at $366.3 million.
The budget deficit assumes that the only revenue increase is the $3.1 million included in Governor Carcieri's local aid package.
Last month, the School Department predicted a $22.6-million budget deficit based on the projected cost of teacher retirements, health benefits and salary increases, among other expenditures. Now that the department has more precise numbers, it turns out that the budget gap isn't as large as originally expected.
Dunham said that this year alone, the district eliminated more than 130 positions, mostly teachers and teacher aides, which triggered a reduction in elective courses at the middle and high schools and the loss of common plannning time for teachers.
"We're running out of places to cut," Dunham said. "There is no place for us to go."
The School Board is considering cutting 20 guidance counselors, which would save approximately $1 million. Last night, a guidance counselor who received a pink slip described the many contributions large and small that her colleagues make at the high school level.
"I'm a guidance counselor at Mount Pleasant High School and I've been laid off," Susan Hayes said. "The senior guidance counselor spends the whole day talking with seniors, who stand in line outside her door. Some of my colleagues have saved the lives of 10 or 12 students. Parents call us constantly and ask, 'What can we do to help our children?' "
Guidance counselors, she said, are sometimes the only link between teachers and parents. If these jobs are cut, Hayes said, who will reach out to these students?
Nick Figueroa, the director of multicultural recruitment at Roger Williams University, said it would be a huge mistake to eliminate counselors in a "majority-minority" district such as Providence, where 70 percent of the students are first-generation Americans.
"College access is a huge issue for these students," he said. "First-generation Americans are not educated about the admissions process. Our high school dropout rate is disturbing. Our college retention rates are disturbing."
Guidance staff, he said, are already struggling with unmanageable caseloads. Increasing those caseloads, Figueroa said, would "clearly be a disaster."
Dunham said that the School Board has discussed several areas where cuts could be made:
Transportation: The district could save between $1.5 and $2.1 million by reducing the number of bus stops.
Varsity athletics: Eliminating all 18 sports programs would save $1.2 million.
State mandates: Providence is required by state law to provide services and materials to city students who attend private schools. A waiver would save the district $6 million.
State aid restrictions: State law spells out out how certain state aid is spent. A waiver would free up $3 million, which the district could put toward balancing the budget.
But Dunham said even if all of these savings were made, they wouldn't be enough to close the budget gap.
The budget crisis is looming at a time of significant change in the city's public schools, Dunham said. While the city's high school population is booming, with 200 more students expected next year, elementary enrollments are declining by 1 percent to 2 percent.
Next year, the district will close two elementary schools -- Flynn Annex and Windmill Annex -- as well as the Harrison Street High School. A new $15-million high school will open on Adelaide Avenue, taking some of the pressure off of Mount Pleasant.
The School Board will vote on the budget proposal and send it to the City Council on April 25. On the following day, a rally to drum up support for more local aid is planned at the State House.
Simmons to lead search for new schools chief
Posted Thursday, March 24, 2005
The Brown University president will head a 19-member committee that will recruit, interview and screen candidates and submit finalists to the mayor.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Brown University President Ruth Simmons will chair the search committee for a new superintendent in Providence, Rhode Island's largest and most diverse district.
The 19-member search committee will recruit, interview and screen candidates before submitting a list of finalists to Mayor David N. Cicilline and the Providence School Board for their review. The search should be finished in mid- to late summer.
Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnsonis leaving Providence in late May to become superintendent in Fort Worth, Texas. Francis Gallo, the School Department's director of administration, has been appointed transitional superintendent.
"In putting together this group, I wanted three things: people who make up a good representation of our city, people who understand the direction we have set for our schools and people who are insightful and wise," Cicilline said. "I can't imagine a more capable group of people for this task."
Simmons said she looks forward to working with other civic leaders to find a superintendent with the knowledge, skills and passion to lead the city's schools.
"Access to quality public education is a key measure of our success as a city, state and nation," she said.
This isn't the first time that a mayor of Providence has turned to the state's only Ivy League institution for help in finding a superintendent. In 1998, Brown University President E. Gordon Gee led the search for someone to replace Supt. Arthur M. Zarrella.
That search led to the appointment of Diana Lam, who left almost three years ago to take a top spot with the New York City school district.
Besides Simmons, the search committee includes Sen. Mary Ellen Goodwin; Rep. Thomas Slater; Providence City Councilman Kevin Jackson; city human resources director Sybil Bailey; Betty Bernal, program director of the American Cancer Society; city policy director Garry Bliss; Fred Butler, vice president of business ethics at Textron; Jim DiRentis, executive vice president of Bank Rhode Island; Providence School Board member Dr. Milton Hamolsky; School Board President Mary McClure; Makna Men, equity coordinator of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University; Keith Oliveira of the Rhode Island Department of Education; Providence School Board member Adeola Oredola; Elvis Pena, student government president; and Providence Teachers Union President Steven Smith.
Also Angel Tavares, a lawyer with Corley, Tavares and Petrarca; Zuleika Vidal, president of the Reservoir Avenue Elementary School Parent Teachers Organization; and Samuel Zurier, a lawyer with Tillinghast Licht.
Search begins for superintendent of Providence schools
Posted Wednesday, March 16, 2005
The mayor will form a search committee to find a replacement for Melody A. Johnson.
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- After consulting with national experts, city officials have a plan to launch the search for the next school superintendent.
The School Board named Frances Gallo transitional superintendent on Monday. Gallo had previously worked as the school system's chief of administration.
Next week, Mayor David N. Cicilline will announce the members of a search committee, according to Karen Southern, his spokeswoman.
Cicilline said the School Board will define its vision for what direction the school district should take, and outline the key qualities that final candidates should have.
The search committee will recruit, screen and interview candidates and recommend up to five finalists, the mayor said.
Cicilline and the School Board will interview the finalists. Cicilline said city officials consulted the Broad Foundation, a nationally known organization that specializes in superintendent searches.
Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson was chosen last month to run the school system in Fort Worth, Texas.
Johnson, who came to Rhode Island three years ago as a deputy superintendent under former Supt. Diana Lam, has long expressed an interest in returning to her home state. When Lam left abruptly in August 2002 to take a job in New York, the School Board promoted Johnson as superintendent at a salary of $177,156.
In Fort Worth, Johnson will earn about $300,000 annually and will qualify for retirement benefits.
Cicilline said he agrees with Broad Foundation recommendations that the search be confidential until finalists are identified.
Johnson's contract expires on Aug. 31; however, it is unclear if she will stay in Providence until then.
Cicilline said he believes the next superintendent should be a leader who can continue the momentum that has made the district's administration more efficient, data-driven and professional and able to provide more opportunities for teacher training.
In recent years, the state's largest school department has been plagued with budget woes, including a projected $20- to $24-million deficit for next school year.
Gallo named transitional superintendent
Posted Tuesday, March 15, 2005
The new position, which does not come with a pay raise, is to ease the transition when Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson leaves for her new job in Texas.
BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The School Board last night named Frances Gallo to the newly created post of transitional superintendent of schools andapproved three new principals at Hope High.
Gallo, who earns $110,000 in her role as chief of administration, will immediately taking on her new duties with no increase in pay.
Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson -- who has been chosen as the new superintendent of schools Fort Worth, Texas -- said she had urged the board to consider creating the transitional post to help make sure the school system is in capable hands as she prepares to leave.
"I can't think of anyone who is more able to assume this task," said Johnson, adding that she plans to work closely with Gallo during the next several weeks to share all the information necessary to assure that "this system will be cared for and that no one misses a beat."
Johnson, who came to Providence in February 2002 as deputy superintendent under her predecessor Diana Lam, said last night she had wished she had the benefit of a similar transition before taking over the Providence post when Lam abruptly left in August 2002 to take a job in New York City.
Gallo, who had been the superintendent of schools in Jamestown for six years before joining the Providence school system four years ago, was originally hired to direct the reorganization of the city's middle schools. As chief of administration, she also watches over the special-education program and, more recently, has been part of the team conducting interviews of faculty members at Hope High School.
She said she was "excited and humbled" about her new assignment.
Should the School Board fail to find a permanent replacement for Johnson by the time she leaves, it is expected that Gallo will become acting superintendent until Johnson's successor is hired.
The decision to create the post and to appoint Gallo was made
In other action, the board unanimously approved Catherine Carbone, Wayne Montague and Arthur Petrosinelli as principals of the three small learning communities at Hope.
Carbone, who has been principal at Nathaniel Greene Middle School since July 2001, was described by Johnson as a dynamic leader who energizes students to embrace innovation.
Montague, a former acting principal at Classical High and the assistant principal at Gilbert Stuart Middle School, was described by Johnston as someone of high integrity who "stays connected to all our students as well as our families."
Petrosinelli, the principal for the last three years at Roger Williams Middle School, was hailed by the superintendent as a "model administrator" who has set a wonderful tone to Roger Williams particularly in student achievement and safety.
The department's chief finance officer, Mark Dunham, presented a budget overview.
Among the highlights:
Providence school spending on a per-pupil cost basis -- after debt service and out-of-district spending -- was $10,291 last year, only slightly higher than the state's median of $10,056.
The district's administrative costs per pupil are $657, which places it 13th in Rhode Island. The cost of running the School Department's central administration is considerably at lower: $75 per pupil, placing it 32nd.
While the city spent $183,068 last year on textbooks for nonpublic students, it was reimbursed $140,000 by the state. The only real cost to the city was the salary of the person in charge of keeping track of the books.
One-fifth of Hope High teachers ask for transfers
Posted Monday, March 14, 2005
A screening panel interviews the faculty to gauge their commitment to working toward higher student achievement and a lower dropout rate.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- About one in five teachers at Hope High School have decided to transfer to another school in the fall rather than live with the state's orders for how the school should operate.
Of the 92 teachers at the school, 19 told a screening committee that they want to leave next fall, and 55 said they want to stay. Of those, 3 will be told on Monday that they are "not a good fit" at Hope and will have to transfer to another school in the city, according to Frances Gallo, chief of administration.
The latest intervention order by Peter McWalters, the state's commissioner of elementary and secondary education, required all faculty who want to remain at Hope to sign a 19-point letter of commitment.
The order, intended to improve student performance and stem a high dropout rate, set up a review team of central office administrators, leaders of the Providence Teachers Union, and representatives of the community to re-interview the faculty.
Those interviews, which spanned four days, concluded yesterday.
Gallo and union leaders said that 15 of the 92 faculty members were ineligible for interviews because they are on temporary assignment or have emergency teaching certificates.
They also said that three teachers were not interviewed because they were on leave or ill.
Gallo said that some of the 19 teachers who decided to transfer told the screening committee they had already "been through the wringer" of several attempts at reform at Hope and had "had enough."
Others said they were "fearful of the unknown" under the terms of the intervention order and preferred working conditions in which their contractual rights were spelled out, Gallo said.
ALTHOUGH THE NUMBER of teachers who said they want out of Hope may seem high to some, it is less than half the number who told the union last month that they planned to leave.
At that time, uncertainties over the makeup of the school administration and the impact McWalters' order would have on teachers' due-process rights weighed heavily on the faculty, with more than 50 saying they would leave.
Since then, Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson selected three new administrators to run the school as a team and let the teachers know the names of her choices just before the teacher interviews started on Tuesday morning.
And union leaders gave the faculty assurances they would continue to play a role in settling any disputes that could not be resolved at the building level.
In separate interviews, Gallo and the union leadership, including Executive Director Paul Vorro and President Steven F. Smith, said that all teachers interviewed were asked to name the obstacles that make their jobs more difficult.
Whether the teachers wanted to go or stay, common themes ran through their replies, Gallo, Vorro and Smith agreed.
The teachers cited poor attendance, excacerbated by transportation glitches, as well as a lack of student discipline and a variety of problems with the school schedule.
Vorro and Smith made it clear that they did not participate in reviewing the presentations made by teachers whose commitment to Hope was questioned by other members of the review team, in case teachers not allowed to return contest the decision and the union is called to represent them.
Vorro said "we disagreed with what the commissioner did by having them go through this" re-interview process for their jobs.
THE 19 POINTS of the recommitment letter, including asking teachers to list "everything you've done for the last three years . . . went far beyond anything we expected," Vorro said.
He said teachers at Hope have have been publicly blamed for many conditions that were beyond their control, such as the transportation problem and constantly changing class rosters that unsettled both students and faculty last fall.
At the same time, he and Smith commended Gallo for doing a "very professional job" in ensuring that "every teacher was treated with respect" during the interview process.
Gallo and other members of the teacher review team, including McWalters' delegates, Paul Sproll of the Rhode Island School of Design and Andrea Jones, a parent, "made what was potentially a difficult situation as comfortable as possible," Vorro said.
A spokesman for McWalters said the commissioner had not received any official report of the results of the screening and declined comment yesterday.
Gallo, meanwhile, said that meeting with all the teachers made everyone on the screening committee "all believers that there are an extremely competent, caring group of teachers at Hope High School."
"Now as we move forward, the spotlight will continue to shine and when we see specks that need to be removed, will be more ready to remove them," Gallo said.
She specifically said something must be done to solve transportation problems that leave students stranded when buses pass them by.
With returning teachers identified, and the announcement of the new administrative team earlier in the week, all the major elements are in place for Hope to gear up to implement McWalters' order.
On Wednesday, McWalters introduced the former commissioner of education for New Hampshire, Nicholas C. Donohue, as the special master who will monitor progress in carrying out the order.
McWalters wants Hope's three small learning communities to raise the quality of instruction while operating as self-governing schools, in accordance with educational theory that holds that those closest to the students are in a position to make the most informed decisions about their education.
McClure wants interim school chief
Posted Friday, March 11, 2005
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The School Department should have an interim superintendent while Melody A. Johnson winds down her work here and prepares to head for Fort Worth, Texas, where she was chosen as superintendent last month.
That's the opinion of School Board President Mary E. McClure, who said yesterday that the matter will be discussed in executive session at a board meeting on Monday.
McClure said she has invited Mayor David N. Cicilline to speak to the board in private about appointing an interim school chief and about a search for Johnson's permanent successor.
"He's made it public that he will take a very big lead on this, and the board will work closely with him," McClure said.
Cicilline has said he will be active in a national search for a superintendent.
He has said he believes there is enough time to hire a superintendent for the start of school in the fall.
McClure said of Johnson's new job, "As soon as you accept a new position, people start expecting you to participate there."
Although Johnson's contract does not expire until Aug. 31, a provision allows her to resign earlier, McClure said.
Hope High's special master begins work on changes
Posted Thursday, March 10, 2005
"We know how to connect families and schools," says Nicholas C. Donohue, who pledges to "keep a laser-beam focus on student performance and achievement" at the troubled school.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Nicholas C. Donohue, New Hampshire's former commissioner of education, began work yesterday as the special master at Hope High School to monitor changes there ordered by the state.
Rhode Island's education commissioner, Peter McWalters, who last month issued a detailed order that escalates state intervention at Hope, announced his appointment of Donohue at a morning news conference.
Since 1997, Donohue, 46, has worked at the top rungs in New Hampshire's Department of Education, for three years as deputy commissioner, and for the last four years as commissioner. He did not seek reappointment last year to another four-year term.
Donohue said he wanted to work at Hope High because he is "drawn back" to the sort of work he once did in the Boston area -- "assisting people around improving schools."
He said he wanted to be "closer again to student learning."
Donohue's appointment is part of a "corrective action plan" that McWalters announced a month ago to improve student performance at Hope and deal with a dropout rate that exceeds 50 percent.
McWalters' plan emphasizes "literacy, personalization and proficiency-based graduation requirements" in the three small learning communities at Hope. Those three units are intended to be autonomous schools, with significant involvement by parents and other members of the community.
THE SPECIAL MASTER speaks for the commissioner and has the authority to carry out the corrective action plan, according to McWalters.
Donohue's role at Hope will break new ground in public education, both in Rhode Island and nationally.
Throughout the country, state intervention in failing schools is still in its infancy, and McWalters said that "we're very aware of what we're trying to do as a model for assisting urban school development."
McWalters said "four or five names came up" before he settled on Donohue, in part because of his political expertise at the state level.
Donohue "knows the roles from the commissioner to the classroom" and can bridge them all, McWalters said.
The state will pay Donohue as a consultant, $900 a day, without benefits. He is expected to work an average of three days a week for 18 months to two years, McWalters said.
Both McWalters and Donohue emphasized the role of the special master as a helper or facilitator at Hope, rather than a top-down "super principal" who will run the school.
Donohue said he will "keep a laser-beam focus on student performance and achievement" to keep more youngsters in school and raise the level of their work.
"We know how to connect families and schools," said Donohue, who has had experience promoting family involvement as a consultant in Boston-area schools. He suggested that the student advisories required in McWalters' intervention order will be an important starting point in building relationships between the school and the home.
With each teacher serving as an adviser to 15 students, the advisories will provide a "face-to-face connection" between faculty and parents that will let students know that the adults in their lives care about them, Donohue said.
He said research has shown that building students' sense of belonging is an important factor in turning around a school.
As McWalters' representative, Donohue said, his initial approach will be to listen and be informed by others who know Hope better than he.
He said he will aim to "support the people doing the implementation" at Hope, although he acknowledged that part of his job will be to "reconcile disputes."
Issues that cannot be resolved at the building level will get bumped up to a district-wide, labor-management school-intervention team, which has made the special master an ex officio member.
Any prolonged conflict that Donohue cannot settle through the union-management committee will get kicked up to McWalters, who will make a decision.
DONOHUE'S APPOINTMENT is the second of several steps intended to put key players in place to implement McWalters' order.
On Tuesday, Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson announced the appointment of three new principals for the learning communities of some 350 students each.
The order calls for a chief operating officer, not yet appointed, who will attend to building-wide issues, such as the operation of the cafeteria or the library.
The new school principals said they will not report to the chief operating officer.
As part of his intervention at the school, McWalters has required each Hope teacher to commit to his operational plan or move to another school. A review team is meeting with teachers this week as part of that process.
McWalters intervened directly at Hope in June 2002 after a slide in test scores and a rise in the dropout rate.
Last summer, he put the School Department on notice that he was concerned about a stall in the pace of reform after the faculty and the superintendent could not agree on the place for school advisories in the schedule.
In December, he held a show-cause hearing that put the burden on the School Department to convince him he should not take over the school.
The testimony in the hearing formed the basis for his order last month, which he said was drawn largely from a plan put forth by Johnson and the Providence Teachers Union.
Yesterday, McWalters reiterated that the appointment of a special master does not amount to a state takeover of Hope.
Both he and Donohue said they don't believe that the top-down nature of a takeover is an effective way to change schools.
3 new principals to help lead ailing Hope High
Posted Wednesday, March 9, 2005
Catherine Carbone, Wayne Montague and Arthur Petrosinelli will each run one of three small learning communities within the school.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Hope High School will get three new principals -- Catherine Carbone, Wayne Montague and Arthur Petrosinelli -- who will operate as a team running the three small learning communities in the building, the new appointees said yesterday.
Letters with the names of the appointees were placed in teachers' mailboxes at Hope early yesterday, just before the teachers were to beginning announcing whether they want to remain at Hope next fall, under the terms of the intervention order issued last month by state Commissioner of Education Peter McWalters.
Carbone is principal of the Nathanael Greene Middle School, Petrosinelli is principal of the Roger Williams Middle School, and Montague is assistant principal at the Gilbert Stuart Middle School.
With the first 24 of a total of 96 teacher interviews scheduled yesterday, it was too soon to tell what effect, if any, the news of the appointments had on the faculty, according to Paul Vorro, executive director of the Providence Teachers Union.
He and Frances Gallo, chief of administration, each said they would be in a better position on Friday to say how many teachers wish to stay at Hope.
Vorro and Gallo are both members of a teacher-review team which is conducting all 96 interviews this week.
Gallo said each of the three new principals will head one of the three small learning communities at Hope that focus on the arts, information technology and leadership, but all of them will back up each other.
She said they will work together closely enough so that if one of the principals is unavailable to answer a question, either of the other two will have the authority to speak for the absent member of the team.
In the letter to teachers, Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson said that a transition plan will be disseminated March 24 that will flesh out the process for planning the operation of the three small learning communities next fall under the terms of McWalters' order.
Among other things, the transition plan will address the formation of new governing entities for Hope's school-improvement teams for each of the three learning communities and a building-wide Campus Coordinating Council, Johnson wrote.
McWalters has insisted that these governing boards have significant participation from parents, students, and the community, and each of the three new appointees said yesterday that one of their top priorities will be to reach out to these groups.
Johnson's letter commended the "hard work, commitment and dedicated leadership" of the three outgoing administrators, Nkoli Onye, Oscar Paz and Paul Nichols.
"They provided leadership under exceptionally challenging circumstances," the letter said.
The new administrators have more experience than the three school directors now on the job, and they are moving to Hope at higher pay than the incumbents.
For two years, Onye, Nichols and Paz' predecessor, Carrie Glenn, reported to principal Nancy Mullen until Mullen retired last June. Glenn also retired at the same time.
By all accounts, the directors wanted more autonomy than they had under Mullen's supervision, but when things went wrong with the school schedule last fall, there was no easy way out of the problem.
Course changes were imposed on hundreds of students -- including seniors who were not initially given all the classes they needed to graduate.
In many cases the changes took place late in the first quarter or at the beginning of the second quarter of the academic year.
After the changes, the students were faced with the prospect of making up all the class work they had missed through no fault of their own.
In some cases the make-up work spanned an entire academic quarter.
Yesterday, Petrosinelli said that the three principals will work as a team in dealing with the school schedule, as well as the budget and other issues.
While McWalters' order calls for a chief operating officer to keep an eye on issues involving all three small learning communities, Gallo said that appointment won't be made until the three principals have time to develop a job description for that post.
The chief operating officer will not supervise the three principals but support them by addressing building-wide issues, such as the use of the cafeteria, that otherwise might distract them from their primary focus, Gallo said.
The team approach is a new twist to the administrative configuration, as Gallo made it clear that the three were selected not only for their individual strengths but for their ability to work together.
"Each one complements the other in terms of their strengths and in terms of what they can bring to Hope," Gallo said.
Under Gallo's supervision, the three have worked together in planning improvements to the city's middle schools.
Petrosinelli and Montague have known each other since they were both teachers at the Nathan Bishop Middle School some years ago.
Carbone, who has led Greene for the last four years and served as assistant principal at Roger Williams for the previous six years, said she is "privileged to be part of an exciting team" with Petrosinelli and Montague.
Petrosinelli and Montague expressed similar sentiments, saying they all believe they are ready for the challenge that Hope presents.
"We all trust one another," Montague said, "and it's all about trust.
Decline in school enrollment expected to continue
Posted Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Projections show there will be fewer students in city schools until about 2010.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Enrollment in the city's public schools has begun to decline for the first time in 15 years, bringing long-range implications for curtailing school construction, lowering class size in kindergarten and first grade, and realizing savings in transportation costs. With the use of federal money earmarked for class size reduction, the School Department has already hired 12 kindergarten teachers who each have fewer than 20 pupils. Most kindergartens, however, still have 26 children in each class.
Some of the changes will not be felt for at least one more year, because the decline in enrollment has taken hold only in elementary and middle schools.
High enrollment is expected to strain capacity for the rest of the decade, according to Mark V. Dunham, the district's chief financial officer.
To take the pressure off, the city must build a new high school for about 450 students to open in September, Dunham said.
The building, to cost an estimated $13 million, will be at Adelaide and Reservoir avenues in the Reservoir Triangle, he said.
The new school will be designed so it can be converted to other uses if necessary, Dunham said.
The construction will be financed with part of a $30-million bond issue that will also cover long-standing plans for major renovations to Central, Mount Pleasant, and Hope high schools, and others, Dunham said.
The operating costs for the new high school will result in an increase of $600,000 in the next operating budget, less if the School Department were not also planning to close classrooms in leased space for high school and elementary students.
Dunham recently completed his annual revision to his five-year projection for the use of school facilities and concluded that enrollment peaked at slightly more than 27,000 students in 2003. Enrollment is expected to fall until at least 2010, when it is expected to be 25,513.
The change in direction marks the beginning of the end of a wave of Hispanic migration that transformed parts of Providence and filled the schools to overflowing during the 1990s. It has forced the city to open at least one new school a year since 1997.
Dunham's calculations put overall enrollment at 26,445 during the current school year, including an increase of 500 in high schools, from 7,535 to 8,068.
The numbers are based on figures developed by the Gilbane Co. in a yet-to-be-released comprehensive study of school buildings.
Dunham's projections show high school enrollment staying above 8,000 through 2007 and beginning a slow decline the following year.
The new high school will offset the closing of three facilities with nearly the same number of spaces -- the basement of Mount Pleasant High School, the Harrison Street High School, and the Occupational Educational Program, a special-education program with 20 students at the Wanskuck Boys Club on Branch Avenue, Dunham said.
Instead of building a larger high school this year, the School Department will shift 175 ninth graders to quarters now occupied by the DelSesto Middle School on Springfield Street.
DelSesto, in the same building as Springfield Middle School, will add one grade each year until it spans 9 through 12.
Meanwhile, the School Department will begin moving sixth grade classrooms from middle schools to elementary schools next fall, Dunham said.
Not only is there space for sixth graders in elementary schools, where about 20 percent of seats are vacant, but research shows that children who have attended sixth grade in elementary school perform better than those who begin middle school in the sixth grade , Dunham said.
The sixth grade students who will remain in elementary school will be chosen from among students who walk to and from school, Dunham said. He estimated that the school district might save $150,000 to $200,000 it would otherwise have to spend to bus the sixth graders to middle schools outside their neighborhoods..
He said the Harrison Street School must close for at least two reasons. It has fire code violations that are too costly to repair, considering the School Department is leasing the building.
And the building does not have a full complement of students in grades 9 through 12, lacking the identity that gives a high school a sense of cohesiveness, Dunham said.
The basement at Mount Pleasant High School, which has about 200 seats, was criticized for potentially unsafe conditions in an accreditation report by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges last fall
Dunham said the 20 special-education students at the Wanskuk Boys Club will be reassigned to high school programs.
During the next school year, the school district will study the feasibility of shifting the composition of schools in the lower grades to create early childhood centers spanning preschool through grade 2, and schools that encompass preschool through grade 8, Dunham said.
Dunham said the opportunity to reduce class size in kindergarten is a result of a change in the state law on eligibility, which resulted in a decrease of 600 kindergartners in the current class.
Grant aimed at boosting literacy
Posted Friday, March 4, 2005
Ready to Learn Providence will use the $15,000, and AmeriCorps money, to help prepare children for kindergarten.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- For the second year, Brown Rudnick Charitable Foundation Corp. has made a grant to Ready To Learn Providence, the nonprofit organization that aims to bolster early childhood development to better prepare youngsters for kindergarten.
The foundation, the charitable arm of the law firm of Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP, gave $15,000 to help defray the costs of using AmeriCorps volunteers in the program, according to Joyce Butler, the executive director.
AmeriCorps has awarded Ready to Learn Providence a grant of $372,000 for 30 AmeriCorps volunteers who will help promote early awareness of literacy by working in Head Start and other childcare centers, and in libraries as liaisons with home-based childcare providers.
One of the conditions of the AmeriCorps grant is that Ready to Learn Providence must raise $60,000 in matching local money, according to Butler, and the Brown Rudnick grant counts toward that goal.
Last fall, Ready to Learn Providence received $1 million from the federal government to ensure that it will stay afloat for three more years.
The grant has enabled Ready to Learn to move out of the offices of Providence Plan to its own quarters at 945 Westminster St., Butler said.
She said she expects the volunteers to begin work in June.
In the last two years, Ready to Learn Providence has focused on bringing information and training about early childhood development, particularly the skills associated with literacy, to those who provide childcare in their homes.
Of some 675 home-based childcare providers in the city, about 200 have completed training in providing activities that develop basic concepts related to literacy, according to Butler. About 100 more are expected to complete the course in the next year, she said.
According to school officials in Providence, one in two children start kindergarten lacking the ability to make connections between sounds and letters.
The addition of the AmeriCorps volunteers to the staffs of branch libraries and childcare centers will "essentially put some legs on Ready to Learn Providence," Butler said.
Lottery tonight determines high school placement
Posted Tuesday, March 1, 2005
The schools in highest demand are Feinstein, Mount Pleasant, the Health, Science & Technology Academy and E3.
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The School Department will hold a series of lotteries to determine which students will attend schools that are in high demand.
The first lottery, tonight at 6 at the Registration Center, 650 Prairie Ave., is for high schools.
The middle school lottery is March 15 and the kindergarten-first grade lottery will be in May.
Maria Tocco, spokeswoman for the School Department, said the annual lottery is scheduled whenever the number of students list a school as their first choice is higher than the seats available.
The high schools that are being oversubscribed are Feinstein, Mount Pleasant, the Health, Science & Technology Academy and E3.
Under the school district policy, 85 percent of the seats at high schools are reserved for students who live in the neighborhood or for siblings of students who attend the school, Tocco said. The policy is designed to encourage attendance at neighborhood schools and to prevent siblings from being assigned to different schools.
The rest of the slots are reserved for students who do not live in the immediate neighborhood.
At E3, there will be 70 seats available for freshmen, including 60 neighborhood or sibling seats and 10 non-neighborhood seats. The School Department received 78 applications from neighborhood or sibling students and 43 applications from non-neighborhood pupils.
At Mount Pleasant, there will be 126 seats available for new students, including 110 neighborhood or sibling seats and 16 slots for students who live outside the neighborhood.
Tocco said the district received 239 applications from neighborhood or sibling students seeking to attend Mount Pleasant and 54 applications from students who live outside the neighborhood.
At Feinstein, there will be 107 seats available for new students in the fall, including 94 for neighborhood or sibling students and 13 for non-neighborhood pupils. The district received 146 applications from siblings and neighborhood students and 18 applications from students living outside the neighborhood.
At the Health, Science & Technology Academy, 69 seats are available for new students, including 60 for siblings and neighborhood students and nine seats for students from outside the neighborhood. The district received 137 applications from siblings and neighborhood youths and 35 from non-neighborhood students.
Tocco said siblings are get preference. All other students vying for placement in high-demand schools will have their names placed in the lottery. Those selected will be assigned to their first-choice school; the remaining students will be placed on waiting lists, in case openings arise, and assigned to another high school.
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