Providence Teachers Union - AFT Local #958, AFL - CIO Learning
  Home > Member Information > News
About the PTU
List of Schools
Agreement
Constitution & By - laws
Member Information
Virtual Teacher Mentor
Building Delegates
Contact
News Archives

June 2006

Hope High's theater program safe for another run
Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The public outcry from performing arts organizations convinced the district to restore the program.

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The award-winning theater program at Hope High School has been saved, thanks to the intervention of Rhode Island Education Commissioner Peter McWalters and Nicholas Donohue, the school's special master.

The district cut the theater program three weeks ago because only 31 students enrolled in the course for the fall. At the time, Principal Scott Sutherland, who runs the Arts Academy at Hope, said that the school needed 150 students to run a full course.

But there was such a public outcry from local performing arts organizations such as the Everett Dance Theater that the district decided to restore the program.

According to Sutherland, McWalters and Donohue met with Deputy Supt. Frances Gallo, and they agreed to give the program another chance.

"The state said, 'What's an arts academy without having a theater component?' " Sutherland said. "With a combination of external partnerships and local support, they wanted to give it another year to see if the program could become viable again."

Besides the in-school theater program, Rhode Island College is offering an after-school theater class this fall that will enable students to receive college credit.

Perhaps no one was more relieved that theater would have a second act than Christine Auxier, who built the program from scratch 15 years ago.

"My kids have succeeded in something they really love," she said. "Many of my kids are working professionally."

Many members of Everett Dance Theater got their start at Hope, Auxier said. Three of her students received full scholarships to Rhode Island College's performing arts program last year.

It was Auxier who brought her class to Edinburgh's FestivalFringe not once but twice, in 2000 and 2004. Hope was selected from more than 200 American high schools to attend the event, which draws actors from around the world.

Ruth Dealy, an artist who has an international reputation, was an ardent supporter of the theater program, and she said she was stunned to hear of its demise.

"They can send them off to Iraq but not Edinburgh," she said. "The arts are one of the few places where you can transcend class, race and gender. When you read Shakespeare, when you look at a Rothko, you see something larger, a more inclusive world."

According to Auxier, there is a good reason why so few students signed up for theater this year. Freshmen were enrolled in exploratory courses -- a semester of art, a semester of technology -- to help them choose a concentration. Hope is divided into three smaller learning academies: arts, technology and leadership.

"In September, I only had three kids," Auxier said. "No one could figure it out. I didn't get any freshmen and that's my feeder program."

A big hurdle, she said, is that the district won't allow teachers to recruit students for specific programs. Nathanael Greene Middle School has one of the most robust middle school theater programs in the state and yet Hope wasn't allowed to recruit students from that school, Auxier said.

"The kids at Greene aren't getting the message that there is a theater program at Hope," she said. "We need people to see that Hope is a new school."

But that policy might change. At Monday's School Board meeting, Supt. Donnie Evans said that the district needs to rethink that practice.

Roger Williams principal reassigned
Posted Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Despite opposition from parents, the School Board accepts the superintendent's decision to change leadership at the middle school.

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The Providence School Board voted last night to remove the principal of Roger Williams Middle School, despite the strenuous objections of parents and other residents of the South Side.

Only one School Board member, Roseanne Castro, voted to keep Roseclaire Bulgin at Roger Williams, where she has served for one year.

"The community needs to be heard," Castro said, referring to the standing room-only crowd. "Mrs. Bulgin is creating the kind of environment we want in our schools."

The Bulgin transfer was only one piece of a much larger shakeup of school leaders, part of Schools Supt. Donnie Evans' plan to boost student performance.

Bulgin was tearful as she left last night's meeting, but all she would say is, "The parents spoke their piece."

And speak they did. Parents were angry that Evans and the School Board were unwilling to listen to their pleas. Last week, parents shut down a School Board meeting after the board refused to let them speak.

"Where did we lose the right to make decisions for our children?" said Denise Nicolazzi, a teacher's assistant. "What makes the East Side parents different from us? Think about the message you're sending: that as minorities, we have no rights."

Evans decided to close Nathan Bishop Middle School after East Side neighbors objected to a plan to put ninth-graders in the school while a new high school was being built.

Last night, one parent after another described how Bulgin has transformed Roger Williams, imposing order, improving instruction and making parents feel welcome.

Out-of-school suspensions have declined dramatically, because Bulgin is handling unruly students in-house, they said. The school is cleaner and quieter. The bare midriffs and the hoodies are gone.

"Finally, we have someone who identifies with us," Milagros Molina said.

"This school has had three principals in three years," Laura Perez said. "We support her 110 percent. We need someone who loves our children like we do."

For the first time, parents are interested in volunteering, Evelyn Carrillo said. They are turning out for PTO meetings.

"I know for a fact how passionate she is about children. Don't be a pawn in the system," Duane Hackney urged Evans. "We shouldn't be fighting for the things we deserve. We need Mrs. Bulgin. I'm putting it on your conscience."

Evans tried to put the middle school changes in context. Fewer than 20 percent of middle school children in Providence are reading at grade level. Every one of the city's eight middle schools has failed to meet its annual improvement targets under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

"All of our middle schools have reached the point where the state can intervene," he said. That means the state and the superintendent have the authority to remove principals, change staff and otherwise restructure the school.

"We won't get there by doing the same things over and over again," Evans said.

Castro was the lone dissenter on the eight-person board, urging her colleagues to consider the wishes of the Latino community.

But one board member after another spoke out in support of Evans' decision.

"When we hired you, Dr. Evans, I was confident in your commitment to children," said board member Bert Crenca. "You are proving that you are willing to take a leadership role."

"We hired Dr. Evans to jumpstart the system," Robert Wise said. "I encourage you to do that."

After the board voted, member Ronnie Young questioned why Castro's recommendation wasn't considered, and President Mary McClure said that only the superintendent has the authority to make assignments.

The following principals were appointed: Marc Catone to Gilbert Stuart Middle School, Joyce Fitzpatrick to Flynn Elementary School, Alicia Jones to Webster Avenue Elementary School, Rudolph Moseley to Roger Williams, and Frances Rotella to Perry Middle School.

The following assistant principals were appointed: Nicolau Amaral to Classical High School, Mary Caporelli to West Elementary School, Luke Driver to Stuart, Robert Palombo to Bridgham Middle School, and Gloria Jackson to Perry.

Bulgin said she has a meeting today with Evans to find out where she is being reassigned.

Middle school shakeup debated
Posted Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Providence Supt. Donnie Evans wants to reassign principals to improve test scores. Some parents object. It all goes before the School Board tomorrow.

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Providence Supt. Donnie Evans is proposing a wholesale reassignment of middle school principals that some parents and staff say will destroy what little stability students have.

The proposed shakeup, which goes before the Providence School Board tomorrow night, calls for moving 11 middle school principals or assistant principals this fall. It's part of a sweeping reorganization of the city's seven middle schools aimed at boosting student achievement.

Evans said he felt compelled to intervene after seeing the latest round of state test scores:

"That's what caught my attention," he said. "These are the poorest-performing schools in the district, and they have been that way for quite some time."

But a number of middle school parents and staff say that principals are being pulled out of schools where they have made a difference; they worry that a leadership shakeup would result in considerable turmoil and say that the children would be the ones to suffer.

A couple of East Side parents met with Evans recently to find out why he is transferring principal Nicolau Amaral from Nathanael Greene Middle School to Classical High School, where he will be an assistant principal.

"I'm very puzzled," Thomas Schmeling said. "He has been a great principal from a parent's perspective. He's been open and helpful and cooperative."

Schmeling questions why Evans is intervening in Greene because it's the highest-performing middle school in the district, meeting 35 of its 37 targets under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

"We're concerned because the school seems to be performing well," he said. "This came as a shock and a shame."

Amaral said he has made "deep changes" at Greene, urging department heads to become educational leaders, evaluating instruction and reaching out to parents. "What the heck is going on here?" Amaral said. "I know my craft. It's like practicing all the time and not being able to go to the championship game."

Evans would say only that there are "personnel issues that my staff has been working on with him that have not been addressed to my satisfaction."

The middle schools have long been the Achilles' heel of the city's public school system. In September, the state Department of Education hired nine veteran educators to help six middle schools and two high schools figure out how to identify -- and fix -- weaknesses in discipline, instruction and teacher training.

Under No Child Left Behind, the superintendent or the state can restructure a school -- hiring new leaders or new staff -- if it has failed to make adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years.

"We are well past that point at our middle schools," Evans said. "We could sit back and wait for the state to intervene, but that's not my style."

But Dr. Harlan Rich, an East Side parent, said the real issue is the lack of talented, experienced administrators to fill these top roles.

"We want to give Dr. Evans the benefit of the doubt," he said. "But how much upheaval can a school sustain?"

Evans said the district has enough raw talent to prepare effective school principals: "This is as much about training the people you have as it is about recruiting new people."

In 2004-2005, the principals of Perry Middle School were credited with transforming a very troubled school into a community where order and respect are the norms. Yet, Evans is transferring two of Perry's three leaders: Luke Driver is going to Gilbert Stuart Middle School and Robert Palombo is going to Bridgham Middle School.

"I'm very disappointed, almost heartbroken," Palombo said. "I've been here four years and now it's gone, it's just gone."

Some teachers are so upset that they are writing a letter to Evans asking that he reinstate the two principals.

"Providence is going to be a mess next year," said Donna Perrotta, a Perry teacher. "You can't fire everyone across the board. I'm worried about the children."

"For the goodness of the school, leave these guys alone," said Scott Turner, who was named middle school teacher of the year in 2004. "These guys are the genuine article. The kids love them."

But Evans pointed out that Perry is the lowest-performing middle school in the district, after Nathan Bishop, which is closing this fall.

"There is a lot of discord," he said. "The faculty are sharply divided over a number of issues. They point to leadership as contributing to these [problems]. They refer to a group of teachers as the Perry mafia."

But one of the turnaround specialists thinks that the middle schools are making progress. Leslie Hegert, a specialist with the Education Development Center in Newton, Mass., expects to see an improvement in test scores when the results are released a year from now. The center is providing the consultants who are working in the middle schools this year. At Greene, she said that the students showed dramatic improvements when they took local tests on skills that they had failed earlier in the school year.

According to Hegert, leadership is about building a team, not relying on one heroic adult to transform a school.


Hope shuffles students to avoid water leaks
Posted Thursday, June 8, 2006

The basement and third floor were off limits and outdoor Field Day activities were canceled because of the storm.

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Dozens of leaks brought instruction to a halt at Hope High School yesterday, closing classrooms in the basement and on the third floor.

The flooding was largely confined to the subbasement and the auditorium, where rain gushed through the roof's glass skylights, sluicing down the attic stairs onto the auditorium's stage, where it gathered in pools.

By late-morning, the high school's principals decided to move students from the Arts Academy on the lower floor to the high school cafeteria; students from the Technology Academy on the third floor were relocated to the first floor.

While the assistant principals kept order in the cafeteria, the three principals -- Wayne Montague, Scott Sutherland and Arthur Petrosinelli -- roamed the building with walkie-talkies, reporting on the latest leak.

"I need a basket by the music room," said Montague, whose track clothes were wet. "There's water running into the basement."

"We do it all," said Sutherland, who runs the Arts Academy at Hope.

Students and staff were already disappointed that Field Day, the school's first one in years, was cancelled because of yesterday's torrential rains. The leaky roof only added to the pervasive feeling of frustration.

Water woes also forced the Children's Crusade to cancel last night's multicultural dinner for students and their families.

Although most of the building was dry, the principals worried that water would run along the ceilings and short out the electrical system, posing a safety hazard.

Hope is no stranger to problems with its physical plant. On the first day of school, a roof leak triggered the fire alarm, which forced the entire school to evacuate for about 40 minutes.

Sutherland, who runs the Arts Academy at Hope, worried that the latest round of leaks would disrupt the year-end exams scheduled for this morning.

Fortunately, the Hope High School graduation is being held at the Veterans Auditorium tomorrow evening.

As rainwater darkened the stage floor, the principals discussed the situation with Stephen Tremblay, the School Department's director of facilities.

"You did the right thing," Tremblay said, referring to the principals' decision to close the third floor. He promised to return early this morning to examine all of the classrooms.

Meanwhile, Aramark employees spent the afternoon vacuuming up water in the auditorium, and maintenance workers went from classroom to classroom armed with trash cans to catch the rainwater.

Elsewhere in Providence, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School had a minor leak in its roof, but no classrooms were affected, and the Hanley Career & Technical Center also had a leaking roof, but it wasn't serious.


Kizirian Elementary reaches out and parents say yes
Posted Friday, June 2, 2006

BY JULIA RAPPAPORT
Special to The Journal

PROVIDENCE -- Isabel Sanchez sits in the nearly empty library at the Kizirian Elementary School on Camden Avenue. Her English is strong, but she has not yet found work. She makes money when she can by cooking or cleaning. Her husband speaks no English. He makes $350 a week working part-time at the Camden Shipping Co.

Yet, living her new life in Providence, Sanchez remains hopeful. "When you learn the American language," she says, "you have the most opportunities in the whole world." And that is why the native of the Dominican Republic is in the school library recently -- to make sure that her son is learning English, getting the best education possible so that one day, he will have the most opportunities in the world.

Kizirian's principal, Debbie Ruggieri, stands at the front of the library waiting to see how many parents will attend the school's first Parent Teacher Organization meeting. At 5:55 p.m., just five minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start, there are only two parents here -- Sanchez and Mike Lyon, an unemployed father. When Sanchez is asked why she has come, she answers, "I was invited, so I had to know. It's my son!"

The ticking of the clock marks the passing time as parents trickle in. Many, such as Andrea Baylis, a single mother from Jamaica, have come straight from work. Baylis came to Providence seven months ago and has twins in Kizirian's kindergarten. She works seven days a week as a hotel room attendant.

"I don't have time to make a big commitment, but I want to get involved," she says. "You cannot just leave everything up to the teachers. Parents have to play their part, too."

Recently, she brought boxes of candy to the hotel to sell as part of the school's effort to raise money for field trips and expenses.

Others have arrived, many with their children. Rosa Velazquez stands with her twins and two younger sons. The four are enrolled at Kizirian. She has brought them to the meeting because she wants to get involved, but has no childcare. During the days, she stays at home while her husband works as a truck driver. She speaks no English, but through a translator says that hardly anything would keep her from getting involved in her children's education. "Transportation, language, they're not problems. Only sickness would keep me away," she says.

Reluctantly, the parents move from the doorway and take the chairs offered by Ruggieri. Each parent who enters seems surprised to find others there.

Ruggieri begins the meeting by introducing herself. One by one, the kids leave and start wandering the aisles. They curl up on the floor with books or crayons and paper. The adults look around the small room, scanning the book-lined shelves and the posters that encourage their children to read and others that warn about the dangers of drugs. They seem bored.

But suddenly the mood changes after Ruggieri introduces a tall woman with long jet black hair who is standing beside her. The woman, Wanda Rivera, has come to the meeting to translate for Ruggieri. As she begins to talk in Spanish, repeating word for word what Ruggieri is saying, the parents perk up.

Only four of the parents speak English. Of those four, only one, Mike Lyon, was born in the United States.

Harry Kizirian Elementary School, formerly Camden Avenue School, is in Smith Hill, a neighborhood in which about one-third of the residents is foreign-born and nearly half has no high school diploma.

The school has 591 students in grades kindergarten through six. Fifty-four percent of the student body is Hispanic. This is slightly lower than the average in Providence schools, in which 58 percent of students speak Spanish as their primary language.

By 6:30, about 20 parents have crowded into the library. There are two black parents -- Baylis and Emmanuel Paulus, a single father from Liberia -- and just one white parent -- Lyon. The rest are Hispanic.

Ruggieri is new at Kizirian. She became principal in September. But watching her run the meeting, it seems as though she has been here forever. After she introduces herself, she looks from parent to parent and smiles. She recognizes most of the faces.

Ruggieri was a teacher before she became an administrator and has worked in five Providence schools. She says that the children at Kizirian are the most well behaved that she has met. "Which is a testament to you," she says to the parents. "What we're missing, though, is active parent involvement. I am willing to work with you, to take it slow, and to build a PTO that will be beneficial to you and the community." As she talks, her eyes are pleading for someone, anyone, to get on board with her.

Before coming to Kizirian, Ruggieri had worked for 18 months as the principal of Martin Luther King School on the East Side. Her move to Kizirian has not been without challenges. Most of the parents at King are well educated and have a vested interest in keeping their children there because of its gifted program, the only one in the district at the elementary level. King's PTO is very strong.

But at Kizirian, Ruggieri says, the building needs maintenance and the staff is overburdened. "There are not enough funds to provide what we need for the students." The school has the worst attendance of any of the city's elementary schools.

And there is no real PTO.

All the input has been coming from inside the school, rather than from the outside, Ruggieri says.

Ruggieri began working the School Department's Parent and Family Resource Center to learn how to involve parents in their children's education. Eighty percent of Providence schools have PTOs and the center's small team of women and men is trying to increase that.

"It's a very big task," says Jose M. Gonzalez, the center's director. "There are 16,000 parents and 27,000 kids in the school district. There are only seven of us at the center."

Gonzalez understands the importance of parent involvement in education. He grew up in New York City with three brothers and spoke only Spanish until he entered kindergarten. His mother, a single parent, worked in a factory. But she had graduated from high school and always encouraged his schooling. "She saw education as a way to deliver us from poverty," Gonzalez says.

Today, Gonzalez hopes that he can pass this message on to the children of Providence. He says that achieving a good education can be a challenge anywhere. But, he says, this is especially so in Providence, a city that has a large percentage of immigrants, refugees and what he calls nonexistent parents -- those who work two jobs, who are illiterate, do not speak English and have drug and alcohol problems.

"A lot of parents have had unfortunate experiences with schools, some of this goes back generations," Gonzalez says. "But we can no longer afford to exclude them."

Ruggieri began using the center's translators at the beginning of the year, bringing them in to help with parent-teacher conferences and the occasional disciplinary issue. "Most of the parents we deal with want to know what's going on in the school, but they can't communicate and end up feeling alienated," Ruggieri says. "It's a difficult hurdle."

The center assigned Ruggieri a parent engagement specialist, who acts as an aide both for Ruggieri and Kizirian's parents. A few months into the school year, the specialist, Youa Hang, and Ruggieri began to plan the first PTO meeting. Their primary concern was how to get parents to attend. This would be a challenge, Hang says. "These days, a lot of parents work two jobs. They come home late and have no time to go to PTOs or do things with their children."

With both Hang and the translator at her side, Ruggieri tells the parents her goal for the evening -- finding a PTO president. As she says this, most of the parents cast their eyes down and begin shifting uncomfortably in their chairs. One raises his hand. He asks what the president's job will be like.

"If we get someone tonight," Hang explains, "we'll ask them to attend district meetings. We'll start there with responsibilities. But you won't be alone. The principal and I will be there, working together, to guide you."

Emmanuel Paulus nods his head as he listens.

As the hands on the clock inch toward 7 p.m., the children get restless. A few chase one another down the aisles of the library. Others wander back to their parents or tug at Ruggieri's hand to give her the drawings they have been working on. Ruggieri knows that the meeting has to wrap up. The homemade pizza in the back, brought by the immigrant parents, is cold by now. Everyone looks hungry.

Neither Ruggieri nor Hang want to close the meeting without getting what they came for. Ruggieri asks if anyone would be willing to volunteer some time to become the PTO president.

With the question, the room goes silent except for the chatter of the children. Jackets rustle as parents squirm nervously. They glance at the floor, at each other, at their children -- away from Ruggieri.

Breaking the silence, Paulus raises his hand.

"I will volunteer if no one else will," he says.

Immediately, the room explodes in applause. "We officially have a PTO president," Ruggieri yells out.

Even without the translator, every parent understands the importance of Paulus' words: here is someone who can give up his time to help all of their children.

Paulus, a native of Liberia, came to Providence in 1998. Three years later, he sent for his two children, a boy and a girl, now in the fourth and fifth grades at Kizirian. The children's mother still lives in Liberia.

He spends his days giving insurance and financial advice as a financial services professional for MassMutual in East Providence. When not working, he is the president of the New England chapter of his Liberian boarding school's alumni association. He volunteers at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on Cranston Street.

He came to the meeting because he did not understand why his childrens' school did not have a PTO. "Many parents think the school will help their children," he said, "but it starts at home. Without education, you can go nowhere. Once you have a solid base, you can reach great heights."

He says he ended up volunteering to be Kizirian's PTO president because no one else did. "The principal came here to find someone to help her. I want to try and find some time to help," he says.

Before the meeting ends, one parent, with the help of Rivera, asks what she can do to help her children.

"Even if you can't speak English and can't help them with their reading," Ruggieri says, "if you don't understand the new math and can't help them with their math homework, but you're there, you show you care. If you tell them that you'll call their teachers to make sure that they get help, then you're helping them. That's what matters."

The meeting ends and everyone rushes to the pizza. A mix of Spanish and English, but mostly Spanish, fills the room. Isabel Sanchez, the mother from the Dominican Republic, talks about how happy she was with the meeting. "I would like to get involved in the school," she says. "It would be good for me and good for my son."

Editor's note: Students in an advanced feature writing class at Brown University were assigned to write a feature story about a street that conveys a sense of place. The project, now in its 06 year, presents aspects of city life from the perspective of college journalism students.

Alternate Learning Project closes its doors
Posted Friday, June 2, 2006

The mission of the small public high school has been to engage students who are at risk of dropping out of traditional programs.

BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Thirty years after it was created in 1971, the Alternate Learning Project was struggling with its mission to educate high school students who weren't performing in traditional classes.

Principal Jose Aleman said the picture was not pretty when he arrived in 2001.

A dingy trash can greeted visitors at the front door; the computer lab had only two computers; the library was in disarray. Classroom walls were devoid of student work or support materials. Students loitered outside.

ALP was still reeling from an attempt by former Supt. Diana Lam in early 2001 to close the school -- a proposal that was shelved after it drew protests from parents, students and residents.

Recently, students have improved test scores and the school made changes to provides a supportive atmosphere.

But ALP's progress couln't save the small alternative school, in a former bank building on Elmwood Avenue, which will shut for good this month.

Aleman said the closing marks the end of an era.

"This has been a special year, not a traumatic year, for our students. This is about changing and preparing our students for their future."

Aleman learned in December that the School Board had approved the decision.

Supt. Donnie Evans endorsed the school's closing and said it did not make sense to "provide a separate setting" for what exists in other city high schools.

ALP -- which had averaged about 130 high school students in recent years -- did not admit 9th graders last fall.

Currently, about 75 students attend ALP; 22 seniors are expected to graduate on Tuesday. The remaining students have signed up to attend high schools of their choice in the fall.

Since it was created 35 years ago, ALP's mission has been to provide an alternative to students who had failed, been ignored or marginalized at other high schools and were on the verge of dropping out.

"A lot of the students are ones that others have given up on," Aleman said.

However, when Aleman arrived, he found that "alternative" had come to be considered "lesser than" by others.

In addition to struggling in traditional schools, most ALP students have jobs, help support their families or live on their own, Aleman said.

"Our goal has been to mold the school around the students' needs instead of making the students fit the mold," Aleman said.

Students were also expected to learn the basics and be prepared to do well on standardized tests.

To encourage students, the school created a student of the month program. The computer lab grew. The library and the cafeteria were renovated to provide a welcoming place.

"If you don't provide an environment that says 'we respect you, we support you,' nothing else you say matters," Aleman said.

He said ALP's attendance has improved, the suspension rate is among the lowest in the school district and test scores are up.

The school, which once drew complaints from Elmwood neighbors, now boasts a student-produced newsletter, mock trials debating Julius Ceasar's demise, career days and a parent advisory council.

For the year-end trip, upperclassmen chose to see a play at Trinity Repertory Company, Aleman noted.

He said ALP students have endured even though they have seen classmates die as a result of street violence, most recently Barry Farrell, a senior who was fatally shot at a bus stop last year.

School administrators believe that ALP students have been able to succeed because of small classes, dedicated teachers who know all students by name, and involved parents.

Rafael Salvador, 18, the valedictorian, came to ALP last year and quickly learned to appreciate the family-like teacher-student relationships.

"I would say it's bad thing," he said of the school's closing. "It means one less school in Providence."

Salvador said he does not know where he would be if he had not left his school in West Warwick.

When he makes his speech to fellow graduates on Tuesday, Salvador knows what he wants to say.

"It doesn't matter what you go through in life," he said, "If you want to succeed bad enough, you can make it happen."

Providence Teachers Union
Copyright © 2002. Providence Teachers Union. All rights reserved