|
|
|
|
July 2005
Schools searching to save $1 million
Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2005
The School Department's chief financial officer suggests leaving some non-teaching positions vacant temporarily and cutting money to buy books and supplies.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The guidance counselors are back, and so are approximately 28 teachers, but the Providence School Board is still grappling with where to come up with nearly $1 million in cuts.
The School Board was able to restore those positions because Mayor David N. Cicilline and the Providence City Council voted to give the schools an additional $4 million.
Although the schools have been spared from cutting varsity athletics and some bus service, Mark V. Dunham, chief financial officer, said at last night's School Board meeting the $971,000 shortfall is still a signficant gap to bridge.
At the previous School Board meeting, members had discussed eliminating crossing guards and cutting back on bus service, but Dunham said those items were no longer on the table.
Dunham suggested that the School Department postpone filling 30 to 40 vacancies, none of them classroom positions, for three months, for an approximate savings of $500,000. Most of the positions are clerical or administrative.
He also recommended cutting $400,000 from a $4-million budget item that allows schools to buy books, computers and supplies. He said schools could purchase these materials though federal Title I funds, or with private grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
A couple of School Board members said they wanted more information on which positions would be affected, and whether the delay in filling those slots would hamper the operation of various departments.
Maila Touray asked the board to hold a separate meeting in which members could discuss where budget cuts could be made or savings found. Monday night was mentioned as a possible date.
In other business, Anthony Pope, the executive director for high schools, asked board members to think about what they expect a high school graduate to know and be able to accomplish. It was the first in a series of discussions on how Providence can reform its high schools so that students are prepared to handle college-level work when they graduate.
Touray said the biggest challenge is figuring out why so many students drop out of high school.
Umberto Crenca said the schools have to create "an appetite for learning" that goes beyond the rote accumulation of facts. They have to learn how to solve problems and create their own goals.
"Many of our graduates are not psychologically prepared for the transition [from high school to college]," said Robyn Frye. "We need to build confidence in who they are."
Crenca challenged what he called an unspoken bias that poor and minority children can't achieve at the same levels as their white, middle-class peers.
"That kind of thinking is dangerous," he said. "Good teachers get good results across the board."
School Board President Mary McClure said the city's schools need to do three things: make courses more challenging, satisfy the state's new high school graduation requirements, and decide whether small schools are better than large, comprehensive high schools.
"I don't want us to get on the next education bandwagon," she said. "Do all schools need a career theme? Do we need to have all small schools? How do we integrate career and technical schools?
"Our high schools are based on a 1950s suburban model that doesn't work for kids with adult responsibilities," she said. "Perhaps we need some schools that are part-time and year-round."
The one thing that most members agreed on is that enough time has been spent talking about high school reform. Studies have been done, surveys have been taken. As McClure put it, the community wants to see results.
Counselors will return to schools
Posted Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Guidance counselors and teaching positions had been cut because of a budget shortfall, but they will be back at work now that the city will contribute $3.8 million to the schools.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- It looks like the School Department will be able to rehire 20 guidance counselors, now that the City Council has voted to close most of the $5 million shortfall in its budget.
Tonight, Interim Supt. Tomas Ramirez will ask the School Board to restore the guidance counselor positions that had been cut from next year's budget.
If the board approves his recommendation, five counselors will return to the elementary schools, one will return to each of the middle schools and two will return to each of the comprehensive high schools.
In addition, approximately 28 teachers will be rehired, including six teachers who have committed to work at Hope High School, which is being reorganized under state supervision.
"We're incredibly grateful to the mayor, the City Council and the people of Providence," Ramirez said, "for continuing to support the schools by agreeing to a tax increase."
But the School Department still faces a $1-million shortfall, according to Ramirez. He said that his office is considering leaving a number of clerical vacancies open for a savings of $1.1 million.
Spared from the budget ax are varsity athletics ($1.1 million) and transportation ($1.5 million). The School Department was thinking about increasing the distance that students walk to school by a half mile.
Restoring the guidance positions will cost the schools about $800,000.
Ramirez said, however, that it is unlikely that common planning time will be restored: "I just don't see that happening."
Over the last couple of years, budget cuts have made it difficult to free teachers to collaborate on lesson plans, a common practice at middle schools.
What made this year's budget deliberations especially grim is that they follow several years of successive cuts. More than $11.5 million worth of positions has been eliminated during the past two years. And more than $25 million has been cut during the past four years, according to Mark V. Dunham, the school's chief financial officer.
On Monday, Cicilline proposed a 1.9-percent tax increase, which will give the schools an additional $3.8 million. The City Council approved the extra school aid -- and Cicilline's revised $583 million budget -- on Thursday.
In a refrain sounded often by the mayor, Ramirez on Friday called for the General Assembly to conduct a complete overhaul of how public schools are financed in Rhode Island.
Two years ago, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a nonprofit public policy group, recommended that the General Assembly adopt a statewide tax structure based on what it would cost to provide an adequate education per child. Although the General Assembly voted to create a legislative study group last summer, the proposal has languished since.
"We have reached a critical stage, especially in Providence, where one-time solutions no longer work," Ramirez said. ""But we can no longer rely solely on the property tax to support our schools. We need to call for a complete overhaul of the state education finance system."
Teachers
Posted Friday, July 22, 2005
Info for Teachers
Parents
Posted Friday, July 22, 2005
Info for Parents
Students
Posted Friday, July 22, 2005
Info for Students
News - Updates Section
Posted Friday, July 22, 2005
News - Updates Section xx
Bermunda native named Williams School principal
Posted Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Roseclaire Bulgin, 54, says she prefers working in an urban setting: "I have an affinity with children who believe that life hasn't given them the best."
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Roseclaire Bulgin has watched her two sons flourish academically. Now, she wants the same success for the children of Providence.
Bulgin, a native of Bermuda, has been appointed principal of Roger Williams Middle School, one of the largest middle schools in the city.
Although she recently moved from Bermuda, Bulgin had spent the bulk of her career in New York, where she worked as a teacher and assistant principal in Mount Vernon as well as a teacher and administrative intern in Dobbs Ferry. She also taught in the Bronx.
"I prefer an urban setting," said Bulgin, who is 54 and married to a minister. "The tougher they are, the better I like them. I have an affinity with children who believe that life hasn't given them the best.
"I cannot be happy that my two sons have made it until every one of the children in my past has done the same," she said.
Bulgin has her work cut out for her. Roger Williams is considered a school in need of improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind act. According to the most recent test scores, the school is making gains. Last year, only one group of students, African-Americans, failed to reach their test targets in math and English.
The test scores must improve for two years in a row in order for the school to be removed from the needs-improvement list.
Bulgin believes in saving children one child at a time. She believes that most teachers care most about the child, not the paycheck. And she believes that a parent's place is in the schools.
Quoting Aristotle, Bulgin said "excellence is not an act; it's a habit." Ever the teacher, she tells a reporter to insert a semicolon after the word,"act."
Although Bermuda is known as an island paradise, Bulgin said she helped turn around an elementary school that was anything but idyllic. Together, Bulgin and her staff invited parents and members of the business community to get involved in improving the school.
"I believe every youngster has the seeds for genius," she said. "We have to find what each child is good at and encourage it."
Bulgin has also taught social studies in Liberia and served as dean of women at West Indies College in Jamaica.
She holds a certificate of advanced study in educational administration from the State University of New York. She also has a master's degree in special education from Lehman College, New York, and a master of arts degree in teaching from Andrews University in Michigan. Bulgin received her bachelor's degree in history from Newbold College in England.
She moved to Rhode Island after her husband, Samuel Bulgin, was hired as minister of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Lincoln.
Search for school chief bars public, group says
Posted Wednesday, July 20, 2005
The Children First Coalition says the mayor is trying to control the 19-member superintendent search committee.
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- A community group, The Children First Coalition, has accused Mayor David N. Cicilline of excluding parents and members of the public from the search for a new superintendent of schools.
According to the group, the Providence Blueprint for Education, a landmark 1993 report on school reform, called for a search committee composed of parents, teachers and community representatives. The group said the report also called for a public forum where members of the community would be able to interview finalists for the superintendent position.
"Mayor Cicilline has subverted the process and placed it in the hands of people he can control, thereby determining the outcome," the coalition wrote in a news release.
The coalition contends that the committee's composition isn't diverse enough to represent the Providence community. Only three members of the Providence School Board and one parent serve on the 19-member search committee, whose members were appointed by the mayor.
"Mayor Cicilline cannot hide behind the appointment of Brown University President Dr. Simmons," the group wrote. "She is not one of our community leaders."
The search committee, chaired by Ruth Simmons, includes two state lawmakers, a City Council member, a student government leader, the president of the Providence Teachers Union, two corporate executives, a member of the state Department of Education and a member of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.
It also includes two lawyers, the city's policy director and the president of a parent-teacher organization.
Cicilline, in a written response, said he had picked a diverse and representative group of community leaders, including parents, "who care passionately about the future success of our children and the Providence School Department."
Although the search committee posted an online survey and held a series of community forums, the coalition contends that those events didn't qualify as community involvement.
No one from the group could be reached for comment on the news release. The coalition, composed of parents, educators and community activists, has been critical of former Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson's administration and that of her predecessor, Diana Lam.
The entire search process, beginning with the original list of applicants, has been confidential. Members of the search committee and the Providence School Board have been instructed not to disclose the names of any applicants.
The search committee hired a professional search firm -- Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler of New York -- to put together a list of approximately 100 possible candidates. Late last month, the search committee made the first round of cuts, winnowing the field to 15 to 20 semifinalists.
After the search firm interviews those candidates, it will review their findings with the School Board on Aug. 8 and 9. The School Board will decide which applicants will return for second interviews, to take place Aug. 15 to 26.
Even if the finalists are not named, The Children First Coalition said, the public has the right to know what criteria are being used in the selection process and what qualifications the applicants possess. The group is demanding that the search committee release the reasons behind the selection of the semifinalists before the School Board makes a final decision.
"The public must be part of this process from beginning to end," the coalition wrote. "If a future superintendent is to serve the best interests of Providence, then the community of Providence must be involved."
City back on track on school site
Posted Monday, July 11, 2005
Initial work can proceed on the site of a new high school at Adelaide Avenue.
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The city and the state Department of Environmental Management have reached an agreement that compels the state to move expeditiously to review the city's plans to start work on a proposed school off Adelaide Avenue.
The agreement, reached July 1 in the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini, will also allow the city to begin limited site preparation at the former Gorham manufacturing site as early as this summer, pending approval by DEM.
The preparation work includes removal of rocks, sampling for asbestos and preparing the soil for construction, said Assistant City Solicitor Sara Rapport.
City officials have proposed building a 450-student high school.
But the $15-million project drew protests from Reservoir Triangle neighbors who said they fear that the site -- once home to the world's largest silverware maker -- would pose an environmental risk to students, staff and neighbors.
Pressed for time and in need of classroom space, the city's initial plan was to begin construction in March and have the school completed by September. However, DEM officials rejected that plan, citing policies that require the city to thoroughly test the stie for contaminants and vapors, then come up with a remediation plan to clean up the potentially toxic material.
Joseph T. Martella II, the DEM project manager, said city officials originally submitted a site investigation report in February, but that he instructed them to conduct more tests and resubmit the report with additional results.
He said he received the resubmitted report from the city's environmental contractors on June 14.
The city argued in court that the Adelaide Avenue project should be put on the fast track.
Its efforts to work at the site without DEM approval were thwarted in April when DEM issued a cease-and-desist order until after its remediation plan was approved.
Neighbors have complained that the digging poses a health risk to residents if the dirt piles end up blowing contaminated dust particles around the neighborhood.
In May, the state obtained a preliminary injunction to keep the city from digging at the site.
Under the agreement, the city will submit a limited remedial action plan to do only site preparation that would last about a month, Rapport said.
DEM will "expeditiously" review that plan and after it gives its approval, the city will be allowed to do the site work.
Rapport said the pact is a big step because the state is agreeing to be mindful of the city's time constraints in needing to build the school.
|
|
