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August 2003
Officials are limiting special busing requests
Posted Friday, August 29, 2003
"It has reached a point," says Supt. Melody Johnson, "where our budget situation has made it impossible to continue."
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- School officials are warning parents that because of constraints in the school budget, they may no longer be able to honor special transportation requests for pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade.
The Providence School Department has, for years, honored individual requests to have students transported from school to child-care programs or to alternate homes, said Maria Tocco, a School Department spokesperson. Many students would not have otherwise qualified for school transportation, because they lived near the school.
Under the district's transportation policy, pupils in kindergarten through sixth grade may qualify for bus service if they live more than one mile from their school; seventh- and eighth-grade students may qualify for bus transportation if they live more than 1.5 miles from their school.
Of the more than 1,000 requests for special service that school officials received last year, about 250 students were found eligible for specialized transportation, Tocco said.
This year, however, budget restrictions may not allow specialized service for even the 250 pupils who benefited from special arrangements last year, she said.
"We have been extending ourselves beyond our required responsibilities over the years, to help accommodate the ever-increasing demands of our students and their families. . .," said Supt. Melody Johnson in a statement that suggested that such services are not provided in other urban school systems. "It has reached a point where our budget situation has made it impossible to continue."
Johnson said special requests may be honored if a student does qualify for transportation, if there is a seat available on the requested bus and if there is an existing, scheduled bus stop within safe walking distance to the child-care provider.
Tocco said the School Department mailed out about 1,200 bus passes last week; an estimated 350 passes came back undeliverable, because families had moved and failed to notify the School Department of their forwarding address.
The number of bus passes issued is certain to grow in upcoming weeks, as students continue to enroll at local schools and the district is expected to exceed its student population of about 27,000 students.
School officials are urging parents of students who do not qualify for a bus pass but need transportation from school to an afterschool program to contact the child-care provider to make arrangements, Tocco said.
No buses for some disabled students at Hope
Posted Friday, August 29, 2003
Eleven youths have been affected by the computer glitch, but officials say the problem has been fixed.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Some of the most significantly disabled high school students in the city stayed home for the first two days of the new school year Wednesday and yesterday as a result of what a school official says was a computer glitch.
Kenneth G. Swanson, assistant superintendent for special services, said that a transportation administrator assured him yesterday afternoon that the error had been rectified.
All 11 students affected attend the same special-education class at Hope High School.
One of the youngsters who has stayed home, resulting in two days of lost pay for his mother, is the son of Lisa Powers, a former city public works official and a former School Board member.
Powers called the Providence Journal yesterday out of frustration, she said, to bring public attention to the lack of transportation for her son and other students who are assigned to special-education teacher John Biancuzzo at Hope.
In the more than a decade that her 16-year-old son has attended public schools, she has always faced a busing problem at the start of the new academic year, Powers said.
Powers said she began a new job in the private sector Monday and has already missed two days of work, Wednesday and yesterday, because her son cannot fend for himself if left home alone.
"Now, I'm embarrassed to ask to go back" to the new job, Powers said.
Swanson said the problem occurred because a computer in the special-education office and one in the transportation office of the school administration building failed to communicate with each other.
The computer in the special-education office shows that special-education officials authorized transportation for all 11 students in Biancuzzo's class, Swanson said.
But the computer in the transportation office shows it received only half the names the special-education office sent, Swanson said.
Biancuzzo said none of his students received bus transportation Wednesday.
Instead, parents drove two youngsters to school, and Biancuzzo sent a van assigned to his class to pick up another three students whose parents had called him.
At the end of the day Wednesday, Biancuzzo said, the bus driver accepted three of his students and he drove the other two home in the school van.
Later in the day, he said, he learned that the school district's insurance covers him only when he is driving special-education students during the school day, so he told parents he could not continue to drive youngsters between home and school.
Yesterday, Biancuzzo said, the special-education bus picked up four of his students and tried unsuccessfully to pick up a fifth youngster who had also been authorized for transportation. The fifth student eventually made it to school.
But six students, including Powers's son, remained at home without bus transportation to Hope.
Powers said that when she and other parents called the school transportation office, they were all told their children were not eligible for transportation.
The youngsters in Biancuzzo's class qualify for special services nearly year round under provisions of federal and state special-education law because of the severity of their disabilities. Those services include door-to-door transportation between home and school.
Opening day of school arrives
Posted Thursday, August 28, 2003
There were a few glitches at the city's newest school, the Providence Academy of International Studies and the Health, Science and Technology Academy.
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Yesterday, on the opening day of the city's schools , the building near the corner of Thurbers Avenue and Rugby Street more closely resembled a tourist attraction than a school.
Students walked in clusters through the newly constructed, three-story building on tours of introduction, discovery and reunion.
Like proud parents, their homeroom teachers led the way.
They pointed out the gymnasium on the first floor, as contractors finished laying down the floor.
And the classrooms, which had desks and whiteboards, were still without computers, which remained stacked in the office.
Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Vanessa Vigil, an 11th-grade student at the Providence Academy of International Studies on Thurbers Avenue, seeks help for a scheduling problem from guidance counselor Jeff Kenyon on the first day of school.
They saw the library, on the second floor, where books are expected to arrive next week.
And the spacious cafeteria, with its sleek, modern tables and stools.
"Obviously this is your cafeteria," one teacher told his class, noting its full-service kitchen on one side, with shining industrial equipment and permanent serving line, and the unpolished beginnings of a stage on the other. "And that's the stage. . . obviously it's not finished yet."
There were tour distractions along the way, as students greeted one another with reunion hugs, hand slaps and smiles.
The two-winged building, at 182 Thurbers Ave., is home to the Providence Academy of International Studies and the Health, Science and Technology Academy. With its full health clinic, science laboratories, computer labs and other amenities, the school is a far cry from the downtown Fogarty Building on Fountain Street, where PAIS and Health Tech students attended class last year.
Students and staff were forced to evacuate the Fogarty Building last spring after a leaking roof and poor ventilation allowed mold to accumulate, posing respiratory problems for students and staff. The last three weeks of school were held in the adjacent Dunkin' Donuts Center.
"The students are so happy to be here" instead of in the Fogarty Building, said Joseph Duforte, principal of Health Technology Academy. "There's no mold here."
Duforte said he believes the new school "is one of the greatest things to come out of Providence in a long time."
But, on opening day, there were other examples of a work in progress.
Administrators spent time looking for stools for the science labortories. They concluded that the chairs were either distributed elsewhere or were never ordered.
"We have some phones that work, some don't," Duforte said. "The regular turmoil of a move. A big move. It's a thousand problems. . . [you take them] one at a time. . .
Applications for bus passes needed to be filled out before the end of the day. And lockers would have to be assigned at a later date.
Throughout the district, administrators seemed to be handling the glitches pretty much the same way.
At the citywide Student Registration Center, around the corner from PAIS/Health Tech, signing up was going painstakingly slow.
Nearly all the seats in the lobby of the registration center were filled by parents and children attempting to enroll in school; a woman posted at the locked front door handed new visitors a ticket number, directed them to an overflow waiting area in the nearby South Side recreation center and told them they would have to start the process there. Or, she noted, if they just had questions, they could come back between 4 and 6 p.m.
The center had processed 120 applications as of 1:30 p.m., and had 58 application ready to go. The center is open until 6 p.m.
By contrast, school officials noted, the center processed an average of only 65 application per day for the last two weeks.
School officials expect the center to experience high volumes of activity for the first few weeks of classes as the school system's 27,000 student population continues to rise.
Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Principal Marjorie Soto improvises in her office as equipment is still being installed.
Doors opened, as scheduled, at the Harrison Street School; the former elementary parochial school was converted to a high school for about 300 pupils. School officials were forced to lease the space from St. Charles Church after realizing that they would need space for more students in the 9th and 10th grades.
Supt. Melody Johnson and Mayor David N. Cicilline were slated to make joint visits to Central High, Windmill and Veazie Elementaries, and Bridgham Middle School in the morning, and to Martin Luther King Elementary, Esek Hopkins Middle and Hope High School in the afternoon.
They shook hands with students, wished them a successful school year and spoke briefly with teachers, according to Karen Southern, Cicilline's spokesperson.
For the most part, school officials declared opening day to be an overall success.
Despite some confusion with class schedules, school officials had one priority: "Our goal was to have everybody in a class by 9 a.m.," said Maria Tocco, a School Department spokesperson.
At PAIS/Health Tech, there was confusion "for the first 15 to 20 minutes," Duforte estimated. But, soon afterwards, things settled down and the hallways were peaceful by 10 a.m., he said.
Even the close of school had something new -- at least for high school students.
Officials from the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority yesterday launched their new system for getting high school students home. The system, called the Providence Loop, was designed to provide a more direct ride home for students from Mount Pleasant, Hope, PAIS/Health Tech and Central/Classical High Schools.
Instead of funneling all buses to Kennedy Plaza, the Loop enables afternoon buses to run a circular route through city neighborhoods.
Tocco said the transportation department issued 12,000 elementary and middle school bus passes.
Transportation computers went down around 2 p.m., which, Tocco said, caused some delays in scheduling new transportation requests and adjustments.
"It was actually a pretty quiet day, all in all," Tocco said.
Reformed Hope High makes debut
Posted Thursday, August 28, 2003
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- After the second of three lunch periods at Hope High School, when the cafeteria had emptied of teenagers buzzing with the loose-limbed energy of the first day of school, resource officer John Carvalho flashed a big grin and crossed his fingers.
"Only one more to go!" the Providence patrolman said with glee, sweat dripping from his brow as the perfection of late summer beckoned through an open door and administrators ushered alfresco diners back inside and on to their next classes.
All the staff at Hope, from Carvalho to principal Nancy Mullen, seemed to be holding their breaths behind bright smiles as they did their collective best to cope with first-day glitches, many of them generated by a computer downtown.
Journal photo / Bob Thayer
BREAKING GROUND: Carrie Glenn, director of Hope High School's Arts Community program, greets a student outside the cafeteria on the first day of school yesterday. The mural was drawn by students.
For yesterday was not just the start of another school year at Hope. It marked the debut of three small semi-independent schools, the day when all the plans to turn around the failing high school -- the litmus test for educational reform in Rhode Island -- came to life.
In the weeks before the opening of school, it became increasingly difficult to recall that the plans for reforming Hope had their origin in a directive from the commissioner of education.
More than a year ago, Peter McWalters announced that his first intervention in a Rhode Island public school would occur at Hope, not simply because it had the low test scores typical of an urban high school but because there were many signs the place was in free fall.
By this month, plans were in place to divide the 1,500 students into three schools, reorganize classes into longer blocks of time that allowed teachers to explore their subjects in greater depth, and give each student an adviser to offer daily support and guidance.
In addition, 20 teachers -- a fifth of the full-time faculty of 100 -- had left, most of them for other schools, and a few for retirement.
Of the remaining 80 teachers on staff, about half voluntarily attended two weeks of intensive professional development intended to expand their repertoire of teaching strategies to hold students' interest with longer class periods and to learn how to become good advisers.
As the two-week training progressed, teachers took charge. The trainer faded into the background while groups of faculty assigned to different "communities" wrote detailed lesson plans for the advisory period to share with absent colleagues and new hires.
The 40 or so veteran teachers who worked together intensely during the summer and the 20 new hires could produce the critical numbers needed for real change at Hope, which for years had been stalled by a divided faculty stuck in a planning loop that resulted in no action.
In most cases, the 20 vacancies at Hope have opened the door for the school-improvement team to hire those applicants with backgrounds that indicate they will work hard on the plans for reform.
Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Hope High School Principal Nancy Mullen helps a student find a class on the first day of school yesterday.
Hope's autonomy to choose its teachers from now on is a special exception -- sanctioned by the faculty and the Providence Teachers Union -- to the contractual requirement that allows Providence teachers to choose their schools.
Ten of the 20 vacancies have been filled, Mullen said, and the school is still looking for qualified applicants for the other positions, which temporarily are staffed by substitutes.
The new hires include Irina Abranov, an English teacher who has taught nontraditional students in settings as varied as AS220 in the downtown arts district and the Rhode Island Training School, the state's juvenile correctional facility in Cranston.
Abranov wasted no time yesterday in immersing her students in the various aspects of communication.
She arranged a class of about 25 in a huge circle and took a seat herself as the group played a game that looked like musical chairs but depended on eye contact for communication instead of a halt in music.
The fast-paced game riveted them as the person who was "it" stood in the middle of the circle and signaled only with his eyes which seat he wanted.
The student in the targeted seat had to move, according to the rules of the game, but could appeal to another classmate -- by making eye contact only -- to switch seats before the person who was "it" could lunge to the rim of the circle and sit down. No one got bored.
The new teachers also included Catherine Slater, who had been teaching physics at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia and sought out another tough urban school when she moved back to her native Rhode Island "because I like a challenge."
Slater said she knows what she's getting into and wouldn't be any place other than Hope. She had taught at Bartram 3 1/2 years, long enough to see some of the rewards of the same kinds of reforms Hope is now beginning, Slater said.
Another newcomer, Brian Fong, graduated from a five-year master's in teaching program at Brown University last spring.
The Chinese-speaking son of immigrant parents, he was born and reared in San Francisco but was placed in English as a Second Language classes in the public schools until a fourth-grade teacher transferred him into a mainstream class.
If it hadn't been for that teacher, Fong said, "I never would have gone to Brown."
Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Katherine Cowett, left, and Polly Barnes, right, both English as Second Language teachers at Hope High School, help Carrie Glenn, director of the school's Arts Community, take a set of bookshelves to a classroom yesterday.
"I want to be at a place where I can pull those kids along" in the same way he was, Fong said.
The first day of school had its problems, however. In the first couple of hours, all the planning that had gone into the reconfiguration of Hope was obscured by widespread confusion over computer-generated schedules that assigned students to classes for the traditional period of about 50 minutes a day instead of the longer blocks of the new schedule -- 95 minutes every other day.
In one case, even Mullen couldn't read the computerized schedule of a freshman student and had to excuse herself a couple of times to refer to additional information before she could tell the ninth grader where he was supposed to go.
The basement, second, and third floors of the building have each been assigned to a different learning community, each of which has its own director/principal, assistant principal, faculty and an enrollment of about 500 students. The three communities are Leadership, Information Technology and Arts.
In Leadership on the third floor, social studies teacher Kevin Bartells and special education teacher Lucille Bishop crammed two classes -- about 40 students -- into one room, because the assigned classroom for one of the two groups simply wasn't available.
Bartells and Bishop were among the 40 teachers who had painstakingly developed the first two weeks of lesson plans for the advisory periods -- that time set aside for teachers to give personal attention to each of their charges -- and spent additional time sharing what they had learned with other colleagues the day before the students arrived.
Instead of the icebreakers that Bartells and Bishop had planned for the first day's advisory, the two teachers spent the entire 50-minute period helping students translate computerized schedules into the block schedule the faculty had adopted.
An extensive contingent of administrators and teachers spent the day in the halls, helping reduce confusion and keeping an eye out for even the most minor infractions of the rules.
Their presence sent a message to those who hadn't heard that discipline would be strictly enforced. In the basement, two staff members moved in on a student who wore a headband against the rules, and a few minutes later the young man leaned against the wall, a sullen expression on his face as he listened to yet another school official.
The terrycloth band had moved from his head, where it was illegal, down to his neck, where it became a neckace.
About 10 yards away, veteran teacher Michael Barr greeted a returning upperclassman who was carrying a hat.
"Don't bring that hat around," he warned the youngster. "It's going to be different this year," he said.
DIGITAL EXTRA: Visit The Journal series "Hope: Inside a High School," a snapshot of a school in transition through the eyes of students, teachers and administrators.
New school to offset hike in enrollment
Posted Monday, August 25, 2003
Beginning Wednesday, at least 240 ninth and 10th graders will attend the Harrison Street School, a former parochial elementary school in the West End.
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Call it the Harrison Street School. Or, the small high school where innovative teaching strategies are employed.
Just, please, don't call it the "overflow school."
While an unexpected excess of ninth and 10th graders in the city school system led to the creation of the school, School Director Wobberson Torchon takes a dim view of the moniker.
" 'Overflow' seems to have a such a negative connotation among students and parents," Torchon explained in an interview last week. "We're going to provide a quality program that is very stable" and is as comprehensive as any other curriculum for first- and second-year high school students.
"We're going to have thinking curriculum," he added.
As teachers and administrators met to plan what will happen inside the classrooms Wednesday, contractors worked to ensure those rooms would be ready.
School officials were forced to find space for more high school students after realizing that all seats at the city's existing high schools "were booked solid," said Regis Shields, director of district initiatives and high school redesign.
School officials had foreseen a need for another high school; they have plans to construct a new performance-based high school and have it ready to open in the fall of 2004, Shields said.
That's one year too late, however, as enrollment figures show that 300 to 400 additional seats will be needed this school year.
School officials have ruled out using the Fogarty Building on Fountain Street -- a former welfare building that the School Department has used as temporary classroom space for the last several years. The building has a leaking roof, poor ventilation and inoperable windows, unreliable heat and a lack of dining and bathroom facilities, officials have said.
Supt. Melody Johnson declared the building unacceptable for school use last spring after a leak in the roof caused a mold problem which contaminated the air quality throughout the third floor. Students were evacuated and finished the year attending classes at the Dunkin Donuts Civic Center.
Shields said the pupils assigned to the Harrison Street School will stay there for the school year, as officials do not want to disrupt their education by making mid-year transfers.
Harrison Street students will be given first preference if they wish to attend the soon-to-be-constructed performance-based high school, Shields said. School officials have also signed a three-year lease, allowing them to use the building next year and the following year, if more space is needed.
On Friday, as movers carted furniture out of the Fogarty Building, contractors worked to prepare the two-story building on Harrison Street for the 240 students who are currently assigned there. (That number is expected to grow as students enroll in the first several weeks).
The Harrison Street School is located in a former parochial elementary school owned by St. Charles Church, in the West End.
Alan Sepe, acting director of public property, said contractors have spent the last four weeks working to prepare the school, including installing new fire alarm and intercom systems, and painting throughout the durable brick building.
They also installed new sinks in the boys' and girls' bathrooms and hung white (writing) boards and tack boards in classrooms.
Last week they replaced carpeted and wood floors with new tile floors, and replace rubber covering on the stairs.
Sepe said furniture would be delivered to the school today.
Torchon said each of the 14 classrooms will have two wireless computers.
Torchon said he has been planning curriculum with a staff of 12 teachers, which could grow to 18 if the student population increases.
A two-room cafeteria, kitchen and a teacher's lounge are located in the basement.
While the school does not have a gymnasium, Torchon said attempts will be made to use the gym at a nearby community center. In the meantime, physical activities can be done in the cleared-out cafeteria.
Meanwhile, on the South Side, educators and city officials gushed about the outcome of the city's newly constructed high schools, off Thurbers Avenue.
The 900-pupil building, which cost $20 million to build and furnish, will house the Providence Academy of International Studies, and the Health, Science and Technology Academy -- the same schools that were forced to flee the Fogarty Building last spring.
The two schools will have their own separate entrances and five computers in each classroom. The Health Academy will have a full health clinic, three science labs and two computer labs; the International Academy will have science and computer labs and a language laboratory.
The schools will share a 300-seat gymnasium; a stylish first-floor cafeteria and kitchen; a second-floor library and art and music rooms.
The building will also house the student relations, or youth development, office, which was formerly located in the central administration building.
Mayor David N. Cicilline and Supt. Johnson toured the three-story "state-of-the-art" facility at 182 Thurbers Ave. last Friday afternoon.
"I think the students will be thrilled when they walk through these doors on the first day of school," Cicilline said, in a statement. "This is a wonderful and stimulating environment in which to learn."
Priority: All pupils in school each day
Posted Friday, August 22, 2003
Supt. Melody Johnson and Mayor David N. Cicilline emphasize the importance of attendance in anticipation of Wednesday's school start.
BY KAREN A. DAVIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- There's a buzz in the air at the city School Department.
Back-to-school neighborhood celebrations are being planned for this weekend.
An informational newsletter has been mailed to every student.
And, yesterday, Supt. Melody Johnson and Mayor David N. Cicilline joined forces to usher in the new school year and announce a campaign that emphasizes the importance of attending school every single day.
The initiative was unveiled at a midday press conference at City Hall.
First and foremost, Johnson said, school officials want to draw attention to the fact that the school year begins next Wednesday, before the Labor Day weekend.
"It is critical that we make sure every child and every parent knows this, and is preparing accordingly [to be in] attendance on the first day -- and ensure their child's presence in school every day, all day, on time," Johnson said, emphasizing the phrase school officials have adopted for their campaign to bolster attendance. "You can't learn if you don't show up."
Despite having to cut their budget by more than 10 percent to offset increased costs and receiving level funding in state aid, officials are heralding their progress in implementing new school-reform initiatives.
While those changes had been in the planning stages previously, this year "we have a lot of things in place," Johnson said. "We have a foundation we can build on . . . . We're very excited about this."
In addition to emphasizing literacy and employing innovative learning techniques, the district has also changed the school assignment process to make sure students are placed in schools closer to their homes.
The school board has also approved a new attendance policy that can deny grade advancement to a student who has more than 10 unexcused absences during a semester or 20 unexcused absences during the school year.
Johnson said there is a credit-recovery program in place to allow eligible students to make up missed course work.
But, she said, their point -- and their mission -- is to engage all students. And, she said, to engage their parents, because they are a key component to the success of school reform.
School officials have statistics that indicate that "students who attend school regularly are more successful academically, socially and emotionally," Johnson said.
The first edition of the School Department newsletter, dubbed "Connections: Families and School Working Together," uses statistical facts to illustrate the impact of absenteeism and tardiness.
Among them, a student who arrives 10 minutes late to class every day loses three full days of school per year. And last school year, 6,450 students missed 20 days or more.
Also, last year, the average attendance rate was about 91 percent for elementary students; 88 percent for middle school students and 85 percent at the high school level.
Harry Potter, the school administrator who oversees drop-out prevention, said the attendance rate has increased steadily in recent years.
Still, school officials believe those rates can and should be better, in order for education reform to truly take hold.
And, they plan to emphasize that message even before Day One.
To draw attention to Wednesday's opening day, the School Department is teaming up with Cicilline's office, Sodexho School Services and Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island to sponsor the 4th annual citywide Back-to-School Celebration.
The celebrations take place tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at five locations: the Providence School Registration Center, 672 Prairie Ave; Capital Hill Health Center, 40 Candace St.; West End Community Center, 109 Bucklin St.; St. Teresa's Church, 275 Manton Ave., and Springfield Middle School, 152 Springfield St.
At each of the locations, 2,000 bags filled with school supplies will be distributed to participating students. The supplies were donated by businesses and organizations.
Jorge Cardenas -- who formerly worked for Parents Making a Difference, but now works for Sodexho -- said he has spent recent years working to expand the celebrations. In 1999, organizers gave out 600 supply bags; last year they distributed 2,000 supply bags at four Back-to-School bash locations, and this year they will distribute a total 10,000 bags at the five locations.
Cardenas said his goal is to one day distribute a backpack to every single public school student so that the entire population will be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in school.
"The success of this city depends on our ability to deliver quality education," Cicilline said, praising Johnson's leadership and rallying support for the 12 to 15 students who attended the press conference. Accomplishing that mission is not just the responsibility of the superintendent, Cicilline said, but also of the parents and of the entire community.
Schools reinstate group of workers
Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Twelve social workers and six home visitors are among those the School Board votes to recall.
BY GREGORY SMITH
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- A group of public school social workers, frightened by the prospect of losing their jobs, heard the School Board vote last night to reinstate them.
But three social workers and two home visitors will still be jobless, according to schools Supt. Melody Johnson, because money is tight in the School Department.
Last spring, the social workers were among 618 department employees who were given notice that their employment contracts might not be renewed.
Kenneth Swanson, assistant superintendent of schools for student services, nevertheless assured the social workers that money almost certainly would be found to keep them, according to Siobhan O'Brien, one of those affected.
They were shocked when word began to circulate recently that their jobs definitely would be terminated. A news conference was organized to be held before last night's board meeting to protest the decision.
Swanson yesterday morning passed the word that most of them would be kept on, and the protest evaporated. O'Brien said the news surprised her.
"Great. It's a good day," Rep. Steven F. Smith, D-Providence, vice president of the Providence Teachers Union, said to a small assembly of social workers before the meeting.
Johnson said at the meeting that the board intended to keep most of the social workers all along, assuming the money was available to do it.
Fifteen social workers and 8home visitors initially were given layoff notices, and 12 social workers and 6 home visitors have now been recalled, Johnson said.
That would leave five individuals jobless. However, because Smith is employed as a home visitor and he will be taking a leave of absence from work to become union president, one of the five would be eligible to be recalled.
A home visitor also is known as a truant officer.
The board voted to recall 26 teachers and social workers, rehire 9 probationary teachers, hire 20 new probationary teachers, accept the resignations of 5 teachers and promote 3 men to director or assistant principal positions.
The school superintendent said rumors about many more social workers losing their jobs seemed to "run rampant" and she said she was sorry that the incorrect impression was not quickly rectified.
Board member Gene Burns chimed in, "I don't know where they [rumors] come from."
Johnson added, "We regret having to lay off anyone this year."
Social workers and home visitors help families cope with problems that keep children out of school or leave them distracted, sleepy or prone to misbehavior when they come to school.
Before the meeting at the school administration building, social worker Beth Kalunian gave a small example of how she helped a single mother whose children did not seem to attend school on rainy days. It turned out that the mother had an old car in poor repair that lacked a wiper arm on the driver's side of the windshield. She could not afford to fix it, so she did not drive the children to school when it rained.
Kalunian bought the mother a new wiper arm and blade for the car.
It is an annual springtime ritual for the board to notify hundreds of employees that their contracts will not be renewed. The law requires certain employees to be kept on the payroll if they are not notified of their possible termination by a certain date, so the board distributes many notices to avoid unwanted expenses.
The difference this year was the confirmed termination of 128 people due to a budget crunch, many more than the usual handful who are terminated.
To account for Mayor David N. Cicilline and City Council providing less money to the schools than was hoped for, the board last night adopted a revised $288.2 million spending plan.
Johnson originally asked the mayor and council to allow the schools to spend $299.3 million.
As it is, the board would still spend 7 percent more than it did in the 2002-2003 budget, which was $263 million, according to Mark V. Dunham, chief financial officer for the schools.
The revenue comes from state aid to local education and the contribution from local taxpayers, but excludes federal aid. The federal aid is reflected in a "Consolidated Resource Plan" that Dunham presented last night and shows the board has an additional $40 million to spend.
Summer school students looking at the future
Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2003
And that future is computers. Using a special high-tech program, middle-school pupils discover that learning can be fun.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- For Anthony Melillo, the month of July has meant revisiting eighth-grade math and English, four hours a day, five days a week. After lunch and homework, he has the rest of the day free.
"I don't mind summer school," he says.
Anthony is one of some 20 middle-school students sitting in front of separate computer screens in a third-floor lab at Nathanael Greene Middle School.
Sunshine streams through a window, but he and his classmates zone in on the glow from the screens in front of them.
Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Susana Espinal, 14, works in the computer lab at Nathanael Greene Middle School last week. Helping the eight-grade student is Debi Giammarco, principal.
Each one clicks with a computer mouse or punches in numbers on a keyboard to work through tutorials on various math skills in PLATO Learning, educational software that matches its questions to academic standards.
Anthony says the computer program is "learning in a fun way" that helps him get a better grasp on the "new stuff" that has been introduced in class.
He says he sometimes gets distracted in a regular classroom, watching from the sidelines while each student takes a turn at the chalkboard.
But the computer program calls on Anthony for an answer to each question. It helps him focus on just one thing, Anthony says.
As a high-tech tutor, PLATO Learning is the most visible change in summer school at the middle grades this year, but not necessarily the most far-reaching.
The entire middle-level summer-school program has been decentralized by moving classes to all nine middle schools instead of busing students to one building.
In eliminating transportation costs, the school district has saved $200,000 which has been used to hire more teachers and extend the summer session, according to Frances Gallo, director of middle-level education for the school district.
With students able to walk to school, the enrollment has jumped from about 400 last year to an estimated 500, Gallo said.
This year's summer-school students are getting nine extra days of class time. Instead of running four days a week for four weeks, summer school is open five days a week for five weeks.
Measured another way, the total instructional time has jumped by 18 hours, from 32 to 50 hours.
Out of two hours a day in each course, students spend half the time with a teacher in a conventional classroom.
For the other hour, each student practices new skills with PLATO Learning while a teacher and a teacher's assistant oversee the computer lab and provide help when it is needed.
Anthony Melillo's math teacher, Bienvenido Torres, says this is his fourth -- and best -- year teaching summer school, largely because of PLATO Learning.
When some of the middle-school students started class four and a half weeks ago, "they didn't know how to add or subtract," he said.
Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Anthony Melillo, a 14-year-old eighth grader attending summer school says distractions are at a minimum during the special session.
Now they know how to plot points on a graph.
"They are improving" at a faster rate than the classes he had the first three summers he taught, Torres said.
He says he measures their progress through his own tests and assessments built into the PLATO program for each user.
"It's a great program," Torres said.
PLATO Learning is also a new program to the middle schools, with its share of start-up glitches.
One day last week, for example, Anthony Melillo couldn't get into the program. His password wouldn't work.
Meanwhile, Susana Espinal, another eighth-grade math student, grumbled over a portion of the tutorial that asked her to count fish, pennies and marbles.
"I can count," Susana said indignantly.
Denise Bilodeau, director of instructional technology for the school district, said this year's summer school is the first time PLATO Learning has been used in the middle grades, although the program has been in the high schools for about a year.
The schools used private funds to purchase the software because the cash-strapped school district could not afford it through its regular operationg budget.
And the private funds did not go far, relatively speaking, allowing each school to have a maximum of 25 students online at any one time.
Bilodeau said she was able to use federal funds earmarked for professional development to train teachers to use PLATO Learning and to hire a coach, Pam Mason, who travels throughout the district to help the staff with the new program.
Bilodeau said school officials are working constantly with PLATO Learning to tailor the software to the curriculum of the school district and to iron out technical problems.
Last week, Mason managed to get Anthony Milello into his tutorial, while Bilodeau fielded questions from the teacher and teacher assistant supervising the lab.
Each student is supposed to have an individual menu of tutorials, depending on an informal evaluation the student's skills.
Teachers were asked to do these evaluations for failing students before the end of the last school year in June, but some didn't complete them, according to Bilodeau.
In the case of Susana Espinal, however, it wouldn't have mattered, because she finished the school year in East Providence and has only moved back to Providence with her family in the last few weeks.
Despite occasional problems, Susana says that the computer program is still better than having to sit in class and listen to explanations faster than she can grasp them.
"This explains it," she says, touching the screen, " 'cause I can see it."
Another student, Tommieka Hutchinson, who hopes to enter the eighth grade at Greene, likes PLATO Learning because it "gives me time to do the problem."
During the school year, she said, her math teacher went too fast, writing down problems and erasing them before she had a chance to understand how they were solved.
Tommieka moved in the middle of the academic year, from a school in Massachusetts to Greene. Susana also moved, going from the Perry Middle School in Providence to East Providence.
Both girls said they thought their moves had something to do with the fact that they failed math.
"Math has always been my worst subject," Tommieka said.
Susana said she believes she failed math because more was required of her at Martin Middle School in East Providence than at Perry, where she began the school year. To make matters worse, she said, the math class at Perry had a lot of substitute teachers.
Anthony said he knows he could have earned good marks in the eighth grade at Greene this year, but he said he fell in with a new group of friends who did not exactly encourage him to be studious.
"In class I should have been quiet," said Anthony.
"I just want to do my work and pass," he said.
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