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October 2002
PROTEUN - October 2002
Posted Tuesday, October 29, 2002
FROM THE PRESIDENT
While the opening of each school year presents many challenges, I would like to share with you a number of positive accomplishments so far this year. Among them is a new spirit of cooperation on the part of the administration of Superintendent Melody Johnson. The school department's September appointment of 45 substitutes to regular teaching positions, the favorable resolution of many outstanding arbitration cases and the flexibility exercised by the Program Change Committee are all evidence of a professional relationship that holds great promise.
I am also pleased to announce the delivery of hard copies of the new Contract to your schools, with distribution by your building delegates, and the success of the two New Teacher Orientation sessions offered in September at the Union office. A combined total of approximately 50 teachers received an overview of the PTU's many ER&D opportunities as well as the many other benefits available to members, and feedback from participants was extremely positive.
On October 8, I and a number of other concerned educators and lay people spoke during an open meeting sponsored by the RI Department of Education that addressed new high school regulations proposed by the Board of Regents. In an earlier mailing, I had called this and other similar meetings to the attention of secondary teachers because the final form and implementation of these regulations are certain to have a significant impact on both high school and middle school teachers. While I am generally supportive of efforts to improve high school education, I urged caution regarding some critical issues and encourage all members to inform themselves regarding pending city, state and federal educational initiatives.
As a final note, I hope that you enjoy this new format of the PROTEUN and look forward to your comments and suggestions regarding future issues.
PTU 6Th ANNUAL BOOK DRIVE
Continue the tradition of brightening the lives of Providence kids during the holiday season and donate a book! If each teacher donates one new book, we'll have more than 2,000 books to give to Providence kids.
For each book that a teacher donates, he/she will receive a raffle ticket for a lottery to be held at the December building delegate meeting. The prize.…
Dinner for two at
The Cheesecake Factory
Two cinema tickets for Hoyt
Theaters
Bring your NEW books (in any language) to the Union office by December 10, 2002.
Help us make this the best book drive ever!
UNION ENDORSEMENTS
The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers & Health Care Professionals (RIFTHP) and the RI AFL-CIO have endorsed the following candidates for Congressional and state offices:
Senator Jack Reed
General Treasurer Paul Tavares
Congressman James Langevin
Gubernatorial Candidate Myrth York
Congressman Patrick Kennedy
Attorney General Candidate Patrick Lynch
Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty
Secretary of State Candidate Matt Brown
In addition, the RIFTHP will be mailing its endorsements for the RI General Assembly to those teachers who reside in the respective districts of those candidates. The PTU encourages its members to support those candidates in the upcoming election.
EMERGENCY SICK LEAVE BANK
Teachers are reminded that the open enrollment period for membership and the one-time donation of five sick days is the month of October. Registration forms are available from your building delegates or the Union office and must be returned to the Union by October 31, 2002.
PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCE DAYS
A reminder that the following dates have been announced, with specific hours to follow:
Elementary Schools November 19, 2002
Middle Schools November 20, 2002
High Schools November 21, 2002
UNITED WAY OF RI and FUND FOR COMMUNITY PROGRESS
All teachers are encouraged to support these charitable organizations by filling out and returning the pledge cards received from your building delegates. Those who pledge a minimum of $1.00 per pay period will be eligible for a $300 cash prize to be awarded through a lottery drawing.
IN-HOUSE POSTINGS
Teachers are advised that in-house postings involving compensation must indicate official approval by Human Resources before they are posted.
APRIL CRUISE TO THE WESTERN CARIBBEAN
The PTU Activity Committee is planning an April Vacation cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Norwegian Cruise Line's newly commissioned NORWEGIAN DAWN. This trip is air-inclusive from Providence and will embark from Miami with stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Costa Maya & Cozumel, Mexico. An initial deposit of $250 person is due by November 1, 2002, with a second payment by December 13 and final payment by February 11, 2003. For more information, or to reserve a cabin, please call Sunset Tours at 943-4464 or Activity Committee chair Kristen Lussier at 821-6141.
DEDUCTION FOR EDUCATOR EXPENSES
A new federal tax law change taking effect in 2002 allows educators to deduct up to $250 for out-of-pocket classroom expenses such as books, supplies and computer equipment. The expenses are deductible even if you do not itemize on Schedule A. See IRS Publication 3991 for limitations. For additional information, contact the Internal Revenue Service at www.irs.gov or (800) 829-1040.
BLUE CROSS
Teachers are reminded that a Blue Cross representative will be at the Union office from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on December 19, 2002. Those wishing to meet with the representative should call the Union office (421-4014) to make an appointment.
ADDITIONAL TEACHING PERIODS
No teacher should accept an additional teaching period until the arrangement has been formalized and payment assured. Those currently teaching an extra period for which they are not being compensated should file Union grievances seeking lost wages.
NEW LOCATION
We are pleased to announce that the Union office will soon be moving to a larger, one-level facility which offers significantly more space and parking to accommodate the ever increasing needs of the membership. The move is tentatively scheduled for either late this year or early in January, 2003. Additional details will soon be announced.
PROGRAM CHANGES
The contractual period for SIT program changes has ended for this semester, and any additional program change proposals must be submitted to the Program Change Committee. Teachers are also reminded that, as stipulated in Article 17-3 of the Contract, teachers may not waive or modify any of the agreements, terms or provisions of the Agreement.
PTU MEDIA COMMITTEE
In addition to its regular programming, the PTU's Educadores al Aire will be airing a forum on educational issues featuring the four mayoral candidates of Providence on the following dates:
Thursday, October 24, 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 26, 9:30-10:30 p.m.
Thursday, October 31, 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 2, 9:30-10:30 p.m.
All teachers, especially those registered to vote in Providence, are encouraged to watch this topical Media Committee production on Cox Cable Channel 23 on one of these dates.
PAYROLL ISSUES
Option forms for converting accumulated half-pay sick leave must be returned to Payroll in order for the conversion to occur.
Teachers are advised to monitor all aspects of their check stubs for accuracy and to use the Salary Calculator available on the PTU's website to confirm that they are receiving the correct compensation. Errors should be reported to Payroll.
PTU HEALTH RELATED INSURANCE
Any teacher who has not yet responded to the Union letter outlining the simplicity of enrolling is requested to return the necessary information to the Union office. NOTE! The red letter is to dark to be faxed.
Schools with ten or fewer teachers who are not yet enrolled will not be scheduled for a "school visitation," but teachers in those schools may still request an individual appointment at the school or may schedule an appointment at the Union office.
Other questions relating to the PTU insurance program may be addressed to "Lu" at the Union office.
PTU FORTY-WEEK CLUB
Those teachers that have not yet joined this year's 40-Week Club may still join and be eligible for all of the monthly drawings, including the special drawing of $100 for members who make a single payment of $40 rather than installments. To join, please contact your building collector, your building delegate or call the Union office.
SCHOOL VISITATIONS
President Phil DeCecco and Co-Directors of Member Services, Maura Galvao and Don Gormley, continue to visit schools in order to speak with teachers regarding their questions and concerns. Please consult the visitation schedules posted on your school's Union Bulletin Board for their next visit(s).
School administration raises, reorganization on hold
Posted Tuesday, October 29, 2002
The superintendent withdraws two resolutions after the School Board requests additional financial data.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- It will be at least another two weeks before the School Board takes up raises for top administrators in conjunction with a reorganization that would give Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson support from several top aides rather than a deputy superintendent.
Johnson withdrew resolutions calling for approval of the raises and the reorganization last night after the School Board asked for more detailed financial information.
After the meeting, board member Samuel Zurier said he wanted to get a clearer picture of the way the proposed organizational chart relates to the current one, and how money is redistributed in the salary account for the central administration.
Overall, the new administrative configuration would cost $29,800 less than it does now, according to Johnson, but she said board members "wanted and deserved more information" on the ways the salaries and the reorganization fit together.
Zurier was asked whether the raises would be a hard sell politically. Pay increases would give salaries between $110,000 and $120,000 to each of four top administrators, a chief of staff, and to chiefs of academics, operations, and finance.
And one of the top four was a witness in the municipal corruption trial earlier this year who admitted lying to the FBI.
"My overall concern is the administrative budget," Zurier said. He said statistics gathered by the state Department of Education indicate that on a per-pupil basis, administrative costs in Providence are "not out of line."
David Comerford, the father of three children in the public schools, said that he got the impression that there weren't going to be any administrative raises, judging from comments made two weeks ago when Johnson introduced changes in job titles that foreshadowed the reorganization.
At the time, Johnson told the board the reorganization would be accomplished within the existing bottom line.
She said the administrators involved were already doing the work spelled out in the reorganization without extra pay and would have to continue in the same manner if the "changes" were not approved.
But Comerford maintained that Johnson's comments two weeks ago had been "a bit misleading."
He said he also could not reconcile the school administration's attempt to fire its communications facilitator, Kevin M. Clement, "for attempting to tell the truth" while "another person is getting a raise."
Comerford alluded to the district's chief financial officer, Mark V. Dunham, who would receive a $12,000 hike in salary under the terms of the reorganization.
Dunham testified in the Plunder Dome municipal corruption trial in May that he initially lied to the FBI about the role that former administration director Frank E. Corrente played in steering a School Department lease to property owned by convicted felon Edward E. Voccola.
In other business, the School Board named Diane Sormanti-Longtin as payroll supervisor. Sormanti-Longtin has worked as senior fiscal officer in the office of the public safety commissioner since 1996 and has been a city employee since 1975. Sormanti's salary was set at $52,022.
Gregorian school poised to jump up in the rankings
Posted Tuesday, October 29, 2002
The proportion of students at Vartan Gregorian Elementary School who meet or exceed the state standards has doubled since 1998.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The Vartan Gregorian Elementary School, with a decade-long history of school reform, is expected to jump from the bottom to the middle of the pack when the state Department of Education ranks the performance of all public schools next month.
That prediction comes from the school district, where the assessment director has crunched the state's numbers to draw a preliminary picture of school rankings.
The district's preliminary calculations show that the proportion of students at Gregorian who meet or exceed state standards in reading, writing, and math has doubled since 1998, from 20 percent to 42 percent. At the same time, the proportion of children showing little or no evidence of academic progress has fallen, from about 48 percent to about 28.5 percent.
Gregorian's rise supports the contention that urban children from poor backgrounds can nevertheless register the same levels of achievement as their more affluent counterparts.
Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson said that experience has shown that successful urban schools are those with a "strong, consistent focus" that have community support and have "stayed the course for eight to ten years."
Reform, in other words, means time, money, and staff training, she has said.
When the state Department of Education unveiled its first-ever rankings last winter, all but one school in Providence fell into the low-performing category, defined by scores showing more than 33 percent of the children with little or no evidence of academic achievement.
The notable exception was Classical High School -- one of only four high-performing high schools in Rhode Island. Classical is the only public school in the city with an academically competitive application process.
The latest projections, calculated by assessment director Michael Sorum, indicate that Classical has gained ground in the high-performance category, which requires at least 50 percent of students to meet performance standards.
When the rankings were first released last winter, Classical barely made the grade, with an average of about 51 percent of students meeting or exceeding performance standards. In the latest calculations, Sorum projects Classical will have 59 percent of students reaching proficiency.
And the percentage of Classical students showing little or no evidence of achievement dropped from about 20 percent to about 14 percent in the latest predictions.
Indications of Gregorian's rise surfaced a couple of years ago with scores that met or exceeded state averages in six out of seven categories in reading, writing and math.
The categories, introduced last February, are based on average scores for three years. Sorum's predictions roll those three-year averages forward to capture the scores from the latest round of testing last spring.
The Asa Messer Elementary School and the Martin Luther King Elementary School appear to be following in Gregorian's path, although they are not quite out of the low-performing category.
Sorum's projections say Asa Messer is on the dividing line, with just about 33 percent of students showing little evidence or no evidence of achievement. That number needs to drop below 33 percent for the school to move into the moderate-performing category.
At Martin Luther King, meanwhile, the proportion of students showing little or no evidence of achievement is projected to be 34 percent.
At the elementary level, Sorum said in a recent presentation to the School Board, there was double-digit improvement in nine schools and "strong growth" in 60 percent of schools.
At the middle and high school level, where changes have not yet taken hold on a broad scale, the overall results were abysmal -- which is hardly news in Providence.
Three-year trends at Hope High School confirm the need for the state intervention that was initiated last June.
A comparison of averages indicates that the percentage of sophomores showing little or no evidence of achievement increased from 65 percent to nearly 77 percent since 1998. At the same time, the proportion of students achieving or exceeding standards dropped from about 12 percent to about 7 percent.
Peter McWalters, the state Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, has ordered Hope to break itself down into three to four small learning communities in a year's time and has told the faculty he expects each one to get a minimum of 20 hours of professional development during the current year.
Central, considered the worst of the city's high schools a few years ago, originally had moved about 7 percent of its students out of the lowest performing categories in the last few years. But the proportion of Central students showing little or no evidence of achievement -- 70 percent -- is still unacceptable, school officials say.
The performance of Mount Pleasant High School appears to have remained flat, with about 60 percent of students showing little or no evidence of achievement and about 13 percent of students achieving or exceeding standards.
The district has launched a redesign of the high school experience that for the most part has not directly touched the class tested last spring.
But this year's sophomores, slated to take the state's New Standards Reference Exams in the spring of 2003, will have had nearly two years of specialized attention to their reading and writing skills and a year's concentration on mathematics.
Reform of the middle schools, which seem not to have profited from isolated efforts attempted in the late '90s, is now on the drawing boards.
With the exception of the Nathanael Greene Middle School, the city's middle schools showed half to more than two-thirds of their students performing with little or no evidence of achievement.
Johnson and other school officials regard the scores more as a call to action than a signal of defeat.
Remedies for the poor scores include a new mathematics program and refinements to initiatives already begun in the teaching of reading and writing, according to Johnson.
Two more classrooms open for kindergartners
Posted Wednesday, October 23, 2002
That brings to four the number of extra classes added well after the start of school.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Two new kindergarten classrooms have opened in the last two days to accommodate an overflow of young children who have been enrolled in recent weeks.
A new class opened Monday at the George J. West Elementary School and another opened yesterday at the Mary E. Fogarty Elementary School, with a total of 36 kindergartners, according to Susan F. Lusi, chief of staff to Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson.
In addition to those 36, who were divided between the two schools, 42 kindergartners were assigned to two classrooms in a leased annex to the West Broadway Elementary School about two weeks ago, at St. Mary's School, which is next to West Broadway.
The appearance of the kindergartners well after the start of the school year surprised officials, who had been relying on demographic projections that said there would be no shortage of elementary school space this fall.
Yesterday, the director of the organization that oversees the ongoing demographic project said he expects to receive a new set of five-year projections on school enrollment within a matter of days.
In the meantime, said Patrick McGuigan, executive director of the Providence Plan, he could not determine whether the unexpected increase in kindergarten enrollment represented an aberration or the beginning of a new trend.
Phil DeCecco, president of the Providence Teachers Union, said the school district should have "contingency plans for every grade in the system" in the event enrollment exceeds available space.
"With the mobility of the population, you really don't know" what will happen to enrollment, DeCecco said.
"After every vacation, there is an influx of new students," he said.
He conceded that contingency plans will have little effect if there is no space available and no money to rent space.
The nine-month rental of the West Broadway annex -- an expense that had been cut from the budget in the hope it would not be needed -- adds about $19,600 to the bottom line, but that figure pales in comparison with the cost of staffing four classrooms for young children.
Four kindergarten teachers and four teacher assistants will add a total of $326,000 to the salary account, in a year when the district is struggling to bring spending in line with revenue.
An additional $5,000 has been spent on supplies, and bookcases and filing cabinets ordered for the annex came to about $1,775, according to figures provided by Lusi's office.
DeCecco helped to broker talks with teachers at West and Fogarty to accommodate the additional kindergarten students.
West had a vacant classroom, but teachers of enrichment classes such as art, music, and technology had to reconfigure their schedules to accommodate the new kindergartners, DeCecco said.
At Fogarty, the teachers' union and management worked together to free a room by combining most of the students from two small English as a Second Language classes and putting through transfers of the remaining students that had been requested by parents, DeCecco said.
An upcoming meeting of a union-management committee on changes in teachers' schedules will address a contingency plan for putting another kindergarten class at the Windmill Street Elementary School, should the new ones at Fogarty and West fill up, according to Lusi and DeCecco.
Coalition complains over hiring of Johnson
Posted Tuesday, October 22, 2002
The naming of Schools Supt. Melody Johnson violated state and local law because it did not require "prompt action," the Children First Coalition contends.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The Children First Coalition has asked the commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education to hear its contention that the School Board violated its own policy in appointing Supt. Melody A. Johnson last month without a search.
A spokesman for Commissioner Peter McWalters said the appeal will be considered at a public hearing, probably in December.
State law allows "any person aggrieved by any decision or doings of any school committee" to appeal to the commissioner for relief.
Former School Board member Juan Lopez wrote to McWalters on behalf of the Children First Coalition, saying the group contested the School Board's decision to bypass a search before appointing Johnson on Sept. 23.
Immediately before appointing her that night, the board revised its policy on an emergency basis to allow it appoint Johnson without the customary search.
Lopez wrote that, "The Children First Coalition contend there was no emergency to justify (the) decisions" to revise the policy on recruiting a superintendent and to appoint Johnson, who had been acting superintendent after Diana Lam announced she would go to New York City.
Policy changes typically are given two readings at separate School Board meetings, but that night, the board amended its policy on the selection of a superintendent in one reading.
The resolution adopted justified the single reading by saying an existing rule allowed the board to skip the second reading "when special circumstances demand an immediate response."
The amended policy on the selection of a school superintendent says that the board can make an appointment without a search under "exceptional circumstances," which include the departure of a superintendent with less than six months' notice.
The change also allows for "other circumstances" that require "prompt action by the School Board," provided that two-thirds of the nine-member board agrees, and that the board identify the "exceptional circumstances justifying the lack of a search," in its vote to hire the superintendent.
In appointing Johnson a few minutes later, the board adopted a resolution that spelled out the "special circumstances" demanding immediate action:
Lam's abrupt departure at the end of August;
The notification by philanthropic foundations that several million dollars worth of grants could be suspended "in the absence of a permanent leadership team";
The "significant damage" the loss of those funds would do to current academic program if those funds were suspended;
The "need this year for continuity of leadership" in light of planned reforms and the "distraction from those reforms" if leadership remained uncertain.
The night of the appointment, Steven Fischbach, a member of the Children First Coalition, accused the board of trying to hide "illegal actions" behind a "veneer of legality" when it abandoned the search.
Lopez' letter to McWalters contended that the change of policy and appointment of Johnson violated the state Open Meetings Law, federal and state equal employment opportunity and nondiscrimination laws, and state law enumerating the duties of school committees.
Fischbach, meanwhile, maintained that allowing a lack of notice from a departing superintendent to qualify as a "special circumstance" is not a real emergency.
The board will "never" get six months notice from a superintendent, Fischbach declared, suggesting that it will be able to dispense with the search any time it chooses.
Fischbach also characterized extensive public comment in favor of Johnson's appointment as "the appearance of widespread support" when the "vast majority" of the positive comments came from one segment of the public -- School Department employees.
Some of those school employees, however, made some pointed remarks apparently aimed at Fischbach and others who regularly appear at School Board meetings and criticize the board and the administration.
Debra DeCarlo, principal at Central High School, said school reform has moved "faster and better" in the past three years than in her entire 25-year career in the city's public schools.
And she said Lam, who initiated the change, "could not have moved the agenda" Johnson.
The pair "also brought with them the word accountability," DeCarlo said. "People were expected to do their jobs and to take care of children; something that was unheard of" before Lam arrived, DeCarlo said.
"Throughout the city and the state and the country, we are the educational leadership," DeCarlo said, alluding to changes that have received national attention in school reform circles.
"It's a good time to celebrate (our) accomplishments," she said.
"It's also time to stop listening to people who come here on a biweekly basis and complain when they never go into our schools," DeCarlo said.
Kindergartens scramble for additional classrooms
Posted Thursday, October 17, 2002
A late surge in kindergarten enrollment is creating unexpected expenses.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- No sooner had school officials leased space two weeks ago to accommodate 42 kindergarteners who showned up unexpectedly than another 36 children registered for class.
The surge in kindergarten enrollment has created unexpected expenses in a tight budget year and has prompted school officials to wonder about population projections that failed to warn them they would run out space in elementary schools.
Yesterday, human resources officials were working with leaders of the Providence Teachers Union to find a way to free space for two more classrooms.
In one case, the school administration is asking two teachers at the George J. West Elementary School, who each make parttime use of separate classrooms, to share one of them and let the other be turned over to the kindergarteners, according to administrator Robert A. DeRobbio.
Susan F. Lusi, chief of staff to Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson, declined to divulge details of talks concerning a second classroom, but said she expects a labor-management committee governing changes in teachers' schedules to take action today.
The children should be in their classrooms tomorrow or Monday, Lusi said. She said the longest any child has waited for a classroom is two weeks.
"I don't know what else we could have done," she said. "They were not in our projections."
"The union understands the urgency of getting them into classrooms," Lusi said. "We are working very hard to accommodate them."
About two weeks ago, the first group of 42 children were placed in two classrooms at St. Mary's School, which has been dubbed the West Broadway annex because it is located next to the West Broadway Elementary School.
The cost of leasing those two classrooms, $19,563 for nine months, had been cut from the current budget as part of district-wide effort to bring expenses in line with revenues.
But the district now will be forced to spend the money anyway, because the public schools are required by law to educate any child who lives in the city.
The cost of four teachers and four teacher assistants necessary for the new kindergartens could easily total $150,000 to $200,000, including benefits.
Lusi said that demographic projections indicated "we didn't need the annex."
The schools have seen a rapid growth in enrollment in the last decade, from about 21,500 to more than 27,000, fueled primarily by an influx of Hispanic families.
Since 1997, the district has built six elementary schools, three in South Providence, two in the West End and one in Silver Lake.
It has been commonly believed that the bulge in enrollment that started in the early grades would move up through the middle schools into high school.
Two middle schools have been built in Silver Lake, on the same campus as one of the six new elementary schools, and two small high schools are under construction in South Providence.
"I don't know if this indicates we're getting another bubble, or whether this is an unusually large number of kindergarteners this year," Lusi said.
The director of the student registration center, Victor Capellan, was apparently unaware of the last-minute demand on kindergarten space when he told the School Board three weeks ago that there seemed to be more elementary school seats available this year than a few years ago.
Capellan was speaking about a reduction in the number of elementary school lotteries for parents who registered their kindergarteners last spring and did not get their first choice, Lusi said.
The school district did not run out of kindergarten seats until the last few weeks.
Schools to see Gates money
Posted Wednesday, October 9, 2002
New Providence Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson convinces foundation officials that she intends to continue reforms begun by Diana Lam.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has reaffirmed a $4-million commitment to the city's schools for this academic year, responding to the School Board's appointment of Melody A. Johnson as superintendent.
The assurance of the Gates money brought sighs of relief in all 52 public schools in the city, because principals count on that money for most of the school-based activities and supplies related to improving math and literacy instruction.
The Gates money is "a haven in every way," considering that the schools' locally funded discretionary budgets have been cut by nearly one-third this year, said Eileen Biancuzzo, principal of the Webster Avenue and Reservoir Avenue Elementary Schools.
School principals received authorization about 10 days ago to commit the money, which had been held up after former Schools Supt. Diana Lam quit to become New York City's chief academic officer.
Carol Rava, spokeswoman for the Gates Foundation, said that in conversations with Johnson since her appointment "we were assured she would be moving forward in the same direction Diana Lam had been."
"That's why we were able to . . . resume grant payment," Rava said.
"The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation makes 'an investment in people and plans,' " she said.
"When there is a turnover we want to step back and get an assurance that the new leadership team will move forward with the plan the grant was funding," she said.
The Gates Foundation announced an overall $13.5-million, five-year commitment to Providence in 2000, largely on the strength of Lam's leadership.
At the same time, it pledged $3 million to Coventry, where Schools Supt. John Deasy had been credited with drawing the national spotlight to Coventry High School.
But Deasy left Coventry in June 2001, and the school district drifted while it searched for a permanent superintendent, prompting Gates to put a hold on the flow of funds.
In contrast, the School Board in Providence replaced Lam with Johnson, the second-in-command Lam had recruited from San Antonio, less than a month after Lam's resignation on Sept. 3.
In recent meetings in New York, Johnson convinced Gates officials that she intended to move forward with the concentration on literacy and mathematics that Lam began.
Johnson said she also told Gates officials that she is committed to Providence for a minimum of two years, possibly three, depending on where the system is at the end of the initial period.
"We had a frank, good conversation," Johnson said yesterday.
"We talked about the significance of funding to the instructional agenda," she said.
School principals said yesterday that they would not have been able to schedule critically needed professional development in literacy instruction and mathematics without money from Gates.
Materials and supplies, such as student journals and mathematics workbooks, also will be charged to the Gates funds, they said.
Johnson, meanwhile, said that other major private philanthropies have scheduled visits to see for themselves what school reform looks like in Providence under her administration.
They include the Carnegie Corporation, which has pledged $8 million in collaboration with the Gates Foundation for high school redesign over five years, and the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds.
The latter has committed $5 million over five years to help the schools develop academic leadership in school administrators, who traditionally have been regarded as building managers rather than authorities on instruction.
"We welcome the scrutiny and accountability," Johnson said. "I think all the site visits will be very, very positive.
She said she believes Providence is "on the front end of everything going on in the nation."
Detention students lose buses
Posted Monday, October 7, 2002
Budget cuts mean that bus rides are no longer available for students serving after-school detention.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- In the last, and deepest, round of cuts made to balance the school budget, the School Board eliminated late buses for students who must stay after school for detention.
The move shaved $82,000 off the bottom line, but the savings also have a cost that is hard to measure.
Without assured transportation, teachers and administrators cannot rely on detention as a front-line disciplinary tool that educators say is important in maintaining order and helping students to keep up with schoolwork, especially in middle schools.
The elimination of detention buses is only a week old, and some of the middle schools are still trying to figure out alternatives.
Steve Lauro, principal of the Esek Hopkins Middle School, says he believes that it is inevitable that some students assigned detention will end up going home in otherwise empty seats on buses for students who have attended after-school enrichment programs.
The buses that take home participants in after-school programs are provided through federal Title I funds for disadvantaged students, which is to be used to help improve academic performance.
Lauro said he didn't think federal regulations would allow children finishing detention to ride buses reserved for those attending academic enrichment programs.
But if children have no other way to get a ride, he said, school officials would have little choice but to put them on whatever bus is available.
At Hopkins, Lauro has switched detention from the afternoon to the morning, because buses arrive between 7:15 to 7:30, half an hour to 45 minutes before the start of the school day.
Children in detention get a "grab and go" breakfast and report to the home economics room, where they can eat and start schoolwork until 8 a.m., Lauro said.
Meanwhile, Arthur Petrosinelli, the acting principal at the Roger Williams Middle School, said he reworked the discretionary money in the school budget and found $6,400 for one detention bus four days a week for 30 weeks.
Detention now runs 90 minutes a day, four days a week, rather than an hour a day over five days, but during a week, the length of detention remains the same, he said.
At the Nathan Bishop Middle School, where four out of five children take buses, the elimination of detention buses has put principal Earnest Cox in a quandary.
"We are going to have to really rethink the whole business of detention," said Cox.
Nathan Bishop is one of the schools with Title I bus service for after-school programs, but Cox could not reconcile the idea of mixing students assigned detention and those finishing enrichment programs on the same buses.
As the first choice in disciplinary intervention, detention requires students to spend time outside regular classes doing homework under the watchful eyes of a teacher, according to Lauro.
If that level of intervention is removed, students might be plunged immediately into more drastic, punitive measures that remove them from the typical classroom, Lauro said.
In-house suspensions separate students from regular academic programs, Lauro said. And that lost time can turn into a major slide that ultimately results in a high school drop out, he said.
"I have to add that on the opposite scale, those kids who are in school all the time and getting the grades are celebrated," Lauro said.
The hallmarks of celebration include T-shirts and awards, he said.
"We try to make it a very positive thing for them to be here," Lauro said.
City schools are still struggling
Posted Thursday, October 3, 2002
New statewide test results show that achievement lags behind other districts but some improvement at the elementary level is noted.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The way Providence schools present themselves in the latest statewide test results released yesterday depends on context.
In comparison to all the other districts in the state, Providence has not climbed out of the cellar, but this fact is hardly news.
At the elementary level, however, where much of the reform effort of the last three years has been concentrated, the fourth graders who were tested last spring show that they are headed up the cellar stairs.
For example, less than half the city's fourth graders, or 47 percent, meet or exceed the standards for basic understanding in reading. That is 27 points below the state average of 75 percent in that category.
But this year's basic reading score for fourth graders is also four percentage points above the 43 percent who achieved or exceeded the standards last year.
Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson said she is "very concerned about the fact that the majority of students are not demonstrating mastery on the New Standards Reference Exams."
"But we feel we are on the right track," she said. "It's important people understand this is a very long and arduous process.
"We have every confidence in our teachers; every confidence we are doing all the right things," she said.
Peter McWalters, commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, held a news conference at West Warwick High School to announce the statewide results.
He said that urban schools such as those in Providence won't catch up to their suburban neighbors until the federal and state governments give them the financial resources they need to address poverty, a lack of proficiency in English, and transience in the student population.
McWalters said that in urban districts, he wants to see families with school-age children stay in one place, kindergartens with class sizes of 10 and elementary school teachers who have had extensive training in reading, something that is not now the norm.
In Providence, the middle school and high school performance appeared abysmal. The overall statistics obscured bright spots such as Classical, one of four high-performing high schools in the state, and other low-performing buildings that Johnson said are improving.
At middle and high schools, the proportion of youngsters achieving or exceeding standards in basic understanding of the written word fell by half when compared with the elementary level, from 47 in the fourth grade to 23 percent the eighth and 10th grade.
Overall, the proportion of 10th graders achieving or exceeding standards ranged from a high of 43 percent in writing conventions, a gain of six points from last year, to a low of 6 percent in mathematical problem solving, a two-point decrease from last year.
At the middle school level, the range of proficiency ran from a high of 28 percent for writing effectiveness, five points higher than last year, to a low of 4 percent for mathematical concepts, the same as last year.
McWalters was generally happy with the progress made by high schools, saying that the results showed high school reform had begun to take hold statewide.
In Providence the reform efforts of the last two years -- one in planning and one in implementation of changes in the ninth grade -- were not reflected in 10th grade scores.
Furthermore, no sooner did the implementation year begin last fall when labor-management tensions put teachers' voluntary professional development on hold, for the most part.
The Providence Teachers Union, in mediation over a new contract, urged its members to "work-to-rule" by refusing to participate in voluntary activities, such as professional development, until there was a settlement.
Yesterday, the president of the Providence Teachers Union, Phil DeCecco, said he didn't think that "work-to-rule" had an adverse effect on last spring's test scores.
In DeCecco's opinion, after-school commitments to profesional development have not necessarily increased this fall, despite improved relations with the administration, because teachers have commitments to their own children and to graduate courses they need to maintain their certification.
The most intensive training of teachers comes "even as we speak," DeCecco said, with a new alignment of curriculum, teaching methods and standards that are outlined in new teaching guides in core subjects.
In a separate interview, Johnson also emphasized that the current academic year is the first one in a "common curriculum."
And she said the district is just beginning a year of planning changes at the middle school level, an area that McWalters said needs attention statewide.
But Johnson also indicated that she expects to see a positive effect from a significant increase in voluntary professional development after school, something DeCecco did not necessarily concede.
The city's schools still have a long way to go, Johnson said. And school improvement "is a journey," she said.
'Pragmatic' superintendent helps repair frayed school relations
Posted Wednesday, October 2, 2002
Since taking her new post, Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson has helped resolve eight union disputes left over from her predecessor's administration.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- When former Schools Supt. Diana Lam headed for New York City, 10 labor-management disputes with the Providence Teachers Union were in the pipeline for arbitration.
But eight of the cases have been resolved in the last month, with the School Board reversing its position in most of them.
The resolution of the cases has helped to repair frayed relationships between the school administration and the teachers, who had been locked in a siege over contract talks for all but the final quarter of the last school year.
Joseph A. Almagno, executive secretary of the Providence Teachers Union, said that "a lot of the reversal has come about as a result of a discussion of issues that we talked about with Melody and Sue that we weren't able to discuss with Diana."
He was referring to new Schools Supt. Melody A. Johnson and chief of staff Susan F. Lusi, who was also Lam's chief of staff.
"The real issue is that we have this level of communication where we can sit down with Melody, go over these problems, and jointly come up with solutions that she can live with and we can live with," Almagno said.
"We didn't have that relationship with Diana," Almagno said.
The relationship between Lam and Almagno, a former school superintendent, began cordially when she arrived three years ago but became increasingly strained the longer she remained, especially after the retirement of former union president Phyllis E. Tennian.
Almagno said that in the last few weeks, the teachers union has received letters from School Board president Olga Noguera reversing previous findings against teachers who had filed grievances over a number of alleged contract violations.
Originally, Lam ruled against the teachers and the School Board had "blindly" upheld the superintendent, Almagno said.
Noguera's letters upheld teachers' allegations of student overcrowding in science labs and the right of literacy coaches to be evaluated by the deputy superintendent for teaching and learning, among other things, he said.
In another case, the administration agreed to repair poor drainage in the parking lot of the Roger Williams Middle School that has caused a hazard. If the repairs are not made in a timely manner, Almagno said, the terms of the agreement allow the union to take the matter to Superior Court for enforcement.
He said a clogged drain in the parking lot has helped create a standing pool of water about six inches deep, which has frozen during the winter and caused injuries.
The district has already missed at least one deadline for fixing the drainage, a factor that apparently figured in its agreement to let the union pursue the matter in court if it misses another one.
"Melody recognizes these matters need not be resolved by an arbitrator and has taken control of them, to her credit," Almagno said.
He portrayed Johnson as a pragmatic administrator inclined to cut her losses in disputes her side is likely to lose in the long run.
While there's "nothing wrong in having legitimate differences of opinion," Almagno said, he credited Johnson with having "wisdom in realizing clear-cut violations" of the teachers' contract, he said.
"We are extremely delighted with the tone she has set with labor-management relations," Almagno said.
Efforts to reach Johnson and Noguera yesterday were unsuccessful.
District weighs changing policy for enrollment
Posted Tuesday, October 1, 2002
The proposed changes would make it easier for children on waiting lists to attend schools in their neighborhood.
BY GINA MACRIS
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- The latest enrollment figures for the city's public schools suggest that the runaway growth of the last decade continues to taper off.
Figures released yesterday show there are 27,401 students in the public schools, an increase of 542, or 2 percent more than last year at this time.
On Oct. 1, 2001, there were 26,859 students in the public schools, 1.6 percent more than the 26,427 enrolled in October 2000.
The slowdown can be best felt in the elementary schools, where the demand for space exceeded the supply in only six schools, according to Victor Capellan, director of the centralized student registration center.
Those six schools -- Anthony Carnevale, Veazie Street, William D'Abate, Pleasant View, Vartan Gregorian, Charles N. Fortes and Webster Avenue -- represent roughly one third of the 16 elementary schools that held lotteries for seats a year ago. There are 26 elementary schools and seven school annexes in the city.
Rising enrollment during the last decade squeezed classroom space and forced the city to bus students out of their neighborhoods to fill vacant seats.
Complaints from parents, who sometimes had elementary-school children in different buildings, grew loud and predictable.
It now appears that several years of school construction, combined with the slowing growth rate, has eased the space shortage at the elementary schools.
Capellan told the School Board last week that there are more seats available for children who want to go to school in their neighborhood. But, he said, that availability might disappear at some schools as the city's population changes.
Most of the new school construction in the last several years has gone into the South Side and West Elmwood, while the number of kindergarten students has been growing in the West End, he said.
Meanwhile, a demand for greater accessibility to neighborhood schools has led to proposed changes in the student assignment plan that would increase the proportion of seats reserved for neighborhood children from 75 percent to 90 percent at the elementary and middle schools.
Another change would create a preference for children living within 1/4-mile of a school, apparently as a result of complaints from parents who live within sight of a school but must put their children on a bus bound for another part of the city.
The proposed changes would also eliminate the three-mile zones used to determine high school enrollment and replace them with open enrollment.
The change would allow students to take advantage of the education programs organized around themes that are offered at the high schools, Capellan said.
At least one member of the City Council, however, has proposed a one-mile circle around Mount Pleasant High School so that youngsters from that section can attend school there.
There are 249 students from the Mount Pleasant area who are on a waiting list at that school. Another 64 students from outside Mount Pleasant also want admission.
Feinstein High School, on the South Side, an area with a high concentration of school-aged children, has 93 neighborhood students and 18 other students on its waiting list.
And the Providence Place Academy downtown, the high school that focuses on business careers, has 106 students on its waiting list.
Capellan noted that even as pressure grows for some students to attend their neighborhood schools, there is a countercurrent propelled by parents who want to choose schools outside their neighborhood.
Some people have suggested that increasing the proportion of seats reserved for neighborhood students would further segretate neighborhoods.
The state Department of Education has approved the proposed increase because of the widespread number of minority students in the city. The DOE has said it will monitor the change closely to ensure it does not violate the schools' federal desegregation plan.
Capellan said it is hardest to give parents their choice of middle schools, because there are fewer of those than there are elementary schools and their locations do not always correspond to neighborhood boundaries.
Parents of middle school students favor three sites over others -- Nathanael Greene, Samuel Bridgham, and the two middle schools at the Springfield Street complex, Capellan said.
There are 35 students from outside the neighborhood on the waiting list for the Springfield Street schools. The waiting list at Bridgham includes 107 neighborhood children and 46 from outside the neighborhood. And at Greene, the outside pressure is fierce, where 218 children from outside the area wait for a seat.There are also 98 neighborhood children on the Bridgham list.
The parents of middle schoolers who appeal school assignments cite academic programs and school safety as reasons for their choices, Capellan said.
Last week, the School Board's vice president, Mary E. McClure, suggested that the board might consider scrapping the neighborhood rules for the middle schools in favor of open enrollment.
Capellan said there will be meetings with parents and community agencies before the revised proposal is put to the School Board for a vote at the end of this month.
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