School Committee: Votes for Resolution on State Pension Reform

The Coventry School Committee voted, 3-0,  to approve a resolution on upcoming pension reform by the Rhode Island General Assembly. The committee had tabled the matter last meeting.

The School Committee Resolution on pension reform, similar to those already adopted by several other municipalities reads in part: “Rhode Island’s state and employee and teacher retirement system is underfunded by $6 billion, employer share of retirement costs will increase to 20% of payroll in FY 2013, or 60% over the FY 2012 contribution and FY 2013 retirement costs will force over half of Rhode Island’s communities to exceed the property tax cap…”

“It is our responsibility to pass a resolution,” said District 4 Committee member, Nancy Sprengelmeyer. “One of our goals as a committee is to be as fiscally responsible as we can be. Reform is necessary.”

“Without reform, what possibly can happen is a lot worse,” said Thomas Heffernan of District 1. “We would have to budget an extra $3 million next year and $6 million after that.”

“Our duty is to maintain a quality education and see that our staff is well-compensated,” said Chairperson Katherine Patenaude, of District 3. “But we only have so much revenue and too much has been promised (for pensions and retirement). This might squeeze government down next to nothing. Some towns could go bankrupt over this. And we can expect no growth for the next ten years unless our economy gets much better. This is a sad situation.”

The committee voted, 3-0, not to approve a measure to hire Johnson Controls for an energy-efficiency project after the firm performed an energy audit of the entire school system. The project would have cost the town $2.5 million a year for 18 years, pending bond approval, for making school-wide improvements.

JCI officials had said the project would have resulted in $2,560,930 in facility improvements overall, or over $200,000 a year in energy savings guaranteed by JCI.

“I was not comfortable whatsoever with the project,” said Heffernan. “The energy audit was very good and identified a lot of areas where we needed work. But it was lacking in details and had about 100 pages listing every light bulb in the district. I was having a problem putting $2.5 million into this every year instead of roofs. I would rather have taxpayers decide on a resolution to pay for roofs and other athletic improvements. That way we can get a better return on our investment.”

In an hour-long presentation, Coventry HS Principal Michael Hobin outlined what the high school is doing to help teachers pass requirements set by RIDE for improving overall education for students and teacher evaluations in each school.

“Our teachers are allied in working toward common school goals,” said Hobin. “One of the most important parts is formative assessment for testing before, during or after instruction. Teachers are working to ensure all students will have successfully completed three common tasks in each full-year course. And they are looking for ways to get every kid engaged in learning.”

Other topics covered included parent forums, school safety and a discussion on ways to motivate students to complete their graduation portfolios on time. “We have a parent forum on Thursday, Nov. 10 at the high school to discuss the use and abuse of prescription drugs,” said Hobin. “We are pretty excited about having a good turnout and it would disappoint me if we didn’t.”

On other matters Hobin said:

* “We want to acknowledge students who exceed the standard on the Capstone project and the graduation portfolio.

* We are moving to electronic transcripts. Now when schools ask for a student’s transcript, we can send it to them immediately with no delay or without waiting for mail. We would also love to go to posting grades online like many other schools do in password-protected accounts. We still need a parent portal.

* We offer online learning courses for students who need to recover credits. It is a full course that takes 60 hours and requires mastery by each student and those who take it have told me it is not easy. We are working toward credit attainment courses on line and maybe virtual learning in the future.”

Hovey concluded “academics are moving along and the facility is in decent shape. Physical plant problems are still an issue, but we fix a problem now as we go along and that seems to be working well.”

The New England Associations of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is in its first year of a 5-year accreditation process for Coventry HS, said Hobin. “We have four years left and there is still a need for significant funding for facility concerns.”

Deborah Gist, State of Rhode Island Commissioner of Education, turned down a request from Superintendent Convery for a three-day reduction in the number of school days for the 2011-2012 school year after tropical storm Irene closed the schools for a week. “We opened early and were greatly affected by the storm because we had no electricity and then the high school was used for a storm shelter,” said Convery. “We are now scheduled to finish school on June 19, depending if we get hit by other storms.”

In personnel matters, committee members unanimously approved the following: certified (maternity) leave of absence for Ann Sansone, Reading Teacher, Blackrock School (2/13/12-4/2/12); certified resignation for purpose of retirement, Kimberly Marchwiki, Math Teacher, Feinstein Middle School (effective 11/11/11); coaching resignation, Lauren Lafond, Assistant Girls Gymnastic Coach, Coventry  HS and affirmed a coaching  recommendation from the Superintendent to appoint Nicholas O’Connell, to Head  Wrestling Coach, Feinstein Middle School.

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