SK School Committee Reacts To Complaints

SOUTH KINGSTOWN - After numerous comments and blog postings by community members and teachers about the School Committee’s transparency in the last year, Chairwoman Maureen Cotter attempted to set the record straight during Tuesday night’s meeting.

A communication breakdown between the School Committee, teachers, and community members has been a year in the making and can be attributed to difficult year in politics for South Kingstown’s schools. Renegotiating a contract – as South Kingstown’s teachers’ union did in 2011 – is difficult in any year, let alone in one where a recession crippled budgets and the state’s failing pension system threaten to compact already difficult financial times.

The state Department of Education also contributed to an adversarial relationship between the committee and its teachers last year when it pushed through several mandates under its Better Education Plan that undermined faculty tenure.

Whatever the turmoil, before the public commentary section at every School Committee meeting, Cotter reminds the audience that individuals
cannot exceed three minutes each of commentary, that the agenda item is limited to a total of 30 minutes, and that “this is not the time to engage in a question-and-answer dialogue.”

On at least two occasions in the last year at highly-attended meetings the committee has voted to double the allotted time limit for public commentary – once during the debate over the legality of theand once when the committee pink slipped three special
education teachers earlier this year.

“I usually read the same protocol, but I will add a little,” Cotter said on Tuesday night. “The School Committee meets in public as required by law for the purpose of taking action on matters for which School Committee
is responsible. It consists of action by School Committee members, administrators, and we invite individuals. School Committee meetings are meetings held in public, but they are not [meetings] with the public, though we do invite comments from community.”

The School Committee also invites written comments and questions by stakeholders and community members to be responded to at a later
date.

Despite the negativity, Michelle Laurent, the vice president of the South Kingstown teachers’ union, told the committee that gains were being made
in improving the districts faculty-School Committee relationship.

“This year the South Kingstown teachers were represented by a group of people on the Teacher Evaluation Committee as well as the Personnel Assessment Committee and we worked monthly [with administrators and School Committee members],” Laurent said. “I think a lot of good work and thoughtful work came out of those committees because we worked as partners throughout the year. It was difficult work and it’s not completely resolved, but we will continue to work together.”

One community member in particular, Jonathan Daly Labelle, has been vocal about the School Committee communication issue, bringing his
concerns over transparency forward to the Town Council on several occasions.

“It makes me uncomfortable, it makes community members uncomfortable about how the School Committee is run in general and about how the district is run in general,” Labelle said, when he questioned why Cotter
also chaired two of the district’s subcommittees – the Accountability and
Professional Development committees.

“There is a lot of control in one hand.”

In other business, Supt. Kristen Stringfellow recognized 12 of the district’s teachers who were nominated to compete for the state title of teacher of the year. Eventually, South Kingstown will select one teacher to represent the town.

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