Three and a half short months ago on November 2nd a small percentage of the voting community in East Providence turned out on Election Day. Those votes held great sway in who would win the school committee and city council seats. “Townies” as some locals like to call themselves knew that this was a race between education and tax reformers, and the public sector unions.
The local teachers’ union leadership and their parent union NEA-RI was intent on taking control of the school committee and city council.
Tension in the city was palpable. This day would turn out to be a decisive day for a local model of education reform taking shape in one of Rhode Island’s school districts.
The unions won the day with a wide margin of victory. Every one of their hand-picked and well-funded candidates took the school committee by storm. To suggest that the incumbent school committee was carpet bombed is putting it mildly.
Would the reform measures that had begun in the school department be allowed to continue and flourish or would they die? Would the union-elect school committee members continue the path of encouraging the superintendent to meet his goal to build a district-wide culture of achievement? Or, would they turn back the hands of time to the days of maintaining the status quo to keep labor peace?
But first, here’s the back-story that explains the union’s political pay-back.
The ousted school committee had refused to continue the past practice of illegal deficit spending. They faced an approximate $6ml deficit. They were faced with an expiring contract with their teachers that obligated money the city did not have to spend. The students worked with text books that were ten years old. Twenty-first century technology was non-existent in the classroom. Teachers were treated as inter-changeable widgets. Excellent teachers and ineffective teachers were working in classrooms next door to each other. Management systems were non-existent. Special needs students were sent out of district as a matter of course.
That school committee was determined to turn the school district around. No more illegal deficit spending. They had one focus. Provide an excellent education by aligning educational improvements with their spending. In other words, re-allocate funds to meet students’ needs and do so within the financial means of the taxpayers.
They needed a new contract with the union that contained at least $3ml in savings. Not cost avoidance, not deferred savings, real savings. They were interested in fiscal and educational accountability.
Ultimately a new contract was signed long after the prior contract expired. But only after that school committee unilaterally reduced salaries and implemented an employee-cost-share of 20% toward health insurance among other changes. The union took them to court. The school committee prevailed.
They hired a new superintendent. Dr. Mario Cirillo was charged with the hard work of restructuring school management systems. He recruited the talent and re-aligned his human capital to provide educational and fiscal accountability. He was intent on sparking a new day for East Providence students by inspiring a culture of achievement in the adults who worked for him as well as the students they were tasked with educating. He raised the bar of expectation. He delivered new community partnerships to serve the special needs population. He brought the grants and the technology into the schools. He overhauled the career and technical center. He introduced a model for an evaluation based pay for performance program.
East Providence was set on a path of greatness for its students and teachers. The superintendent made extraordinary gains in the midst of financial stress and union push-back.
So, what path has the new, union-elect school committee chosen?
On Friday, February 18th, the school committee is holding a special meeting at the East Providence City Hall at 7pm to decide if they will fire the superintendent and others affiliated with the ousted school committee simply because they can.
Having observed this school committee in action, it is clear that the union’s agenda and the school committee’s agenda are one and the same. For East Providence, it may be back to mediocrity with adults’ interests first and students’ needs second.
If East Providence residents care about the game of dirty politics played at students’ expense then they’ll be at that meeting. Maybe non-residents will be there, too.
Comments
Bravo!
What planet are you on? School function better when the Teachers are supported. When they are forced to work under conditions that are less than desireable it impacts education. School climate is severly impacted by how the teachers are treated. When the administration is abusive, as it was with the previous school committee, both teachers and students are hurt!
"Special needs students were sent out of district as a matter of course"
I work as a teacher in East Providence and for the last two years have been working with Special Needs students in my school. They are partially in inclusion and also in their own rooms. They share the building with regular ed students. CHECK YOUR FACTS!
Thank you for your comment.
I did not state that all special need students were sent out of district. In fact, if we look at the out of district costs we will see that it is in the top 3 largest expenses of the school district.
Dr. Cirillo reached out to Bradley Hospital. As a result, the E.P./Bradley partnership was formed, bringing many kiids back into the school district..
"On Friday, February 18th, the school committee is holding a special meeting at the East Providence City Hall at 7pm to decide if they will fire the superintendent and others affiliated with the ousted school committee simply because they can."
This meeting was also scheduled because the adminstration for the School District gave the SC a list of teachers for layoffs only hours before their meeting. They needed time to review these before acting. Partial facts and omision of information show your biases.
Indeed, the school committee made clear that they were going to look at administrators contracts before they took-up the lay-off notices.
As we all know, lay-off notices must go out before March 1st per RI law. That date/deadline is problematic for all school districts because no district knows what the local and state aid will be before March 1. And so, it is SOP for lay-off notices to go out by state deadline. It is always the hope that those teachers are recalled when bufgets are set.
The administrators contracts were a separate and apart from the standard protocol of submitting a lay-oo list to the committee. That list was used as a red herring.
And "EXPERT" Ms. Blais, who is or was employed by the Kinder law firm is wrong once again!!!
This school committee did not meet to fire the superintendent! In fact Mrs. Rossi said on the record that Dr. Cirillo has their 100% support.
And let us not forget Ms. Blais involvement with the Education Partnership which missappropriated the Fienstein scholarship monies!
Thank you for commenting. I am pleased that you have found and read my articles. Have you read them all/?
I am also thrilled to have the opportunity to "chat" about education reform.
However, do keep the dialogue on a polite level, if you don't mind. I certainly have not forgotten that my position was lost when the Ed. Partnership went belly-up. I had the opportunity to research and write about public education in RI. As I recall, that research was widely disseminated and much of its content is most timely!
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