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My name is Mike Pierce. I teach at Veterans Jr. High School, and it is my picture at the top of this article. I could not be more livid about the portrayal that Mr. Howell has made of the shape of my classroom and the shape of the school.

Before I continue on, please understand that this is not about the principal, staff, or teachers at Vets. Everyone is doing the best they can in the abominable situation the central school administration has left us in.

If you could see the other side of my classroom, you would see that I am teaching in a home-economics room. There is barely enough room for my 28 homeroom students because the kitchen islands, cabinets, dishwasher, etc... that were supposed to be removed from the classroom were left because they ran out of time. Next door, the science teacher has a tiny classroom that they are turning into a science classroom by adding sinks and a backsplash. I say turning into because it is not done yet- she and every other science teacher in the building are going to be taken out of the classrooms for two weeks so they can finish installing the sinks. When it is done, the science teachers will be expected to run labs on rolling tables with flip-up tops. Picture hot plates with glass beakers full of boiling water, powered by extension cords running across the classroom floor. Now put 27 7th grade science students in a tiny classroom with the flip top rolling tables, the glass beakers, boiling water, and criss-crossed extension cords. A first class safety hazard.

Travel down the hallway and you will find a tech-ed teacher with a room full of computers. The computers have no software on them. Oh, and there is no power running to them either. These students are sitting and waiting.

You could also visit the computer teacher who is sitting in a room with no computers- because they haven't been ordered yet. These students are sitting and waiting.

You could visit the robotics teacher that has no robotics kits, because only half as many were ordered as necessary. These students are sitting and waiting.

You could go observe the broken heating system that has had nothing whatsoever done to it.

You could go observe a classroom for special needs students, that has inadequate space, equipment, and staffing.

You could observe any classroom and see that in the rooms the walls were not repaired or painted.

You could observe almost all of the fancy technology that has been promised has yet to be installed. Those "Promethean Boards" - All still in boxes somewhere.

I could go on, and on, and on.

Do you know what I and most of the other teachers in the building spent part of the day doing on Tuesday, when we were supposed to be getting ready for students? Walking around the building trying to locate what storeroom or closet the moving company had dumped our textbooks into. That's right. No one could tell us, because no one knew. Just like on the first day I needed to call the office and realized we had no list of phone numbers, and no one knew how to use our fancy new Cox phones. Thank god no one needed the nurse. No one could even tell me where my students could go to the bathroom on the first day.

Once again, Principal Tober and the building administrators,, the teachers, the tech workers, and the staff are all making Herculean efforts to get this school year off the ground. It is not our fault that the school committee and the school administration tried to complete a year's worth of construction work in 2 months, ordered improper equipment and furniture for the buildings,and made curriculum changes that were ill-advised. It is not our fault that the money was spent on making things look pretty, rather than making things functional.

It will be the job of all of us at Vets to take the horrific mess the superintendent and school committee have put us in and make it work. We will all work together within this building to make this happen.

I have never seen anything like it. This building was in no way ready to be opened to students, and anyone who went past the auditorium or the main office would know that. I challenge anyone to actually explore the school and see what is really going on. Just go past the office and press the button for the elevator. From the outside it has been painted to appear new and modern. When it opens, you will see something that looks like it came out of a horror movie. You will be shocked- guaranteed. No one uses it, because it has been known to trap people. Rather than fix it, the district administration chose to paint the door.

Mr. Howell, I told you these things as you stood in my classroom. I encouraged you to investigate these serious and openly apparent problems throughout the building. You told me that you already knew about some of them. Then you went and wrote a fluff pieceabout how wonderful everything is. I am appalled. These are our children that are in this building. These are our tax dollars that have been squandered. You are a reporter, first and foremost. You should be ashamed of yourself.

School committee member Karen Bachus was the only school official that I know of that went farther than the lobby. She spent hours at Vets, going from classroom to classroom, talking to teachers and taking notes on everything she saw and heard. She could not believe that Pilgrim and Vets had been opened in the condition that they are in.

Sincerely,

Michael Pierce

Teacher at Veteran's Junior High School

Parent of Warwick students

Taxpayer