Letters

Let’s unite for a successful school system

Posted 11/3/15

To the Editor:

My name is Barbara Bazarnick, I am the mother of four WPS children and have been a Warwick resident all my life. On Tuesday, 10/13 I attended a School Committee meeting and, …

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Letters

Let’s unite for a successful school system

Posted

To the Editor:

My name is Barbara Bazarnick, I am the mother of four WPS children and have been a Warwick resident all my life. On Tuesday, 10/13 I attended a School Committee meeting and, unsurprisingly, it was packed with many angry teachers. Angry, apparently due to lack of a contract, and for the way the previous public meeting was abruptly adjourned during public comment.

Listening to public comments during the 10/13 meeting, there was a lot of finger pointing and negative comments about the SC were heard during the business part of their meeting. The word “respect” came up and I found it ironic that no one in the audience seemed to be respectful or respecting different opinions at all. The angry crowd, led by the WTU President, was chanting “DO YOUR JOB”. This chat irritated me because I believe the SC members are doing their jobs. Keep in mind that these men and women are there to help with honest effort; this is a second job for most of them with very little pay and rarely any appreciation. A fractured community and negative mocking does nothing to improve our schools.

Reality today is that we have federal guidelines dictating what students must learn and unions telling teachers what they can and cannot do, neither of which seem to do much good for our kids. These challenges are compounded by some students lacking basic manners or the willingness to listen to teachers; to me, this is a recipe for disaster. My mother was one of the finest teachers I’ve known and she taught me to always respect other perspectives- this is what’s called for right now during these tense times.

I feel strongly that things need to change, more than just a couple of clauses in the teacher’s contract but a system reboot. Rip up the current contract and start fresh to build one that deals with the realities of these contemporary educational challenges. The contract that expired on 8/31/15 is 59 pages long and filled with legalese- I got a headache just trying to understand it! We need to simplify. The union’s job is to protect employee rights, this is understandable, but that job shouldn’t be to harbor undeserving teachers, they should support teachers who want to teach with passion and grace and there are many. The current structure of teacher pensions and pay is obsolete in today’s day and age. Teaching is one of the most demanding and important jobs in our society, I believe that deserving teachers should be well paid but our students deserve excellence in the classroom in return. Let’s change the status quo, make this system stronger and more progressive for our future teachers and students.

Finally, Warwick citizens should be outraged by the fact that, through these tumultuous times, our mayor is nowhere to be found. He seems to have no interest in compensating his teachers or his schools. I would love to see our teachers unite and bring some passion to a City Council meeting supporting the School Committee- help them help you! This message may fall on deaf ears but I hope people can see that there is no right or wrong here, something is broken and we need to fix it- together. Let’s stand united and get what we all need- to be a successful, thriving school system again.

Barbara Bazarnick

Warwick

Comments

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  • JohnStark

    Ms. Bazarnick, Cogent comments and a few questions:

    1. Would you support a phasing out of public sector pensions for, say, workers under age 35 and replacing it with a matching defined contribution plan?

    2. In making the system "more progressive", would you support a voucher system under which Warwick's children could attend whatever school best met their needs, be it public, private, or parochial?

    3. I do not know Scott Avedisian, but the notion that teachers and schools are not being compensated is patently absurd. Warwick's teachers are some of the highest paid in the state, and taxpayers are funding the schools to the tune of just under $18,000 per student.

    Tuesday, November 3, 2015 Report this

  • Norm88

    Ms. Bazarnick,

    In an ideal world you are 100% correct but that is not the world we live in if it were the WSC and WTU would have acted like adults and negotiated out of the public forum but both chose not to do so.

    As for your “ideas” Mr. Stark here are my thoughts:

    1. Would you support a phasing out of public sector pensions for, say, workers under age 35 and replacing it with a matching defined contribution plan? I could not agree more with this idea but as you know the folks on smith hill will not buy into this idea anytime soon….

    2. In making the system "more progressive", would you support a voucher system under which Warwick's children could attend whatever school best met their needs, be it public, private, or parochial? Again this is an issue that would be decided at the State level and not local and this would make it an option in every city and town. Twelve states and the District of Columbia have voucher programs which are run by the states. Many of them are restricted to low-income families. And lets not forget both the State and Federal Constructional issues this raises. http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/voucher-law-comparison.aspx

    3. As for the just under $18000 I agree its high but I would like to see the break down and how much goes to the “management” end which is very top heavy.

    Wednesday, November 4, 2015 Report this

  • JohnStark

    Norm,

    The reason the folks on Smith Hill can't get behind any common sense proposal when it comes to public education is that they are beholden to the NEA and AFT, both of whom are chiefly responsible for the demise of the very system they purport to defend. The Education Blob remains far more invested in retaining the structural status quo than educating kids. Couldn't agree more on the "management" comment, most of whom add nothing to the classroom experience of students.

    btw, teachers would be much, much better off at retirement with a defined contribution plan. If I were a teacher, I'd be demanding that such a plan be explored.

    Thursday, November 5, 2015 Report this

  • richardcorrente

    Dear JohnStark, Norm88, and Barbara Bazarnick,

    I have met with many of the school dept. leaders and the heads of the teachers union as well. I find the greatest area of common ground is "Transparency". Everyone agrees that if the people paying the tab, the taxpayers, were better informed, there would be less secrecy, less rumor, and less innuendo. We agree that we have a system that's broken. We don't even have the City Council reading the changes in the school budget until a day AFTER they pass it. In my administration, that won't happen. In my administration, the schoolteachers won't be working without a contract unless we have met over 100 times with no progress at all. I am a person who finds solutions, not a person who ignores solutions. The union leaders seem to me to be the same kind of sincere and persistent people. We may not agree on everything but I sense they won't quit until we have a contract that we can all accept. I promise you; I won't quit until we do either! Feel free to hold me and the school union accountable. I will as well. Count on us.

    Happy Thanksgiving

    Richard Corrente

    Democrat for Mayor - 2016

    Friday, November 6, 2015 Report this

  • markyc

    The problems with the Warwick School System have been occurring for years. Warwick's school system is similar to Cranston's. Similar student enrollment, however Cranston runs their system with a smaller budget. The Warwick SC should have been addressing the decline in student enrollment well before now. With more buildings operating it involves higher costs to manage the system. Now, the SC is scrambling at the last minute to implement school consolidation at the secondary level by next September. On top of that there is a new superintendent. Plus the Mayor/City Council doesn't trust the SC. To a typical outsider, Warwick would not be a school system one might want to relocate to for the average family. The SC is involved in teacher contract negotiations as well as consolidation at the elementary school level down the road. The new superintendent has stated that he would like to upgrade some of the buildings to a more pleasant environment(painting, boilers, etc.) & possibly relocating lockers from Aldrich & Gorton to Pilgrim. The Governor/RI GA will also likely be implementing a new education funding formula & with a declining enrollment & a tight budget, this may not work out well for Warwick. All of these issues, as well as unforeseen ones, will be difficult for Warwick's School System to overcome, at least in the short term.

    Monday, November 9, 2015 Report this