Editorial

Next round of school consolidations

Posted 4/28/16

For many of us elementary school is where we fall in love with learning for the first time, where we make our first lifelong friends, where we first begin to place ourselves in the world around …

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Editorial

Next round of school consolidations

Posted

For many of us elementary school is where we fall in love with learning for the first time, where we make our first lifelong friends, where we first begin to place ourselves in the world around us.

Our elementary schools have a soft spot in our hearts. Our schools inspire a sense of nostalgia and reminds us all of an easier time. That’s why when we hear about the possibility of our elementary school closing it hits home. We don’t want to lose the place our children, our friends and ourselves have made so many memories.

For Warwick though, it’s necessary. Year after year the district is wasting money to try and improve failing buildings; buildings that more often than not are running at 50 percent capacity, rooms sitting empty of teachers and students.

Already the district’s elementary population is declining by 100 students annually, and come the fall of 2017, when the 6th grade moves to the middle schools, an average of 44 students will be leaving each school. With 16 elementary schools throughout the city, Approximately 700 students will leave the elementary system, leaving even more empty classrooms.

When nearly every school has space available it only makes sense to consolidate, to ensure that our public education system actually reflects the population it serves.

Even with universal kindergarten coming to all of the elementary schools next year, even the population was to increase in the next several years, which every projection doesn’t find plausible, only closing around 3 schools leaves the space for those unknown variables.

Consultants Symmes, Maini, & McKee Associates (SMMA) recommended as many as six schools close for the system to run at a fiscally responsible rate. Warwick though is reducing that number, planning on closing three, technically only two when you consider one of the locations would be refurbished as an early childhood center to replace the Drum Rock Early Childhood Center.

The department is considering the possibility of enrollment shifts and considering class size and space available per student in only trying to run at an average of 85 percent capacity.

As a city we worry about the various programs that have had to be cut across all levels over the years, and yet, many often also protest closing schools. So much of the money being used to keep those schools running could go to reinstating after school programs, to ensure that the city’s children are receiving the best education, with the most up-to-date technology, in the best functioning schools.

As we are seeing with consolidation at the secondary level, with less overhead both in facilities and administration, we can better utilize funds for language and building improvements, as well as bringing the middle schools one to one with Chromebooks. Once completed, we can only expect those savings to continue, benefiting the students’ classroom experience and educational success.

Rather than think of the schools the city may lose, the focus should be on where we would like the savings from consolidation to benefit our students.

We have also seen in the past that when an elementary school closes, children are extremely resilient, having to move to a new school almost no different than moving to a new grade.

Parents want the best education for their children and the best way to do that is ensuring funds are being utilized in a proper way, to make sure your children have the newest textbook, the latest software, the best teachers, not to keep empty classrooms running.

Comments

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  • Justanidiot

    The time has come for Warwick to build one big warehouse for students to house them from ages 5 to 18. Close all the other schools and get rid of 87.5% of the staff. Saves money and teaches the kids from early on that they don't really matter and that the test is on Friday.

    Thursday, April 28, 2016 Report this

  • falina

    Perfect comment.

    Thursday, April 28, 2016 Report this

  • Stella

    How about we build one state of the art Middle/High school campus. A one hundred year building like they way they were built years ago. Do it right, do it once. Then spend enough to maintain it. Warwick residents will see the home values rise as a result. This is not rocket science. Why is it we could build so many schools in the 50 and 60s and now we can't even fix what we have.

    Check out the report from SMMA and take a look at the money that is needed just to bring our sad schools up to current Fire and ADA standards. It is staggering and the result of years of neglect. What are we saying to our children when we send them to these old run down schools,( that we care)? Go to the schools and see for yourself then take the time to see what MA is doing.

    Our facilities are a joke, and don't think the students don't realize it. You could fire all of the teachers and still not have enough money to repair the school. Just float the bonds and do it right , make Warwick schools the best in the state and watch the homes sell. Real Estate 101.

    Friday, April 29, 2016 Report this

  • JohnStark

    "Good schools" are largely a function of test scores. Test scores are a function of parental education levels and income. That's the dirty little secret. You would be hard pressed to find a town in New England with high parental education levels and poor test scores. They don't exist. Warwick's enrollment was brimming in the early-to-mid 70's because families moved here from Providence and Cranston after the war, bought homes, and had families. At the time, you didn't need a college degree to enjoy middle class status, and many of those families had only one income. Warwick today is an older city. If you were one of those kids who graduated from a Warwick high school in the 70's and have a college degree, it's very likely that you've either left Warwick or left RI altogether. If you are highly educated and live in Warwick, it's very unlikely that your kids attend the Warwick public schools. Today's economy demands a high level of education in order to attain economic success, and Warwick has become an economic/educational Rust Belt. Sad.

    Sunday, May 1, 2016 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    Or, Mr. Stark, the tests are skewed to what affluent white snot nosed kids know. Mummy and Daddy drive them to soccer practice, then to private music lesson, then to SAT prep class, and then home so mummy and daddy can correct their mistakes on the kids homework.

    Give these rich kids a test in real world skills: getting their junkie daddy to stop beating mom, feeding their brothers and sisters breakfast and dinner because mom is working two jobs, how not to get sucked into a gang, how to live on 800 calories a day, etc.

    I bet you would see different results.

    When you get a bunch of privileged kids graduating college and creating tests to check on the next generation, people like them are going to do well.

    Monday, May 2, 2016 Report this

  • JohnStark

    idiot: If I understand your point, it is that kids from two-parent families do better on all standardized measures of achievement than those from other arrangements. On that we can agree. We would, however, disagree on two points. First, having a "junkie daddy" is not the "real world", but rather the world of pathology and dysfunction. Most children do not have "junkie daddies", thank God, and to assess the academic skills gleaned from "junkie daddy" parents does little to enhance society. Second, tests are not "skewed" to measure what "affluent white kids know". Do you think there's a mystical boogie-man constructing test items to which only white kids know the answer? Further, sorry to inform you that most individuals constructing standardized tests do not come from privileged backgrounds. Based upon recent results, however, it would appear that these tests do a very accurate job of measuring exactly what they claim to measure (validity), and do so quite consistently (reliability). When kids apply for jobs, they are asked about their literacy, not "junkie daddy" or gang status. And THAT is the real world.

    Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Report this

  • Justanidiot

    Mr Stark,

    Good points. I was painting with broad strokes, but kids learn what they need to survive. if they are in a warm, loving, and supportive household -- they can put effort into learning what is presented in school. If you are just trying to survive, then things that are taught in school just aren't as important.

    Thursday, May 5, 2016 Report this

  • JohnStark

    idiot: And on that, we can certainly agree. But for those kids who do not come from a warm, loving, and supportive household, what's the best way to get them into a warm, loving, and supportive educational environment in which they are surrounded by kids with an interest in academic achievement. I would offer that it is through vouchers, whereby parents (not neighborhoods) determine the best setting for their child. Keep in mind, government-run urban education remains the last vestige of slavery. The time to remove the shackles was about 50 years ago. Unless we wish to continue to make educational slavery more palpable.

    Friday, May 6, 2016 Report this