LETTERS

Reason to delay school consolidation

Posted 12/12/17

To the Editor: On October 15, 1952 the Dedication of the John Brown Francis Elementary School was held. In attendance was the City of Warwick Mayor Joseph Mills, as well as the leadership of the Warwick School Department. The keynote speaker was Frank

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
LETTERS

Reason to delay school consolidation

Posted

To the Editor:

On October 15, 1952 the Dedication of the John Brown Francis Elementary School was held. In attendance was the City of Warwick Mayor Joseph Mills, as well as the leadership of the Warwick School Department. The keynote speaker was Frank Hail Brown. During his speech Frank Hail Brown described why his family supported the construction of John Brown Francis Elementary School. His son Henry A. L. Brown, the son of Frank and Alice attended the dedication ceremony in 1952 when he was a sophomore at the University of Rhode Island. The information in this letter come from the personal papers of Henry Brown a local historian of the City of Warwick. The land that is currently John Brown Francis elementary school was donated to the City of Warwick by Frank Hail Brown, as the trustee for the estate of Alice Francis Brown. The land was donated on July 22, 1950.

Frank Hail Brown stated during his dedication speech at the dedication of John Brown Francis Elementary School that the school was built on land donated by the Brown family "for the comfort and convenience, of the teachers and scholars, a school devoted to elementary education of the children of Warwick."

Currently, the Warwick School Committee is planning on repurposing John Brown Francis elementary school as a preschool for the city of Warwick. This proposed change would force the students that live in Gov. Francis Farms and neighboring areas to be sent to elementary schools that are outside of their neighborhood. This relocation will cause students to have to cross Warwick Avenue, one of the busiest travel routes in Warwick.

Tonight the Warwick School Committee will be debating a proposal to delay the closing of John Brown Francis, Randall Holden and the John Wickes elementary schools for two years. During the last two years the City of Warwick has seen the closing of similar Gorton Junior high school and the conversion of Warwick Veterans high school into a new junior high school. Next year Warwick Veterans and Winman Jr. high school will be converted into middle schools by transferring all the sixth-grade elementary students in the Warwick school system.

School committee member Eugene Nadeau has proposed the two-year delay in the closing of the elementary schools to allow the Warwick school system to adjust to the new middle school system.

The conversion of Warwick Veterans into a junior high school has been anything but smooth. Eugene Nadeau's proposal would allow for an adjustment period to assess the progress of this radical change in our school system.

As the Councilman for Ward 1, I am in complete support with the proposal that the Warwick School Committee will be considering on December 12, 2017 at the current Warwick Veterans junior high school.

Our city has seen enough crisis and chaos in the Warwick School System in the past few years. A period of stability is needed to change the atmosphere in the schools and allow for the orderly construction necessary for the schools to accept the middle school students. It is time to take a breath and allow the students and parents to adjust to this change in their day-to-day life.

Rick Corley

Councilman Ward 1

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here