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Can we just get to it? The Warwick School Department, once a shining star in the state, has become a cauldron of broad and severe underachievement. Academically, the schools are an embarrassment. Especially at the high school level. I haven't heard a comment in a very long time from any member of the school committee relative to academic proficiency, or pervasive lack there of. You have abdicated responsibility and turned a blind eye to measurable outcomes that can only be described as deplorable. And you want additional funding?! Yeah, because $19,000 per student is not nearly enough. Underachievement is infectious and has clearly been contracted by the city's athletic teams, as well. Especially on the boys' side. Success begets success, and there might be more support to retain sports if Tollgate and Pilgrim occasionally were successful while competing against schools of the same size. But with very few exceptions, Warwick's schools compete against much smaller schools. And even then, are broadly unsuccessful. Why? There's either something in Warwick's drinking water that precludes kids from athletic success, or an identity of underachievement that permeates the system. One is fixed with chlorine, the other with wholesale changes that hold both students, teachers, and coaches to a much higher level of expectation.