New school committee, led by Bachus, approves first change

By ETHAN HARTLEY
Posted 1/15/19

By ETHAN HARTLEY The new configuration of the Warwick School Committee has officially commenced, as the three newly-elected members participated in their first official meeting last Thursday evening. The first order of business was to elect the leaders

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New school committee, led by Bachus, approves first change

Posted

he new configuration of the Warwick School Committee has officially commenced, as the three newly-elected members participated in their first official meeting last Thursday evening.

The first order of business was to elect the leaders of the committee. Former School Committee Clerk Karen Bachus was voted in as chairwoman, with newly-elected members Judith Cobden (District 2) and Nathan Cornell (District 3) being voted in as Vice Chair and Clerk respectively.

Bachus then proceeded to appoint members to the various committees, one of which is brand new to the committee this year. The newly-created committee on finance – tasked with providing more targeted school committee oversight into the district’s financial dealings – was populated with newly-elected Kyle Adams (District 1) and Bachus.

As for existing committees, David Testa and Cornell were appointed to the student achievement committee, the HEW (health education and wellness) committee includes Cobden and Bachus, the school building sub-review will include Testa as the school committee representative and Career and Technical Center principal William McCaffrey as the school administrative representative. The policy review committee will consist of Bachus and Cobden.

The only other item on the agenda for the evening was a proposed change to school policy regarding access to buildings. The proposed change would allow school committee members “unsupervised access to all school buildings, shops and facilities forthwith.” It would be expected of school committee members to sign in at the office and show their unique identification badge, and then sign out when they leave, but they would not otherwise need to alert any administrator of their appearance.

“No school committee member should not have access to a building,” said Bachus in her support of the change. “A student, teacher, administrator, everybody else has access. We're responsible for the district. There is no reason to shut us out or make us call in advance.”

Testa took issue with the proposal on multiple fronts, arguing it was an unnecessary policy change that addressed a nonexistent issue. School committee members, he argued, had never been barred from a building to his knowledge. He opined it may be in violation of a Rhode Island statute as well.

“I think having a policy, which is what we're essentially looking to do here, where myself or anyone else on this committee can show up here one day on a Tuesday, knock on the door come in and walk around – I don't think the teachers would want that,” he said. “There's teaching and learning going on in the middle of school days and having us, regardless of our intentions, with unfettered access to come into the buildings and walk around is, I think, disruptive. I think it sends a terrible message and I can't support it.”

Bachus argued that many school principals have already expressed interest in having the new school committee members come into the schools – whether that be to read books to classrooms or simply have a presence in the building – and that “many of them have welcomed me with open arms and said ‘We have nothing to hide’ and they know I'm not going to go over there disrupting things.”

Legal counsel for the committee, Andrew Henneous, said that the policy would not be in violation of Rhode Island law, but that disruptive behavior of a school committee member could be reported to a building principal or the superintendent’s office, which would make its way back to the school committee for potential repercussions to that individual.

Bachus argued that school committee members visiting schools shouldn’t be disruptive as long as school committee members show a rudimentary level of respect and follow the rules outlined in the policy.

“If I want to meet with somebody specific, I will call in advance,” said Bachus. “If I'm coming in because somebody was asking me to come read to their kids or check out their classroom, whatever, I'm going to go in, show my ID and I'm going to sign in and then then I'm going to sign out when I leave. I'm not going to disturb and I'm not going to disrupt. If anybody does that, we're going to have a problem and we're going to have to reevaluate.”

Cornell said in his support of the policy that he felt it would be an important for school committee members to gain unique perspective into the operations of schools, and that if school committee members have to call in advance, “they might prepare things and it just wouldn't be the same.”

“In an organization this size, it's just not good practice,” Testa said in rebuttal. “I think it's pretty obvious that it isn't good practice. This isn't about whether or not someone wants us. All due respect to Mr. Cornell, I don't think if you're going in and walking around on a Tuesday they're going to 'pretty things up,' I just don't understand that. That's a highly conspiratorial view that I don't think has any basis.”

Superintendent Philip Thornton chimed in, recommending that school committee members take caution when thinking about popping into an active classroom without first checking in about what is happening at school, as they may be in the midst of important lessons or test preparations. However, he said having committee members walking around the halls might provide a good contextual understanding.

Those supporting the policy change concurred with Thornton on this point.

“When school committee members go to visit schools in the future, it will be important for us to be prudent and to see, if a classroom is really busy, then we shouldn't go into that classroom,” Cornell said. “But I trust members of the school committee would take that precaution.”

The motion was approved and passed 4-1 with Testa the lone vote opposed.

Comments

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  • Justanidiot

    be prudent teachers, students, and administrators. da skul committee is gonna be skulking around trying to bust you for wasting time and money

    Tuesday, January 15, 2019 Report this

  • Cat2222

    Tackling the tough issues right out of the gate, eh?

    Wednesday, January 16, 2019 Report this