hard deadlines

Sylvia Wedge and Duncan Ingraham.

The Portsmouth School Committee spent time tonight thanking our great community volunteers, then heard from committees evaluating Prudence Island options and the school department's technology plan. About 30 community members were in the PHS library when the session kicked off on a very high note, as the School Committee voted unanimously to recognize the work of Duncan Ingraham and a cadre of Raytheon volunteers.

"We are enormously fortunate to have the kind of community where people step forward," said Superintendent Susan Lusi, thanking Mr. Duncan Ingraham and Trend Realty, who sponsored the "Summer Quest" learning program which made colorful, fun workbooks available last summer for all first through fourth graders. Designed to help address the proficiency slippage that occurs over the summer when kids are out of school, feedback on the program had been received from over 200 parents, and "reviews have been very favorable," she said.

Also on hand to receive the thanks of the Committee and the school department were volunteers from Raytheon, who have been coming into the high school — and this year, the middle school — to tutor in math and science, a program that reached 140 students in the past year. "They have been a boon to our community," said Assistant Superintendent Colleen Jermain, "And have provided life-long lessons from people out in the workforce."

Then the easy part of the evening was over.

Kate Hibbard

Kate Hibbard of the Prudence Island Working committee shared a Powerpoint deck with the School Committee outlining their work on options for the island's one-room schoolhouse. I will admit upfront that I have a soft spot for this charming little school (and not just because they have an unbeatable ratio of computers to students. If I counted right when I was out there, it's greater than 1:1). But the challenge of keeping it open is daunting, despite the efforts the working committee made to explore creative options.

Hibbard ran through the possibilities. Could it be turned into a charter school? Might open new funding options, but a big undertaking. A magnet school? Complicated rules, but again, perhaps some Federal money. One contentious possibility is to split off a Prudence Island School District, a separate pre-K through 12 entity. But it would take Town Council and State lege action, and would require costly infrastructure (superintendent, principal) and it is unclear that the additional revenues they might be eligible for (as a rural district) would offset those costs.

Other options include increasing the span of grade levels, which would lower per-pupil cost, a leaseback on the building (an idea discussed almost a year ago), simply keeping the status quo and hoping for the best, private tutoring, and an intriguing notion to set up an independent endowment fund, as Westerly has done to supplement school operating expenses. There was involved discussion of the legal requirements and the practical matters of funding such an endowment. Next steps: the PI group will circulate their presentation and a workshop will be scheduled with the School Committee to further explore which options might be worth pushing forward.

Rose Muller

Then Rose Muller, the Portsmouth School Department IT Director, and Gail Darmody, Technology Integration Specialist, presented the new five-year PSD Technology Plan, drafted over the past several months by the PSD tech committee. (Full disclosure: I am one of the community volunteers on this committee.)

The tech plan is a formal document required by the RI Department of Education, and Muller provided an overview of the areas it covers: planning and budgeting, policy and inventory, professional development and curriculum. This was not, she stressed, just checking some boxes on a form. "It's a living document," she said, and a way to "engage the community."

She reviewed the basics of Portsmouh's school infrastructure: "There are 7 buildings linked in a wide area network by an ATM cloud, with 15 servers, 1,200 workstations, 300 printers, 3,200 users, and too many software programs to count." And her team? Darmody, Michelle Medeiros the Computer Support Specialist, Jim Peluso the new Network Administrator, and two support techs. Plus an untold amount of pitching-in from Library/Media specialists, teachers, and staff who help keep things running.

Muller said her group deals with over 150 tech requests each month, many of which are urgent "break-and-fix" problems, which keep her team "concentrating on Band-Aids," instead of higher-value project work. Part of the tech plan was a vision for a more fully staffed IT function, which would have technology integration specialists at each level, and a database administrator to support the 16 major databases that run everything from student records to school lunches.

Gail Darmody spoke to the challenges of integrating technology into classroom instruction. While Portsmouth does a good job now, she said, "It's not systemic — teachers who may not feel quite as comfortable may not use it very often." That must be addressed to meet the technology goals set by No Child Left Behind and the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). The plan describes a methodical approach of surveying the entire community to evaluate technology knowledge and gaps, and creating targeted training. "Going forward," said Darmody, "We need a professional development plan that incorporates technical literacy skill development for all faculty, admin, and clerical staff within the district."

Muller reviewed the hardware and software components to the plan. With the growing emphasis on Web-based services in all disciplines, the district needs to invest in increased bandwidth. That would also allow the schools to take advantage of new Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) to replace an aging internal phone system and save money, Muller said. The plan also specifies minimum standards for technology that teachers can rely on: each classroom should have 2-4 working computers, with an LCD projector for every 3-4 classrooms. Muller stressed the need for a secure, stable funding source (rather than the precarious IT warrant system) and urged moving key elements from the tech plan into operational line items.

School committee member Dick Carpender praised the work of the team, and stressed the importance of technology in the curriculum. "It's becoming a globally competitive technical age," said Carpender, adding that Portsmouth needs to budget "for what's required in today's age to educate our students."

The technology plan was approved unanimously by the school committee, and will be available on the school department Web site shortly.