hard deadlines

Dick Carpender, current chair of the School Committee's Finance subcommittee, sent me this over the weekend for publication (a version of this appeared in the Saturday Newport Daily News.)

Fellow Portsmouth Voters:
In a recent Letter to the Editor, Marilyn King discusses the school system in Portsmouth and what her experience would bring to the Committee. There are several misstatements that require clarification and correction so that the citizens of Portsmouth have accurate information.

Statement — "How can we negotiate a contract in good faith with NEA Portsmouth after giving the superintendent a 16% pay raise?"

Fact — The increase in the Superintendents base pay is 7.6%. In addition an advanced degree stipend of $4,550 dollars was added to her contract to make it consistent with the Portsmouth NEA Teachers and Administrators Contracts. This compensation package now places the Superintendent just below the State average for Superintendents. Also, the fact is the Superintendent's total percent increase over the last 3 years lags significantly behind the teachers.

Statement — "Morale must be at an all time low since teachers are being told that money is not available."

Fact — At the staff orientation last week morale was very high with one teacher saying, "she is pumped about this year."

Statement — "Teachers are being told money is not available, resulting in layoffs, increased teacher load and no pay raises for some teachers."

Fact — All teachers received a pay raise in the current contract year. Steps 1 through 9 received raises between 4.2 and 6.4 percent while Step 10 teachers received 3.1. The teachers agreed to give up the additional cost of living increase. No teacher went without.

Statement — "I pledge to give teachers a fair and equitable contract within our Town’s ability to pay. It will not take a Caruolo action to ratify a teacher contract."

Fact — A Caruolo action has absolutely nothing to do with the ratification of a teacher contract. Caruolo actions have to do with whether or not the School Department is appropriately funded to run a legal school system.

Statement — "The School Committee looked far and wide to find a qualified Ph.D.-educated Superintendent."

Fact — The School Committee looked far and wide to find a qualified superintendent. They found one in Sue Luis who just happened to have a PhD. A PhD was not a requirement.

Statement — "We find ourselves hiring outside consultants to do the various jobs that we know the superintendent is capable of doing"

Fact — While the superintendent is extremely qualified and capable there are a several concerns in this area. The first is time; the superintendent already puts in 50- to 60-hour work weeks. Secondly, internal resources are sometimes too close to the action and don’t have all the required skill sets. Third, credibility; these consultants were engaged at a time when the school department was going through some difficult times. Any report done internally would not have been believed. Finally, some of the outside consultants referenced were hired when high-level positions in the school department were vacant for an extended period of time.

Statement — "The expense of Prudence Island School is merely the cost of one teacher and utilities."

Fact — This statement ignores the costs of transportation, insurance, extracurricular subs, supplies, professional development days, and maintenance beyond the scope of what volunteers can do. The budgeted cost this year is $90,957 with a per pupil cost of $30,319.

All members of the sitting committee want to keep Prudence open and that is why we have worked with the Town Council over the last 2 years to do that. However, our responsibility is to the entire community and at some time it may not be fiscally possible to keep it open due the current State and Local financial situation. Sometimes as a committee member you need to make difficult decisions even though it may not be what you want to do in your heart.

E. Richard Carpender
Portsmouth School Committee

Former School Committee member and current candidate for Town Council, Dave Croston, sent out this e-mail over the weekend and gave me permission to repost it here.

**PLEASE FORWARD**

As a parent, and not a candidate, I am very concerned about the School Committee race this Tuesday. As an endorsed Democratic candidate it is against the standard to speak out against our slate, but this morning I decided I must. I, personally, urge you to cast your vote on Tuesday for Sylvia Wedge and Terri Cortvriend and no one else. A no vote is better than a random vote! Sylvia and Terri have done a remarkable job in difficult transitory times — they deserve your support! Sylvia and Terri will continue to stand-up for our children and push our strained system as far as possible.

Over the past month I have come to disagree with two of the Democratic endorsed candidates — to a point I think the Committee was duped. While I am not on the Town Committee, I respect the majority of its members. Their endorsement of Angela Volpicelli and Marilyn King I simply can not support. When Sylvia, Terri and I ran four years ago, we attended School Committee meetings for almost one year prior to the election. We learned the issues and the ways of the School Committee, Angela and Marilyn have not.

Their answers to written questions for hard deadlines were incomplete and vague (at best), their answers at the PCC Forum surprising, and their answers at the Newport Daily News show shocking. Angela and Marilyn either lack the knowledge of the stress the System is under or they simply intend to reduce the growth of the school budget outright. The fact that they were and are against a Caruolo action tells me they are unwilling to stand up for our children. The use of broad platitudes and incorrect factual data in presentations is disconcerting and raises questions as to their intentions. School Committee members need to be open to change and the exploration of all options. Take it from someone who knows, the School Committee is the toughest elected position in Portsmouth.

Please consider carefully your vote on Tuesday. Most importantly: get out to vote, get your family out to vote, an help others. Please feel free to circulate this email.

Thank You and sorry for the intrusion!

Dave Croston

The weather turned out to be perfect, and over 100 supporters gathered today at the Portuguese-American Club for the annual Portsmouth Democratic Town Committee clambake. Senator Jack Reed had some chowder and spoke to the group, urging everyone to get out and vote in the primary on Tuesday. State Sen. Chuck Levesque, State Reps Ray Gallison and Amy Rice, and Dems from the Council and School Committee were on hand for the afternoon of clamcakes and lively political talk. I also spotted Newport City Councilor Jeanne-Marie Napolitano, and state legislature candidate Jay Edwards, running unopposed to represent the Northern slice of Portsmouth.

Sen. Jack Reed, Marge Levesque, Rich Gottlieb.

The afternoon started off with delicious clamcakes and chowder at about 1pm, and Town Council President Dennis Canario was the caller for the auction. Rich Gottlieb and School Committee member Marge Levesque had collected hundreds of dollars of donated items from local businesses (take a look here, and please patronize them!) We got into a bidding war with Jack's pediatrician, Dr. Dierolf, for an inflatable dolphin pool toy (and won.) Everyone had a good time, and it looked like a big fundraising success.

Then it was time for the main event, and the Women's softball team from Roger Williams University (thanks to coach Steve Pappas!) was on hand to help dish up goodies hot off the bake. Delicious clams, followed by fish (with a traditional, secret stuffing), chouriço, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sausage, and corn on the cob.

Jack, Karen, and I were sitting at a table with Rep. Amy Rice and her family, Glenn and Raylene Allen of the Democratic Committee, Town Council candidate Mark Katzman, and School Committee member Dick Carpender and his son, and we had a blast. Yes, it was Jack's idea to bid on the inflatable dolphin. But we also won a book in the auction — The Democratic Party: A Photographic History — that Rich Gottlieb had gotten all the pols in attendance to autograph.

That's me with Senator Jack Reed. (He complimented Karen on her Obama pin. Can't wait to see what he'll be doing in an Obama administration!) Lots more pictures up in the Flickr stream. Congratulations to the Portsmouth Democratic Town Committee for another outstanding event.

For the Portsmouth Democratic primary next Tuesday, hard deadlines endorses Terri Cortvriend, Tom Vadney, and Sylvia Wedge for the School Committee. For Town Council, this page supports the slate of Democratic Town Committee-endorsed Democrats: Dennis Canario, Dave Croston, Al Honnen, Len Katzman, Mark Katzman, Jim Seveney, and Bill West. Taken into consideration were candidate statements (School Committee, Council), letters to the editor in local papers, track record for incumbents, and for School Committee, statements on the Newport Daily News (NDN)/Channel 18 forum.

For School Committee, support for incumbents Terri Cortvriend and Sylvia Wedge is based largely on the excellent work they have done during a difficult period in the Portsmouth School Department's history. They inherited schools with a budget shortfall and in administrative disarray several years go, and stepped up to make key hirings (including Dr. Susan Lusi as Superintendent, a pick which I believe by itself justifies returning them to office), take tough decisions which have helped move the schools to a point where they have ended the current year with a tiny but positive cash flow, and put mechanisms in place to deal with deal with troubling infrastructure issues. They supported the Caruolo action which was necessitated by the last Tent Meeting, but have said they did so only as a last resort, and because they were obligated to run a legal school system. They clearly knew that such action would cost them votes, but they knew it was the right thing to do, and it should be noted that RI Superior Court agreed. As we have seen recently in Cranston, such support from the Courts is not a slam dunk. Cortvriend and Wedge showed both good judgement and political courage, and should be re-elected.

Thomas Vadney provided thoughtful, detailed answers to the questionnaire on this site and also on the NDN forum. It is clear that he has studied the issues and challenges facing the schools and that he has both analytic ability and vision. I was particularly impressed with his out-of-box suggestion about building a central campus for Portsmouth's schools; it may not be immediately practical, but it shows creativity and understanding of the cost drivers in the system. To be honest, his membership — indeed, his leadership role — in the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens (PCC) is a concern. This was, after all, the group that instigated the Tent Meeting and its draconian cut to the school budget. But Vadney gave up his leadership role, telling this page, "My view is that an office holder's first duty is to the community, not to any single organization." We should take Mr. Vadney at his word and support him in the primary.

I feel it necessary to say something about why hard deadlines is not supporting the two officially endorsed Democratic School Committee candidates, Marilyn King and Angela Volpicelli. Their answers to questions, both here and at the NDN forum were just not enough to convince this page of their readiness to serve at this difficult time.

Both of them gave responses about the school department budget which, in this writer's opinion, indicated unfamiliarity with procedures already in place: "There needs to be careful examination and prioritizing before fiscal decisions are made," said Volipcelli. King said much the same thing: "I would try to be more efficient with monies received and, if necessary, reorganize the budget. Given the state’s fiscal crisis, our educational priorities need to be reviewed and re-prioritized." When I pressed on this point, explaining that this was, in fact, the existing budget process, Volpicelli and King both responded in a way that felt evasive. Said Volipcelli, "I have answered my questions to you, and you said in the original e-mail that you will print them as is. My answer for #6 is: A new, fresh perspective should always be welcome. I need to devote more time to other questions that are appearing from other folks and do not have time to elaborate any further. Thank you for your time and I appreciate you posting the rest of my answers as is." King said, "In your original email you asked to answer these questions to the best of our ability which I did....I am not implying anything so please print as is. I am now trying to focus on the questions from the PCC. Thank you." (N.B. There is a lesson here for all new candidates: when you are responding to a question from a reporter, if you don't identify your e-mail as off the record, it isn't.)

In the NDN forum, both candidates evidenced an apparent lack of knowledge about key facts regarding school infrastructure, an issue which will be a major challenge facing the school committee in the upcoming year. Said King, "Elmhurst is falling apart from what I hear. I don't know particulars." And Volpicelli said "My biggest concern is Elmhurst. There are lot of things going wrong with that building. My thought would be to consolidate the two schools." The "particulars" on the schools are publicly available to anyone with sufficient interest to look at School Committee minutes. And the suggestion that it would be possible to close one elementary and redistribute students to the remaining two schools does not sound like it comes from someone who has ever looked at the physical plant or class size numbers. Full disclosure: I am an appointed citizen member of the Facilities subcommittee, so this is a particular hot-button issue for me.

Also at the NDN forum, both King and Volpicelli said that they would not support a Caruolo action (not that there is any reason to believe that action would again be necessary). Their answers spoke more to concerns with the opinions of taxpayers than the financial requirements of the schools. Volpicelli cited "a major impact on the taxpayers," as her reason for opposition, and suggested the schools could "look at our budget and set priorities and stay within our means." King said the Caruolo action "caused a hardship on the citizens of Portsmouth. Some of them haven't recouped [sic] from it." Even former PCC leader Vadney was more sympathetic, saying, that while he did not support it in 2006, "I do not feel comfortable criticizing the current memebers of the School Committee because I was not in their seats." As Cortvriend noted in her response, when you are sworn in, you become an agent of the State, bound to run the school system according to State law. King and Volpicelli's stated unwillingness to entertain the difficult decision to go to court to fight for our students if necessary makes them unsuited, in the opinion of this page, for a role on the School Committee.

And I feel the need to say something about Ms. King's letter in the NDN and Sakonnet Times this week. Her attack on both Superintendent Susan Lusi and the sitting School Committee — and it is hard for me to find any other way to characterize saying "she may not enjoy working for me because I do not own a rubber stamp" — seems to me a grandiose statement, coming from someone who has never, to my knowledge, attended a School Committee meeting, and who provides no evidence that she knows there is, in fact, a line-by-line prioritization of the budget every year. In addition, her assertion that the Superintendent received a 16% raise was simply not factual; Dr. Lusi's response is here. Inaccuracy with numbers is not something we need on the School Committee, nor is divisive rhetoric when the community is beginning to heal from a very traumatic time.

On the Town Council side, the incumbents on the Democratic Primary slate have all performed with distinction in their time on the Council, in addition to providing strong responses to questions here. Dennis Canario has been an extraordinarily effective President, and his level-headed and even-handed leadership should be rewarded with another term. Councilors Len Katzman, Jim Seveney, and Bill West have shared a consistent Democratic vision which helped move the Town forward on key issues like the big box zoning change, Charter revision to replace the Tent Meeting with more representative all-day voting, and environmental issues like wind power and open space. Keeping this Democratic majority in place is in the best interests of the Town going forward.

The new endorsed candidates are also known quantities with strong credentials. Dave Croston's time on the School Committee, including his leadership of the gym project, and Al Honnen's long record of service to the Town make them well qualified. Mark Katzman has attended just about every Council meeting for the past two years — I know, because I often find myself sitting next to him — and has demonstrated a familiarity and understanding of the issues, and a willingness to speak his mind that is essential for robust discussion.

There is one unendorsed Democrat also appearing on the primary ballot, Mary Correia, and while I have great respect for her and her work at Hathaway school, she opted not to respond to this page's questionnaire. Also troubling was her letter, in this week's Sakonnet Times, attacking a sitting member of the Council — and a fellow Democrat — for "a bait and switch proposal" in response to a suggestion about an arts center at the Glen. "Regardless of what we the citizens say or vote on, it doesn’t quite turn out the way we originally thought," she said. Such rhetoric sounds to this writer like someone suggesting the Council has been deliberately subverting the will of the people, a position most often associated with the PCC, and one which feels unseemly and offensive coming from someone nominally in the same party. The Council has made great strides in moving beyond the rancor of the past, and someone who seems bent on moving in the opposite direction does not deserve consideration for a seat.

I do want to thank all the candidates for their dedication to Portsmouth and their willingness to serve the town we love. Any lack of endorsement is in no way a criticism of them as people. Indeed, they are to be commended for stepping up and being willing to subject themselves to the public scrutiny that comes with running for office. I know I speak for all of us when I wish them all the best, and say that whoever the voters of Portsmouth select, we will respect that decision and work together for the good of the Town going forward.

Please remember that next Tuesday's primary is, in effect, the general election for the School Committee since there are no Republicans or Independents running, so please get out and vote.

This went out on the Portsmouth Superintendent's listserv this afternoon, debunking a letter from School Committee candidate Marilyn King which appeared in both the Newport Daily News and today's Sakonnet Times. I am working on my personal response, but wanted to share what Dr. Lusi had to say:

Dear Members of the Portsmouth Community,

I have had the privilege of serving this community for just over three years. During my tenure in Portsmouth, I have worked to ensure that public debate regarding our school system is factually based.

In this vein, I have read the coverage of political discussions regarding my compensation over the past few weeks with interest, but also with disappointment because some of the information that has been presented regarding the overall amount of my salary increase and how it compares to that of teachers is simply incorrect.

The purpose of this communication is to provide you with the facts as you are forming your own opinions.

Overall Compensation
In my first three years as a new Superintendent, my raises comprised cost of living increases equivalent to the increase in CPI [consumer price index] only. There were, and are, no salary step increases in my contract. As many of you know, there are salary step increases, in addition to COLAs [cost of living adjustments], in our teachers’ contract and in the contract for our school-based administrators. In addition, for my first three years, I was the only certified employee (teacher or administrator) who was not paid a stipend for my higher degree. I was also one of the lowest paid superintendents in Rhode Island.

Informationally, a teacher entering the Portsmouth system in my first year (2005-2006) as a new teacher would have received salary step increases in addition to COLAs, and would have been paid for higher degrees. In addition, teachers at the top step of the salary scale are in the top 10 districts in the state based on salary. It is true, that Portsmouth’s first step was low when compared statewide; the School Committee and NEA Portsmouth agreed to increase step 1 in the most recent contract negotiations in order to assure that Portsmouth continued to attract superior teaching candidates.

Comparing the Numbers
The compensation and increases a new teacher serving the same years I have served, and those that I have received as Superintendent, are outlined below. To summarize, the increases I have received are less than half what teachers have received over the same time period. Let me be clear, I in no way begrudge our teachers their compensation or their increases. They are well deserved, and we are in different jobs with different pay scales which are not entirely comparable. However, since these comparisons are being made in the public discourse, I do want them to be factual.

Finally, for information, my total compensation for this current school year places me in the bottom half of statewide superintendents’ salaries for last year as reported by the Providence Journal in January of 2008.

In Closing
Overseeing a system that educates children is serious and vitally important business, and it is important that we work together to oversee the Portsmouth system starting from a base of factual information. Reasonable people may well disagree after understanding the facts, but I hope that you will hold everyone engaged in the dialogue of how our schools should be run accountable for presenting you with information that is accurate.

Sincerely,

Susan F. Lusi, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Portsmouth School Department

Current School Committee member Terri Cortvriend is running for re-election in the Democratic Primary next Tuesday, and sent me this note for publication.

Dear Portsmouth Friends,
I would like remind all Portsmouth residents interested in education to vote in the Democratic primary on as September 9th as the 3 winners will run unopposed in the general election in November.

I would first like to explain why I am running as an "unendorsed" Democrat; due to personal reasons I was unable to commit to the nominating committee when they spoke to me earlier in the year. After the Town committee endorsements were made I was strongly urged by my fellow committee members and others in the community to reconsider my decision and since of my personal issues had resolved themselves

I would also like to comment on several topics that have come up in the two candidate forums that have been held in Portsmouth. The first being the budget; my opponents have suggested that they will comb through the budget "line by line" to determine what we really need. Hmmm, if any of these interested candidates had ever attended a budget meeting they would know that is exactly what the finance sub-committee, which I have sat on for the last two years, does during every budget cycle. Since I have been on the committee we have made many difficult decisions that ideally we would not have chosen to make.

I also have to address the statements made by two of my opponents regarding the Caruolo Action filed by the school committee during the 2007 budget cycle. Both Ms. King and Ms. Volipcelli have proclaimed how terrible it was for the school committee to sue the town and that they would never be able to support such an action. These emotional and politically motivated statements reflect their lack of understanding of how education laws work in the state of Rhode Island. After auditing the books, a CPA firm specializing in educational matters advised us that there was no legal way that we could sustain the more than one million dollar cut made at the tent meeting on August 19th 2006. The school committee then followed the step by step protocol laid out in RI law. It would have been illegal for us to have done otherwise. Neither Marilyn King nor Angela Volipcelli have said what they would have done, at least PCC member Thomas Vadney gave us the benefit of the doubt!!

Serving on the school committee is becoming increasingly complex and requires an understanding of all the various moving parts including contracts, state and federal mandates, use of restricted funds, labor laws, operations vs. capital improvements, the appropriate use of warrants and our own issues specific to Portsmouth such as the findings in the Berkshire Performance Audit and how all this affects how we develop our future budgets. It is also very important for committee members to be able to respectfully work with each other, as decisions are not made by individuals but collectively as a group. I respectfully ask the Democratic and Independent voters of Portsmouth to consider the past four years of service and experience of Sylvia Wedge and myself as incumbent candidates and the value we can bring to the school committee for the benefit of both students and residents when you vote on September 9th, 2008.

Respectfully Submitted by,
Terri Cortvriend

Town Admin Bob Driscoll chairs the Bristol Ferry Town Common working session.

In an occasionally heated session tonight at Portsmouth Town Hall, over 40 residents — mainly from the area near Bristol Ferry Town Common — met to discuss the proper uses and boundaries of this public space and what some argued was encroachment by abutters. Five members of the Town Council (Karen Gleason, Len Katzman, Huck Little, Jim Seveney, and Bill West) sat and listened (okay, Tailgunner stood by the door much of the time, but you get the idea), and although Assistant Town Planner Gary Crosby had written a detailed management plan, the assembled citizens barely mentioned it, spending most of the time instead in lively give-and-take.

"Like it or not, we're inventing the wheel," said Town Administrator Bob Driscoll, who chaired the meeting and led the group through some warm-up discussions aimed at clarifying the goals for the site. He prompted the group with a series of activities that could take place at the Common, from reading a book to having a bonfire, to help calibrate expectations. "Out of this," said Driscoll, "We get a better sense of how you'd like to see the property managed."

While people seemed comfortable with things like reading books and yoga classes, even potential uses like "playing Frisbee" prompted a few "no"s. One criterion that rapidly emerged was the size of any group using the space, and the implications for parking. And even though there was a general sense that the Common was primarily a space for the neighborhood, Driscoll repeatedly reminded the group that a public space, by definition is accessible to "Everyone who is lawfully in the US legally — or has not been caught by ICE." The real challenge, he said, was "how do you manage the property to make it attractive to the people who you want to use the property."

It rapidly became clear the group felt there was work to be done that was far more basic. Doug Smith, a member of the local citizens group that had been working with the Town Conservation Committee, articulated the central theme that ran through much of the evening, saying, "We need to know where the Common is and where it isn't." Resident Barbara Gee echoed that thought, cutting right to the basics: "Define what the piece of property is, and mow it."

When Driscoll tried to argue the point, saying that the location was "an obvious thing," he was met with a loud chorus of "No." Several speakers pointed out that the neighborhood group, working with the Conservation Committee, had already purchased 9 granite markers and agreed that setting them out along the boundary of the Common would help create a better sense of the space. While Driscoll cautioned the group that precise placement would require a legal survey, he suggested that the DPW would set out some marker flags immediately. (He was later overheard promising the chair of the Conservation Commission that it would be done tomorrow afternoon.)

There was a good deal of acrimonious back-and-forth over the alleged actions of some abutters which it would not serve the purpose of coming to a good resolution to repeat. Suffice it to say that the sense of the group was to urge the Town to more vigorously mark and preserve the public character of the space. To that end, Driscoll suggested, and the group agreed, that the current neighborhood working group be expanded, and that they coordinate with the Conservation Committee to bring a recommended management plan to the Town Council for approval. Everyone who was at the meeting tonight was invited to participate, and was promised regular e-mail updates on progress.

"We haven't solved every problem," said Driscoll, as the meeting adjourned at 9:30, "But we have a way forward. The important thing is to move forward in good faith. We're all neighbors."