hard deadlines

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The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) delivered an update to the Town Council at their meeting last night, and the while there was significant progress to report on the group's planning work, the economic picture facing the town is challenging, with a projected budget gap growing to nearly $20M by 2020 unless additional revenue streams are identified.

"A revenue shortfall is 'business as usual,'" said John Palmieri, co-chair of the Strategic Planning subcommittee, as he showed a chart of projected expenditures and revenues for the town. "Rhode Island is near the bottom of the country in business-friendliness. Portsmouth doesn't need to sit down there with the rest of the state. We can be better by being more friendly and lowering the cost of doing business in the town."

Palmieri updated the Council on the strategic planning work over the past year to develop "revenue positive initiatives," an inclusive process which included two workshops (see here and here) with a third scheduled to follow in November. The entire presentation from last night will be posted on the Town Web site, and the PEDC will deliver a full report to the Council in January.

As if to underscore the financial challenges, the Council dealt with an agenda item to transfer $186K out of the fund balance to cover lower than expected revenues and overspent expenditures at the transfer station. While this was not entirely unexpected — there were concerns voiced when the Council voted on the sticker fee back in May — the additional hit to the fund balance was clearly not welcome news. The vote was 5-1, with Karen Gleason the lone dissenter (Council President Peter McIntyre was absent; VP Huck Little chaired the session). A full report on transfer station operations was promised to the Council in October.

The Council also discussed a letter of resignation from Prudence Island Fire Chief Thomas Gempp, with Councilor Dennis Canario expressing "serious concerns" about the basis for his departure, which Canario characterized as a response to the experience level of personnel being promoted to specific positions.

Driscoll noted the Council's limited authority. "The Prudence Island Volunteer Fire Department is an independent organization; they can elect whoever they want."

Portsmouth Fire Department Chief Jeff Lynch echoed this point. "I don't have any jurisdiction," said Lynch, adding, "I have gone over there twice to do some basic training. If it sounds like it's going to be a serious call, we respond to the Island."

Citing a need to discuss the issue further with Chief Gempp, the Council moved the item to their next meeting.

There was a report by Town Administrator Bob Driscoll on the results from the working group convened to consider the question of an Island Park skateboard area. "We had three very good meetings," said Driscoll, "And came up with points everyone agreed on. The group did approach the School Committee, and is now working to review school properties that might be available." When questions came from the Council about the originally proposed Island Park site, members of the group responded.

"It is two completely separate issues," said Lori Rinkel, "We do still want to have the small venue, but we understand the problems that the neighbors think would happen. I'm more than happy to continue working in our ad hoc group."

"The bottom line, we felt that a decision from the Council would drive a large wedge between the two opposing sides of the community," said Brian Whittier. "That's pretty much the way it was left. We felt it was better to sit back for a little bit."

In other business, a proposed wildlife feeding ordinance aimed at curbing coyote populations was approved for advertising and a future hearing will be scheduled.

The next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night, when an attorney from the RI Ethics Commission will present to the Council and other Town committees and boards.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the ad-hoc skatepark committee.

The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) is looking for a high school student to become a full member of the committee for the next year, according to an e-mail from the chair, Rich Talipsky.

The PEDC has a need for a Youth Representative who will be a full voting member on their committee. The PEDC has done some exciting work, like coordinating the construction of the Town’s wind turbine. The Youth Representative will have an excellent opportunity to be a real part of PEDC’s current project of developing the Town’s economic strategy. The Youth Representative will serve on the Committee from September 1 through August 31. Any high school student who has a permanent Portsmouth residence can apply by sending a letter, briefly explaining why they desire to be selected, to the Portsmouth Town Clerk, 2200 East Main Rd, Portsmouth, RI 02871 by August 31, 2009.

The PEDC has been in the news a lot lately. Their Sustainable Energy Subcommittee did much of the planning for the new wind turbine, and they have held two recent Strategic Planning workshops (see here and here) that attracted scores of participants.

This would be a great opportunity for a civic-minded student to really have some impact and add a fantastic résumé item. And I know from covering them that this is a great, welcoming group.

Consultant Jan Williams (far right) leads Future Search participants through discussion of the draft strategic plan.

Nearly two-thirds of the 63 participants in the Portsmouth school "Future Search" conference reconvened on Wednesday night at Hathaway School to review the draft strategic plan that was the synthesis of their two days of work back in January. (See previous coverage here, here, and here.)

"This is the most participants who have ever gotten back together from any conference I've ever run," facilitator Jan Williams told the assembled group of parents, community group representatives, local businesspeople, and school staff members.

People arrived with draft copies of the strategic plan — created by a working group from the Future Search report, informed by the Berkshire Associates performance audit, survey input from all students grades 6-12, and sanity-checked by representatives from the school department.

While it would be premature to talk about the content — the purpose of the session was to provide feedback to the 13-member working group to assist in finalizing the draft — it is safe to say that the document provides both an overarching vision as well as specific, timed deliverables.

"This plan is a way to say to the community, 'This is what we need and this is what it takes to support this effort,'" said Williams.

The group spent the first part of the evening discussion what they liked about the draft, and participants said that it was comprehensive, data-driven and measurable, aggressive, inclusive of many stakeholders in the community, and that it accurately reflected the work of the Future Search workshop. (I will be upfront about my bias: I very much liked the fact that there was a clear stake in the ground about getting technology in the classrooms.)

When you do "plusses," you also need to do "deltas," and for the rest of the night, the group explored some of the questions that the report raised. Some were semantic (how to best word the main propositions), some tactical (what is the grade to start introducing foreign language) and some were communication-related (a suggestion to add a one-page executive summary up front.) There were some great suggestions, like having a big "thermometer" sign in town to reflect progress, having concrete actions that participants can take out to community groups to help them get involved, and coordinating the strategic plan with other ongoing efforts like the facilities committee.

And, of course, the question came up of how to fund anything strategic when the schools are in such a tight fiscal regime.

Williams acknowledged the reality, and urged the group to use the strategic plan as a way to involve Portsmouth in a discussion about education. "What I came away [from the Future Search] with was sense of the interest everyone had in healing the community and standing together for the school system and what you want for your students," she said. "This is work that is owned by the parents and community — owned by the people in this room. I don't think you can expect the administration to be driving the process around healing the community. That's not their job. YOU are responsible for your community."

Unfortunately, I had to leave before the end of the meeting to go cover the Water Board election, so I don't know when the final draft of the report will be issued. But you can bet it will spark some interesting and fruitful discussions.

Disclaimer: I am an appointed member of the Facilities Committee.

Portsmouth Economic Development Committee Chair Rich Talipsky e-mailed me this account of last night's financial workshop.

A Town Process in Action - Point, Counterpoint, and Civility in Action
Rich Talipsky

Nearly 50 people who represented a very broad spectrum of fiscal, political, and personal views gathered at the Portsmouth Multi-Purpose Senior Center for three hours on Thursday April 30 to have a Town meeting. The group was not going to solve all the Town’s financial problems, but it turned out to be a unique display of ideas and opinions.

On a level playing field were participants who ranged from ordinary citizens to Town Councilors and a State Senator, all with a mutual purpose of discussing “closing the gap.” The “gap” being a large postulated difference between the Town’s spending compared to revenues collected between now and 2020 if our traditional spending habits of the last ten years continued. The concept of “closing the gap” was to curb traditional spending increases while brainstorming ways to generate revenue to arrive at a balanced budget.

The open discussion, coordinated by the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee and guided by an independent facilitator, allowed everything to be placed on large newsprint charts around the room. There were some comments about the futility of trying to characterize some things as “essential” instead of “critical” or “routine” instead of “unneeded” with respect to the Town’s future. (They did do some “dotmocracy” that even seemed OK to some previous “dotmocracy nay-sayers.”) No, it wasn’t perfect and we didn’t come to agreement on contentious issues. But, in the end, and everybody stayed to the end, they all agreed that is was a healthy exchange of ideas and listening to each others points of view.

The PEDC will now embark on the task of putting everything that was said during the March 21 and April 30 workshop sessions into something that the 11,950 (or so) voters in the Town that didn’t participate can understand. The PEDC will be crunching the data at open meetings about every couple weeks. They will normally be held on Tuesdays or Thursdays at about 5 PM and the Portsmouth Abbey Fine Arts Building. The meetings will be posted at the Town Hall and the RI State e-town Crier at least 48 hours in advance of each meeting. They welcome all people who desire to be part of the “solution” rather than sitting back and continuing to be part of the “problem”.

By the way, the two workshops did not cost the Town a dime, since the PEDC got donations from local businesses to fund the workshops. The March 31st workshop will be aired in two parts on NCTV (Cox Ch. 18) starting the week of May 4 and the April 30 workshop soon afterwards.

Editorial note: I was planning to cover this, but at 6pm last night, I was elbow-deep in php at work. Sigh. Thanks to Rich for passing this along.

Following up on the economic planning workshop held on March 21, the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee will be hosting a three-hour workshop at the Senior Center at 6pm Thursday, April 30, aimed a generating ideas for closing identified future budget gaps. You can sign up to participate, and the deadline is today. From the press release:

The goal of the workshop is to brainstorm ways to characterize and evaluate town investments and resources to provide town decision makers with information on which to base their budget decisions.

Citizens can provide inputs to the process. A new survey on the budget is available at www.portsmouthrienergy.com/pedc  where anyone can contribute views on budget priorities and find information on and register for the workshop. Widespread participation will provide valuable information on ways to “close the gap” in our future budget forecasts and arrive at a balanced budget.

Bob Andrews, Co-Chair of the PEDC Economic Strategic Planning Sub-Committee said, “Our March 21st workshop was an exceptional success. It provided us valuable information on which to base our future work.   I am sure that our next workshop will also provide us important information from our citizens on what they consider critical and essential in the town’s budget.”

Read more and sign up to participate.

The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) will be conducting a day-long workshop on Saturday, March 21 to explore the town's economic future. In a statement distributed today, the PEDC said that 50-60 participants would be invited to the Portsmouth Abbey School to review the Town's economic situation and develop priorities and plans. There will also be general sessions at the beginning and end of the workshop, and the results will be published on the Town website.

“This is an exceptionally important event considering the economic situation that every town in the country and nation as a whole are facing,” said Rich Talipsky, Chair of the PEDC, in the statement, “We are very pleased to have the support of Town Council and we expect to get a lot of ideas from our citizens about improving the economic future of the Town.”

As preparation for the workshop, the PEDC also created a survey, and is asking residents and businesses to provide their input. The link, and a copy of the most recent economic analysis done by the PEDC, is available on their web site.

Go take the PEDC Economic Opinion Survey.

The PEDC release also noted that the professionally- moderated workshop will be funded entirely with donations, and that while half the funds have been raised, they are actively seeking donations. Anyone interested can contact the Portsmouth business development director, Bill Clark, at 401- 643-0382.

Facilitator Jan Williams works with students at the session.

On Friday, January 30, the Portsmouth school department conducted the third day of their strategic planning workshop, this one involving 50 students from the middle and high schools. Facilitated by Jan Williams and Dave Sandman, who conducted the first two-day Future Search workshop with community members, the 3.5 hour session used a similar methodology, called Appreciative Inquiry, to allow the students to explore what worked best in their educational experience and how to build on that going forward.

Portsmouth Superintendent Sue Lusi and PHS Principal Bob Littlefield were on hand to kick off the workshop in the PHS Library at 8am. “We're looking forward to hearing what you have to say about our schools and the District, and to helping us chart our future," said Littlefield. Then he and Lusi left until the report backs at the end of the morning.

Williams introduced the methodology to the group by encouraging a discussion about what strategic planning means. She asked a few questions and threw out a couple of metaphors, and the students quickly zeroed in on the essence of the process. "When you feed the school with positive programs," said one student, "The school will perform better." (Since the majority of the participants were minors, I'm reporting under Chatham House rules, with no attribution.)

"The process today is to identify what works best," said Williams. "It’s called Appreciative Inqiry. We want to find out what works at best, then, do more of that." And to get the inquiry started, Williams gave the group an interview assignment. She had the entire group stand up and create a circle around the room and participants had to pair off with someone they did not know to interview each other about their learning experiences, focusing on 4 questions: Best classroom experience, favorite teacher and what they did, time they felt connected to the school, and three wishes for the schools. Pairs had 20 minutes to do the interviews and prepare to share out the results.

Next, the interview teams joined together at tables of 6, and with one member scribing on a flipchart, bubbled up the common elements of the interviews as they reported back. By 9:30, each table had four flipcharts, one for each question, and the whole group re-convened to hear the result.

Here are some samples from the raw report-backs for each of the 4 questions.

Best learning experience
Everybody like interactive learning. Want learning to be personal. Hands on, physically learning not sitting there “being taught.” [Good experiences] made “things stuck in our head.” Able to talk to them and trust them. [More] learning by doing; lectures can get boring. [When the] teacher has devotion for what they teach.

Favorite teacher and why
They have to care about what they're teaching, More personal, a lot of time teachers keep their distance, I guess that’s part of the job. All the kids participating not just sitting at desk. Not just busy work, something you look forward to. [Best classes were in smaller classrooms] 25 can get really big, you feel like a fish in a big pond. When teachers are organized, kids are more apt to be organized, not just slide by. PPT and lectures all fuse together. [Examples of different strategies like standing on a desk, setting fire to a chair.] Show multiple ways to do something.

Time most connected to school
Spirit week. Things that are interactive, talking to each other instead of writing. Events like homecoming, inauguration, sporting events, when we're focused on common goal. Games that involve students. [Things that encourage] pride and competitive spirit with a fun twist. Basketball games. [Doing] plays when kids work together as a family. [More time for] advisory, get time every day to hang out with same people, same teacher, get to know everyone a little better.

Three wishes
Wish school started later. More current issues and events. Learning more about problems in other countries, not world geography for just one year. Wish we could experience more, not just learning in classroom. Weighted GPA for those taking AP courses. More funding and support from community for things like paper; “Textbooks are [in] really bad [shape].” “Everyone has laptops” “CDs, not books, instead of carrying around big textbooks” Shorter classes, 80 min classes "tiresome." No senior project. Wish people more respectful to school, no vandalism. More attention to art department -- we have a new gym but no updated art, music, theatre. Better food, less "healthy" -- “They made some crazy weird choices this year.” Wish teachers would communicate better -- you have a bunch of things [like tests on the same day] all at once, department heads not talking. “Updated learning techniques, feel a lot [of teachers] have been exhausted, just teaching from the book.” Better toilet facilities, the bathrooms here are disgusting except for H wing. Raw v. weighted GPA [for kids taking AP classes who are] competing against academic [for things like Honor Society]. More variety [in lunches] vegetarians bored with salad. Bigger lockers. More activity -- we’’re sitting at our desks 6 hours straight, like to get up and do something. Smart boards. A pool.

After all the readbacks, the group took a break and the facilitators gathered up the flipcharts related to each question and hung them up in 4 areas around the room. When the students returned from break, they picked one of the questions and organized themselves into new tables to surface the commonalities and frame their reports in positive statements. They finished their group work by about 11:00, and Lusi and Littlefield returned to hear the synthesis from each table.

Learning experiences

• All teachers would use interactive teaching methods.
• Teachers would be enthusiastic about subject.
• Hands-on would lead to more comprehensive learning.
• Group involvement results in teamwork and collaboration, when we share out, it helps us understand.
• Positive attention from the teacher creates a better learning environment, teacher being excited makes you exicited.

Favorite teachers and why

• All teachers have a friendly relationship with students on personal level encouraging them andheloping them when needed.
• Being passionate about what they’re teaching. If the teacher bored with class, kids bored as well
• Hands on activities, more projects, going outside because sitting in class all day is not fun.
• Teachers collaborate and coordinate so tests are not all on the same day Interesting sidebar: "One time in world geography, we learned about sentence structure, I know everything is connected, but, world geography is what they should be teaching about...If there was more coordination, might be the teacher goes back to the English teacher and says, can you emphasize more, coordinate project writing in geography. Follow up: "We have totally different formats for English and history papers. How we learn to write in English, if you apply to history, won’t always come out with the grade we want." [Ed. note: This very much reminded me of the Future Search discussions on 'horizontal articulation.']

School Connectedness

• Pep rallies for other sports to make aware of rivalry games.
• National anthem should be sung by students at other games.
• Winter ball should be another dance, there’s nothing in winter, pretty boring. "You have Spirit Week one week in October, by winter and spring you're suffering and need something to do."
• Student v faculty games, goofy games.
• During Spirit Week every grade should put on a skit to get theatre arts involved.

Wishes

• Start later. "It's scientifically proven we need more sleep. We learn better later in day.
• Senior project and science fair should be optional, some of us aren’t capable, some just don’t want to do it. Can’t really handle that extra work. [Maybe] "Something equally challenging, work together in groups or pairs."
• More options for lunches [other than] pizza, burgers, chicken patties, "which are disgusting." Should be cheaper than 6 bucks, some kids can’t affort.
• More respect for school itself [and reduce] vandalism,
• More funding for sports and arts.

The session wrapped up with an occasionally pointed discussion about the gap between the vision that had been articulated and the real world. "We can have all the wishes we want," said one participant, "But how will we make it a reality."

Williams talkeed about the larger strategic planning process, including the Future search and the upcoming formation of a steering committee, but also threw part of the question back to the group. There were some issues that had been identified where next steps were within student control. "I’d like to see some opportunity for those of you who might come together to work on some of them," said Williams. "The issue of vandalism as an example."

The question of funding came up again as students offered final comments. "As far as budgets go, we don’t have that great of a funding," said one. "If we’re talking about getting more money for arts, we have to do it ourselves," said another. "We can’t look at school budget, taxes, we have to raise money ourselves."

There was some frustration voiced about the possibility of impact. "I felt like this was highly unproductive," said one participant. "We identified problems, [but there's] no student input into what we can do." Williams reiterated the goal of the day. "This was not about problem solving, that step has to get taken. The first step is to identify the priorities," she said. "Today, we heard from students about what they thought was important, not how to fix or make it different. You came up with pages and pages of things that need to be addressed. [...] We’re considering you as represwentative of the student body, telling us what needs to shift."

Williams thanked the group for their participation, and before they broke for pizza, she added, "As one of the adults in the room said, I wish the Town Council could hear these kids."

Related: Future search part I, part II

Disclaimer: I'm a week behind posting this. It has been an awful week at work, and I offer my apologies to the participants for taking so long to get this done.