Middletown Denied Longer School Days, New Principal Named

Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has denied Middletown's request to create longer school days the rest of this year to slowly make up its four snow days.

That means Middletown students will be in school until June 28, schools Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger informed the School Committee Thursday night.

Approximately 22 hours, or 1,320 minutes, need to be made up by the end of the calendar year as a result of lost time due to school cancelations from winter storms.

“It is disappointing. June 28 is very late,” School Committee Vice Chairperson Theresa M. Silveira Spengler said Thursday night.

On Feb. 18, the voted unanimously  to ask the state Department of Education's Board of Regents to approve the district’s plan to make the school day longer by 17 to 30 minutes per day, instead of extending the last day of school from June 22 to June 28. Among their reasons was the concern that extending the end of school by nearly a week would result in hardships on students and families with vacation, summer camp or daycare issues.

Kraeger on Thursday night noted that the School Committee's request had never made it to the Department of Education's Board of Regents, but was outright denied by Gist.

In other School Committee business conducted Thursday night:

• The School Committee conducted an hour-long budget workshop and then later voted to adopt a draft budget to be submitted to the Town of Middletown in the amount of $36,718,749. The budget was described by Spengler and Kraeger as a "bare bones budget" that, they believe, still does not fully meet the basic education plan state mandates. By comparison, the district's 2011 fiscal year budget was $37,324,115. Kraeger said the 2012 fiscal year budget was reduced due to a loss in federal stimulus monies that the school district is no longer eligible to receive, a loss in some state aid and a change in the state funding formula. "This was one of the most difficult budgets to have to put together," Kraeger said.
• The School Committee named Michael Mancieri to succeed as school principal at Gaudet Middle School. Mancieri currently serves as assistant principal at the Gaudet School and has been at the school for seven years. His acceptance remarks from Thursday night can be viewed in the video at right.
• Superintendent Rosemarie Kraeger reported to the School Committee the decision by the to extend its contract for Portsmouth to continue educating its high school students, instead of returning to Middletown. Kraeger said she had been informed by Little Compton's superintendent directly Thursday morning. "We have no regrets," Kraeger said of Middletown's failed bid. "Our students, our admininstrators, we put everything out there. It just wasn’t meant to be."
• On the subject of schools regionalization, school officials announced that the Town of Middletown plans to move forward with Phase 2 of a previously commissioned study on regionalization, in spite of some disappointment voiced by the Town Council as well as the School Committee last month after earlier findings from Phase 1 of the study had not explored certain issues and scenarios as Middletown school and town officials had expected. Superintendent Kraeger said the town had already paid for Phase 2, but that school and town officials had outlined their concerns for guidance as Phase 2 proceeds.
• In the Teaching and Learning portion of the School Committee meeting, High School Associate Principal Gail Abromitis provided an overview of the 90-Minute Mentors Program, the after school intervention program, and the new Positive Behavior Intervention System for which faculty currently are undergoing training.
• Schools Facility Director Edward Collins reported that use of the school fields by the schools' interscholastic athletics leagues and area youth groups has reached near maximum capacity or maximum capacity in some cases.