Planning Time Extended at High School

The School Committee has named the finalists for the position of Superintendent of Schools in South Kingstown. The finalists emerged after a credentials review and preliminary interviews. Eleven applications were received and reviewed by a panel of community members who made recommendations to the School Committee on which applicants to interview. From the interviews, these three finalists were selected by the School Committee.

The selected finalists are:

Nancy Young – Nancy has served as superintendent for sixteen years in four Massachusetts and Vermont districts. She has also been a science teacher, guidance counselor, director of pupil personnel, and high school principal. She is a graduate of Tufts with graduate degrees from Rhode Island and Bridgewater State Colleges, and a doctorate from Boston University.

Michele Humbyrd – Since 2003 Michelle has served as the Principal of Curtis Corner Middle School. Prior, she was an assistant principal in Coventry and taught music in Coventry and Fall River. She has a Masters degree from Rhode Island College and is enrolled in the doctoral program at Johnson and Wales University.

Kristin Stringfellow – Kristen is currently Assistant Superintendent in the Scituate public schools, a position she has held since 1999. She has her doctoral degree from Johnson and Wales University where she also teaches in the graduate program. She taught elementary school in Scituate and served as a principal in Scituate and East Providence.

Public interviews will be held for all finalists with community members able to submit questions. In addition to the public interviews candidates will participate in two focus group sessions, one with members of the community panel that screened applications and the other with school administrators.

In addition to the public interviews, School Committee members will conduct site visits for each finalist. The original search timeline called for the naming of a superintendent by February 1. That timeline has been pushed out to March 1.

The public interviews will begin at 6:30 in the High School Library and last for one hour each. The community is encouraged to attend. The interview schedule is -

Kristin Stringfellow Monday, February 2

Michele Humbyrd Wednesday, February 4

Nancy Young Thursday, February 5

With the state in fiscal crisis and limited funds available from towns, communities across the state are bracing for budget and program cuts and the South Kingstown schools are no exception. How much will have to be cut depends primarily on three things: (1) state aid, (2) support from the town, and (3) increases in health care costs.

· State aid – the preliminary district budget is built on another year of level state aid. A 10% cut in state aid will require a million dollar budget reduction.

· Town Support – While the property tax cap permits an increase of up to 4.75%, local economic conditions and loss of town revenue do not permit an increase approaching the tax cap limit. A preliminary goal set by the town is to increase school support by 2% next year. If no increase in school funding is possible, a million dollars in budget cuts will be required.

· Health Care – At this time it is uncertain what our health care costs will be for next year. Hopefully, the town’s changeover to West Bay Health will result in savings, but there is not enough experience to make a final determination. If experience is negative and a 10% increase over the current budget is needed, another half-million dollars in cuts will be needed.

In order to make difficult budget decisions, the School Committee is seeking public input. An internet survey is available asking community members what principles should be used in making budget decisions. You can access a link to the survey at skschools.net. Please use the link and take the survey by January 30.

Should significant budget cuts be required, it will be necessary for the schools to look at core, structural changes. Such changes, while not educationally desirable, may be necessary. One example of such a change is to collapse to one middle school and move the sixth grade to its own elementary school.

The possibility and feasibility of such reorganization, along with the overall school budget; will be reviewed at workshops scheduled for January 20 and February 3 at 7 PM in the High School Library. Budget adoption is scheduled for the February 10 School Committee meeting. Detailed budget information is available at skschools.net.

The School Department is in the final stages of creating a policy on special education staffing. The policy is a requirement of last year’s revisions to the state’s special education regulations that eliminated all caseload and class size caps and replaced them with district policies. Earlier this year a survey was distributed asking what the community believed should be in such a policy.

Responses to the survey were received from several community members and from the Special Education Local Advisory Committee (SELAC). The responses were reviewed with the School Committee at its November 18 meeting. At that meeting it was suggested that the policy review process be amended by advertising the draft policy in local newspapers for comment. That is being done in addition to this publication.

The draft policy created from the survey response and state guidelines follows. It is anticipated that the policy will come before the School Committee in February for adoption after a period has been allowed for comment to be received. If you have comments or suggestions, email them to the superintendent at [email protected] or mail them to the school department office at 307 Curtis Corner Road, Wakefield, RI 02879.

DRAFT SPECIAL EDCUATION STAFFING POLICY

The South Kingstown School Department strives to educate the children of South Kingstown in partnership with families and community, so that each student becomes a responsible individual who possesses the knowledge and skills for full productive citizenship. Recognizing that every student has unique learning needs, the schools seek to provide diversified learning opportunities for all students. Learning opportunities are enhanced with supplemental programs and services both in and out of the classroom. Special education and related services are provided to support students with disabilities in achieving academic and functional performance consistent with and directed by their Individualized Education Programs (IEP).

· The goal of the South Kingstown Special Education Staffing Policy is to assure quality education and service to students through qualified and trained staff assigned in an effective and efficient manner that is equitably consistent with our goals for all students.

· To determine the effectiveness of our policy, South Kingstown should use multiple measures grounded in our accountability system. These include student progress and achievement; surveys of students, parents and staff; reports on effectiveness; structured community conversations; and comparisons with other comparable school districts.

· South Kingstown should gather feedback primarily using the accountability measures that determine effectiveness. These may be supplemented with other valid formal and informal measures as available.

In order to implement this policy, the administration of the district shall develop and implement a special education staffing plan based on the following elements.

1. To provide a full continuum of special education and related support services to students.

2. Provide access to the general curriculum and special education services in the least restrictive environment as appropriate.

3. Student progress data as measured against both state and local standards and individual IEP goals.

4. Utilizing staff in their areas of qualification and training and supported by professional development.

5. Input received both formally and informally from parents, staff, RIDE, program evaluations and reports, and other interested parties on current staffing levels

6. Special education teacher staffing decisions based on providing the services to meet students’ unique needs and prepare them for education, training, employment, and independent living; rather than on a specific category of disability or severity of disability.

7. The special education and related services required by the students’ IEPs will be considered in determining staffing decisions.

8. There must be flexibility in special education staffing to address the changes that may occur in students’ educational and functional needs throughout the school year.

9. Staffing considerations should include the need to provide consultative support and specific short term interventions to students without IEPs.

10. Compliance with applicable federal, state, and local law, regulation and policy.

11. Special education is an integral part of the educational community and as such will appropriately participate in any and all initiatives, programs and professional development undertaken at the building or district level.