hard deadlines

Marjorie Wilkey presents PMS teacher Richard Price with late husband Doug Wilkey's trumpets.

It was an emotional evening at the Portsmouth School Committee meeting, as Marjorie Wilkey, widow of long-time member Doug Wilkey, presented PMS music teacher Richard Price with her late husband's trumpets.

Mr. Price, who was on hand to also receive a commendation from the committee for being named an East Bay Newspapers Teacher of the Year, thanked Mrs. Wilkey, and suggested changing the yearly band award at the Middle School to the "Mr. Wilkey Jazz Award," in her late husband's honor.

Assistant Superintendent Colleen Jermain announced that Portsmouth has been selected to participate in an exchange program with China, with 5 guests from a school there visiting Portsmouth in October, and Ms. Jermain scheduled to visit their school next April.

Jermain also talked about this year's "summer packet" initiative for Portsmouth students. Unlike last year's program, a paper workbook generously underwritten by Duncan Ingraham, students will now use Study Island, a web-based service, targeted to state grade level expectations, which provides instruction and testing that can adjust to student levels.

A major chunk of the agenda was a presentation by School Committee member Mike Buddemeyer, reporting on the results of school tours by the Facilities Committee, formed earlier this year to assess the school buildings and develop plans for the future. The committee, chaired by Buddemeyer, included Facilities Director Don Davidson and residents Steve Forand, Al Grande, and me.

"Tours of the schools showed, that while the buildings were meeting the basic needs of our teachers and students, there are key areas that have been neglected from a lack of long range plan of maintenance," said Buddemeyer, in prepared remarks. The areas identified by the committee, he said, were ADA compliance, HVAC, Electrical/wiring, infrastructure, and energy efficiency.

Buddemeyer narrated a Powerpoint slide show illustrating some of the issues identified on the tours, a litany of antique boilers, overtaxed ventilation systems, jury-rigged computer wiring, limited wheelchair bathrooms and peeling asbestos floor tile. He recommended the School Committee authorize a Request for Qualifications (a vendor qualification screen) to seek engineering firms to complete more detailed assessments and put dollar figures against the needed maintenance work.

Finance Director Chris Tague mentioned to the Committee that a 5-year plan is now a requirement from the RI Department of Education to secure any reimbursement for school housing money. "The days of just getting $350K a year are over," said Tague, noting that the new requirements would be phased in over the next few years. "We're set with warrants through 2011, but we would need to do this for any new money, so this is timely."

Facilities committee member Steve Forand urged the group to think strategically. "Five years is a good start," he said, "But that's not a long-range plan. Capital investments are enormous decision for this town to make. We've got to be looking 10-15 years out."

Finance committee chair Dick Carpender raised the sensitive question of what would happen if the engineering analysis showed it would cost more to fix the elementaries than to build a new one. "Does it make sense to say, it costs too much to fix that school?" asked Carpender, noting that some of the schools sit on potentially attractive real estate. "Could they be worth enough to sell off to offset the cost," he wondered.

"At every meeting, we've had this same discussion," said Buddemeyer, noting that, depending on what the engineering report revealed, it could be "a poor business decision" to invest in buildings that may have outlived their usefulness.

Facilities committee member Al Grande cut to the chase. "Basically, Elmhurst and Hathaway could be closed and sold to bring in money," said Grande, noting that this was just his personal opinion. "If you build a new school in back of the Middle School, on property the town already owns, it would be very energy efficient. Somewhere along the line, that thought will have to be considered in this town. We're wasting money pumping [it] into schools of that era."

The committee acknowledged that such questions were something that the citizens of the town would ultimately have to decide, but supported moving ahead with the RFQ to begin developing a fact base to inform the discussion.

In other business, the Committee formally adopted the budget bottom line as approved by the Town Council, including actions to incorporate a conservative one-third of the anticipated $130K increase in state aid, and to restore Middle School sports and defer the closing of Prudence Island for another year.

Islander Pat Rossi was on hand, and delivered a passionate plea to change the language of the motion so that students did not have the closing hanging over their heads for another year. "Students are very much aware of the School Committee votes to close the school," said Rossi. "This does weigh on these children. You have very young children, and they are scared. Let us return to these students and tell them that the closing of the PI school was taken off the record."

Both Finance Chair Dick Carpender and Chair Sylvia Wedge expressed their sympathy, but the committee voted unanimously to proceed with the language, granting the one-room schoolhouse on Prudence only another one-year reprieve.

A few contracts for building warrant items were awarded — PHS will be getting a new fire alarm system, track resurfacing, and new, energy-efficient windows. Next school committee meeting will be July 22.

Update: Newport Daily News has the story up.