New School Registration System Promised By Brady

By Linda Borg

PROVIDENCE — Supt. Tom Brady said he wants to revamp the school registration process and promised that a new system will be ready by January.

Although complaints have reportedly declined this year, Brady said the department needs work and that the district is not taking care of parents in a prompt and effective way. The School Department, he said, will revive the student registration complaint committee to investigate how to make the registration process less difficult for families.

“Are we getting the word out to all parents in time?” he said. “The parking at the registration center [on Prairie Avenue in South Providence] is horrible. Maybe we should be looking at satellite centers to make it easier to register.”

To date, Providence has enrolled 22,855 students, 800 students fewer than in June, but considerably more than earlier estimates. Last month, school officials said that enrollment had declined by 1,700 students, although they anticipated that those numbers would bounce back after school began. At the time, school officials speculated that the state’s lagging economy, coupled with the foreclosure crisis, might be contributing to the decline of enrollments in Providence and Central Falls. Immigration advocates worried that the dip was linked to Governor Carcieri’s recent crackdown on undocumented aliens.

Brady, in a 10-page report to the School Board on Monday, said that the opening of school was the smoothest in recent memory, adding that there were only 52 teacher vacancies on the first day of class, down from 81 the previous year and there were only 10 teachers with emergency certification, down from 19 last year.

He also said that 95 percent of the district’s 9,924 school buses ran on time. When asked how this rate compared with last year’s, Brady said there wasn’t any previous data but said that the district would keep track of the information from now on.

A lack of technology has long plagued the school district and continues to be an issue, but Brady had good news to report on that front: Internet bandwidth has been upgraded at 28 schools for greater speed and access; Central High School now has wireless Internet access, and a new server that houses the student information system’s database has been installed.

Brady also noted that maintenance projects have been completed at 30 schools, including 19 roof repairs, 8 fire code upgrades, the installation of security cameras at 3 schools and the refinishing of 3 gym floors and 3 auditoriums. The summer institute, which offered nearly 300 workshops to teachers and staff, was singled out for praise. Brady reported that teachers completed almost 24,000 hours of professional development and said that the most popular session was a mandatory class on how to improve parent engagement. This was the first time that the School Department has offered an intensive summer training program, which teachers could use to satisfy the 38 hours of professional development required by their work contract.

Secondary math teachers also worked with the Dana Center of the University of Texas, Austin, to conduct a “gap analysis,” which looks at where the district is in terms of middle and high school curriculum and where it should be. The School Board on Monday hired the Dana Center to help the district develop a systemwide math and science curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12. lborg@projo.com / (401) 277-7823

Originally published by Linda Borg, Journal Staff Writer.

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