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Students, Start Your Engines! - New Administrators, Principals Abound As School Year Begins

Posted on: Wednesday, 31 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

South County students will be returning to school with new roofs, new curriculums, new lunch snacks and for some, newly reconfigured school districts and new superintendents.

The Chariho Regional School District, which serves Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton, has a new superintendent, Barry Ricci. He was hired as assistant superintendent in 2001 and took over the top post July 1.

Besides getting a new middle school and expanded high school campus, Westerly is another school district starting the term with a new superintendent.

Thomas DiPaola, who formerly served as director of the office of special populations at the state Department of Education, assumed his position Aug. 8. To give the district time to finish work at the middle and high schools, Westerly students will return to school later than usual -- on Sept. 12, DiPaola said.

North Kingstown elementary students will also return to school later than usual -- on Sept. 7 -- for a different reason. The closing of Wickford Elementary School and the reconfiguration of the district -- into four kindergarten-to-grade-three schools and two fourth-to-fifth-grade schools -- triggered a law suit over the summer. School officials said a court order relating to the closing delayed preparation and the start of school.

Despite some last-minute repairs and upgrades in some districts, most South County schools will start on schedule.

Workers have yet to install a new sprinkler system in Block Island's lone school. The fire marshal is due to inspect the building Sept. 6 once it is in place, said Marlee Lacoste, the building facilitator.

"Hopefully, it will go as planned," Lacoste said. The district is also expecting a new gymnasium to open by mid-September.

Narragansett students at all three schools will find the buildings in slightly better shape than they left them, although the schools are still awaiting the comprehensive renovations officials say are needed.

In the Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District, the fire alarm system has been upgraded at the junior-senior high school and the Metcalf Elementary School, said Supt. Roy Seitsinger. The roof at Lineham Elementary School has also been replaced.

North Kingstown Supt. James M. Halley said repairs to the septic system at Davisville Middle School have been completed.

At South Kingstown High School, new flooring and part of a new roof have been installed. Last-minute roof repairs were under way at Matunuck Elementary School yesterday. Insurance covered about $30,000 worth of window repairs and cleaning at Wakefield Elementary School after vandals smashed 43 windows last month, said School Supt. Robert Hicks.

Probably the biggest change in the district is the closure of South Road Elementary School. Students will be split among the town's four other elementary schools: West Kingston, Matunuck, Wakefield and Peach Dale.

The closure and longer high and middle school days necessitated changes in the bus routes to avoid elementary schoolers arriving home after dark, Hicks said.

North Kingstown also adjusted its bus routes, start times and end times. School will start and end 10 minutes earlier than last year. In Narragansett, high school students will be switching to a block schedule, with fewer but longer classes.

South Kingstown welcomes a new high school principal and a new elementary school principal.

North Kingstown also welcomes three new principals - one at a middle school and two at elementary schools. There will also be a new science and social studies curriculum.

Teachers at Exeter-West Greenwich High School are developing a senior project as a requirement for all graduating seniors, and sophomores will have to start preparing for the project in the new school year, Seitsinger said. The district has also boosted its number of literacy coaches, he said. There will be literacy coaches for every grade level.

In Jamestown, middle school students can look forward to healthier snacks such as low-fat cookies, cereal, yogurt and granola sold at lunch, instead of fatty treats like chips, cinnamon buns and brownies. Ice cream at both schools will be offered just once a week.

Exeter-West Greenwich students will also find healthier options at vending machines, such as flavored water instead of soda.

At North Kingstown, the food will stay the same, with offerings such as pizza, hamburgers, fish sandwiches. However, the price of lunch has gone up, Halley said.

With staff reports from Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, Randal Edgar and Katie Mulvaney.

* * *

Crayons and markers were being resupplied and organized by Vanessa Cerra, a senior at Salve Regina University who will be a student teacher this semester at Matunuck Elementary.

* * *

Fourth grade teacher Elyse Scherza cleans student desks as she prepares for the first day of classes at Matunuck Elementary School in South Kingstown.

JOURNAL PHOTO / BOB BREIDENBACH

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Dan Balmer, a roofing contractor from Mystic, Conn., works on the new standing seam roof that has been installed at Matunuck Elementary School in South Kingstown. Many South County schools have had work done over the summer in preparation for the start of school this week and next.

JOURNAL PHOTOS / BOB BREIDENBACH

Source: Providence Journal

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