Teachers Press School Board on Halliwell Woes

NORTH SMITHFIELD – Supt. Stephen Lindberg told the School Committee last night his staff will develop a specific plan to deal with chronic building problems at Halliwell School and stood by a warning that the plan could include portable classrooms.

The School Committee meeting was attended by more than a half- dozen Halliwell teachers and began with one of them, gym teacher Pam Authier, describing last Thursday as her “worst day of teaching” as she watched rain pour through six or seven leaks in the school gymnasium’s roof.

Lindberg told the School Committee last night the same things he told the Town Council Monday night, namely that, while fourth- through-sixth-grade Halliwell and the high school both have equally serious overcrowding issues, when it came to structural problems, “overwhelmingly, the vote-getter is Halliwell.”

The school is made up of 11 wood-frame buildings, most of them housing two classrooms each. Three of them suffer from termite damage and three have roof problems.

Lindberg apologized generally to anyone who was surprised by his statements at Monday night’s council meeting when he raised the possibility of portable classrooms more definitively than any school official has in years.

He said he was in an “awkward position” before the council, since they were asking questions before he’d had a chance to go over those answers with the School Committee.

“I offered my opinion and I hope no one will be offended that I gave it,” he said.

The group of Halliwell teachers at last night’s meeting were far from offended. They praised Lindberg’s willingness to confront Halliwell’s condition, calling it “refreshing and exciting.” They said that over the past several years the district’s policy toward the school seemed to be one of essentially responding to emergencies and then waiting for the next crisis.

They said they were particularly impressed by Lindberg’s statement that conditions at Halliwell were “as important as the middle school to me.”

“He’s addressing the issue,” said fourth grade teacher Rosemary Jones.

Authier, the gym teacher who complained about the leaks, said, “I’m feeling positive.”

Jones said she was still uneasy not knowing what the Halliwell plan would involve and what the school’s long-term role in the district will be.

Even if the School Department achieves its goal of building a sixth-through-eighth-grade middle school, she said that would only take one grade out of Halliwell, leaving grades four and five.

Lindberg said he had no specific answer for that question, adding it would be one that would have to be worked on by the school system and the Town Council’s school facilities task force.

School Committee Vice Chairman Paul Vadenais, a member of that task force, said the long-range plan was to build a second elementary school in town, so it and the existing North Smithfield Elementary School could take kindergarten through fifth grade students.

School Committee Chairman Gary Ezovski said he was worried that the town was facing a potential building boom that would mean significant increases in the student population, increases the school system does not have the room to accommodate.

High school principal David Silva told the committee last year that it took four computer runs to come up with a unified school class schedule. This year it took about 50.

“We’ve got to move quickly,” Ezovski said.