Crisis in the High School – Parents Grill Officials on Accreditation Issue

By KATE BRAMSON Journal Staff Writer

JOHNSTON – Parents had their say last night about the high school’s fight to keep its accreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

At one point, it turned heated when parent Deborah Spaur lashed out at principal Elizabeth L. Mantelli, telling her she was talking in circles, and criticized high school teachers for not all attending last night’s School Committee meeting.

“Five years of this, and none of you have done anything for our children …,” Spaur yelled. “And now I have to pay to send my children to private school.”

Midway through her comments, Spaur asked the audience — about 100 people — who was with her, and she drew applause.

But almost as quickly as the room erupted, it quieted down and returned to what it had been — an orderly question-and-answer session for parents who were told last week that they couldn’t ask any questions at an informational meeting with the superintendent and other district leaders.

The high school was placed on probation in 2000, and NEASC is considering stripping its accreditation for not meeting the regional agency’s standards for high schools.

As Spaur spoke, committee Chairwoman Norma-Jean Pirri pleaded for the audience to stick to the issues.

Spaur is not alone in recent months asking what has been done over the last five years and how the district has reached this crisis point.

Last night, Pirri said the problem isn’t just five years old. When a team of educators with NEASC visited the school in 2000 and then placed the school on probation, they were reacting to problems they saw in the school that had taken 10 years to build, she said.

At the time, Johnston was one of the first schools to be critiqued by a revised set of NEASC standards, which district leaders say put Johnston at a disadvantage.

The district could have disagreed with that initial determination to put the school on probation. It did not.

“My strong belief is it should have been appealed on five years ago,” Pirri said.

Last night, parents asked how they can better follow the district’s efforts to maintain the school’s accreditation; what options their children will have if the school loses its accreditation; how they can get involved on school-improvement teams; whether students are now facing undue academic pressure that might cause at-risk children to drop out; and whether district leaders believe their current efforts will be enough to avoid losing accreditation.

Parent Donna Tellier spoke soon after Spaur and seemed to change the mood of the room when she said all the negative energy in the room needs to be turned into something positive.

Before the questions began, Pirri and Mantelli apologized to the parents for a meeting last week, which angered parents when they were not allowed to ask questions after school and district leaders outlined the district’s efforts to keep the school accredited.

Pirri said Mantelli will present a NEASC report at every regularly scheduled meeting until the problem is resolved, and she asked parents to sign in before the meetings begin so district leaders can address questions in an orderly fashion.

“However, if someone in attendance has a spontaneous question regarding the report being given, you will still be afforded the opportunity to speak,” Pirri said.

Mantelli then took all the blame for last week’s meeting.

“It was really my decision not to entertain questions because we had a tremendous amount of information to give out,” she said. “It wasn’t that I was thinking we would never answer questions. I do apologize for the fact that many of our constituents were unhappy, and I do take responsibility for that.”

Kate Bramson covers Johnston schools. She can be reached at (401) 277-7470 or by e-mail at kbramson@projo.com