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School Officials in Johnston Answer Questions From Parents

Posted on: Friday, 30 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Tuesday evening was the first public opportunity for residents to ask questions of district leaders about how Johnston High School is addressing the concerns of its accrediting agency.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges has kept the school on probation since 2000 and will decide in January whether to follow a recommendation from its commission on public secondary schools to strip the high school of its accreditation.

The district is working to challenge that recommendation with a show-cause report due to NEASC by Dec. 1.

Here's how administrators responded to questions at Tuesday's School Committee meeting.

Q: Melanie Turner: What is the timeline for when all the work for the show-cause process must be completed?

A: Elizabeth L. Mantelli (high school principal): The report is due Dec. 1, but I will provide a timeline at the next School Committee meeting. I love the idea.

Q: Paula Lanni: If the high school does lose its accreditation, what options will be made available to our students, because I don't want my child in a school that's not accredited?

A: Mantelli: First of all, we are not focusing a lot of our time on that question, because we are focusing on making sure we are perfect according to these [NEASC] standards. But that question is in the back of my mind. Our guidance department is checking with schools. I know Johns Hopkins does not accept students from a nonaccredited school. I think that's unusual. I told our seniors, their focus must be on learning as much as they can, taking the SATs, getting beautiful -- and I mean powerful -- letters of recommendation from teachers. If [colleges] see boring, routine letters from teachers, that's not good. Our teachers' credentials speak for themselves. We have a number on the adjunct faculty at Rhode Island College. ... In that horrible scenario, which I don't like to focus on, I would assume we would pick up right from the beginning and seek accreditation, because I, too, think it's unacceptable not to be accredited.

Q: Paula Lanni: Will students face undue academic pressure because of all the focus on NEASC right now? Are we more likely to lose at-risk students?

A: Mantelli: Will you let me check with the students and report back? By improving our teaching [through this NEASC work], I think it makes it easier for students to learn. I know I learn better from better teachers.

[Later in the meeting, School Committee member Robert A. LaFazia asked the newly appointed student liaison to the committee, Samuel A. Budway, to assist Mantelli in getting student feedback about NEASC.]

Q: Laura Barnes: I have been trying to understand which particular standards we're working on? And what's the plan? So the improvement plan for the library, where is it and how is it funded? All this information you're presenting is terrific. Where can we as parents get all this?

A: Kathryn M. Crowley (assistant superintendent): In the upstairs library, we were going to create a new space there. We were unable to offer classes and establish a media center there because we need to put a corridor down the middle of the library to comply with new fire codes. We did not realize that until the end of last school year, after the Fire Department inspected the school. We're working on a plan for how to use that space.

Q: Barnes: What will NEASC say if it's just a plan?

A: Crowley: They'll be happy that we have a plan.

Q: Barnes: There was an issue on the material in the library.

A: Mantelli: NEASC recommended that we increase the print and nonprint materials. We have with the 2004-05 budget.

Q: Barnes: I don't have a good sense of what these plans are. I would love to read them.

A: Norma-Jean Pirri (school board chairwoman): Next Tuesday we have a special School Committee meeting regarding the budget.

Q: Barnes: So will we know which NEASC standards will be addressed by the School Committee in the budget process by next Tuesday?

A: Pirri: Yes.

A: Mantelli: I will try to get this report I gave to the School Committee tonight on the Web site tomorrow.

Q: Peter DelPonte: How will parents be notified about how they can get involved? We need to be able to see the information. A couple reports that were discussed at [Tuesday night's] meeting -- such as the administrative contracts -- could be made available to the public before a meeting. With this lack of information, attendance [Tuesday night] is pretty low. More information out there in a timely manner would help.

A: Mantelli: We'll list the parents advisory meetings in [The] Sun Rise. We'll work to post information to the high school Web site.

Q: Louis S. Massemini: Dr. Mantelli, what are you going to do different in the next three months that has not been done in the last five years?

A: Mantelli: I'm coordinating teacher meetings to look at student work. I'm chairing two meetings a day to facilitate their work. We have two deans of discipline this year. I'm spending less time on discipline.

A: Iacovelli: The School Committee last year added department heads at the high school. They are another vehicle for Dr. Mantelli to get the curriculum across to the teachers.

A: Crowley: The department chairs are working directly with each department to make sure this high school is accredited.

Q: [unidentified parent]: You haven't lost any of your autonomy, with the state helping the district dispute the NEASC recommendation?

A: Crowley: No, the state has been very helpful. Good question.

Q: Richard Loffredo: You seem surprised by people wanting information. There's not information on your Web site. You have a lot of work to do to get this body of people behind you. Too little too late. It doesn't sound like you've thought through this whole plan.

A: Iacovelli: We have a school-improvement plan. We have a NEASC visit every 10 years. Typically, what happens is you prepare for the visit, they give you recommendations, you address them, and then you drop it at that point and don't do anything for the next 10 years. My recommendation is that the district will have a group of people constantly addressing the NEASC needs so we will not be in this place five years from now or 10.

Q: [unidentified parent]: Do you feel we're going to get accredited?

A: Pirri: I have a good feeling. I am extremely comfortable with what the administrators are doing.

A: Mantelli: Yes, and I believe it's not that we've been doing this wrong for all five years.

A: Iacovelli: Three years ago, our academic rigor was not there. Now I feel much more confident. In our first year in each of our positions, Dr. Mantelli came to me and said she didn't feel we had enough advanced placement classes. Now students are earning college credits in some of our high school classes.

A: Anna Pacheco (math teacher and parent): I have every faith and confidence that we're on the right track to get what needs to be accomplished done.

Source: Providence Journal

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