McGuire-Forcier Presses for Discussion on Closing Another Elementary School

Editor's note: This story was written in part using audio posted on Mywoonsocket.com's "In their own words" page, where a recording of the entire meeting is available.  

Woonsocket Public Schools may have to close an elementary school and add a 5-6 grade academy and 7-8 grade academy to the middle schools, but there's no plan on how to do that yet.

At the School Committee's March 20 meeting to review a $65 million draft budget, member Anita McGuire-Forcier asked about the cost-saving contingency. The move was suggested by Carolyn Dias, RI Department of Education's chief of fiscal integrity, during a fall meeting with the Superintendent and School Committee members, she said. 

"They know that you have the capacity in terms of your buildings, to do that," said Interim Finance Director Ralph Malafronte, noting school buildings have "excess capacity". But, he said, RIDE probably couldn't force the school department to follow that plan.

"However, the Budget Commission is aware of us needing — the way they see it, probably, is we need to do this to save money," McGuire-Forcier said, "So it is something we need to look into."

Malafronte said the move would have some advantages. For instance, four and fifth-grade students would be in same facility, providing efficiency of scale and giving the students access to more modern science labs. 

Roberts noted any change in that direction would just be savings, not a need for more money, so the budget discussion itself didn't depend on it. "Now we're detouring into program discussions," Roberts said, noting they'd have the luxury of making the changes without needing to ask for more funds. 

Before the meeting ended, McGuire-Forcier insisted the Committee should discuss how to close down an elementary school, since the Budget Commission is likely to ask them about their plans to do that. "I haven't seen numbers on how it would work, none of us have," McGuire-Forcier said.

"We don't have the numbers," said Committee Member Eleanor Nadeau. 

"We've got to request that," McGuire-Forcier said.

"We can't close down a school without making those very vast changes," across the whole school system, Donoyan said. "We should have our due diligence. I don't want to move children around like we did at Fifth Avenue, at the very last minute. It caused a lot of chaos," Donoyan said.

"Right, and they will look at you and say, 'You were warned about this a long time ago, Dr. Donoyan. Why didn't you look into it?"

"Warned about what, Ma'am?" Donoyan replied.

"Being able to close down an elementary school," McGuire-Forcier said.

"We have looked at that. We can close down a lot of things. But I think what happens also is from a safety measure, the internal strife that will happen, the issues with losing teachers...We don't have the human resources right now to do all of those moves," Donoyan said. She said the district would have to hire a vendor to move personnel and equipment. 

"I think we would all be hard-pressed to close a school in a neighborhood that requires the presence of a school department there. So I think we have to be very conservative," Donoyan said.

McGuire-Forcier said the Committee should do some planning in that direction. "I do think we need to look at it, look at numbers, because if you don't do it now, I guarantee the Budget Commission will demand those numbers."

"We've actually received some numbers, preliminary numbers," said Steve Coleman, advisor to the Budget Commission, depending upon what the School Committee chooses to do. 

"They have some very preliminary numbers," Malafronte said, with no savings from positions factored in.

"We have to have a plan," said Nadeau. 

"I just wanted to let you know it is on the radar," Coleman said, confirming McGuire-Forcier's suspicion that the Budget Commission intends to explore the option.

"I know they're not going to just ignore it like it wasn't there. I've already been questioned about it," McGuire-Forcier said, "Do I want to close down an elementary school? I don't know. I don't see the numbers, I don't know if it's worth all the headache and I don't know if they can fit the kids everywhere. I need to see this." 

By this afternoon, hours before the next School Committee meeting, McGuire Forcier said she still had not received information on closing an elementary school. "I'm going to ask about it again tonight," she said.

Tonight, the Committee is expected to vote on a first passage of the draft budget. The School Committee will then meet in a joint session with the Budget Commission and City Council April 1, after which the budget will go before the Budget Commission at the following scheduled meeting.