gilbert stuart middle school

March 20, 2015March 20, 2015

Mass. has a better way to fund school construction than Raimondo

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“I’ve been scared and battered,
My hopes the wind done scattered.”
– Langston Hughes, ‘I’m still here’

Too many Rhode Island children and teachers, particularly in low-income communities, work in schools that are decrepit.

Governor Raimondo recognizes the need to invest in our schools. In fact, she’s proposed $20 million to do so. A very important step and yet insignificant compared to other state and city infrastructure investments – the $22 million East Bay bike path renovations, the $43 million proposed Garrahy Parking Garage, and the $40 million 2012 road bond in the City of Providence.

Nevertheless, Raimondo’s plan is based – too loosely, I would say – on the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

“The bottom line is that the MSBA [Massachusetts School Building Authority] funding activity not only leaves the Commonwealth with better schools for our children, but continues to play a not insignificant role in boosting the economy of the state, providing jobs for thousands and thousands of our workers,” says the 2o14 report: The Economic Impact of MSBA Investments on the Massachusetts Economy.

Prior to the creation of the MSBA in 2004, the Bay State likewise had a complicated history with adequate supports for school buildings.

Clayton-Matthews and Bluestone note, “By the early 2000’s, the ‘temporary’ (Massachusetts school building assistance) program had become unsustainable, accumulating more than $11 billion in unfunded promises to local districts. By 2003, there were 428 projects on a waiting list to begin construction, and communities that actually broke ground, routinely waited years – sometimes decades – to receive their first reimbursement payment from the state.”

Our current predicament sounds similar. Over at WPRI, Dan McGowan reveals Rhode Island has “$600 million in [school] facility maintenance deferred since 2011.”

According to Clayton-Matthew and Bluestone, here’s the low down on the Massachusetts School Building Authority:

“Since 2004, the MSBA has made over $10.5 billion in payments to cities, towns and regional school districts, including full or partial payments to all of the eligible Waiting List Projects. In addition, the MSBA has completed 784 of the 788 backlogged audits inherited from the former program, saving the taxpayers of Massachusetts more than $1 billion in project costs and $2.9 million in local interest costs.

The MSBA’s grant program places tremendous emphasis on planning, due diligence and prioritization of scarce MSBA resources. The MSBA approves new projects through a competitive process that stresses need and urgency, and reimbursement can range from 31 to 80 percent of eligible project costs.

There are currently more than 300 construction, renovation and repair projects in the MSBA’s Capital Pipeline. The MSBA, which has a designated revenue stream of one penny of the state sales tax, collaborates with municipalities to invest approximately $500 million per year in schools across the Commonwealth.”

By contrast, Governor Raimondo’s proposed $20 million cannot simultaneously restore Mt Pleasant High School, bring modern science labs and a renovated auditorium to Gilbert Stuart Middle School, fix the pipes at Roger Williams Middle School – let alone spruce up additional schools in Pawtucket and North Kingston.

Discussion is in the air. Cumberland Senator Ryan Pearson has a bill more like Massachusetts’ successful system than Raimondo’s proposal. Providence Representative Aaron Regunburg wrote to his constituents, “while this is just a start and is not enough to solve our school infrastructure needs – I will do everything in my power to ensure that the final budget includes at least this level of additional funds.”

More delayed maintenance in Rhode Island won’t make future rehabs any cheaper or allow Rhode Islanders to benefit from the Massachusetts model of economic investment through school rebuilding and construction.

Unless Governor Raimondo’s plan is to let several thousand more children over the next few years learn in decaying structures, it’s time to start talking to leaders in Massachusetts. Rhody can learn their game plan – and then do it better!

December 31, 2014January 2, 2015

New year, old wish: Fix our schools

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The decaying school buildings in Providence are a monument to the abject failure of Rhode Island’s political leadership to invest in all the people of the state.

The legislature is willing to spend more than $40 million on a parking garage for lawyers and court employees downtown but not for public school kids in the North or West ends of the city.

Mold and asbestos can be seen on the walls of Gilbert Stuart Middle School. At Roger Williams Middle School, as of a year ago, students couldn’t drink from the bubbler. Esek Hopkins Middle School in the North End is ranked as a “Level 3” building – meaning it is in “fair to poor condition,” needing “moderate to major renovations.” Two of the newer buildings- Del Sesto and Alvarez – are built on formerly toxic industrial sites subject to intense monitoring.

“I think it is immoral we are asking children to enter these buildings,” said Republican candidate Dan Harrop during his mayoral campaign.

“Ordinary people who harm children are punished by courts and despised by society, while politicians who harm children by ignoring the inequalities in public schools are not held accountable for their actions (or lack thereof),” wrote Aaron Carpenter recently on this blog.

And Aaron Apps wrote, “There is a kind of slow, horrible violence being done against the students and teachers expected to occupy these buildings.”

Other states don’t do this to their children.

For several years I taught in Fall River, MA. I worked in a modern school building barely five years old. In fact, many of the elementary and middle schools in the city, one of the poorest in the state of Massachusetts, are barely a decade old, thanks to a massive investment in school infrastructure and equipment by the state.

I live in California now, and what I’ve seen with public schools here just breaks my heart. Not for California, but for Rhode Island. (There are plenty of challenges and needs…plenty of people working for positive change.) I’ve seen “dilapidated” schools in Oakland, CA which look pretty great compared to some of what we have in Providence. There are district schools in East Oakland, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bay Area, which have skylights and modern computers. There is a community college in Hayward, CA with solar panels above the parking lot.

A tangible way to increase jobs, make a long term investment, and brighten the day of children and families is to renovate and re-invest in our schools. The money is there, we just need the will to do so. Maybe this year we will.

Gina Raimondo, Nick Mattiello, Teresa Paiva-Weed and Jorge Elorza have a chance to be the governor, speaker, senate president and mayor who rebuilt Rhode Island’s schools. Sounds like good politics, and actually good for the people.

My wish for the New Year is that Rhode Island muster the political class and economic sense to treat every child like their own.

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Condition of PVD schools: ‘a kind of slow, horrible violence’

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I recently wrote a short op-ed for Providence Journal about the state of Gilbert Stuart Middle School demanding action be taken with regard to the physical state of our local schools.

A recent RI Future article published pictures from inside of this school, which show – even if only in part – how poor the conditions of the physical school buildings actually are in urban Rhode Island.

Having been inside this school in particular, I’d say these are just an additional glimpse at the many physical problems the school has.

Beyond the asbestos curtain, peeling paint, and falling roof tiles, I find myself concerned about the prospect of the leaky roof and the resultant mold, as well as the state of the school’s potable – or perhaps non-potable – water.

The photos do provide a much more accurate depiction than Linda Borg’s Aug. 23 article for Providence Journal (“Superintendents say deferred maintenance in Rhode Island schools is driving up costs”) I wrote the critical op-ed in response to an article that seemed more like acquiescing political coverage and a public relations stunt than an honest consideration of how bad the schools are. These are public buildings occupied by students and teachers and they are being left to rot because of poor budgetary management.

The RI Future article also was beneficial for pointing out the school’s score on the 2013 RIDE report, where Gilbert Stuart received 2 out of 5, on a scale where 5 is the lowest score (2 being considered “generally good condition, some system needs. Minor renovations.”).

Looking at the photos, and having actually been inside of the building itself, makes me question the report itself, and how honest it is being about the living conditions inside of schools. I tend to think leaking roofs, likely mold, and an asbestos curtain puts the school in a category that’s much worse than just being in need of “minor renovations.” One wonders if the people grading the schools have looked at so many bad schools, so many schools so much worse than Gilbert Stuart, that their sense of what is acceptable has become clouded.

What struck me the most about the report, is that the average condition of schools in urban and rural locations is worse than the condition of Gilbert Stuart according to the organization’s grading scale. Urban schools received an average condition rating of 2.25, and rural schools received an average rating of 2.19. Suburban schools were only slightly better on average than Gilbert Stuart, receiving an average rating of 1.85. In other words, Rhode Island has many schools in just as bad, if not substantially worse, condition than Gilbert Stuart.

It is also worth noting that these schools are worth a lot of money (the report values Gilbert Stuart at $18,466,300) and they’re being left unrepaired in ways that are detrimental to the buildings themselves. But that feels besides the point, as these are public buildings being occupied by people, and I tend to think that moldy buildings with asbestos in them are detrimental to the people occupying them.

There is a kind of slow, horrible violence being done against the students and teachers expected to occupy these buildings. This is not just some minor budgetary hiccup: something drastic needs to be done about the condition of these schools for the sake of the children and teachers who spend their days inside the schools.

November 15, 2014November 17, 2014

Photos show PVD middle school in disrepair

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Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence has perhaps bigger issues than just one bad teacher, as evidenced by photos provided to RI Future.

The building was built in 1931, and some consider it to be among the most dilapidated schools in the city. A 2013 RIDE report rated it a 2 out of 5, with 1 being the highest score (2= “Generally good condition, some system needs. Minor renovations.”). From the RIDE report:

ridechart_gilbertstuart — From RIDE report.

According to the Feb. 2013 RIDE “Public Schoolhouse Assessment”: “Most children spend a significant part of their lives inside public school buildings, so the condition of those buildings is of great concern to the State of Rhode Island. Aside from the physical safety and well-being of school children and the adults who work in school buildings, it has long been accepted that the condition and design of school buildings has a direct impact on academic performance. As the state strives to prepare its public school students for success in college, careers and life, facilities must be part of the equation.”

RI state law (16-7-35) requires “adequate school housing for all public school children in the state.”

The pictures below were sent to Providence Public School Department on October 6 by RI Future with a request for comment. That email, as well as subsequent follow-up emails and phone calls, have not be returned.