The District needs a restructuring.

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 – 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐲

Dr. Duva clearly agreed as he suggested the elimination of the COO position (which I have been publicly requesting for more than 2 years) and a reconfiguration of the NKSD’s Central Administration.

𝐋𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞

This discussion was started during the 9/12 school committee meeting, but not till about 10:30pm, as—yet again—the agenda was packed and the meeting lasted 5 hours and 23 minutes. Not much was accomplished on this very important topic as the general consensus was that such a discussion should not be held so late at night in such a rushed fashion.

𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭

What was discussed on this topic was that Ms. Lima believed that too many people reported back to Dr. Duva, our Superintendent. On that, he pushed back; after all, it is standard practice for all Department heads to eventually answer to him since he is the Head of our District. According to the RI School Superintendents Association (RISSA), the following should be included in a superintendent’s model contract:

“The Superintendent of Schools is the chief executive of the School Committee. In harmony with the policies of the Board of Education, state law, and state board of education regulations, the Superintendent has executive authority over the school system and the responsibility for its supervision.” And “The Superintendent shall have the administrative authority, subject to law, and any legally binding contracts of the School District, to organize, reorganize and arrange the administrative and supervisory staff in such a way as in his/her judgement best serves the School District.”

Ms. Lima suggested he look to Barrington as an example. Here is where a lack of a background in education combined with haphazard micromanagement becomes problematic. She cherry-picked one school district to hold up as an example but never considered the recommendations of RISSA and even her own school committee Policy BD (discussed later in this post).

Over the summer, to reinforce my own recommendations on restructuring, I made calls and inquiries to almost a dozen school districts in our state to inquire about their central administration chain of command. All of the aforementioned information, along with my background in education and institutional knowledge of our public school systems, reinforce my view that Dr. Duva should be heard and his experience and suggestions should not be undermined.

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐆𝐨

The members of this school committee have made a number of administrative personnel decisions over the last couple of years that have made little sense to the public. Recall how they chased away an extremely qualified interim superintendent back in January of 2023 after only 2 months on the job (see article below). In June of this year, they voted not to renew the contract of our former Director of Facilities (Bob Corrente), against the recommendation of Superintendent Duva. Along with many other residents, I believe this was a huge mistake. Mr. Corrente was so qualified that when he was let go, he had multiple job offers and obtained new employment almost immediately. Dr. Duva must abide by what the SC votes on, and unfortunately these current school committee members believe they know better than a seasoned, educational professional with almost 3 decades of experience working in various roles of our public schools. In fact, they are ignoring their own policy BD which states:

“Superintendent as Executive Officer for the School Committee.

The administration of the School System in all of its aspects shall be delegated to the Superintendent, who shall carry out the administrative functions in accord with the policies adopted by the School Committee. The execution of all decisions made by the School Committee concerning the internal operation of the School System shall be delegated to the Superintendent.”

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫

It is my opinion that if the composition of the school committee doesn’t change this November, those with no background in education or desire to defer to people who do have that experience will micromanage this district into deterioration. The same people who hired Dr. Duva and told us all what a wonderful choice he was to lead our district are the ones who refuse to let him do the job for which he was hired…because they think they know better than he does. Of those 5 members, one is not up for re-election this cycle and will remain on the Committee and 3 are incumbents running for re-election.

On the other hand, I have been encouraged by the decisions Dr. Duva has made on behalf of our district and look forward to working with him and his new team should I be elected to sit on the school committee.

𝐑𝐈 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭:

Click here for model contract.

𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞

Click here for article on the resignation of Superintendent Judy Paolucci