Thursday, January 17, 2013
School officials will have to find $500,000 for the next school year.
Another hard year of cuts is ahead for North Kingstown schools, according to Superintendent Phil Auger. On Tuesday night, Auger presented a preliminary look at fiscal 2014’s budget, which starts July 1. According to Auger, the district will need to make roughly $500,000 in cuts to balance the budget. State and federal funding for the upcoming year are both expected to drop, according to figures from Auger and School Business Director Mary King. One of those factors is a drop in enrollment. According to King, North Kingstown schools are expected to cumulatively lose 100 students. Jamestown, which sends its high school students to North Kingstown High School, is also expected to have fewer students coming into NK next year. Fewer students …
Friday, January 11, 2013
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Good Friday would be removed from next year's school calendar.
North Kingstown students may be in the classrooms for three religious holidays starting next year following a vote from the North Kingstown School Committee. All seven members of the committee unanimously approved changes to the school calendars, removing three religious holidays – Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah and Good Friday – starting with the 2013-2014 academic year. According to School Superintendent Phil Auger, the new calendar more closely follows the calendar used by state workers. The change would give school officials a great buffer when accommodating snow days, hurricane days and other unforeseen issues that prompt no school. “I’ve been superintendent for a year and a half and during that time I haven’t called a snow day,” said …
Thursday, January 10, 2013
School, town and law enforcement officials appeared at Tuesday night's school committee, discussing school safety in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown.
The North Kingstown School Committee dedicated part of its Tuesday night meeting to an issue that has been on the minds of parents and students around the country since Dec. 14 – the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. "I don't think there was any community that didn't think Sandy Hook couldn't happen to them," said North Kingstown School Superintendent Phil Auger. Following the deadly shooting in Newtown, CT that left 26 people (20 of them children) dead at the hands of shooter Adam Lanza, North Kingstown school officials have been working to tighten up security at schools across the district. At North Kingstown High School, administrators have restricted access to the building: visitors can now only enter the building through the …
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Home values are expected to drop following current property revaluations in North Kingstown.
It’s not even 2013 yet and town and school officials are forecasting another tight budget year for fiscal 2014. At their Monday joint night meeting, the North Kingstown Town Council and School Committee saw presentations from both the town manager and school superintendent highlighting the upcoming fiscal year’s forecast. For Town Manager Michael Embury, the upcoming property revaluations could mean a significant drop in property tax revenue for the town. According to Embury, initial estimates are projecting a 10 percent reduction in real estate values. If the 10 percent reduction holds (revaluations are still ongoing, so this figure is subject to change) and the town doesn’t cut anything from last year’s budget (i.e. expenditures remain …
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
After two years of negotiations, the school district's support professionals have a contract.
Two years of negotiations came to a close Tuesday night as the North Kingstown School Committee unanimously approved a contract for the school district’s support staff. The new three-year contract covers July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015 and is estimated to save the school department $1.7 million during that time. "It was the most difficult this we've had to do in my time on the school committee," said Committee Chair Kimberly Page on the contract. Check below for the fiscal impact statement regarding the contract. The school committee’s negotiations sub-committee finished the contract after a seven-hour session on Thursday. According to Superintendent Phil Auger, the new contract does not include any custodian-related items. Currently, …
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
The North Kingstown School Committee looks to approve a contract with the North Kingstown Education Support Professionals union.
After almost two years of negotiations, school officials have reached a tentative contract agreement with the North Kingstown Education Support Professionals union. The NK School Committee's negotiations sub-committee (made up of Kimberly Page, Larry Ceresi and John Boscardin) and Superintendent Phil Auger announced a tentative agreement had been made on Thursday after a seven-hour-long negotiation session. The ESP union (representing the school department's cafeteria workers, custodians and other support professionals) is scheduled to bring the contract to its full membership Tuesday. Once that vote is taken, the school committee will vote on the agreement at its Tuesday night meeting at 7 p.m. In a press release from the negotiations …
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
The newly-formed North Kingstown School Committee elected its chair and vice-chair Monday night.
In its first meeting together, the 2012 North Kingstown School Committee elected its officers for the next two years. Kimberly Page will remain chair with Larry Ceresi as vice-chair following the 6-1 vote. Bill Mudge was the only opposing vote. The swift vote was in stark contrast to the previous biennial organizational meeting back in December 2010, when it took a whopping nine motions for the committee to name a chair and vice-chair. The committee welcomed incoming members Cheryl Clarkin and Robert Jones, who were the top two vote-getters in last month's election, respectively. The two filled the vacant seats of Melvoid Benson, who chose not to run for re-election, and Richard Welch, who was elected to the North Kingstown Town Council …
The new members of the town council and school committee were sworn in Monday night.
It was a night of farewells, thanks yous and welcomes during Monday night's swearing in ceremony for both the North Kingstown Town Council and School Committee. The council welcomed new members Kerry McKay, Kevin Maloney and Richard Welch (who joins the council after four years on the school committee). The trio will join incumbents Carol Hueston and Elizabeth Dolan who were both re-elected during last month's election. Dolan will once again serve as the council's president for the third term in a row. The council bid farewell to outgoing members Chuck Brennan, Michael Bestwick and Charles Stamm. Brennan and Stamm (who was not present at the ceremony) both chose to not run for re-election while Bestwick came in seventh out of 14 candidates…
Local, state and federal officials thanked Melvoid Benson for her years of service.
The North Kingstown Town Council and School Committee bid farewell to outgoing members at its swearing in ceremony Monday night, but the biggest farewell went to Melvoid Benson. Benson received flowers and numerous citations and certificates from the school committee, North Kingstown's state delegation and Congressman James Langevin and Sen. Jack Reed. Everyone thanked Benson for her years of service, including the past eight years during which she has served on the NK School Committee. Prior to that, Benson was a state representative at the State House during the 1990s. She was the first black woman to be elected to the Rhode Island legislature. From 1965 to 1990, she taught in several North Kingstown schools, including Hamilton …
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The school department is looking to solve the $150,000-a-year deficit from its cafeteria services.
The North Kingstown School Committee is looking to solve its perennial black hole – the food services budget. For several years running, the school district’s cafeteria service has run $150,000 in the red, causing the school committee to make up the shortfalls in other sectors of the budget. “It’s time we fix it,” said School Committee Member John Boscardin. “We need to stop putting Band-Aids on it. Stop putting duct tape on it. Stop putting bubble gum on it. We need to make it work.” North Kingstown is the only school department in Rhode Island that does its food services in-house. All others have outsourced their services or have used the state-run program. Last year, the school department raised prices of school lunches and …
NK Politics
7:45 pm on Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Hopefully with 3 new members of our council we will see positive differences as compared to previous council's. more ›