North Scituate, RHODE ISLAND

More pot growers.
Two of the children showed an investigator where the plants were.

August 7, 2008 - Joan Lowell, 36, a PonagansetMiddle School teacher, and her 24-year-old husband were arrested and charged with felony counts of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy to break controlled substance laws and possession charges.

A Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) investigator told police they had received numerous tips about the growing plants on the DCYF hotline, including one from a relative. A DCYF investigator told police she went to the house on Thursday and two of the Lowell children showed her where the plants were. She then called police. Police found a number of plantss.

Four of the woman’s five children were placed in custody of her first husband and father of the four. Lowell’s other child was placed with the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). The children range from age 2 months to 10.

Aug 5 - Johnston Middle School Teacher Arrested For Growing Pot at Home
See video at site.

*Some* kind of reform

Feb 1, 2008 - Robert Flanders, a lawyer and a former justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and the chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Regents, on Bold vision for R.I. school reform.
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TT - Flanders was nominated in 2006 by Republican maverick U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee to fill a vacancy on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, an offer President Bush did not take him up on. Flanders is very active in civic politics. In the appointment of Flanders as Chair Commission to Strengthen Research at the University of Rhode Island, his other appointments were noted and there are dozens. Not everyone, however, is enamored with the R.I. Supreme Court.

Flanders may, however, be a good choice to solve two major problems in education in Rhode Island - unfunded teacher pensions and teacher strikes that delay the opening of schools.

It is illegal for public school teachers to strike in Rhode Island but that hasn't stopped strikes. Historically, the teacher unions in R.I. have been politically active. In 1975, one-third of teachers in Rhode Island walked the picket line. (Time magazine)

Today, however, the state faces a serious fiscal crisis, largely due to the costs of education, the burden of teacher pensions and the untenable cost of providing health care for those retired teachers. The crunch means that the state anticpates even more labor action, which is why the governor appointed Flanders to a commission to study how those contracts are negotiated.

The NEA view is aptly expressed in this opinion piece that should be read before reading the Rhode Island Economic Snapshot produced by Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) committee. A press release from the state focuses on the problem that is both endemic (Look at the release date.) and historical. Spending is even worse.

In a 2006 press release, the governor notes that while inflation has risen at an average 2.9-percent annual rate during this period, the state has been increasing spending by almost three times the rate of inflation. That's not a national economic problem; it was a choice of political expediency.

It will take political will to solve the problem. But it shouldn't be called "school reform." Children are the very last concern of educrats or politicians or teachers unions. Otherwise, they wouldn't have graduated illiterates for decades while they literally bathed in filthy lucre.

Westerly, RHODE ISLAND

Jan 23, 2008 - Westerly School Committee member Dominic DiFazio pleaded not guilty to two counts of obtaining more than $500 under false pretenses and one count of unlawful appropriation. It is alleged that his contracting company took more than $2,700 from an elderly couple for work that was not done.

Police Chief Edward A. Mello described the couple, Harold and Florence Plympton, as “more than patient” and DiFazio as “less than patient,” refusing to turn himself in when he was arrested during a School Committee budget retreat on Nov. 17.

DiFazio was elected to the committee in 2006. [Election results.]

DiFazio is set to go to trial Feb 8 on a misdemeanor fraud charge for allegedly writing a bad check to A-1 Rolloff Disposal. Lynch accused the Town of Westerly of “playing games” because he said the fraudulent check matter had been resolved privately between DiFazio and the disposal company.

Connecticut officials are continuing separate investigations involving similar complaints against DiFazio.

New probes surface over contractor/school board member (Nov 28, 2007)

Unfunded Pensions

The state’s share of the pension bill for teachers alone is expected to soar from $80.2 million this year to a projected $94.8 million next year.

Jan 10, 2008 - In Rhode Island, the Speaker of the House submitted a bill to create a commission to study how to finance state pensions that are currently underfunded by $4.9 Billion.

New age-and-work requirements adopted by lawmakers in 2005 were aimed at stemming the growth in cost.

But longtime state workers and public school teachers can still retire at any age — and newer employees at age 59 — with an almost unheard of benefit in private industry: a defined-benefit pension that pays them up to 75 percent of what they were making in their final years of work, with guaranteed annual cost-of-living increases of up to 3 percent.

The average pension paid a retired state employee was $22,493, and retired public school teacher, $40,151, during the year that ended June 30.

With a $4.9-billion unfunded liability accruing interest at 8.25 percent per year through 2029, Rhode Island struggles every year to come up with enough taxpayer money to pay the annual tab.

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Rhode Island isn't the only state to have large unfunded pensions.

See HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE

East Providence, RHODE ISLAND

Dec 13, 2007 - School Committee member Steven Santos proposed an anti-nepotism policy for the school district this week. It didn't have a lot of support from the school committee.

School Committee member Stephen DeCastro, who is the son of a former East Providence police chief, thought just relating to someone shouldn’t prevent them [from being hired].

Chairwoman Mildred Morris characterized the proposed new policy as "discriminatory." Probably because her daughter works for the district as does her son-in-law. Morris has been targeted by a watchdog group persistent pattern of unethical behavior and corrupt patronage politics at the expense of the welfare of schoolchildren, taxpayers, and the public good.

Morris herself is alleged to have boasted before the last two elections that she had personally obtained School Department jobs for over 100 people and was therefore politically invincible.”

TT - The school committee sounds like a winner.

Westerly, RHODE ISLAND

Dec 6, 2007 - Andrew Jervis, 40, a Westerly Middle School social studies teacher, was arrested for allegedly exposing himself while driving on Route 95.

According to state police Capt. James Swanberg, an Iowa couple in a tractor-trailor was heading south on Route 95 when the wife, who was driving, saw Jervis expose himself. The state police arrested Jervis, who drove a 2003 Pontiac, in Hopkinton.

The day.com: Police said Jervis admitted to the “wrongdoing” and was charged with disorderly conduct.

Jervis was charged with disorderly conduct.

TT - It's weird the details they include in a story.

East Greenwich, RHODE ISLAND

September 7, 2007 - A Rhode Island judge has ruled a strike by East Greenwich teachers is illegal and has ordered them back to work.

Teachers do not have a right to strike in Rhode Island, a fact confirmed by the state Supreme Court that ruled that work stoppages are illegal.

DON'T MISS reading Bob Kerr's opinion on teacher strikes at the Providence-Journal.

Every year, the teacher strike or strikes of the season seem a little more tedious, a little more tacky, a little more out of touch.

The last paragraph is the best.

Burrillville, RHODE ISLAND

Teaching the rule of law to students.

August 29, 2007 -The Burrillville School Committee has gone to court to end an illegal strike by teachers.

The teachers are dissatisfied with contract proposals that, according to a union official, offer too little money and try to change their roles. They also disagreed with proposals to increase limits on class size.

The union membership, numbering 203 teachers, voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike should their union leaders deem it necessary. It is illegal for public school teachers to strike in Rhode Island.

A a lawyer for the School Committee cited the town’s limited ability “to meet union financial requests” as an issue in the contract negotiations. The NEA says the system wants to change the role of teachers from professionals to staffers who take direction. :/

Copy of injunction request. PDF

Newport, RHODE ISLAND

Mar 16, 2007 - John Miller, 29, pleaded innocent to a third-degree sexual assault charge involving a 15-year-old girl.

Miller taught English classes, as well as an Advanced Placement English class at Rogers High School. He was placed on administrative leave last May when the school learned police were investigating him.

The investigation began when a police detective heard reports last spring about an allegedly inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student. Within weeks a local woman showed up at the police station with her 15-year-old daughter to file a complaint.

The charge of third-degree sexual assault is otherwise known as statutory rape. The charge refers to a person 18 or older engaging in sexual penetration with a person between the ages of 14 and 16,

Police obtained online chats between the teacher and the girl.
Full Name: John W. Miller

East Greenwich, RHODE ISLAND

It's not my fault; it's the alcohol.
Jan 23, 2007 - Jamie Cohen, 38, an East Greenwich High School assistant principal, charged with domestic assault last month for slapping his live-in girlfriend after a public dispute said he will undergo six weeks of alcohol counseling and was told by a District Court judge his charges may be dropped if counseling is successful.

Cohen is scheduled to attend counseling over the next six weeks and is expected to appear in court again March 2. He has not missed work at the high school since the December incident.

The administration will not take any disciplinary action against Cohen. Presumably because "he apologized to the [school superintendent] and the faculty and the staff and administration for causing any embarrassment to the school district."