Break up of middle school proposed
Superintendent proposes splitting up Woonsocket Middle School into separate, autonomous schools
WOONSOCKET – Since they opened in 2010, the twin, freestanding buildings of the Woonsocket Middle School complex on Hamlet Avenue have operated under the direction of a single principal.
It’s a daunting task, says Schools Supt. Patrick McGee, who did it for five years before he took on his current leadership role.
“Often you’re running back and forth from one building to the next,” he says. “It’s an enormous job.”
If all goes according to plan, the two schools would become administratively autonomous beginning in September, with a principal, assistant principal and dean of students dedicated for each of the buildings, known as Woonsocket Middle School at Villa Nova and Woonsocket Middle School at Hamlet.
McGee says it’s all part of an effort to change what he calls academic “culture and climate” at the middle school. With more resources at the top to work up close with the instructional staff, including teachers and aides, McGee believes the administration can get a
better handle on improving academic outcomes and reducing disciplinary problems.
“I feel like having a principal in each building will improve the climate and culture because that principal will focus on one building...” said McGee.
Though McGee doesn’t think the plan should raise much concern, McGee says parents ought to have an opportunity to hear the details in person and offer their feedback. So the superintendent is inviting parents to an open hearing on the proposed administrative restructuring of the middle school at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the cafeteria of Woonsocket Middle School at Hamlet.
Funding to beef up the administrative staff at the middle school complex is included in the proposed budget for fiscal 2018, according to McGee. It will cost about $72 million to operate the Woonsocket Education Department, a figure that includes about $2.7 million in new revenue from state and federal sources.
Most of the money for education comes from sources other than local taxpayers, whose contribution is about $16.1 million in all – a figure that has been unchanged for at least three years. The total budget, for schools and municipal operations, is a proposed $140.8 million. Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt handed off the spending plan to the City Council on Monday for review, adjustments and final approval, a process expected to be finished no later than July 1. Currently, says McGee, the Rhode Island Department of Education views the middle school complex as a single school, even though students are spread out between two identical buildings.
The two schools have a combined Grade 6-8 student population of about 1,300. There was a time, prior to 2010, when Woonsocket Middle School was operating out of the now-shuttered building on Park Place, when the middle school population was around 1,600 – the largest of any middle school in New England.
McGee was the principal of the middle school then, too, and transitioned over to the new $80 million Hamlet Avenue complex after it opened in January 2010.
When the new school was planned, part of the rationale for splitting it into two buildings was the scale of the student body.
The middle school population is still quite large, but it’s unclear how it ranks now in comparison to others in the region.