Good Afternoon,

I hope everyone had some time to rest and enjoy a much needed winter break last week. We are excited to look forward to spring and continue to strive to provide the best educational experience for each child who attends EWG schools.

Here are some important updates and reminders:

School Budget

  • The School Committee unanimously voted to approve my recommended budget for the 2024-25 school year at its meeting on February 27th. A community mailing is going out next week with details about the budget, the impact on our communities, and important dates for community involvement in the budget approval process.

  • In summary, we have been able to keep the increase to each town under 2%, despite the fact that we are experiencing significant increases in several key areas (health care, transportation, supplies, energy, etc.). Aside from some identified reductions/efficiencies, a number of factors have contributed to an increase in revenues, and that has helped us to reduce the overall impact on our towns without impacting programs and services.

  • Our budget does include staffing for the continued expansion of full-day preschool classrooms for our four-year-olds at Lineham. We continue to see significant benefits of a full-day, structured educational program for our youngest learners and are excited to meet our goal of increasing the number of full-day PK classrooms..

  • The capital projects identified in the $18.7M bond are complete or nearing completion across the district. These projects were completed on time and under budget, allowing us to cover the costs of some additional safety enhancements in the bond that will increase our state reimbursements for these expenses (thus decreasing our debt service expenses).

  • A public hearing is scheduled for March 25th at 7:00 PM in the newly renovated JSHS auditorium. This is an opportunity to learn more about the proposed budget and ask whatever questions you need answered to make a decision about your vote at the All-Day Referendum scheduled for April 8th. I hope to see a high degree of community participation!

Student Attendance

We continue to monitor our student attendance, as this is a district and state goal for all Rhode Island schools. Last year, more than one out of every four children were chronically absent. This has a dramatic impact on overall student achievement. Thank you for helping us to make regular school attendance a priority. As of today, here is the status of our schools: 

  • Metcalf Elementary - Current chronic absenteeism rate: 11.6% (compared to 18.1% at this time last school year)

  • Wawaloam Elementary - Current chronic absenteeism rate: 13.7% (compared to 24.7% at this time last school year)

  • EWG Senior High - Current chronic absenteeism rate: 15.7% (compared to 20.1% at this time last school year)

  • EWG Junior High - Current chronic absenteeism rate: 16.5% (compared to 22.5% at this time last school year)

Survey Works

In my last communication, I shared some information about the annual survey that is now open to the public. Principals from each school have shared highlights about their schools, and I have previously shared several items from my "most proud" list as well. Here are a couple more for your consideration...

  • For the first time in EWG, we added a Transition Program for our 18-21 year old students who qualify for extended services to support their transition into adulthood. In the past, students received those services through an outside agency, outside of the district. The program has been a remarkable success. Students have become more involved in their home communities, have participated in supervised/supported employment and volunteer activities, and continue to build life skills for increasing independence. One of our students has even secured paid employment! Our Transition Program teacher, Carol Spaulding, was recognized at the January 12th Providence Bruins game as an outstanding and impactful educator for the work she and her staff have done with this new program.

  • Based on feedback from our community, we have implemented some after-school extracurricular program opportunities at Metcalf School. Parents and children have expressed a desire for us to provide experiences to engage our Metcalf students outside of the typical school day. Many of the children have participated, and many of our staff members have volunteered to supervise and facilitate the activities. It has been a huge success - and I am pleased to report that we have included funding to expand these opportunities in our school budget proposal for next school year.

We really do take your feedback seriously and we are always looking for ways to improve. Your input is valuable and necessary. I encourage you to take the time to complete the annual Survey Works family survey.

Student Safety

  • Recently, we had some unfortunate events at our JSHS involving fights between students. This is not indicative of our typical school experience. In fact, we have had years go by without a single student physical altercation. We do not tolerate this behavior in EWG, and have taken immediate and significant steps to address the issues, including disciplinary actions, removal, increased supervision, parent engagement, meetings with the entire staff and student body, policy review, and additional supports for students to address underlying issues before they lead to more serious concerns. Yes, we had a tough day. But our students and our staff have helped to ensure that we are back to our typical school environment. The safety of all members of our community is of paramount importance to all of us.

  • As mentioned earlier, we will begin several new capital project enhancements to our school buildings this spring that will increase overall building safety and security in the district. Our school building safety and security assessments indicated no areas of concern requiring immediate action, but feedback on how to make things even better was provided. We are acting on that feedback because, again, safety and security is our priority.

As always, please reach out with any questions or feedback. If there is anything you would like addressed in my next update, let me know!


Sincerely,

James Erinakes
Superintendent