05/31/2006
Coventry schools look over past year's accomplishments
By: Jennifer A. Salcido , Daily Times

COVENTRY - A somber mood hung over the Coventry School Committee last Tuesday night due to what members viewed as damning news of budget cuts received the night before at the town council meeting. Committee members seemed pleased with the district, however, as Superintendent of Schools Kenneth DiPietro gave a summary highlighting school achievements in the past year.

"We wanted to show people what we have done, despite the challenges," began DiPietro as the presentation was cued up.

Packets disseminated to the audience included six strategies that comprised the Coventry Public Schools Strategic Action Plan as well as a list of nine strategic targets, which were established by the school committee in 2004. The Strategic Action Plan's points offer directives for the school district ranging from ensuring success for students by strengthening early childhood programs, improving the personalization of instruction via smaller learning communities, encouraging students to meet or exceed state and national standards by providing a results-driven curriculum, strengthening school and community connections, providing teachers and students with access to technology, and providing a safe, healthy and effective learning environment.

The nine targets, which documentation lists as "ready to learn," "foundations of success," "learning by choice," "connecting lives and learning," "empowerment through technology," "highly qualified teachers," "safe and effective schools," "new resources for learning," and "the responsive school," were coupled with the strategies in order to implement the plan.

A detailed supplement to the list of the district's accomplishments called attention to the "challenging" time when the strategic plan was to be implemented.
"The school district, for the first time in recent history, began with no town allocation due to a Financial Town Meeting in June 2005 that resulted in the need to reconsider the town budget and the tax rate...The Town Financial Meeting was rescheduled for late August 2005, days before the planned opening of the schools," read the supplement.

The document continues to explain that, due to the fiscal uncertainty facing the district, the school department had to rely on difficult decision making processes to implement cuts while still giving nods to state education mandates in a year which saw what the document calls "a limited increase of state aid, under $150,000."
Twenty marked improvements were then listed in what the department's statements called "a successful school year" in the district's goal to "build a better educational system...one child at a time."

Most conspicuous among the accomplishments was the announcement that all nine schools in the district were ranked as "high performing" by the Rhode Island Department of Education. Additional awards were listed for Hopkins Hill and Coventry High School, which have been awarded Regents' Commended Schools awards, fulfilling targets two, three and four, which are specific to elementary, middle, and high school improvement.

DiPietro also glowed over the announcement that Coventry reported a drop in enrollment of special needs students, from 25 percent in 2002 to 18.7 percent in 2006 due to "regular education interventions and inclusion practices." DiPietro noted that, due to early detection interventions, such as the free screenings provided by the Child Outreach program, as well as measures allowing for developmentally challenged students to participate in mixed-enrollment classrooms with their peers, this was definitely a positive change.

"It's great, because [those special needs students] don't need to be in labeled programs now," he said.

Of particular importance for a district facing a budget crunch was the achievement of target eight, attaining new resources, via the acquisition of substantial grant monies.

"A number of schools received local grants for instructional resources: Service Learning, Smaller Learning Communities, and High School Reform demonstration. Discretionary grants to Coventry Schools approximate $500,000 each year," said the report.

"[The grants] are extremely prestigious," said DiPietro.

DiPietro expressed confidence that the district was working hard to continue to meet its achievement directives.

"We know where we're lacking, but you have to know that we are working on it throughout the year," he noted.