To the editor:

Last week’s edition of the Bristol Phoenix printed a letter to the editor, which was titled, “We are spending more and getting less in our schools,” authored by Georgina MacDonald. The crux of her point, I believe, was the absolutely abysmal standardized test scores in our elementary schools and culminating at Kickemuit Middle School (KMS), where English Proficiency is at 48% (meaning 52%, a majority of the students, are not proficient) and Math Proficiency is at 23% (meaning 77%, a super majority of the students, are certainly not proficient). It has been stated, that, “Mathematics is considered the Universal Language,” and is very much so now, in our increasingly global interconnected world economy.

While these test scores are tantamount to a 5-alarm fire warning, the additional chronic absenteeism by both students AND teachers indicates to me that our Bristol Warren Regional School District (BWRSD) educational system is indeed failing by any objective measure, and the test scores/absentee records prove it.

In terms of full disclosure, I no longer have children in public schools. I am also a proud product of the public school system within Rhode Island. What is disconcerting to me is the lack of loud voices of protest not being heard by the parents/grandparents of these students, currently attending either an elementary school in Bristol or KMS, and demanding better, much better educational outcomes from the BWRSD. Taxpayers, not being rewarded with much of a return on their investment, and also being quite mum, is even more disconcerting.

In keeping with Ms. MacDonald’s letter title, I have an idea to reduce spending and not harm the educational outcome further. I’ve written in these pages previously that, if enabling legislation that created the BWRSD did not allow for K-5 elementary students, in both towns, to be completely regionalized, it needs revision. If enabling legislation does allow for a complete K-12 regionalization, then it should be implemented immediately. Remember, the BWRSD is on a more than decade-long decline in student enrollment. Consolidation of the district’s three remaining elementary schools (four buildings total), located in Bristol, need to be reduced to three buildings total in Bristol and four total elementary schools in the BWRSD, when Hugh Cole, in Warren, is included.

In conclusion, this aforementioned overhead cost reduction idea is one I’d like to read/hear position statements on, by all of the school committee candidates, this Fall.

Patrick “Pat” M. McCarthy
4 Maple Shade Court