To the editor:

Voting for Bristol School Committee members may be your most important vote this election. Why?

Our Bristol-Warren schools are under-performing and voting for the same candidates who have presided over failure and mediocrity is a mistake. Bristol-Warren achievement begins to fall in 3rd grade and continues to decline, very dramatically when students reach middle school and culminates with only 24% of MHHS graduates meeting minimum standards in math.

This is especially troubling for those students who do not go on to college, but begin their careers after high school without the necessary tools for success.

We need to do better, and every peer-reviewed study of school achievement around the world has shown that smarter, better educated teachers who are well trained and have high expectations for academic achievement for their students and insist on performance and discipline produce much better results.

We cannot afford to continue to turn out educators who spend 60% of their college time studying the theory and practice of teaching rather than learning math, English, science and history. RIC graduates more than five times the teachers needed in RI, subsidized by us taxpayers.

As voters, we cannot choose our school’s teachers, but we can choose the right school committee members.

Here is who I am voting for and why:

Jessica Almeida is my number one choice because she is focused on rigor in the classroom and academic achievement for our students. She is not distracted by foolish arguments over whether the school committee should be in favor of explicit sex education for young children but is in favor of transparency for and communication with parents.

My next choice is Richard Ruggiero, even though I think he is completely wrong in thinking that the Bristol-Warren schools need smaller classes. Dividing the number of students in the system by the number of teachers listed on the website tells me there are 10.9 students per teacher. We cannot afford to do better than that ratio. Also, importantly, there is no peer-reviewed research showing that students achieve more in classes of less than 25 students. Richard was a well-reasoned Town Councilman for many years and was always open to ideas from the public, so I will vote for him because of his council reputation.

My third choice is William O’Dell, and it’s despite his having been on the school committee for many years of poor performance. Bill is not a leader — he is a follower and I think he is logical and will do the right thing if he focuses on improving the academic performance of our students which he says is his primary reason for running.

For the rest of the candidates, they appear to be trying to outdo one another with their focus on equity and emotional learning—not academics.
Until at least 75% of our graduates can meet minimum standards in English and math, we cannot afford to be distracted with the latest equity for all, progressive, socialistic narrative — the focus of the other five candidates.

Gina Macdonald
Ferry Road