The two-person battle for those hoping to represent Riverside on the East Providence School Committee gained a little more context on Tuesday, Oct. 13 during a League of Women Voters forum held at East Providence City Hall.

Candidates Chrissy Rossi and Anthony Pedulla spent a half hour answering questions provided from the League and from members of the public, which was moderated by East Bay Media Group’s publisher, Scott Pickering.

Throughout the evening, Rossi — a former project manager and accountant for construction companies — spoke at length about her platform and what she would do if elected, while Pedulla — who spent 32 years working for the school district, starting as a custodian and working his way up to be the director of facilities and a union president — kept his answers much more brief.

Both candidates touted their length of time as residents and active members within the East Providence community. Pedulla is a lifelong Riverside resident of 66 years, while Rossi stated she has lived in the city for over 50 years.

Asked what the biggest issues were motivating them to run, Pedulla was to the point.

“Budget,” he said. “The school department is $3.8 million in the hole and I believe they’re top heavy on top. I would like to see the money go back to the children.”

Rossi went through a much longer list, mentioning the need for a “massive overhaul” of the special education program, wanting to change curriculum to be more “teacher-led” and to not “park kids in front of screens for hours a day”, among other thoughts.

“Our policies are weak and vague. Our school lunch program has much room for improvement, our maintenance department needs support, our classrooms need support, and most definitely our teachers need support,” she said. “And then we have the elephant in the room. We are running in a deficit.”

As to why they were qualified to be on the board, Pedulla referenced his long tenure working in the district as an employee, as an administrator, and as a union leader.

“I know both sides of the aisle,” he said.

Rossi touted her experience in accounting and budgeting as especially important for the district’s current situation.

“I cannot wait to sink my teeth into this budget. I’m a numbers person. With access to budget backup, I am confident we’ll get this beast under control,” she said, adding later, “I like numbers. I’m ready to go. Nothing is stopping me.”

Regarding the financial plight of the district, each candidate offered thoughts on how to address it.

“I would suggest first of all that we use the report from the state, the Blue Ribbon report,” Pedulla offered. “And I would also go with a zero budgeting line item approach where it would start at zero, and go from there, and see what each department needs. Not go by the number that we used last year.”

Rossi said that the budgetary issues faced by the schools had, in her opinion, been “hidden for quite some time” and that if elected, she could help get to the bottom of it.

“You do not just get a deficit,” she said. “There are so many pieces that happen in a school department. It’s a beehive. And all we get to see is the outer crust. We don’t get to see the little bits. So once we can get in there and take a good look at what they’ve been hiding all this time, then we can find out how we achieved this deficit, and how we can get out of it.”

Rossi said that if she is elected, the amount of information provided to the committee and the public regarding the budget would be significantly different.

“We are served a three-page Excel spread sheet for a budget; that’s all we get. And we’re supposed to take a look at it and say, ‘Well, nothing we can do.’ And that stops,” she said. “We are going to regroup on the budget. We are going to put actual line items in there where people know what’s in the budget. How many salaries, whose salary, how much does that cost, and we’re going to start from scratch on that.”

Improving school functions

Asked what some of the top challenges facing the district’s students were, and what ideas the candidates had to address them, Rossi said that there was not enough support for kids with special needs, and that too many are thrust back into the general school environment too quickly.

“We need a pathway. For kids in a self-contained classroom in elementary school, for example, how are we just throwing them into general population in the middle school where they are now so lost and so confused and so far behind that there’s no way to get them out of it?” she said. “We start there and we get them their pathway. What do they need?”

Rossi said that she felt that too often teachers are left out of the conversation on how to improve things within the schools.

“They dictate from the top down, they know better, they’re the superintendent. Nope. We’re going to get all the teachers together. What do you need in your class to have these children to be successful?” she said. “Then, by the time they get to the high school, hopefully the pathways will be in place where they can get caught up and then we can get them to where they need to be before they get frustrated and quit.”

Pedulla said focusing on getting class sizes down to a more consistent level throughout the district was important.

“We need to have the right sized classes and give the teachers the right tools. No kid should be slipping through the cracks,” he said. “Class sizes are a big issue, especially at Waddington School. There’s more kids in Waddington School than there is at Riverside Middle School, which is unheard of. We can’t let any kids fall through the cracks, we have to fight for every kid.”

As for school safety, Pedulla said he supported having more student resource officers — unarmed, he specified — to act as a resource for kids. He said he would ensure that police and fire had access to universal key fobs to ensure quick access to buildings, and that all security doors and camera was operational.

Rossi said that she would defer to police and fire for their expertise on the subject.

Rossi doubles down on bullying comment

In our interview with Rossi back in August, she made a comment about the school’s bullying policy being inefficient that sparked rebukes online and in letters to the editor to this paper. Her quote from that article was recited by Pedulla during the forum, and is printed again here:

“If you're getting bullied and you've gone through all the possible things trying to get it stopped and you decide, ‘You know what? I've had enough. Before I kill myself, I'm going to slap this kid around.’ So be it. That's how it always used to get handled in the school yard. The bully comes at you, you fight back. There's no more bullying.”

Pedulla said that the district’s problems with bullying was the number one issue he has heard while canvassing in Riverside. he said his approach to bullying policy would be to prevent it in the first place, not to tell kids to resort to violence.

“I would rewrite the bullying policy so that every kid has an outlet to go to where they have someone they can speak to,” he said. “Where it’s in place for preventing bullying.”

Rossi did not back down from the comment she made, stating that there had been lots of people who “have clutched their pearls on the internet over this.”

“I can tell you when I was a kid, I was bullied. And then I took out the bully, and I was never bullied again. And I think a lot of you sitting there may have had the same experience, if I could be so bold,” she said. “So I’m not saying go around smacking people so that way you can stop the bullying. I am saying if you have gone through every avenue and you are getting no relief, you basically have two choices.”

Rossi said that she brought up suicide in her comment because she had spoken to a grandfather of a student a couple years ago whose grandchild had been bullied significantly enough to be put “on suicide watch.”

“I don’t know what happens in the main office, but these kids are not getting the relief that they need when they’re getting bullied,” she said. “So if they have to send their kid to karate or whatever, get them some self-training. Nobody needs to tolerate that. Nobody. And I am not retracting that statement. I think it’s important that a child sticks up for themselves so that they’re not a victim for the rest of their life.”

Closing statements

In their closing pitch to the audience, Pedulla again kept things simple.
“I’m not a career politician, I’m just a regular guy,” he said. “I worked 32 years in the school department and I feel that I have a lot to contribute to the school department with my experience there, on both sides of the aisle.”

Rossi gave a little more.

“l think you’ve probably seen a stark different in styles, and that’s okay. That’s what makes this country great. Everybody has an opinion, and everybody has a choice. I may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but that’s why they make coffee. We can do this together if we collect all of our teachers and all of our aides and everybody who is in front of these children every day, and we work together for a change. I think we will make this an amazing school district,” she said. “We have such talented teachers, and they are fried, these poor things. And our school committee has not done enough for them all these years. I plan to make that change if I get there. Working together, working for the kids, and not fighting each other to get what we want.”