Seven candidates for two open school committee seats each in Tiverton and Little Compton talked state aid, enrollment, the changing face of education, technology and more at two public forums held over the past month by the Newport County chapter of the League of Women Voters.

Tiverton

Tiverton’s forum was held Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Tiverton Public Library and drew candidates Michael Janick, Christopher Englert, Christopher Cureton and Valerie Barbato, who are running to fill the seats currently held by Elaine Pavao and Deborah Pallasch, neither of whom are seeking re-election.

Funding and communication

The relationship between the school department and town council has long been tense, and Janick highlighted his experience collaborating with both the school committee and council during his tenures in both the budget committee and the charter review commission.

“I understand the needs of both sides and I feel that it has to be the ability to have common ground that can be found, and that's one of my strengths,” he said.

Cureton said that while the council and committee have different priorities, he will advocate for the schools’ priorities.

Meanwhile, Barbato said both sides need to work together transparently.

“I just think that transparency and working together are most important,” she said.

Mental health

Candidates were asked about helping students struggling with mental health issues, and Cureton said he would work with teachers to strengthen mental health resources.

“I think that we would start by looking at speaking first with the staff that is at ground level; that would be our social workers, our guidance counselors, our school psychologist,” he said.

Barbato added that positions, such as teaching aides and other support staff, should be reinstated to help students.

“If children don’t get the help that they need, it will trickle down,” she said.

Englert described mental health issues as a problem for both parents and students and said he is there to lend a helping hand to anyone who wants to talk.

Recruiting and retaining teachers

Candidates agreed that teachers should be well compensated for their work.

“Another thing is the working environment and that comes down to the buildings that they’re in as well as the support they receive from the administrators,” Janick added.

Englert agreed, as did Cureton, who said the school committee should also give teachers public recognition when they excel.

“I think it's to make sure that we're publicly recognizing our teachers, our paraprofessionals, all our support staff,” Cureton said. “I think that would go really far in some of our retention efforts.”

Englert, while acknowledging that teachers should get more recognition and higher pay, also added that he is on “Team Student” and will be an advocate for them.

“There are a lot of layers of adults between the student and the parent, all the way to the superintendent and we have a fantastic superintendent,” he said.

Technology and AI

“One of the biggest issues in the states, probably one of the biggest issues to look at” is artificial intelligence, Cureton said. He acknowledged that AI has uses, but there needs to be policies for both AI and technology in general in the classroom.

Barbato said she would like to dial technology back.

“I actually think we should try to go back to basics a little bit,” she said. “Some kids don’t learn well with technology and computers; they want the face-to-face.”

Janick, describing himself as tech-savvy, said he wants to see kids get the skills needed to “get a leg up in the business world as the boomers retire.”

Little Compton

Committee hopefuls Brain Snow and Andrew Rhyne sat down alongside incumbent Mark Gleicher at the community center two weeks ago as they seek to fill three seats — Gleicher’s and two that will be vacated by the departure of Travis Auty and Michael Rocha, both of whom are running for Little Compton Town Council. Challenger Nicholas Carter could not attend the meeting, but sent in a statement read by Newport County League of Women Voters president Christine Stenning.

“I believe that public education is the single greatest investment of government,” Carter wrote. “When we invest in our education, we invest in the future of the town that we love.”

Artificial Intelligence

One of the biggest debates came during discussion on the use of AI and technology in schools. Rhyne said that as a parent, he does not give his children much screen time and worries that as technology increases, real learning can suffer.

“I don’t think it’s healthy or beneficial for kids to have very much screen time,” Rhyne said. “It’s different to give them a technical aspect of computers and understanding. But they need their foundations in math, science and reading before that.”

Snow, on the other hand, was more open to having children learn with AI. While he agreed that a lot of screen time could be detrimental, and that he would like to see more hands-on learning, he said the world is moving and schools must keep up.

“I do think they need to be taught how to use these tools. The world is moving at a rapid pace,” he said. “[AI] doesn’t replace anything, but I do think that restricting these things, especially in 6th, 7th and 8th grade, is holding our kids back.”

All three candidates spoke of the value of learning hands-on trades, such as woodworking.

\Out-of-town tuition

Another source of debate came about the town's current out-of-town tuition policies. Gleicher said that the district’s policy of charging out-of-town families to attend Wilbur & McMahon Schools has allowed the district to increase its population and created a much-needed revenue stream.

“It seems to me that the influx of cash is really beneficial to helping maintaining the facility to help pay the bills,” he said, while adding that continued discussion on the tuition prices will happen.

Rhyne also agreed, adding that he believes that tuitioned students help the district keep a healthy staff.

Snow acknowledged that classes would be very different without the out-of-town students. However, compared with the district’s per pupil expenditure, he believes tuition rates seem low.

“I do think the burden on the taxpayers is a bit too high,” he said. “Tuition students are paying around $6,000 a year, whereas it costs the town about $30,000 a year” per pupil.

Special Education and Social-Emotional Learning

Candidates also spoke to a question about potentially increasing the school’s special education and social-emotional-learning (SEL) services.

Gleicher said that he would advocate for increased services in special education.

“Everyone deserves an education and if you are coming here to Wilbur McMahon School, the standard that is set for your peers should be set for you.”

Rhyne said that funding special education is always a moving target because of students coming and going. However, he noted that the small class sizes allow teachers to do more and that special education teachers at the school are very good. That’s important as school can often be traumatic for students with anxiety and other social and emotional issues.

"There's a tremendous amount of transition there for students to deal with emotionally,” he said. “I can tell you as a college professor that the number one thing that gets in people's way of learning is anxiety and other things they haven't been taught to deal with.”

Gleicher agreed and said that school should prepare teachers for social-emotional learning.

Snow said that every day his daughter gets off the bus, he asks her how her day went — parents have a responsibility to make sure their kids are OK, and if something is wrong, they should reach out to teachers, he said.