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Warwick School Committee OKs New Music Teacher, Hourly Increases

[CREDIT: File Photo] Warwick Veterans Jr. High School at 2401 W Shore Road.

[CREDIT: File Photo] Warwick Veterans Jr. High School at 2401 W Shore Rd,
WARWICK, RI – The Warwick School Committee approved two hourly teaching increases and one new teacher Tuesday night at the Warwick Veterans Jr. High auditorium at 2401 W Shore Road.

The new position and increases include:

  • A .2 Full Time Employee  (FTE) increase at Veterans Middle School to staff the in school suspension program. Supervision of ISS, counted as a teaching assignment, was an obligation negotiated in the new teacher’s contract. Veterans has one period that is currently not being supervised, which will be offered to the teaching staff as an “extra class.”
  • A FTE at Veterans. This will staff an additional section of general music that was
    needed due to increased enrollment in band and chorus.
  • A .1 FTE increase at Toll Gate High School. There is currently a .5 FTE English teacher at Toll Gate. The current assignment includes three classes in the first semester and two classes in the second semester. The .1 increase will bring the teacher to a .6 FTE assignment, with three classes in both semesters, fulfilling the requirement for the third class to run both semesters, a full year.

The funding for the positions was:

  • .1 Music Veterans: $4,547,30 step 1
  • .1 English Toll Gate: $4,547.30 step 1
  • .1 In-school Suspension Veterans: $2,273.64 step 1 (semester 1)
  • .1 In-school Suspension Veterans:$4,193.50 step 10 (semester 2)

During a summary of the School Department expenses to date, Anthony Ferrucci, executive director of finance and operations for the school department, told the Committee that the cost of operating the John Greene Elementary School on Draper Avenue as a temporary home for displaced City Annex offices and the West Bay Collaborative for six months was $77, 900.

Several City offices were displaced in January when a water pipe burst damaged the City Annex building behind City Hall on Post Road. The City Annex remains closed.

Offices housed at Greene include the Building Department, which also comprises the Zoning Office and Property Maintenance, the Personnel Department, Tax Assessor’s Office, the City Council Liaison Office, Planning and Community Development, and Management Information Services.

The City offices occupy about 14,000 square feet of the building, while the West Bay Collaborative occupies about 15,000 square feet. The operating cost for the City offices is $26, 500. The costs to house the West Bay portion was $51, 400, Ferrucci said.

The operating figure includes maintenance equipment for repairs to the building, natural gas, heating, electric, and minor repairs. The tax collectors’ office also relocated to the school in April.

“I think we’re being a good neighbor (to the city),” said committee member David Testa.

In other business, the Committee awarded a contract of $59, 972 for the renewal of Microsoft licenses used throughout the district.

The committee also conducted the second reading of the Internet Filtering Policy.

The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires schools and libraries to filter their Internet services and have implemented formal Acceptable Internet Use Policies in order to receive E-rate funding. New state law requires written local policy addressing the use of Internet filtering measures for computer access in its schools.

The filter is intended to protect minors from access to visual depictions that are obscene
or constitute child pornography, or that are harmful to minors.

Joe Siegel
Author: Joe Siegel

Joe Siegel is a regular contributing writer for WarwickPost.com. His reporting has appeared in The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro and EDGE.

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