To the editor:

When it comes to promoting personal agendas and ignoring stakeholders, the Barrington School Committee makes us all feel like we are waking up every morning to “I Got You Babe” on our clock-radios.

In 2015, the first divisive school committee (SC) initiative surrounding later school start times (SST) was made public. Much like the removal of honors classes at the high school (de-leveling) and the tearing down of neighborhood elementary schools, most parents and students found out about a vote to change the start times at the last minute. Similar to the vaguely named “Facilities Committee” meetings held weekdays at 3:45 p.m., where the SC narrowed their vision of restructuring our elementary schools, the SST initiative emerged from the Health and Wellness Committee meetings held mostly at 8:45 a.m.

A group of parents, students, and teachers banded together with additional data (beyond the study cited by the SC that was funded by a sleep aid pharma company), a petition, and our voices to show the SC that the SST policy as presented failed to contemplate broad repercussions and that many stakeholders were never included in the discussion. 

However, at that time, the SC was different than it is today. They worked with school administration, teachers and parents. Through our efforts, that SC decided to push the SST debate to the side until 2018 at which time SST proponents had gained a majority on the board. When the SC voted 4-1 to implement the later SST, the people spoke through a vote to remove $246,000 (the additional cost to implement SST) from their budget during the Financial Town Meeting in May 2019. While the school budget is a bottom line budget, meaning residents cannot remove the funding for specific line items, it was seen to many as a referendum vote. The new SC implemented later SST anyway. 

The SST debacle is only one of many “lowlights” attributable to the sitting SC: 

• November 2018 - Gina Bae, Patrick McCrann, and Ericka Sevetson were elected joining Megan Douglas, MD primarily to get SST implemented. Amanda Regino-Basse was elected in 2020, completing the current SC. 

• August 2019 - SST was implemented over the objections of the town, teachers and students.

• 2019 - SC sued a Barrington Middle School student, RIDE, and the ACLU because they were unhappy with the judgment in favor of a student regarding his unlawful suspension. (Their lawsuit was dismissed in January 2020).

• Spring 2021- SC moved forward with removing honors English classes for 9th and 10th graders. Level 3 classes were removed by Fall 2020. Math and Science honors classes are also at risk of being removed.

• June 2021 - SC committed Open Meetings Violation for discussing de-leveling when it was not on the agenda.

• October 2021 - SC denied the high school sailing team a chance to compete in regionals due to the SC’s Covid travel protocols.

• November 2021 - SC fired three teachers for not being vaccinated.

• December 2021 - SC refused to adhere to CDC’s updated Covid recommendation of a 5-day quarantine; insisting students continue to quarantine for 10 days causing further in-person learning loss. Teachers were allowed to return after the recommended 5 days.

• February 2022 - SC refused in-person appeal hearing of three fired teachers.

• February 2022 - SC is currently defending a lawsuit in RI Superior Court for yet another Open Meeting Violation.

• February 2022 - SC is currently defending a grievance filed by NEA RI stating the SC violated a collective bargaining agreement by not negotiating changes made to a 9/9 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Barrington Teachers Union.

The fact that parents and students were unaware of the removal of honors classes comes as no surprise to us. Excluding parents from the conversation regarding the future of their children’s neighborhood schools is just another example of the current elected officials driving a hidden agenda that is detrimental to the town and worse, is moved forward through a non-transparent process that presents their plans as a fait accompli. 

Parents and residents can end Groundhog Day November 8, 2022 by electing two new candidates for SC.

Lisa Daft, Tom Rimoshytus (TR), Dianne Tine, Gina Pine, Chase Kazounis, Lisbeth Kenyon

Barrington

Tanja Epps

Jupiter, Fla.