The Bristol Warren Regional School Committee meeting on Monday, Nov. 18, was the last for a quartet of members who opted not to seek another term in office at the 2024 Election.

All three of the Bristol representatives up for re-election this cycle — Marjorie McBride, Sarah Bullard and Karen Cabral — chose against running for yet one more four-year stay on the body, while one from Warren — Tara Thibaudeau — also decided against.

Superintendent Ana Riley led a brief series of acknowledgments, including recognizing McBride's 24 years on the board. Bullard and Cabral served one, four-year term. Thibaudeau, as well, is leaving after four years recently, however she had a multi-term stay on the committee back at the turn of the century.

Riley also saluted the outgoing body chair Nicky Piper. The Warren resident and incumbent ran unopposed for a second, four-year term. Per the enabling legislation creating the district, though, the chair of the committee changes every two years between the towns.

At the close of the acknowledgments, Piper said to the outgoing members, "The rest of us up here know this job is no joke, so we appreciate you and we thank you for your service."

O'Brien saluted
Mt. Hope High Principal Michelle King introduced the committee to the school's lone National Merit Society Program semifinalist for 2025; Lucy O'Brien.

O'Brien, of Bristol, is one of 16,000 seniors across the country who remain in the running for 6,870 scholarships worth nearly $26 million.

King said of her appearance at the meeting, ''I'm oh so pleased to be here this evening" to recognize O'Brien, who earned the distinction for testing in the top one percentile nationwide.

King continued, saying this is just the "start of her journey," adding O'Brien is next hoping to earn her way into the finalist category. The principal concluded, "We wish her luck and share in her pride."

Virtual learning plan
The committee gave its approval to the district's submission of a Virtual Instruction Day Plan for the 2024-25 term to the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Riley said all districts in the state are allowed three virtual days as a means to counteract any disruptions due mostly to winter weather. If a fourth day or more was needed, it would require an additional in-person day or days at the end of the term in June.

When asked, Riley said there were no significant changes to the district's virtual curriculum from '23-24, noting RIDE called last year's plan "exemplary."

Kitchen upgrades
The committee unanimously backed a bid entering into an agreement for new school lunch equipment with Singer Kittredge, a restaurant supply store located in Agawam, Mass.

Danielle Carey, the district's Director of Finance and Administration, led a discussion on the topic. She said a significant portion of the district's balance will be used to purchase and install a new dishwasher at Kickemuit Middle School. The remainder will be used to update old equipment at other schools such as walk-in freezers.

Said Riley, the district plans to continue to replace "big pieces of equipment" while still having a fund balance, which is approximately $400,000 and can only be maintained without being spent for a certain period of time according to RIDE mandates.

Arts grant
Riley told the committee of the district's recent receipt of a grant from the second round of the RIDE Arts Initiative/School Building Authority Capital Fund program.

The district received some $90,000 from the first act, the bulk of which was used at the high school. The current grant, for $99,044, will be earmarked mostly at the middle school for art equipment and art spaces as well as electives in art, music and graphic design.

October 28 meeting notes
The committee also met on Monday, Oct. 28, where the body heard the second readings of several revised or new policies introduced by the administration, including one on the daily use of cell phone and electrical devices at the high school.

All eight of the changes were moved and approved with unanimous consent of the body, becoming official district policy. The cell phone policy took effect earlier in the day, November 18.

The other seven policy updates were: hiring and evaluation of coaches; subcommittees of the school committee; board member code of ethics; board member conferences, conventions and workshops; board officers duties; gifts to and solicitations by staff; tobacco-free workplace (also adc)/staff no smoking/smoking; and part time and substitute professional staff employment.

Of note as well from earlier in the meeting, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Diane Sanna led the committee through a presentation on English Language Arts/ELA and Mathematics data from the start of the 2024-25 term in grades K-8.

Coming off a year ago when each of the five schools in the district were approaching the 50 percentile in both fields of study, the initial results in 2024-25 were down slightly.

"Even though there's been a slight dip, we're still performing at a comparable level to other districts," Sanna said.

All four elementary schools are in the top half of English Language Arts/ELA in the achievement measure statewide and growth is in the range of traditional pace-setting districts Barrington, Portsmouth, East Greenwich, North Kingstown and Lincoln.

The state averages for achievement in both curricula is 30.7 percent and growth in both is 50 percent.

Specifically, Rockwell, Guiteras and Colt Andrews are showing relatively high growth and achievement in ELA while and Hugh Cole is improving, though not at the same rate.

Cole, Colt, Guiteras showed some growth in Math, with Rockwell again the top local perfomer.

As for the middle school, Kickemuit is also on a par with the aforementioned high-performing districts in both ELA and Math.

The same state averages apply for the middle school level.

In ELA, KMS was approaching 50 percent in achievement and past 50 in growth. In Math, KMS scores were above each of the state averages, achievement approaching the 40 percentile and growth in the lower 50s.

"We wanted to put that in context. There's no school in the state that is at 100 percent," Sanna added. "We're all making progress. And many of the districts across the state did have a dip in their achievement as well as us."

Answering a presupposed question of what the administration plans to do with the data in each building, Sanna described the following points: identifying what is working in classrooms with high achievement and growth; enhancing coaching cycles and structures; fine tuning Tier I instruction of high-quality instructional materials; and assisting with the implementation of multi-tiered system of supports.