East Providence High School will have an ever-expanding number of offerings for students upon the start of the 2024-25 term later this summer.

Principal Bill Black was on hand at the January 9 meeting of the School Committee to provide the body with an overview of new curriculum being prepared.

Black said the additions "come from student interest and our teachers' passions to create opportunities for students in the classroom."

The principal highlighted the following updates per subject:

• English: Deeper dive elective classes offered for upperclassmen on Shakespeare, novels and Stephen King.
• Social Studies: For seniors, a Public Service element added as part of the Government and Citizenship Pathway.
• Math: Advanced Placement Precalculus
• World Languages: AP French is being added to the existing AP Spanish offering.
• Career and Tech Center: From a grant gained by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Celeste Bowler, a new class called "Data Science, AI and You," focused on artificial intelligence in healthcare.
• Health and Phys Ed: Sports media, coaching and officiating classes.
• Fine Arts: Unified Fine Arts focused on inclusion of Special Needs students; And an Intro to Music Theory class offering a more in-depth analysis of such elements as pitch, rhythm and form.

Black added, among the aims of the new classes are "to grow our AP program" at EPHS as well as "trying to provide not only what (students) need here but also for their post-secondary opportunities."

Facilities update
District Director of Facilities Chris Murphy provided his monthly update.

At Riverside Middle School, the window replacement project has started as will the Library and Media Center in mid-February.

In addition, the RMS gym divider demolition is planned for Thursday and Friday, Feb. 22-23, with a new one to place installed during April vacation April 15-19.

As for the Martin Middle School comprehensive reconstruction, Murphy said permitting has been gained for site work, including demo of old entrance. Also, the gym floor resurfacing was completed over the winter recess.

A similar renovation effort at Waddington Elementary will take place in three phases during the summers of 2024, 25 and 26.

The Orlo Avenue Elementary playground fence replacement effort will be done during April vacation as well.

The Committee received a recommendation to enter into a contract for the installation and purchase of a new boiler for the Francis Elementary School. 

The high school punch list, which he said at the same time last year was "30 pages" is down to just three items.

All heating systems at buildings throughout the district have been infused with glycol, an antifreeze-type agent used to prevent pipes from freezing during the winter.

Finance update
District Director of Finance Craig Enos noted the monies for three — gym divider RMS, fence at Orlo and boiler at Francis — of the aforementioned projects, $210,000, was provided by the City Council as part of the Fiscal Year.

Next Gen Mechanical was one of two bidders for the Francis boiler, its bid of $172,988 being preferred. The same company has the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) maintenance contract for EPHS.

Also, of the four bidders for the Orlo Fence project, the bid of Premier Fence was chosen at a cost of $33,963.

Enos said the three projects will cost closer to $240,000. The $38,000 above the Council allocation will be taken from the district's Capital Projects reserve.

The RMS divider project was included in district allocations prior to the Council's backing last fall.

Also of note, Enos said the administration intends to provide the Committee with the results of the annual audit of the Fiscal Year 2021-22 ending on October 31, 2022 at its meeting next month, February 13.

Monthly meetings
Writing on meetings, the committee at its January forum set the schedule for its regular monthly gatherings for the remainder of the 2024 calendar year: February 13, March 12, April 9, May 14, June 11, July 9, August 13, September 10, October 8, November 12, December 10.

Regular monthly meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month in the East Providence High School Auditorium. Open session begins at 6:30 p.m. or upon adjournment from executive session, whichever occurs later.