At the recommendation of Danielle Carey, the Director of Finance & Administration, the Bristol Warren Regional District School Committee at its April 21 forum approved a new transportation contract with First Student Inc.

The three-year deal is for $9,232,105.87 with an option to extend the pact for two additional years.

Carey told the committee the district combined with its counterparts from Tiverton, Little Compton and Middletown in seeking the deal. And while three vendors submitted proposals, First Student was the only bidder for Bristol Warren. Five companies total actually participated in the pre-bid process, though again only one, First Student, submitted a proposal by the stated deadline.

The director noted, "unfortunately," the new contract includes a 16 percent increase in costs after relatively static rates for the last five years. The uptick will affect next year's budget, which Carey said included a set-aside of $2,423,000 for transportation. The number now is $2,573,000, or "about $150,000 to that we would have to make up for." The director added the district is working with its peers to consolidate some aspects of special needs and career and tech student busing "so that we try to make the best what we have."

She continued, "We do have a plan to partner with Tiverton and Portsmouth to be able to pull some of our specialized students out of state-wide and be able to do kind of a cohort...So that will hopefully be able to make up some of those costs."

Future commencements
Included in a broader discussion of extracurricular activities and parking at the high school led in part by Superintendent Ana Riley was that of future graduation ceremonies.

While the MHHS Class of 2025 will hold commencement, weather permitting, outdoors as usual at the Vendituoli Complex on campus, with construction of the new building the next two groups of seniors will graduate at Roger Williams University.

The district has approached RWU about using its facilities there for exercises in 2026 and 2027. Based on size of graduating class, the number of tickets that will be allowed per family is to be determined, but there will also space provided for any overflow audience.

Riley said it's likely some aspects of the concept in total will change or be altered unexpectedly, though "right now we feel confident that we're ready for the shift and that we have a plan."

Budget transfers
The committee approved a couple of notable moves of money from within existing expenditures submitted by Carey in the amount of $1,000 and $1,900, respectively, to purchase instructional materials for Mathematics at Hugh Cole Elementary and refrigerators for the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program at Kickemuit Middle School.

Handbook changes
As part of the administration's on-going revision project of the student/parent handbook, the committee took up the following items:

Final reads and approvals regarding the removal of the existing policies on relations with parent organizations, relations with booster organizations and textbook selection and adoption.

The committee heard first reads on new guidelines for the aforementioned relations with booster/parent organizations, employee use of social networking websites, graduation requirements and advertising in the schools.

On the all-important necessities to gain a diploma, Riley explained the rationale was to update the district's policy with that of the state. In particular was the element of community service time, which will now be between 30-80 hours.

Riley said the minimum 30 for a majority of pupils remains "manageable for our students to attain. We don't want to put barriers up in terms of graduating from high school, but we want students to get the experiences that are available to them."

She continued, in order to make 30 hours more "meaningful" the district intends build upon existing efforts at high school to provide students with school-sponsored opportunities, particularly for freshmen and sophomores, those who can't drive and may not have the ability to start fulfilling the hours requirement earlier in their high school careers. 

Pupils in the career and tech "Pathways" program, however, are required to do at least the upper end time of 80 hours.

Going forward, and especially upon the completion of the new high school, the superintendent said the idea is to grow and expand the Pathways choices available to students, with the anticipation that more participate.

Of Pathways, Riley added, "They'll be provided with a very direct meaningful opportunity to do these apprenticeships and internships."