BRISTOL/WARREN — The Bristol-Warren Regional School Committee will shortly have its latest cup of coffee with the district's General Assembly contingent where the stack of issues to be discussed over breakfast is expected to be at least three pancakes deep.

Three "pancakes" as in a trio of matters that are on the Committee's front burner: Career and Technical Education/Pathways programs, transportation and the regional district's now 30-plus year-old enabling legislation.

The Committee briefly touched on the topic at its second meeting of the last month held Monday, Sept. 23, in Mt. Hope High School. It was the last public comment from the body that evening before it headed into an extended executive session where it discussed the evaluation of Superintendent Ana Riley.

The district's legislative priorities pertain to the aforementioned three pillars as described by Riley and the Committee members during the meeting and after by body Chair Nicky Piper.

About the CTE/Pathways programs, the Committee, according to the chair, is requesting the Assembly delegation sponsor a bill uniforming the costs associated with sending pupils out of district.

For instance, Piper referenced the well-regarded Childhood Development Program at Portsmouth, where high schoolers can begin their in education, child care or teacher assistant disciplines. If Mt. Hope students wished to attend, there is a not a set fee the Bristol-Warren Regional District would pay. Rather it is solely determined by the host district regardless of contributing factors.

Piper continued, depending on where, say, five Mt. Hope students in attend CTE/Pathways programs it could cost the Bristol-Warren Regional District anywhere from an additional $50,000 to over $100,000. That's the variation in how much districts charge for educating an individual student.

"A bill setting the tuition rate for all districts around the state would allow us as a district to know beforehand how much it will cost and allows us to budget that amount," Piper added, reiterating Bristol-Warren is compelled by state law to pay for a student's educational pursuits inside or out of the district.

Another matter dealing with the pay structure both here and around the state is transportation, ie bussing costs, that have exploded in recent years, especially with a dearth of competition in the industry locally and as driver compensation has increased.

As noted in a supporting document from the September 23 meeting, the district "is considered a part of the East Bay for many services yet our transportation region is not in the East Bay; Although we receive some reimbursement for Statewide private school transportation, we do not receive any for the utilization of our own contract; This also requires us to transport to CTE schools across the region which increases transportation costs."

Piper said Bristol-Warren is lobbying its Assembly cohort to help change the five boundaries currently being used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to determine which district pays for bussing kids outside the district.

At the moment, Bristol-Warren pays to send students as far away as Smithfield while a part of a metropolitan grouping, Region 3, with the following: Barrington, Central Falls, Cranston, East Providence, Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence, Pawtucket, Providence and Smithfield.

According to the chair, Bristol-Warren, however, would prefer to be in Region 5, an Aquidneck Island-centric grouping along with Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Portsmouth and Tiverton

The rest of the RIDE regions are: 1 — Burrillville, Cumberland, North Smithfield, Woonsocket; 2 — Coventry, East Greenwich, Foster, Glocester, Scituate, Warwick, West Warwick; and 4 — Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton, Jamestown, Narragansett, New Shoreham, North Kingstown, Richmond, South Kingstown, West Greenwich, Westerly.

"It would save us hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," said Piper of the potential change in location.

She added RIDE has balked at the change in the past because it may have a "ripple effect" on other regions/districts. The Assembly has taken up the issue, setting up a study commission which is currently seated and meeting.

Superintendent Ana Riley, who is the sitting super on the Assembly study group, mentioned at last week's meeting it was the second year in a row the bussing issue was part of their breakfast agenda and that the Senate and House put the study commission together because both  "did agree it needed to be looked at and not just for Bristol-Warren, but all of state-wide transportation."

The last of the three issues being brought to the breakfast table might be considered bland in taste by some, but it is very important to the overall operations of the joint venture.

Piper and her Committee colleagues plan to urge their envoys at the Assembly to amend the Bristol-Warren Regional School District enabling legislation to allow for amendments to that document as well.

Currently, there isn't a mechanism providing any of the interested parties — the School Committee, Town Councils or, most important, residents in Bristol and Warren — with the ability to make adjustments to the enabling legislation.

Piper and those in support want the enabling legislation to be more in line with charters and other founding documents, which include procedures to amend, such as through ordinance, via a commission of resident and/or an election referendum item. They're seeking to have clauses for review and amendments added to the enabling legislation.

The chair said it's appropriate for local stakeholders to be able to determine if, after a specific amount of years, the enabling piece is "still relevant," if alterations are necessary.

"It's been in place for 30-odd years and there's never been any changes to it and, more importantly, there's no way of doing it," Piper said, noting every "charter" she's aware of has an amendment procedure in place "except the Bristol-Warren School District."

Piper added, "People have said to me, 'Nicky, what do you want to change?' And I've said, 'I don't know if I would change a thing.' But I would like us to have the ability to amend (the enabling legislation) if we needed to."