By LINDSAY OLIVIER
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NORTH KINGSTOWN — One word that comes to mind when describing past North Kingstown school administrations and committees is ‘turmoil.’ It’s a reputation that school committee Chairman Larry Ceresi said they’re trying to change.

“For the past 10 years, there was no leadership under Dr. Halley’s administration. Nothing came out of school committee meetings except an end result of non-production. And the losers of that were the residents, community and students. That tension and frustration would bubble over into public comment,” he said.

During the November election, Ceresi helped campaign for some of the candidates and in talking to citizens, he said many of them felt “frustrated” at how school committee meetings were conducted.
Ceresi believed things took a turn for the better and that the committee became more productive when Dr. Janice DeFrancis took over as chair.

“The members we have now have a vast amount of knowledge and every person brings skills to the table. We’re improving in getting work done in a positive manner and we want people to have confidence in us,” he said.  

So with the new committee and administration have come changes to the structure of meetings.
In the past any new business on the agenda would be for discussion and possible action. Ceresi felt voting on a topic when the community and committee members were getting the information for the first time wasn’t right.

“No one had any background information on the item. So now all new business is just for discussion only and then it’ll appear on the next agenda for discussion and possible action. Therefore it gives the committee members and public enough time to discuss and get any more information if need be,” he said.

If you’ve been to a recent school committee meeting, you’ve noticed Ceresi reads a written statement laying down ground rules before opening public comment.

The statement asks public comment “to be civil, courteous and remain within the scope of school committee matters” and it asks individuals limit their comments to a three-minute limit.

The rules also state “that the citizen’s comment portion of the agenda is for the public to express their thoughts and concerns and we as committee members will refrain from interrupting speakers during their right to comment.”

“I wanted to set some guidelines, because public comment is so important and we appreciated their comments and suggestions.”

Though the meetings are well attended, Ceresi hopes more turn out in the future. He receives lots of phone calls and e-mails regarding issues, so he knows people are interested in what’s going on the school district.

“Maybe we’re doing a good job, that’s why some people don’t come to the meetings,” he laughed.
There’s many issues at hand that the committee has to deal with and many of them won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

The current budget issues are not short term. Information coming down from the federal, state and local level will have an impact on what gets reduced or eliminated. The biggest challenge that Ceresi feels faces the school district is how to run the school district properly with the amount of reductions that will soon be made.

“I think we need to restructure ourselves in the administration and the configuration of services. That will help us dramatically with our budget. Consolidating things will allow the district to operate more efficiently,” said Ceresi.   

Even with the reductions to teaching staff last year and yet more reductions slated for the upcoming school year, Ceresi is confident that the school district can get back to a high ranking district.
He knows it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

“We need to get back to the basics, reading, writing and arithmetic.”

Another issue the committee will soon tackle is school infrastructure . Almost all of the buildings need to be updated in some form and paying for those projects will come from the Capital Improvement fund.

“In years past many bonds got rejected because voters didn’t have the confidence or the trust in the school committee to spend their tax dollars properly. I’m hoping to change that,” he said.

In the end, Ceresi wants to gain the trust back from the community and assure them that as elected officials, the school committee will work together in a positive fashion and work for the good of the students and the residents.

“This district has great parent involvement and great sub-committees. The amount of volunteer hours is fantastic. Going forward we’ll continue to work together and be successful.”