Portsmouth school committee vice-chair Jon Harris (l), Tom Vadney, Chair Cynthia Perrotti (r).

About half the 20 or so attendees at last night's organizational meeting of the school committee were PCC regulars who watched as Cynthia Perrotti was voted in as chair, Jonathan Harris vice-chair, and Marilyn King as clerk. New members Dave Croston and Tom Vadney also joined the committee for its first official session.

It was odd to see so many members of the Town Council. I could understand the presence of Democrat Mike Buddemeyer, who just made the jump from the school committee to the Council, but why were three of the PCC-affiliated Town Councilors — Joe Robicheau, Paul Kesson, and Liz Pedro — at the meeting?

The organizational part of the meeting began in standard fashion. Newly elected member Dave Croston nominated former chair and ranking member of the Democratic majority, Sylvia Wedge for the Chair. Sylvia declined, and in turn nominated Croston.

Then, crickets.

Yes, that's right. Fellow Democrats Marilyn King and Angela Volpicelli did not even second the nomination. It became clear, at that moment, just how things were going.

Cynthia Perrotti was elected chair on a 5-2 vote (Wedge and Croston), with Harris elected vice-chair 7-0, and King by a 6-1 margin, with Croston in the minority.

Oh, but it gets better.

King wanted to make a statement. "I want to take a moment to explain why I voted as I did. The recent election told me who the citizens want," she said, and she felt the best leader was Perrotti. In addition, King said, someone had approached her suggesting a vote for a different committee member, and she felt, in her words, "Intimidated, threatened, or bullied."

Volpicelli chimed in. "I was also approached," she said. "Everyone has the right to vote for who they want without being pressured."

King and Volpicelli have spent two years on the school committee, listening to what could only be characterized as strenuous input from a range of community members on highly contentious issues, and they're complaining about someone suggesting who they might vote for as chair? Intimidated? Really?

Just an observation: King may say she got the message from the voters, but perhaps she also heard a little something at Republican headquarters on election night. Just sayin'.

Perrotti delivered her first Chair's report, promising that, "My focus is going to be on academics, and challenging all students to perform." While she supported the Basic Education Plan (BEP), she was "disturbed" by the recent RI Dept. of Education (RIDE) proposal for a multi-tiered diploma system, and stressed the importance of "continuous improvement" and that student achievment "must be the primary reference point for all decision making."

"There is much to be done to provide quality education within budgetary constraints," she continued. "We need to explore moving from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution." She singled out the technology warrant for scrutiny. "We need to move textbooks from warrants to the operating budget." And she said that the strategic plan, created by a team of nearly 100 residents and students, should be revised.

There were a few business items on the agenda. Dr. Lusi, in the superintendent's report, announced that the Portsmouth Middle School had received a $42K grant from the Champlin Foundation for a music-computer lab, which should be up and running by January.

The committee formally voted on Jonathan Harris's proposed "joint health care commission," a collaborative effort with the Town Council to examine health care costs, including, Harris noted, participation in the state pool. Committee member Tom Vadney stated for the record that the meetings will be covered under the state's Open Meetings act.

The final agenda item was the October student enrollment report, and Dr. Lusi noted that at 2,773, it came in exactly as the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) projected, albeit not exactly matching within each grade level.

Perrotti used the agenda item as a jumping off point, and made the point that student population had declined by 8.6% over the past five years. She offered a chart, which she held up for the TV camera, showing what appeared to be a dramatic drop.

I raised my hand. "Could you please describe the Y axis of that chart?"

"It goes from 3,000 to 2,000," said Perrotti.

"So it does not go to zero?" I asked.

"No."

Let me explain why that is significant. When you show a set of data points on a chart which does not have a zero base, the apparent magnitude of the upward or downward tilt of lines is exaggerated. If you draw a chart starting showing a decline of about 250 students on an intial population of 3,000, you get very different slopes depending on the scale of your Y axis. Compare the two images below.

click image to embiggen

Even the chart on the left doesn't look look quite like the one Perrotti showed; I've sent her a note asking for a copy pursuant to RI General Law (RIGL) 38-1-1.1.

Earlier in the meeting, one of the first official acts of the incoming school committee was to adopt the "Code of Basic Management Principles and Ethical School Standards," which is codified in RIGL 16-2-9.1. Subsection (a)(5) of that law states that members of the committee shall, "Make public relevant institutional information in order to promote communication and understanding between the school system and the community."

Presenting a chart which — however unintentionally — exaggerates the decline in student population, in my opinion, fails to meet the test of promoting understanding. I would recommend to Ms. Perrotti the work of information designer Edward Tufte, whose books offer very clear guidance on visually accurate representations of data.

Disclaimer: In this recent election, I was a candidate for Portsmouth School Committee.

Update: School Committee Chair Cynthia Perrotti sent the following chart in response to my request.

click image to view as a PDF.

I think the exaggerated slope of this chart compared to one drawn with a zero base speaks for itself. Using 2,750 as the origin for the Y axis defies logical explanation.