Last night was a Portsmouth school subcommittee mini-marathon, with meetings by the policy, facilities, and alternative revenue groups. Most of the school committee members attended, as did Supt. Lusi and schools finance director Mark Dunham.

The facilities committee (David Croston, Jon Harris, Thomas Vadney) discussed the recommendations of the RGB report and alternatives. They set out a series of guiding principles for their work (safe, effective buildings, possible space for full-day kindergarten, room for the administration, etc.) and considered several scenarios for consideration: renovate and extend Melville and Hathaway, renovate Melville and build a Hathaway replacement, or build a single elementary.

For next steps, the committee voted to recommend to the full school committee the creation of a "Stage Two" fund, referring to the second stage of the RI Dept. of Education (RIDE) approval process. The first proposed use of the fund would be to hire a consultant (archictect or cost estimator) to validate and price out the options.

Next, the alternative revenue committee (Croston, Marilyn King, Angela Volpicelli) reviewed the efforts to date in establishing the proposed "Aquidneck Island Math and Science Academy" (AIM), the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) "school within a school" at Portsmouth High. While the grant proposal to the Newport County Fund was unsuccessful, Croston described plans to pursue other foundation and private funding to get the project off the ground, with a goal of possibly entering the first class (probably freshmen only) in 2012.

The committee went into executive session at 8:35 to discuss preparations for the Little Compton bid.

Editorial note: The policy committee met at 5:30, but I couldn't make it. Sorry, next time.