The Portsmouth School Committee, which has been struggling with the question of providing transportation to Prudence Island students, got a visit last night from Bruce Medley, co-owner of the ferry company currently located in Bristol. Medley proposed, and the committee supported in concept, a plan to relocate the ferry to Portsmouth.

The ferry had started here, Medley reminded the committee, but left because of parking issues. "We got shut out, so we went to Bristol," he said. But now, with the possibility of vacant land on the West side being excessed by the Navy, there might be options for a space "If we could get some kind of support for the concept that we could take to Sen. Reed and the Governor's office." He noted, "There's all kinds of Federal funding for ferry boats."

In addition to making the crossing much shorter, such a move would provide fuel savings, he said. "It's half the distance, and that's a big factor right now." But while Medley said he had initial favorable conversations with the Public Utilities Commission and the RI Economic Development Corporation, he admitted that other folks were interested in the spot, located by the fuel docks on the former Navy tank farm. "There are people in town who have other ideas for the property," said Medley. "This is not going to be an automatic everybody loves the idea."

The School Committee was receptive to Medley's proposal. "I think it's a great idea," said committee member Jamie Heaney. "I want to bring the residents of Portsmouth back home." They voted unanimously to support the concept of relocating the ferry.

The other major agenda item last night was a presentation by Janice Williams, an organizational consultant, on a proposed strategic planning workshop for the Portsmouth schools. School Superintendent Susan Lusi introduced Ms. Willams as a former educator with deep experience in organizational issues in schools, who could help transform the recommendations from the performance audit into a long-term plan. "The audit didn't necessarily provide vision," said Lusi, noting that one of the districts Ms. Williams had helped with the process was Duxbury, MA, a location which will be familiar to those partial to the Letters section of the Sakonnet Times. (See, for example, this and this, which prompted this and this. Good times. Good times.)

Williams described two possible types of workshop — a future search and an appreciative inquiry, and how they would engage all stakeholders in the Portsmouth education system to build a vision for the future. "A performance audit does analysis," said Wililams. "This creates a roadmap for all the things that would be done in a given year. The audit says, "insure" something happens, but doesn't say what to do to "insure" that something gets done."

Lusi noted that a five-year strategic plan is now being required by the RI Department of Education, and that the last plan, which they have continued to use, was put together in the mid-1990s. (Survivors of that team will remember the grim futuristic spectre of "humpmunch." But I digress.) Lusi also discussed RI Foundation grants available for strategic planning work, which could offset about a third of the cost of the $18-20K process.

The committee was unanimously behind the idea. It shows that the district is "continuing to move forward," said Heaney. Committee member Michael Buddemeyer noted, "Businesses that don't provide strategic plans are the ones that fail. This is going to set us up as a town to succeed." The vote was unanimous to authorize $5K to start the process moving.

A brief progress report on the next steps from the performance audit followed, with Lusi presenting the committee a worksheet showing the work underway which will be discussed at the next meeting. The committee approved additional teacher non-renewal recissions, leaving only two teachers with right of return on unemployment, according to Lusi. And Finanance Director Chris Tague reported on the year-end close, tentatively saying that the schools came out a little in the black ("Less than one percent," said Tague.) She received the thanks of the committee for her excellent work, whipping the district's finances into shape in just a little over a year. "I also want to thank my staff," said Tague, who also acknowledge the conversion to updated financial system software. "That made it a lot easier," she said.

Saved the best for last: as part of the package of new appointments, a new elementary IT curriculum integration specialist, Patricia Hill, was hired. For those who care about IT in our schools, this is a big deal. Curriculum integration specialists work with classroom teachers to make tech part of their lesson plans, and to ensure that our kids come out of the system with the IT skills they need to compete. PSD had only one such specialist — Gail Darmody — and while she did an amazing job, she was stretched trying to serve 5 locations. The addition of Ms. Hill will mean lots more time devoted to tech at the elementary level, a position that was specifically called for in the performance audit. Welcome, Ms. Hill.

The meeting, which started out with just 13 in attendance, adjourned after 9pm with only two reporters and the PCC camera guy. Of note: One of the folks I saw there was Angela Volpicelli, a Democratic candidate for the school committee, who has been coming to the meetings recently. I know you can watch on Channel 18, but it's good to see candidates showing up in person. Yay, Angela.