Jamie Heaney with Supt. Sue Lusi. (click to embiggen)

Saying that it had been a "privilege and honor" to serve, Jamie Heaney announced his resignation from the Portsmouth School Committee this evening, effective April 1. Heaney, who had served a little over two years of his 4-year term, is a Portsmouth native who also served on the Town Council, one of the youngest elected to that body.

School Committee chair Dick Carpender thanked Heaney, saying "he was willing to take up the task, and the Town of Portsmouth should honor his service." School Superintendent Susan Lusi congratulated him on his upcoming marriage and wished him well. "You've done a great job," Lusi said. "We'll miss you," added Asst. Supt. Colleen Jermain. Fellow committee member Mike Buddemeyer thanked Heaney for his help along the way, and jokingly offered a word of caution. "I know what it's like to live in New Jersey."

In an interview before the meeting, Heaney talked about his plans. Explaining the move, he said, "My fiancee is from there; I met her when she came up here for law school. She took the bar in New Jersey and passed and just took the NY bar last month. She's from Monmouth county, so we'll be moving there early next month."

Heaney took office in November of 2006, shortly after the Tent Meeting threw Portsmouth's school finances into turmoil and forced the committee to consider legal action to increase funding. "It was really tough starting with the Caruolo suit my first meeting," Heaney said. "Politically, I took the stance in the election not to go to Caruolo. We ended up doing that, and we got some money out of it." But more importantly, Heaney went on to say, going through Caruolo was a learning process. "We grew from there. We're making better budgets. One of the key components of that is that we're hiring people in important positions like [Finance Director] Chris Tague to make the necessary adjustments that we need to."

Looking back on his time on the committee, Heaney pointed with pride to educational benchmarks. "As a whole, we were able to increase test scores across the district," Heaney said. "They're not quite where they need to be at this point, but they keep increasing, and i don't know how much more you can ask for, as long as it keeps going in the right direction."

Another accomplishment of the past two years was creating a Facilities committee, tasked with developing a plan for the schools. "Generally this town doesn't have long-range plans," he noted. And he offered a few words of advice. "Just stay focused. It's easy to get off track, trying to fix other problems. There are a lot of good people on that committee that can drive it in the direction it needs to go, as long as it stays focused."

He acknowledged that the schools, like the rest of the country, are facing tough times. "It's not going to be easy from here on out," he said, saying that with the budget submitted to the Town Council this week, there was hard work to be done in contract negotiations, and he hoped that all sides would be looking at things realistically. "Basically, it comes down to, 'this is how much money we have.' That's the biggest hurdle."

Comparing his time on the School Committee and the Council, Heaney said there were different challenges and satisfactions. "On the Town Council, there are always different issues you're working on and you're able to get things done in the short term. There are some long-term things, like the wind turbine — that's something that was brought to us when i was on the Town Council by Professor [Lefteris] Pavlides from Roger Williams. It took a while, but now we have it up, and today it was spinning all day, and that was great to see."

"With the School Committee," said Heaney, "As long as we're doing the best that we can for the students, you get that satisfaction."

And Heaney's hope for Portsmouth's schools? "That we can move forward and become not just a really good school in Rhode Island but a really good school in the country."

Editorial Note: It is no secret that my coverage of Heaney was pretty harsh in his first months on the School Committee. Those were rancorous times, and the Tent Meeting and Caruolo action were divisive issues. I have to say — and I told Jamie this tonight — that I thought since then he has done a fine job, and I hope that my coverage reflected that. I thank him for his service to the town, and wish him all the best.