Roof jobs: Competency in question
By: STAFF 11/13/2003
This state is pretty good when it comes to testing schools for competence in delivering quality education.
After the recent episodes involving re-roofing jobs on North Kingstown schools, might we suggest the state start testing the school administration for competence as well.
Last Friday, students had to be evacuated from Stony Lane School after roofing contractor applied strong glue on the roof. The school's ventilating system apparently sucked in the chemical fumes which affected some students and teachers, resulting in one or two people being taken to a hospital to be checked.
On Monday, students at Stony Lane were evacuated again for a short time apparently because there were some residual odors still in the ventilating system.
Friday's incident was compounded when the students were sent home early. In some cases reportedly, parents were not home-a violation of school department rules if indeed those reports are true.
The Stony Lane case was just the latest incident involving roofing jobs at town schools. The Davisville Elementary School had to be closed for three days in September because of the debris that was raining down on the school grounds. This week Forest Park is closed while the roof is being replaced.
As shown by some of the letters on this page, a number of parents are very angry and want the school committee to fire Supt. James Halley.
A couple of them wonder why the school department didn't re-roof the schools during the summer when the buildings were empty- that's a very good question.
Others are angry about what they perceive was a cavalier and callous attitude on the part of Halley when he was interviewed on television after the Stony Lane evacuation. It reminded them of insensitive comments he made on other occasions. For example when it was proposed to start school later in the morning, he suggested that parents who must leave for work before the school bus arrives simply place their children in a neighbor's care.
Still others are recalling the growing list of controversies that have occurred on Halley's watch-the redistricting, the flap over the Westmoreland Farms school bus stop, the growing dissatisfaction among the teachers, the drawn-out school contract negotiations.
Clearly there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the school administration right now and most of it appears to be directed toward Halley.
We suggest the ball is now in the school committee's court and it is its responsibility to address the growing dissatisfaction that is making headlines and generating angry letters.


©The Standard Times 2003