Save money? Close Buildings!

Unfortunately, regionalization as a process by itself will not save money. Having served as an administrator in 3 regional school districts, I can say from experience that there is really only one way to save the kind of money that makes the concept worthwhile, and that is the closure of buildings.

School administration from a distance isn’t effective. Administrators need to be in the schools, even the Superintendent. I served in that capacity in Rhode Island for 7 years, and I can say from experience that visiting classrooms and observing and giving feedback to teachers is the most efficient and effective way to improve delivery to students and increase achievement.

On the other hand, consolidating students, particularly those in high schools, offers the most promise for several reasons. The first and most important reason is that it would improve the educational program by providing a critical mass. On Aquidneck Island, for example, there are approximately 650 high school students in Newport, 700 in Middletown, and 1,100 (including Little Compton students) in Portsmouth. Each community has its own high school. Think of the number of Advanced Placement courses or foreign languages or career development programs that could be provided in a single large school in the center of the island.

But the strongest reason for regionalization on Aquidneck Island is the ability to excess 3 aging and costly high school buildings, all in need of expensive upgrading and renovations, by uniting all 3 communities in a single campus with all the bells and whistles for 60% reimbursement plus 5% for energy-efficient mechanical systems.

For regionalization to succeed on Aquidneck Island – or anywhere else for that matter – there must be a shared vision and shared ownership. There is no shared vision and shared ownership in shared administration and/or shared purchasing.

A shared vision develops from the prospect of shared ownership. If people are to “give up” something, they will only be willing to do it for something better. All the promises in the world about saving money will fall on deaf ears because the truth is that the people out there do not trust us, and rightly so. Too many times they have been betrayed and disappointed.

Give them a goal they can internalize as their own, something better that they can buy into, and those who are sitting back, waiting to see if anything will actually happen, will come out of the woodwork.

However, as long as we continue to dance in place rather than lead the line dancing, they will sit on the sidelines like wallflowers and wait for the night to be over so they can go home.