Less Is Not More

We have not yet reached the halfway point of the school year (Monday, January 27, will be Day 90 of Teaching and Learning), and plans are already well underway for next year's budget. At our first Joint Meeting with the Town Council, we shared that the story of the FY26 Budget is Framing the Future. We have a three-pronged approach: Innovating Implementation, Social Emotional Health, and Community Partnerships. While I will write more about the budget as it comes into focus in the coming months, I want to address a broader theme facing education: Less is not more. 

I have been in education since 1996, in leadership since 2003, and not once, not in one of those years, did the budget for the school (or district) I was serving match the needs of the students, faculty, and staff. It seems to come with the territory that if you are in education, you are also somehow taking a vow of poverty. How many community members in EG know that in my first year as Superintendent of Schools, we had to manage how and what kind of copies teachers made, given the spike in the price of paper. 

Almost everything costs more. Groceries, electricity, and school supplies. Hourly rates for contractors, the cost of health insurance, and a cup of coffee. Gas, a slice of pizza, and cell phone service. 

The expectations for education have also grown, especially post-COVID. We have seen a rise in students' needs, particularly regarding their social-emotional health. We know that our current pre-kindergarten population in EG is struggling with speech and language, given that four years ago, when they came into the world, everyone was speaking behind masks. We know the disruption from regular access to teaching and learning impacted everyone. But now we are paying for it, literally, 

While there was some federal funding to share in the burden of these immediate needs (of which East Greenwich received a pittance compared to other communities in Rhode Island), all those dollars are gone. Yet the reverberation of those COVID years is still being felt. We still have work to do. 

This community has invested in education. The Town Council appropriated the full four percent last year. We are breathing new life into our buildings, creating spaces that will house the professionals who need to attend to more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. Our school community enrollment projections show steady if not slightly increasing, numbers as we look to the future. 

I look forward to working with the School Committee and Town Council, along with our professional staff, to articulate the needs of the East Greenwich community to state leaders. This is a growing, vibrant community that highly values education. If we don't work to change the pattern, less will ultimately be less. 

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