Woonsocket, RI - Woonsocket Teachers’ Guild (Guild) and the Woonsocket Education Department (WED) have had a dispute over the handling of an egregious safety threat. The Guild apprised WED of the threat and their inquiries were met with silence. A safety grievance was lodged, the School Committee denied the grievance, and the Guild has filed for arbitration.
Last night, over two hundred educators gathered in an overfilled cafeteria to express their safety concerns to the School Committee. These concerns ranged from student assaults on teachers and children to lost instructional time due to frequent shelter-in-place calls, lockdown orders and evacuations.
WED highlighted that city and state contributions to the education budget have been woefully inadequate. The perennial underfunding of 20 million dollars has resulted in dangerous staffing problems in Woonsocket schools. Robert Stewart, President of the Guild stated, “The state funding formula is primarily responsible for our underfunded schools, but the local contribution, the portion the city is responsible for (roughly 16%) has been stagnant for many, many years. The local contribution from the city was 16 million 10 years ago and had the city given the typical modest increases of 3% to 4% per year, the schools would have the funding to keep the children safer. After the passage of 10 years the local contribution is still less than 17 million, but would have been 21 to 24 million if increases had kept up.”
The WTG expects the central administration and School Committee to enact policies that ensure our schools are safe places for staff and students. The WTG is hoping to work collaboratively with WED to resolve these issues. The children and educators in Woonsocket public schools have a fundamental right to be safe.
The Midwest and South are being rocked by tornadoes. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has already issued a rare "high" risk severe weather outlook for the mid-South, mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys. Parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri are already under a tornado watch. 
