Officials to Fight to Stave Off High School Being Put on 'Probation'

East Providence High School remains accredited, but it faces the possibility of being put on "probation" because of many long-standing, unresolved physical conditions at the 60-year-old school.

Superintendent Kim Mercer delivered that dour message to the School Committee Tuesday night, Aug. 13. She was told to submit information by Aug. 31 to the New England Association of Schools and Colleges to show why the school should not be placed on probation. 

“Downgrading the school’s status will have an impact on the feeling of the community towards the school,” said School Committee Chairman Joel Monteiro. “We need to fight to maintain our ‘warning’ status.” 

Vice Chairman Timothy Conley wasn’t so sure fighting a downgrade with a letter to NEASC would do much good.

“I see the status as secondary to the need to correct problems, not just appeal them,” Conley said. “We need to do what needs to be done.”

School Committee member Anthony Ferreira, a constant critic of school facilities, agreed.

“We’re long overdue to solve the problems,” he said, although he supports Mercer’s attempt to stave off a downgrade when the NEASC board meets again in October.

“Regardless of the ruling,” said Monteiro, “we’re obligated to fix things. But we need to do this."

“It will take a village to fix the physical plant,” Mercer said.

But in the meantime, she said: “There are so many good things going on” and NEASC must know about them. “We need to appeal. We need to get a plan together to address their areas of concern.”

Among the accrediting agency’s primary concerns are lack of sufficient science laboratories to support educational programs, although the board has already voted to spend almost $200,000 to fix the chemical and biology labs.

But NEASC also is concerned about the lack of technology available to science teachers, the cramped and inadequate space for guidance services, inadequate spaces for health and nursing services, the lack of instructional materials and intervention programs, the school’s limited wireless capability in classrooms, the poor condition of student bathrooms, the condition of furniture, and the overall cleanliness and condition of the building, which is already going through millions of dollars in health and safety repairs this sumer, including the replacement of asbestos floor tiles.