• David promises to always listen to parents/guardians, teachers, support staff, administrators, and community leaders recommendations for improving the Pawtucket School system. It’s imperative that they all have a seat at the table when the School Committee members vote on the issues. 

• David believes we need to get back to the academic basics in school. We need to improve students' test scores in math, English, and science. We've seen a drastic decline in test scores over the past 5 years and we need to find innovative solutions to improve test scores.

• David believes that schools need a return of basic life skill classes to the Pawtucket school curriculum. These classes would include career/technical classes, personal financial classes (teaching students how to pay taxes, pay bills, and how to handle other basic personal finances), banking classes, business classes, and home economic classes.

• David feels strongly that schools need to do more to address student mental, emotional, and physical well being. 

Many young people are struggling with their mental and emotional health. David will advocate for more school psychologists, counselors, and social workers so that every student's mental and emotional health needs are met. 

• David believes that we need to find ways to limit distractions in classrooms. 

We need to find a solution for disruptive students. These students are often dealing with emotional, mental, or behavioral problems and we must push for more resources to help those students. As a result of their struggles, these students will resort to outbursts which distract other students from learning. These interruptions are disrupting teachers' ability to teach and students' ability to learn. This is why David is emphasizing the need for more psychologists, counselors, and social workers in our schools

David feels the biggest distraction in the use of smartphones in schools. These phones are distracting students from paying attention in class, are allowing students to use social media to bully other students or to spread rumors, and are an invasion of privacy for students, teachers, and administrators. David would support any proposal to limit the use of smartphones in schools. 

• David understands that the infrastructure of our Pawtucket Schools are rapidly declining. Our high schools are especially in need of major repair. Many Pawtucket schools have failing infrastructure, lack proper ventilation, and basic temperature controls. 

Many schools, especially Shea and Tolman High Schools are facing serious infrastructural damages. There's roof leaks, old broken windows, and other major damages. Some schools are dealing with mold. This is dangerous for the health of students, teachers, and administrators. 

In the summer, many students struggle with the increasing temperatures. While it's 80 degrees outside, inside the temperatures can get close to 90 degrees. This is not acceptable. 

In the winter, many schools keep their thermostats at higher temperatures to compensate for the lack of insulation around old windows. This promotes the spread of colds and other infections. 

David will work with the School committee to find solutions to these serious problems. We have the funding to address these issues and we must come up with a comprehensive plan to address them. 

• David believes more resources/funding needs to be devoted to students with special needs, disabilities, and students requiring early intervention. We are seeing a cut in funding for special needs students in the 2024-25 school year. This is not acceptable. 

• David feels that the current plan for the Unified High School has not been thoroughly thought out. The plan to build the Unified High School on the land where McCoy Stadium is located is not guaranteed. David promises to always question these plans and make sure that the School Committee is thoroughly thinking through these plans before implementing them. 

David also has concerns about the delays in construction and the lack of a plan to address safety precautions for students, teachers, and administrators. As many Pawtucket residents know, there has been an active rift between the two high schools. Placing all Pawtucket High School student's within one Unified High School is a major concern. We must do the work ahead of the construction to prepare students for this major adjustment. 

• David feels strongly about removing any messages from third party special interest groups pushing their political beliefs on students in Pawtucket schools. David believes this is causing division and distracting students from their focusing on their academic success. 

• David believes that schools should never knowingly implement policy or introduce subjects to classrooms that could potentially promote division amongst our students or that could potentially create an unsafe environment for students, teachers, or administrators.

 Story by GOLOCALPROV

“Data for the last school year tracked (2021-2022) shows that among public districts and charters, chronic teacher absenteeism — defined as teachers missing 10% of days or more — ranged from 1% of teachers to 32%.”

“Four schools alone in Pawtucket averaged chronic teacher absenteeism rates higher than 40%, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) report card.”

“Pawtucket had four of the top five schools for chronic teacher absenteeism in the 2021-2022 school year, with Goff Middle School at 47.7%; Shea High School at 45.8%; Slater Middle School at 41%, and Tolman High School at 40.3%” 

David believes it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Chronic absenteeism among teachers is a growing problem. If teachers are not showing up, how can we expect our students to show up? How can we expect students to care if they feel like their teachers don't care? 

As a member of the School Committee, David will find ways to address this issue. 

• He will remind the teachers that they have a responsibility to their students and their students academic success. 
• He will work with the Superintendent and the School Department to find out innovative solutions to decrease chronic teacher and student absenteeism. 
• He will demand that parents can easily access the rates of chronic absenteeism among their children's teachers and among the district. 

Side note:  David has submitted an APRA (Access to Public Records Act) request for information regarding teacher absenteeism going back to 2018. His request was denied. As of 2024, information regarding teacher absenteeism has been easier to access online. 

“The Department of Education on Wednesday handed over $50 million for a new Pawtucket high school. When it opens, it will mark the end of Shea and Tolman, which are more than 90 years old… The two separate high schools will become one as McCoy Stadium comes down, and a new state-of-the-art school goes up… The project will begin almost immediately.”

“Pawtucket voters did their part in November (2022) when they approved a $330 million bond for the unified high school. Now that burden is reduced to $280 million.”

As you all know, the project did not “begin almost immediately” and there has been no conversation about how we will move this project forward. On September 10th, the Pawtucket Historic District Commission had a meeting. They were reviewing the demolition of McCoy Stadium and as a result of activists in the community, they will likely move to declare the stadium historically significant which would halt the continuation of the Unified High School. You can find the meeting agenda here. David has been raising the alarm bells to the School Committee about this exact situation but was dismissed. He understood and continues to understand that we need a plan b if we want to move forward with the Unified High School project. If this project is not successful, the City will take back the bond money and we will have to start from scratch. 

• David promises to always listen to parents/guardians, teachers, support staff, administrators, and community leaders recommendations for improving the Pawtucket School system. It’s imperative that they all have a seat at the table when the School Committee members vote on the issues.