Bay City Education Association

* The Central Falls Teachers Union and the teachers at the High School said YES to the proposed transformation reform model at the High School.
* They said YES to meeting and working out the details through their collective bargaining agreement, as recommended by the Rhode Island Department of Education.
* They have a long history of saying YES to reform efforts to help students at the High School.
* YES to schedule changes that benefited students
* YES to working with administrators to develop a new, rigorous, teacher evaluation system
* YES to changes in school structure to better meet the learning needs of their students
* YES to advisories
* YES to ongoing Professional Development time in the summer and throughout the school year
* They also said YES to many research-based programs that were helping the students, but were ended by the constant administrative turnover.
* YES to America's Choice. This acclaimed program of math and literacy support for the students was working until it was cut short by administrators.
* YES to Skills Commission Task Development. A critical teacher professional development tool rated highly by the teachers as the best and most relevant program they had participated in - cut after 1 year.

The facts do not bear out the contention that the only way to fix Central Falls High School is to fire all the teachers. The teachers have been the one constant in the fight for reform. They recognize that Central Falls High School needs to improve - that has always been their mission and it is working. Over the past two years reading scores are up 21%, and math scores are rising as well. This is not the time to be experimenting with our students. This is the time to provide leadership to bring the proper resources to the one group that is doing its job properly - the teachers.

The students of Central Falls absolutely deserve better - everyone is in agreement on that issue, unfortunately this proposal is a major step backwards in accomplishing that noble goal.