Cranston
The debate over a banner with a prayer in a Cranston public school — which the ACLU attempted to bully the district into moving with the threat of a lawsuit and which the school committee has voted to defend — makes very stark the contrast of the sides. On one side is the fact that…
A bevy of education-related stories today. The repercussions following the Providence teacher “firings” continue, with Mayor Tavares getting attention from the New York Times. The ProJo reported that teachers fear it’s the end for seniority-based retention, which is kind of a strange way to put it because, as the story also explains, that end was…
Here’s the non-ceremonious part of Monday night’s inaugural ceremonies in Cranston. After his official address to the public, Cranston City Council President Anthony Lupino attempted to appoint City Council Committee chairmen. Three of the Democrats appointed by President Lupino to chairmanships, but who had not voted for Councilman Lupino, objected to being appointed. Councilman Emilio…
In addition to the inaugural ceremonies, last night’s meeting at Cranston West was also the first official City Council meeting of the 2011-2012 session, the main order of business being the Council organizing itself. As was predicted in previous news accounts, Democratic Councilman Robert Pelletier voted along with Republicans James Donahue, Leslie Ann Luciano, and…
Last evening, in ceremonies held at Cranston West High School, Allan Fung was inaugurated as Mayor of Cranston for his second term, members of the City Council and school committee were sworn into their offices, and the City Council held its first on-the-record political fight of the year. (We get down to business fast, or…
I sat down last night to write a brief post explaining how the politics of the Cranston City Council is tied to the politics of education reform in RI, discovering in the process that it could not be done briefly. Here’s what should be (and will be) the last paragraph, explaining why readers beyond Cranston…
Would there be room in the public sphere — specifically, within the the Cranston West High School cafeteria auditorium — for a banner beginning with the words “Heavenly Father”, if the most recent Establishment Clause precedent issued by the United States Supreme Court were to say that a relevant lower court decision was flawed, because…The…
Steven Frias, a Steve Laffey ally of old and author of a book on Cranston’s political history, relates the origin of school committees’ authority to negotiate contracts (even though they can’t tax to pay for them) and binding arbitration for police and fire. Sadly, there are some discouraging parallels to our proximate future: The leader…
Cranston Mayor Allan Fung announced last evening that he will seek a second term as Mayor. After he made his formal announcement, I had the opportunity to ask him a couple of quick questions… Anchor Rising: Given your two-year track record, and what you’d like to accomplish, what’s the reason people should vote for you…
… but not the usual fallacy that inevitably leads to comical yard signs like “Save our Schools” when contracts are up for re-negotiation. Yesterday, during the last hour of the WPRO Morning News with John Depetro, Cranston School Committee member Frank Lombardi called in to defend the actions of himself and certain other committee members…