Narragansett principal goes back to school, studies budget solutions

Narragansett principal goes back to school, studies budget solutions

Kerry O'Brien
News Staff Writer

TEMPLETON — Narragansett Regional Middle School Principal Peter Cushing is pursuing a doctorate degree from Boston College with the hopes of discovering ways to address funding issues and new educational mandates school districts are struggling to cope with.

“When I went for my masters, I was really focused on social justice,” said Mr. Cushing, who’s been Narragansett’s principal for three years. “If a school district is under-funded, how is that social justice?”


Mr. Cushing began Boston College’s selective accelerated three-year Practicing School Administrators Program just ahead of the school year.

The program’s 25 members spent all of their class and free time together for two weeks, according to Mr. Cushing, in order to form a trust that would be the foundation for candid and confidential conversations about the state’s education system.

“It’s incredibly enriching,” he said. “These are people who come from all walks of life and we’re having frank and honest conversations about our experiences.”

Some of the main concerns voiced by the administrators were changes in special education, unfunded state and federal mandates, the new teacher evaluation system and the McKinney-Vento Act, which forces schools to pay for transportation of homeless students.

“The budget issues we face are issues that other school districts are facing as well,” said Mr. Cushing.

With Narragansett being one of the state’s nine school districts which failed to have a approved budget by the start of the fiscal year, Mr. Cushing said he is preparing for on-going budget woes.

The burden school districts are forced to place on communities — such as asking for increased taxes from residents without children — is a discussion among the administrators in the program, he said.

“The problem is the system is not properly funded,” he added. “Why is it based on tax property values — how is that fair dispersal? At any point you have a substantial portion of the population that doesn’t have kids in the school system.”

Social issues, such as addressing gender identity, is another new task districts are working on to create standardized practices for.

Mr. Cushing said he can better serve Narragansett with the knowledge he’s gaining through the administrator program, and hopes to help lead the school in the future.

“I’d like to be a superintendent and be able to make decisions and work with communities to make decisions,” Mr. Cushing said. “But I still have a lot of time.”