carole what are you talking about. they just went on vacation together. remember the conference? the chair still thinks everything is ok except, the states fault for not giving the money it owes us.

John the superintendent was never mentioned in the article why bring her in it for, second why is it that WED seems to be taking most of the heat when in fact you look at this cities history, This city struggles to adopt or change it's structure to keep up with the constant changing world

Let me fix that for you:

"Vimala is definitely a 'friend' of the CHILDREN."

She is there as voice to preserve the quality of education while the fiscal guillotine is being sharpened. Her perspective is invaluable since she represents the 6000 students that are caught up in this political and financial maelstrom. Vimala stands as an excellent example of check and balances. With each cost-cutting measure she can show you, in human terms, the direct effect of those cuts. You see dollar $igns, she sees the future of hundreds of innocent 8 yr olds. May the mighty dollar prevail.

Still Hope,
You are not fixing anything for me. If you think Vimala is not a friend of the unions and the WED, then explain why she voted against an outside investigation in to the overspending in the WED. Explain why she was the only school committee member who voted against asking the state to take over the WED. I'm sick and tired of the bleeding hearts who keep singing the chant "it's for the CHILDREN". How about you bleeding hearts start thinking about the people who have to pay the bills. Let me correct your correction - Vimala is a friend of the Unions and the WED. She doesn't want an outside investigation nor does she want the state to take over the WED because she doesn't want the taxpayers of Woonsocket to know what really happened to the money. Remember, there is no future for the children if there is no one left in this city who is able to pay the taxes. Apparently that is what people like you want to see happen.

Still Hope or should I call you Dr. Donoyan, Vimala stated publicly at the last school committee that she's tired of talking about finances and she wants to do things for the children.
Without adequate funding the committee will have to cut all extra curricular activities, the electric may be shut off, the bus company will not pick up the children and the teachers may not be paid. So when the committee stops working to correct the finance problem and the schools are to unsafe to let the children in, you and Vimala can play mother and daughter every other Wednesday night.

Gotta say I tend to agree with "Still Hope"....getting angry at Vimala (or anyone else) because she wants to get back to discussing how to improve education in Woonsocket as opposed to continually discussing the financial embarrassment doesn't make much sense to me. She just seems like someone who has a conscience in regards to actually doing her job as a member of the school committee.
I mean, if this term were over and the school committee never got around to trying to improve the education, would they be allowed to say, "well, I was too worried about the deficit...figured the other stuff could wait"? Not in my book.
Fiscal prudence is important, and they need to figure out what happened in order to prevent it from happening again, but at the end of the day, they're supposed to try to facilitate the delivery of the best damn education they can and that requires planning/discussion of things other than past mismanagements.
This is particularly true if you're cash strapped like we are...you're gonna need some seriously creative solutions (which require planning) to deliver a decent service (education) on this budget (remember...its 20 million or so less than it was a handful of years ago...what service/product do you know of that gets cheaper over time? Not many).
Anyway, the finances are a mess, but less "taxing" (pun intended :) ) on me than our graduation rate. We gotta improve the actual education we're delivering as well as the community's desire for it. IMHO.

@essaysea, All committee members have the authority to add subjects/topics of discussion to the agenda. If Vimala says she's tired of talking about finances why doesn't she add topics to the agenda they could discuss in addition to finances? She talks about having visions but never brings anything forth for discussion. As a matter of fact she has not brought anything to the table for three years. The last meeting was the first time I even heard her speak. She just climbed into bed with Nadeau and Donlon to get the union vote for her own political advancement.

EssaySea
Phongsavanah may have climbed in bed with Donlon and Nadeau to gain favor with the unions and further her political carreer, but if the taxpayers of Woonsocket have any common sense at all,, the political careers of these three union hacks will have gone as far as they are going to. Not only should they not be given the honor of ever serving on the School Committee, but they should never again be elected to any position in the City of Woonsocket. The taxpayers made the major mistake of voting for Marc Dubois for City Council before they found out what a mess he made of things as the former School Committee Chairman. He used his influence to get the whole mess kept under cover until after the election. He knew if this debacle was ever revealed before the election, he wouldn't stand a chance of being elected. The whole mess shows that he is not a person of trustworthy character. We can't give Phongsavanh, Donlon and Nadeau a chance to do the same thing.

@John and DonQ: I can't speak to your allegations regarding the unions/political advancement stuff...that feels like speculation to me, but the stuff she brought up at the last meeting ( Revamping the Strategic Plan and WISE. See: http://www.mywoonsocket.com/In_Their_Own_Words.html ) was pretty impressive. They sound like ideas borne out a desire to deliver the best education system she can. I hope to see more of that sort of action in the future regardless of who's on the committee.

Not my post.......but now that you mention it,you have some good ideas!

Yes. It is my post. And I DO have the best ideas ever. I also think that the city should get rid of the parks and ice skating rink. And also shut off every street light. And we should also increase the number of high revenue returning businesses like Price Rite, Savers and Job Lot. Oh, and I wish Woonsocket had an IHOP. And I wish there was a place we could ride unicorns. That would bring a bunch of people into our city. Ch-Ching!!!

Let's start by eliminating your post. If you can't offer constructive ideas, perhaps you should not say anything at all. This recent post is utterly ridiculous.

Jan,
We can rate them on their performance and boot them for extremely poor performance - it's called voting.Phongsavanh, Nadeau and Donlon will receive a huge thumbs down from me. With approximately 17 months to go before the elections, I hope people are smart enough to remember what these three did to the taxpayers. I assure you, I will do my best to remind the voters every opportunity that I get. Come election time - I will launch my own campaign to remind folks why these three bums should never hold elected office in the City of Woonsocket again.

Jan, They're adding a By-law tonight in order to be able to do this. Change the rules to suit your needs. What a country!!

I agree DonQ

The taxpayers elected the members of the school committee but we did not elect whoever would be the chairperson. It is the members of the school committee that elected the chair.

@ joe; one of our long term senators is mark cote.(woonsocket) does anyone know him or what he does !!! he must be the smartest person in rhode island. goes out and gets elected each term, then goes back into hibernation.

Sen. Mark Cote put's in Voter Initiative legislation every year. He gets my vote if I could vote for him. We need more like him. then things would get better.

Hey,this is fun!

Lisa,
We have been demanding a full investigation, but John Ward on the City Council and Vimala Phongsavanh on the School Committee have blocked any possibility of an investigation every chance they have had. It's obvious our elected officials know that there is much more than just insufficient funds or poor management at fault here. It's also obvious that these same elected officials want to make darn sure the citizens of Woonsocket are never privy to what or who was responsible for a $10million shortfall. They want us just to shut up and pay up.

Ward and Fontaine have been on board since Menard's reign. Fontaine did some what I'd call friendly jousting with Menard before he ran for mayor, yet he did nothing to change matters then. He and Ward are the first to point fingers at Menard, yet they were involved in years of mismanagement and continue the same pattern today. The school committee and school department have run rampant for years; in my opinion it has gotten worse under Fontaine's reign. Ward was intent on getting a 12% tax hike from us taxpayers in order to pay for (you know who's) pensions, colas, medical; etc. BEFORE this huge deficit was even revealed. He even included his plan to raise taxes for this reason as a main component of his platform during his last run for office. As far as Vimala, I really don't know her motivations; I'm unsure if it's inexperience, rose colored glasses or something else. I'd love to see Gerardi and friends to pay for their part in the destruction of Woonie. All of us taxpayers need a campaign of our own, perhaps we should place bright orange placards in our yards that say " Tax Foreclosure Sale Soon" "inquire at city hall for details".

believe me lisa she think she is i've talked to her she needs to go along with donlon and vimala,nadeau

You know that if Nadeau, Donlon and Phongsavanh ( and of course - Donoyon)get their way, Vimala will definitely be their chairman of choice. You know also that the first order of business will be to rescind the request to have the State take over the School Department. They can't take the chance that the State will launch an investigation into the School Department if they take it over. It is is becoming more and more apparent that there was some serious wrong doing taking place by the School Committee and School Administration. They are going to do everything they can to ensure that wrong doing will never be investigated and revealed. Those involved in any possible wrongdoing are not all on the School Committee. Any investigation into possible wrongdoing also needs to look at certain members of the City Council.

Lisa you are 100% correct. This Fiscal Mess Happened under the Watch of Mayor Fontaine And Council President John Ward CPA. They have a Fiduciary Responsibility To The City Of Woonsocket and All Of The Residents and FAILED Miserably. So guess who will Suffer? Remember They could of prevented this If They were doing their Jobs. They should be IMPEACHED AND OR RECALLED Both of them!

Ward Blocked the Investigation of which would have pointed the finger at Ward and Fontaine!

John Ward CPA cannot ballance a check Book!

I certainly wouldn't hire John Ward to do any work for any company that I owned. I can't see putting any trust/faith in any audit he was responsible for.

may i need remind you the state and the city required all this outside help so don't attack her

The city and state required this outside help because Donoyon is incompetent and unable to do her job.

Sounds like you should run for office soon.

In the land of fiction, trolling would mean that your a troll. Everyone knows that trolls great weakness is fire. Careful!

i wasn't pointing that at anyone it was a general question. Hey Jerry if none is talking to you keep your sour comments to yourself!!

I think school's are a little different than a regular business, but I get your general point.
On that note though, my point was that I don't see why discussing how to improve "the product" and the performance of "the business" instead of only discussing "last quarter's shortfall" is a bad thing. I'm not commenting on the capabilities of the committee as a whole (I suppose everyone has their own opinion in that regard), I just don't understand the anger towards the idea of shifting the focus back towards solutions to Woonsocket's educational challenges.
I mean, to me, at the end of the day, the deficit is just another one of those challenges. It's a parameter (a very challenging one) in the "education equation" that the school committee,WED, RIDE, and the State now have to work with. They still need to be focused on end goals (performance wise) and how to get there.

...and I'm not sure if you were asking me or if it was rhetorical, but when I say "improve education" I'm referring to the ability of a school system to produce students who are knowledgable in language (preferably two or more), mathematics, the sciences, the arts and literature. Young adults who are well adjusted to the social sphere (confident, accept differences among people, well behaved, able to work both independently and collaboratively), prepared to enter the next phase of life (be that further education, a trade, the military etc) as well as understand that choice.

@essaysea, Mrs. McGuire-Forcier and Mr. Roberts have been discussing how to generate funding and prevent future deficits not focused on the past deficit. Without the proper funding our little "products" in the school system will not have football, baseball, art, music or any of the other extra activities that keep young minds interested in school. How will the drop out rate be then??

I have no problems with trying to figure out how to generate funding, and I commend the chairwoman and Mr. Roberts for any efforts in that regard, but I still don't see the problem with exploring solutions which may be possible and/or necessary if the money doesn't come.

Robert, my comments weren't sour, they were the truth, maybe you should do some research and realize you don't know what you are ever talking about. YOu protect the WED like they've done no wrong. Do your math if you can.