Rhode Island
How a Central Falls school is inching its way towards year-round schooling • Rhode Island Current
Angelo Garcia likens our current education system to a snow globe. Everybody basically agrees on what should be the bits of educational snowflake materials – the math, science, geography, even recess. Once in a while the globe might get shaken up by demands for accountability, radically changing reading instruction, or whatever.
But in time, with hardly anyone noticing, the snowflakes quietly drift back down to what Garcia, co-founder and executive director of the Segue Institute for Learning, calls “the same inflexible, contained environment.”
With, I might add, the same lackluster results.
For 15 years, Garcia and Segue co-founder, Melissa Lourenco, have been experimenting with how to rearrange the necessary elements of education, but get past its conventional confines.
For example, kids’ summer learning loss is an accepted liability of the agrarian school calendar. For students at this school in Central Falls, the poorest community in Rhode Island, it’s dire.
On a recent, hot summer day, Lourenco took me on a tour of what initially looked like a typical, remedial summer school, with a phonics lesson here and math puzzles there.
A Spanish-dominant group of squirmy little kids hovered around a young instructor helping them unpack the meanings and feelings of emotion words. Would, for example, getting a shot at the doctor’s office make you worried, or “preocupada?” The kids erupted with anxious chatter. The adult switched easily and often between English and Spanish, to translate and commiserate.
The instructor is one of six extra adults who are either doing their teaching practicum through the Rhode Island School for Progressive Education or are completing a B.A. through College Unbound. These programs fast-track would-be teachers who need experience.
Several schools work with these programs since education badly needs more teachers, but especially teachers of color. Other than maternity leaves, Segue has had zero teacher turnover, but they’ll need new teachers eventually. For them, the extra adults helped make the student groups smaller, giving more attention to students who need as much help as they can get.
The kids in that squirmy group are incoming kindergartners getting a jumpstart on language skills, and making friends and adult allies. Few summer programs would bother with students who don’t yet need academic remediation.
The Segue summer strategy has the groups – K-8 – cycling through six “stations” Monday through Thursday. Each station lasts only 25 minutes, so they don’t have time to get bored before moving on to a new subject and place. Three stations are academic – math, English Language Arts and the social-and-emotional learning one we observed. The other three stations promote creativity and collaboration with soft-sell academics woven throughout – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), arts and crafts, and recreation, which is essentially organized recess.
Summer staff experiment beyond the regular curriculum in search of lessons that might be more effective or engaging for use during the regular school year.
On Friday, a.k.a. Fun Friday, kids go bowling, to the beach, the movies, or whatever the grant they got for the purpose can afford. It’s a huge draw.
Indeed, a fifth-grader steamed up to me singing the praises of “all the fun stuff,” while proudly assuring me that while he still had “bad behavior” feelings, “I know how to behave.” He’s apparently a handful, but strongly motivated to stay in the program.
Lourenco says the older kids moan and groan about summer school, but they come. During the regular year, Segue’s 360 urban students have a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate, 10%. But the 120 enrolled in the summer program come almost as faithfully.
A fifth-grader steamed up to me singing the praises of “all the fun stuff,” while proudly assuring me that while he still had “bad behavior” feelings, “I know how to behave.
A cohort of kids referred for chronic absenteeism work with a social worker who brainstorms with the older kids about how they could get themselves to school regularly. The younger students attend the academic program to make up for lost time and learning while the social worker engages with their families, who should be getting them to school.
Other students come because they have special needs. A few come because their families badly need child care and plead their case with school officials.
Garcia insists that Segue’s is not really a summer school, “but an extension of the school year. There’s always a need to prevent regression, which is why we’re talking about a year-round school.”
Lourenco experienced year-round schooling in another state. She started “whispering” the possibility to the staff, and found them to be surprisingly open. The school would stay within their 185-day year, but take intermittent two weeks off for, say, a fall break. The breaks would be timed differently from the other public schools so families aren’t competing with the rest of the state for flights or space at the Children’s Museum.
To boot, Garcia believes such a year-round schedule would ease teacher burnout as well as staunching learning loss. Teacher burnout is as big a problem as learning loss and probably contributes to it.
That said, teachers already work more weeks than is typical, starting the first week of August. While that sounds like a deal-breaker for many, Segue’s teachers stick around and their chronic absenteeism is zero.
“Obviously,” Garcia says, “Segue is not for everybody.”
But it’s not a snow globe either.
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Rhode Island
Taylor Swift is renovating her mansion in Westerly, R.I. These are the planned upgrades. – The Boston Globe
In all, the work is expected to cost $1.7 million, the records show.
A video posted on TikTok earlier this week showed workers at the home loading wood into an area of the home that was already under construction.
A few commenters offered guesses about what Swift may be doing with the extra space.
“She’s installing the Eras Tour stage, per my request,” quipped one.
Wrote another: “She’s finally getting my guest room ready!”
Property records show the 12,657-square-foot, 1904 mansion, which has sweeping views of the Block Island Sound and a private pool, already boasts seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
Swift snagged the mansion in 2013 for approximately $17.75 million – reportedly paying for the property in cash. Records show the home now has an assessed value of about $20.67 million.
Over the years, Swift has hosted numerous summer parties and getaways for her circle of celebrity friends at the home. She welcomed Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, to name a few, this past summer.
Swift has also given Holiday House her signature songwriting treatment.
For 2020’s “Folklore,” she penned, “The Last Great American Dynasty,” which details the home’s storied past with previous owner Rebekah Harkness, a mid-century heiress who married William Hale Harkness, a Standard Oil heir.
Not unlike Swift, Harkness was known for throwing lavish parties, sometimes drawing the ire of locals. It’s a comparison Swift – who faced some criticism herself, such as when she posted “No Tressing” signs around her property and some beach barricades after moving in – invites in the song.
“Fifty years is a long time/ Holiday House sat quietly on that beach/ Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits/ And then it was bought by me,” she sings. “Who knows, if I never showed up, what could’ve been/ There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen/ I had a marvelous time ruining everything.”
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Jan. 14, 2025, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from Jan. 14 drawing
04-14-35-49-62, Mega Ball: 06, Megaplier: 3
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lucky For Life numbers from Jan. 14 drawing
03-06-17-26-39, Lucky Ball: 04
Check Lucky For Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Numbers numbers from Jan. 14 drawing
Midday: 0-8-1-0
Evening: 1-9-8-6
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from Jan. 14 drawing
12-17-28-30-36, Extra: 06
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Lucky for Life top prize of $1,000 a day for life and second prize of $25,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Billionaire status calls for a bigger home and Taylor Swift isn’t wasting any time. The singer’s oceanfront estate in Westerly’s Watch Hill neighborhood—affectionately dubbed Holiday House—is about to become even more impressive with a $1.7 million expansion project. The historic property, once home to the eccentric socialite Rebekah Harkness (whose antics inspired Swift’s song The Last Great American Dynasty) maintains its status as Watch Hill’s most talked-about residence.
The palatial property, which Swift acquired in 2013 for $17.75 million (in cash, reportedly), is already stunning. Perched dramatically on a cliff with 700 feet of private beachfront, the 11,000-square-foot manor currently holds eight bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and enough fire places (eight, to be exact) to keep every corner cozy during those New England winters.
The property has become legendary for hosting Swift’s star-studded soirées, including her famous “Taymerica” Fourth of July celebrations. Most recently, the mansion and stunning pool area hosted a gathering including Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, NFL star Patrick Mahomes, and A-List friends like Gigi Hadid and Blake Lively.
The storied mansion is perched on a cliff.
But what’s a coastal kingdom without a proper expansion? According to recently issued building permits—first reported by The Providence Journal—Swift is adding a generously proportioned 16-by-24-foot bedroom suite and additional bathrooms to her already expansive floor plan. The existing kitchen—presumably where she whips up those famous Fourth of July party treats—is also getting a complete makeover. The labor and materials for this latest enhancement are expected to cost $1.7 million, according to the permits.
Eagle-eyed fans have already spotted construction underway, with cranes and wood framing visible at the estate. While Harkness may have filled her swimming pool with Dom Pérignon, Swift’s enhancements are more practical—though equally luxurious.
Julia Cancilla is the engagement editor (and resident witch) at ELLE DECOR, where she manages the brand’s social media presence and covers trends, lifestyle, and culture in the design world. Her eye for emerging styles helps bring the latest in interior design to ELLE Decor’s audience across platforms. Julia built her background at Inked magazine, where she grew their social media audiences by two million, conducted interviews with A-list celebrities, and penned feature articles focusing on pop culture, design, and lifestyle. Over her five years of digital media experience, Julia has written about numerous topics, from fashion to astrology.
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