Rhode Island

How a Central Falls school is inching its way towards year-round schooling • Rhode Island Current

Published

1 year ago

August 12, 2024

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.

From left, social worker Miguel Pacheco, kindergarten teacher Chloe Allen, and teaching fellow Yussef Abdullah strategizing about methods for teaching during a professional development exercise at the Segue Institute for Learning in Central Falls on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)

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

Gilded age mansion in Newport listed for $28 million

Published

18 hours ago

October 24, 2025

Press Room

Gilded age mansion in Newport listed for million

Real Estate News

A Gilded Age mansion, Seaview Terrace is one of the largest private homes in America.

Seaview Terrace at sunset. Michael David Commercial

One of America’s largest private homes is for sale in Newport, Rhode Island — and it comes with ocean views, Gilded Age glamour, and a few ghost stories.

Zillow Gone Wild features $40M Nantucket mansion built in 2020

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Seaview Terrace, a mansion that sits on a 7.7-acre lot at 207 Ruggles Ave., includes 29 bedrooms, 18 bathrooms, and 11 stone fireplaces among its 60-plus rooms. The estate, currently listed at $28.50 million, was even featured Monday on the popular Instagram account Zillow Gone Wild.

The mansion was built in 1925 for industrialist Edson Bradley as a summer “cottage,” marking the tail end of Gilded Age architecture in Newport. The sprawling estate was among the last of its kind before the Great Depression brought such elaborate construction to a halt. Early preservationists Millicent and Martin Carey purchased the property for around $285,000 in 1974, according to their daughter and current property owner, Denise Carey Bettencourt, who spoke with The Wall Street Journal. Bettencourt told the publication that taxes on the mansion are roughly $80,000 per year.

Inside, the home is filled with many unique features: soaring Venetian Renaissance ceiling frescos, a sprawling ballroom, 15th-century German stained glass, a 64-foot-long library, a private chapel, an organ room, and a “whispering gallery” — where faint sounds can reportedly travel 80 feet.

Located in the Ochre Point-Cliffs Historic District, Seaview Terrace cannot be torn down, though the land can be subdivided to to allow for additional buildings.
The lot size of 207 Ruggles Ave. – Michael David Commercial

After Martin Carey’s death, Denise Carey Bettencourt listed the property in 2021 for $29.9 million.
“My love for the house is so great that I’m willing to sacrifice my part in it,” Bettencourt told WSJ. She said that she hopes the next owner uses it as a home or turns the first floor into a museum for the public.

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Rhode Island

Eric Rueb comes up with an easy fix for football realignment in his Week 7 football picks column

Published

1 day ago

October 23, 2025

Press Room

Eric Rueb comes up with an easy fix for football realignment in his Week 7 football picks column

Someone call the Rhode Island Interscholastic League. Reach out to all the football-playing schools in Rhode Island.

I’ve figured out the perfect fix for the upcoming realignment and there won’t have to be 20 unnecessary meetings to rule on it.

There’s been plenty wrong with the last few realignments, but in the advent of the RPI era – something that’s not going away – it seems easier than ever to fix. Doing that requires more common sense and less formulas based on bad math (and tears from big schools that carry weight in these meetings) and ideas from someone who actually cares about high school football.

While the math is confusing, the RPI has changed how the regular season runs for the better while making absolutely no sense as far as the playoff goes.

With the Rueb Plan – patent pending – we’re going to fix that and have a realignment that forces teams to play exactly where they should.

First, we’re ditching the divisional playoffs and having actual State Championships. Since every state that uses RPI also uses a classified postseason, that’s what we’ll do. The four categories are obvious – Private, Large, Medium and Small. You’ll compete for titles against like competition. Now the onus is on you to win.

We’re not going to use a formula to figure out the divisions. We’re going to use this thing called common sense.

That means in Division I we’ll let Barrington and Burrillville drop, replaced by schools that are twice as big (if not more) than both – East Providence and Pawtucket. Don’t like it? Then fix the culture in your communities.

Division II will see a few new faces – Johnston is trending up and needs to be here; Classical is forever a D-II.5 team, so it’s up; and Cranston East is moving to D-II because a school that size should be embarrassed to be in D-III.

Who are the newcomers in D-III? Toll Gate is moving up because it’s too big to be in D-IV and hopefully it passes on this and does what the community wants – joining forces with Pilgrim to form a Warwick co-op.

Lincoln is moving down only because Sean Cavanagh deserves a regular season where he doesn’t have to try to win games just by out-coaching people. Middletown’s also moving down strictly on school size. We’ll move Davies up because it’s becoming an elite program and Smithfield is moving up because it should have done so two years ago.

Division IV will be reserved for small schools and programs that can’t get off the ground. The small schools will get to play like competition while still getting a chance to play in the postseason. Larger schools in the division will get a chance to win some games, but making the playoffs will prove to be difficult because of how the RPI works.

Why will this plan work? Because it gives teams a chance to win titles that actually matter. If you go undefeated and win a title below Division I, did you really win a championship? Or were you just placed in the wrong division in the right year?

Trust the plan. It will work – and I should know because I’ve never been wrong.

Speaking of that, let’s get on to the picks.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23

South Kingstown vs. Pawtucket, 6 p.m.

I’ve been in Pawtucket the last two Thursdays, decided to not go for the hat trick this week. I’ll handle tennis playoffs and soccer and will let Jake Rousseau handle this low-scoring affair.

THE PICK: Rebels

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24

Hope at North Smithfield, 5 p.m.

Ready for the easiest advertising partnership of all time? Every time the Northmen put a 40-burger up on the scoreboard, Beef Barn gives away a burger to fans at the game. I swear I need one of these school districts to hire me as a marketing director.

THE PICK: Northmen

Moses Brown at East Providence, 6 p.m.

Plenty of public school coaches worry about playing games at private schools and losings kids after they see their campuses and facilities. This might be the only case where it’s the opposite.

THE PICK: Townies

Central Falls vs. Middletown, 6 p.m.

You want to get crazy? If the Middletown concession stand is going to have fried turkey on Thanksgiving, I’m there. No questions ask (don’t tell my wife, she’ll be angry).

THE PICK: Warriors

Pilgrim at Johnston, 6 p.m.

The fact not a single breakfast joint in Johnston town limits has offered Nate Della Morte and Nick Testa an NIL deal is insane. They might be the most popular 1-2 punch in all of high school football and the O-linmen are more than deserving of a “pancake deal” somewhere.

THE PICK: Panthers

Lincoln at North Providence, 6 p.m.

Michael Tuorto has quietly become one of the state’s great coaches. It’s not always about Xs and Os. He understands how to market his program – last week’s Gold Rush uniforms were insane – and it has made football as popular as its ever been.

THE PICK: Panthers

North Kingstown at Barrington, 6:15 p.m.

Maybe not the game I would have chosen to open up my brand new field to the community, but sometimes the schedule takes decisions like that out of people’s hands.

THE PICK: Skippers

Davies vs. Toll Gate, 6:30 p.m.

I can already see Henry Cabral telling his team that nobody’s thinking about Davies, everybody’s in on North Smithfield and Narragansett and in a month we’re going to be wondering how the Patriots went back-to-back.

THE PICK: Patriots

St. Raphael at Cumberland, 7 p.m.

Everything that could have gone wrong for the Clippers has and while coach Matt LaRoche is doing a great job in his rookie season, it’s also clear that replacing Josh Lima isn’t going to be as easy as some of the people in the town thought it would be.

THE PICK: Saints

Rogers at East Greenwich, 7 p.m.

If this game was at 6 p.m. I would have been there only because my daughter swears up and down that the cinnamon sugar pretzels at EG’s concession stand are the best thing she’s ever eaten.

THE PICK: Avengers

Coventry at Woonsocket, 7 p.m.

Parents, if your kid does something that draws a flag because it’s against the rules and your instinct is to DM The Journal reporter and say “well this kid from another school did it and he didn’t get a penalty” then I’ve got bad, bad news for you – you’re not doing your job as a parent. Accountability matters in sports and in life.

THE PICK: Villa Novans

Barnstable (MA) at La Salle, 7 p.m.

I just need everyone to remember that Jake Rousseau is beating me in The Journal picks competition because he picks against Rhode Island schools because he doesn’t like them while I’ve been picking every RI team when they play out-of-state opponents out of sheer loyalty to the Ocean State.

THE PICK: Rams

Exeter-West Greenwich at Smithfield, 7 p.m.

Thing to keep an eye out for – had one coach tell me “if there’s a team nobody wants to see in the playoffs, it’s Exeter-West Greenwich.” I’m not leaning on the Scarlet Knights this week, but don’t be shocked if they catch someone lacking.

THE PICK: Sentinels

Mount Pleasant at West Warwick, 7 p.m.

After this week the Wizards will be 0-3 against teams with a winning record and 4-0 against teams with a losing record and I’m still struggling to figure out what that means but we’ll find out in the season finale on Halloween.

THE PICK: Wizards

Burrillville at Westerly, 7 p.m.

This is my favorite game on the calendar. Two communities that love high school football and have no business playing in the divisions they’re in while much larger schools falter in lower divisions. Every community should strive to be this.

THE PICK: Bulldogs

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25

Narragansett at Scituate, 11 a.m.

Somehow the Mariners lost to North Smithfield but remained ahead of them in the standings, which means Narragansett will be going up against North Smithfield or Davies in the Super Bowl.

THE PICK: Mariners

Cranston East vs. Mt. Hope, 12 p.m.

The grass at Kickemuit Middle School looked OK in Week 1 but I can’t imagine what it’s like now – and I’m guessing that’s OK for the team that’s playing on it.

THE PICK: Huskies

Central at Cranston West, 1 p.m.

How this game goes down depends on the Knights. If Central shows up trying to build momentum for the Consolation Playoffs that will help the team get some steam heading into 2026, it wins big. If the Knights are mentally checked out, the Falcons will roll.

THE PICK: Knights

Chariho at Portsmouth, 1:30 p.m.

This is the game that could ultimately cost the Patriots a chance to host a playoff game. Portsmouth would almost be better off letting the Chargers win in order to help their win percentage.

THE PICK: Patriots

Classical at Ponaganset, 6:30 p.m.

I’m covering six cross country meets on Saturday but I’ll be damned if that’s going to stop me from covering a Super Bowl rematch between two undefeated teams. French fries at concessions better be ready to go.

THE PICK: Purple

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