Sorry, Mr. Harris, you just lost my vote. Elmhurst School property is close to the water and I fear too close to comply with the regs for development today. Hopefully, an appropriate use that benefits all residents and maintains this Town property, will be discovered.

Did John Harris just sat sell the Glen Manor House? This has been one of the most successful operations in town! What next Mr. Harris? Let's sell the entire Glen! Then we can build even more things. PLEASE! We have true operational issues with the school budget, what we don't need is a $60 million dollar school Mr. Harris! I like Seniors Housing or the Park! Nothing that will not be the highest use _-this will just sap more operational dollars.

I would like to see it turned into a community rec center for the children of Portsmouth. We have NOTHING for our kids to do here... and little by little we are taking away the programs in the schools that keep kids active and interested. It would be wonderful to institute a multi-age rec center where the older children in Portsmouth could get involved in programs for the younger children and bring back that sense of community.
We could also open it up to all children of Aquidneck Island for an elevated fee... similar to the fee model that other towns use for their beaches.

About Mr. Harris we understand he pulled his children out of the Portsmouth School system and placed them in Saint Phils. So I leave it to your interpetation as to his motivation in remaining a candidate for Portsmouth Public Schools.

Dear Richard57 and Portsmouth Concerned Citizen.,
What exactly are you suggesting regarding families that send their children to St. Phils? There are close to 100 families from Portsmouth that send their children to this fine school, including David Crosten, who is also running for school committee. We are all citizens of our town and are also allowed to have a vested interest in the success of our public schools. Are we not allowed to run for public office in your eyes? Is it that we may have a hidden agenda? Or maybe we want to make a positive impact on the place that we call home. Maybe we care about our neighbors and our friends or maybe we simply just care. If you choose to make ignorant and slanderous remarks, at the very least, be willing to have the integrity to identify who you are. You may not agree with things I have written and say but I stand by it and I own it.

Jonathan Harris

What I struggle with Mr. Harris is not that you decided to send your child to St. Phils but how you could sue the school district to keep Elmhurst open. If you are the financial expert, your actions would run counter to everything you are running against now. I am sure you have a quick answer that the savings can be found in the budget. Folks, what do we do when we finally realize there are no savings in the budget and that we have to cut the budget on our teachers backs! Then it is too late. Folks, then is now!!! VOTE DEMOCRAT (and maybe a Daly vote).

Robert, first of all thank you for having the integrity to use your name. Second, lets shed some light on your comments. I was one of over 100 other citizens of our town that sued the school committee to keep Elmhurst open. Closing Elmhurst did not save enough money(if any) to warrant turning the elementary educational system in town on its head. Do you know what the school committee claimed the savings were? It was $90K. Sending 4th graders to a middle school enviroment has no support in any educational studies. It is, inappropriate. The Democratic school committee members have made horrible decisions about education and yet claim they support the children. The next committee will be hampered by the decisions of these people. It is surprising you don't see that.

You made a wild claim in an earlier post that a new elementary school will cost $60M. Do you know about the facilities plan? A new elementary school will cost approximately$12M, substantially less than the $15M in additions planned for two old elementary buildings. A new school is required to be "green" , as such, will burn less energy and not require expensive ongoing maintenance. It is a much better use of capital and will have lower operating costs. The facilities plan will go to voters in the near future and is not my creation. Lastly, the school operating budgets do not fund the facilities construction costs. I would be more than happy to speak with you one on one and welcome your perspective.

Dear Portsmouth (Coward) Citizen,

I have never said we should cut school spending. I have never been asked where my children now attend school, (nor has Mr. Crosten who's child attends the same school as my children). It is not relevant. Have the numerous other candidates indicated they don't have any children in schools at all?

I have spoken about the fact that we do not allocate funds appropriately in our budgets at the expense of our students, programs and infrastructure and to the benefit of the union contracts. I have spoken about the fact that our budgets have increased at double the inflation rate. I have said we need to manage that inflationary increase and allocation of our budgets better into the future.Why don't you challange me on this? You can't, because it is factual and correct. You choose to slander and not address the real issues without identifying yourself. Again, my name is here your's is not. I can only presume you are a Democratic candidate, what other reason would your hide your indentity for?

One last thing Mr. Harris, and then I won’t bother you again (I know you must be busy preparing for tomorrow.)
How can our townspeople expect you to negotiate with a teacher's union, when you can't even make it through 20 minutes of blogging with me without referring to terms such as "coward"? (Perhaps next, you can call me "pansy" or "sissy"). One of the voter's responsibilities is to test the strength and resolve of candidates. This is all I was doing here. Yes, I questioned your motives. As a taxpayer and voter, I have that right and duty. I might have even been steered towards voting for you as you are new to this system, but your response indicates to me that you are not who I want representing our town at the negotiation table with the teacher’s union. I don't mean to attack you personally. At least we now all now have a better sense for your temperament during debate on critical issues. When you stare into the face of adversity, this is how you react. Thank you and good luck tomorrow.

PDADDY: I don't share your view. If you are making a public comment that is critical you should be willing to own it, particularly in a small town. Slander is simply unacceptable and further it exposes sites like this to liability. Otherwise, keep your thoughts to yourself. You know who I am and what I think and I too am active in our community. Our country was not built and our problems will not be solved by unnamed whisperers hiding in the weeds.

Hopefully, regardless of your political posture, on Wednesday, we can all get behind the volunteers that will be in charge of our town/schools for the next few years.

I will be glad to answer any questions from voters that make their identity known.

Mr. Harris,
I have been closely monitoring this site throughout the day. If there is something you consider slanderous, you should let me know and it will be removed. I would also encourage you (and anyone else) to not call other users "cowards." Thank-you.

Sandy,
May I ask that you read through the comments on the thread and you pick out the slanderous remark? Could you then call me at 401-225-2761 to discuss in person.

Mr. Harris,

Aside from attacking individuals who do not share your beliefs I have yet to see you offer one idea that will improve our schools. It is not simply a matter of slashing budgets, but addressing the needs of ALL of our students. To date we have seen art and music cut at the elementary level and with the lack of funding to our schools, I only see this trend continuing. I want to hear from those who are asking for my vote tomorrow to give me their ideas for ensuring that our children will not lose any more programs. I agree that the rush to close Elmhurst was not properly thought out, but what's done is done. I am sick of hearing distorted facts and inflated numbers... I want to see action and I want to know that the programs that mean the most to Portsmouth students will remain intact.

Mr. Harris.... I don't comment here too much but I'm going to now. You should look up "slander" in a dictionary (plenty of them online) and then you'll find you should drop your silly charges of slander. Saying you put your kids in Saint Phils is not slander. By the way, I have no problem with anybody sending their kids where ever they think is for their kids best welfare. That's your business.

Another person you charged with slander said no more than he thought, "you would have had more class." That may be name-calling, but it isn't slander. Not even close.

If your gonna serve in public office, you need a thicker skin, my friend. Otherwise, you come off looking silly.

Mr. Harris,
Many of the facts and figures put out by your republican colleagues are inaccurate and misleading. Case in point... Cynthia Perotti's 12:1 high school student/teacher ratios. I have two high school students and this ratio is grossly inaccurate. What many of you fail to realize, is that the programs vs. salary numbers are also misleading as salaries are part of the cost of programs. Without teachers to teach... the programs will not exist. Eliminating staff positions has a direct effect on the programs offered to our children. I do not want to see ANY further music, art, or sports programs cut... in fact, I want them re-instated. These are the things that keep kids interested in going to school. I don't know very many kids who wake up in the morning and say, "yeah!! I have math today!" We need to find a balance between respecting our teachers and protecting our students. Attacking one vs. the other is not working. I want new ideas... not the old ones re-hashed. So, I would ask all those running for town offices to go back to the drawing board and come up with some innovative ideas to increase revenue, not just slash costs...such as Mr. Croston's Math and Science Academy. The price of everything goes up... always... so there must be ways new ways to increase revenues that are not simply residential tax increases.

It is interesting how you resort to distraction tactics, like crying "slander" (which there was none, as we both know) rather than address the points by the people you wish to represent. Is that the same strategy you hope to employ with the teacher's union, should you be elected? When you’re stumped, just create a diversion??? I have valid questions and you still choose to ignore them. I shall only imagine that you didn't respond those questions because you really don't have answers.

Perhaps you might consider that human resource costs are 78% of the school budget because a school is a human services business. At the town level, quality of education is almost 100% linked to quality of teachers. The only product is knowledge. While I would agree that not every teacher is the best, do you think reducing pay and benefits will attract better ones? You might also consider that non-human resource costs have been minimized due to both insufficient funding by the town and state/federal mandates that restrict the school's ability to restructure costs. Things like special needs laws, no child left behind, and inability to implement "pay to play" and "pay to ride" systems cripple the schools ability to reduce costs and keep quality personnel on staff. How will you address those issues? While thinking about that, perhaps you might even consult one of our "overpaid" teachers on the true definition of "slander", so that you don't mistakenly use it again, when not appropriate.

Fixing it or rebuild it would be the best for Portsmouth. I am one of many Portsmouth residents that are leaving the town because of poor schools and higher property taxes and not even a decent sidewalk.