With the economy in shambles and the jobless rate close to the record high, the recession seems to be hitting very close to home for Rhode Island residents. The solution for some: Green Energy.

   South Kingstown residents Linda Lapin and Jim Normann, parents of 08’ SKHS graduate Alena Normann, have been living the green life long before it was the cool thing to do.

  The first thing a person would most likely notice about the Lapin – Normann residence is the 70-foot wind generator visible from the street. It’s a fitting introduction to the Lapin-Normann lifestyle.

  Their crusade to go green began long before the current craze, as most of the environment friendly components of their home were installed over 20 years ago when the home was originally constructed.

  The motivation of the Lapin-Normanns to go green began during the 1979 gas shortage. When gas prices shot up the couple began to take self-sustaining energy in mind while building their home.

  The more recent spike in gas prices over the summer has led to proactive measures. President Barack Obama has proposed 5 million “Green Collar” jobs, as he calls them, and investing $150 billion to catalyze the alternative energy movement.

  The president also plans to put 1 million electric cars capable of getting 150 miles per gallon on the road by 2015 and foresees 10 percent of all home energy to be alternative produced by 2012.

   The first step of building an energy efficient house included using local timber to avoid the costly and relatively wasteful process of shipping the wood from somewhere like California. The couple also erected a 70-foot tall Bergey wind generator in the front yard.

  The 23 year old generator resembles an aircraft in appearance. This is most likely due to the fact that it was modeled by the same man who designed the Cessna airplane.

  “It’s a wonderful machine,” says Norman. Aside from having an occasional bird’s nest removed from the tower, Normann claims the generator has required no maintenance, and is still spinning with its original bearings.

  The generator spins and creates raw power, known as Direct or DC current. It then passes through an inverter that converts the power into Alternating or AC current, also known as home power.

  “Although it’s very rare,” remarks Normann, “the (electricity) meter outside has spun backward when everything is off in the house.”

  Rhode Island as a whole has also begun to make a transition.

  Although Rhode Island isn’t exactly a perfect location for geothermal vents, or hydroelectric dams, many experts believe the state is prime waterfront for wind generation technology. This has become evident in the states declaration that they intend to eventually generate 15 percent of the state’s electricity from wind farms.

  Areas in and around Block Island Sound have already been zoned for the instillation of 338 wind turbines. RI State Governor Cacieri who is overseeing the mission has accepted seven bids for the proposed project.

  This wind farm would also help power Block Island, which currently runs on diesel generator power, costing the average Block Islander four times more for electricity than the average mainland Rhode Islander.

  Carcieri also recently appropriated $81 million to an energy producing plant at the Johnston landfill, which uses the methane emitted from decomposing garbage to power electricity producing turbines.

  The wind generator however is not the homes only method of energy conservation. The home also uses passive solar. During its construction the southern face of the building was purposefully designed to take advantage of passive solar heat.

  Upon looking at the building one will see that the south face is nearly entirely windows, except for an adjoining greenhouse, which produces green plants and vegetables all year round.

   “On sunny days it heats the house,” says Normann.

  For those not so sunny winter days the family turns to what the professionals call, “Biomass Heating”.

  Normann still refers to his Biomass heating component as a wood stove.

  “It’s a stretch to call it carbon neutral,” quipped his wife.

  Normann did mention, however, that the stove was relatively efficient and produces reduced emissions compared to less efficient stoves.

  Of the various technologies available, the Lapin – Normann family suggests going the Photovoltaic route.

   Photovoltaic (solar) panels, he said, can be used in any area that has direct sunlight, and can be linked directly into home power with a grid tie. The most expensive part of solar panels is often the batteries, he said.

   “Unless you are prone power outages battery backups are unnecessary,” says Normann.

  “And you can always add to them,” adds Lapin.

   In Normann’s opinion, the best deal in alternative energy today is a solar hot water heater. With a solar hot water heater accountable for 75 percent of a homes hot water needs the process can slash energy bills.

  Solar hot water heaters essentially pump water out of the tank, up through coils in a solar plate. This is the only energy used in the process. The water is then heated in the panel and siphoned back into the tank using gravity.

  Solar hot water heaters can cost up to  $7,500, and usually produce a payback period of 14 years depending on how sunny the region is.

However, places like Oregon offer tax rebates for tank installation. Some places with very little sun may have extremely long payback periods.  Chariho regional High School also has installed a large solar array on their premises.

  “It’s all site based,” says Normann. Many people go for wind but, “it’s very difficult to site.”

  Due to the glacial moraine there are lots of wind eddies and other strange effects on the local air currents, so much so that some people who think they have a wind lot may end up with up to 140 foot towers before their generator can reach wind consistent enough for power.

  “No one wants to climb a tower like that for maintenance,” says Normann.

  SKHS actually did have a wind generator above the auto shop, but it was taken down out of fear that a future hurricane could blow it down and damage something or injure someone.

  Other than being difficult to site, Normann claims that “Skystream” wind generators are the most advertised, and also, “poor products” in his opinion. Many users have had nothing but expensive problems with the machines.

  “It’s giving wind generators a bad name,” says Normann.

  Because of the Lapin- Normann’s environmental consciousness they had a hand in starting an organization about a year ago called the, “Sustainable Energy Group” which meets the 1^st Monday of every month at Cross Mills Public Library.

  “It’s more of a lifestyle than solving your problems,” says Normann. “Everyone’s looking for a payback, but there really isn’t. It’s like a furnace, you don’t get any money back from it.”

   The family sees the green movement as a good change but feels real change comes on an individual basis.

  “A lot of it has to be philosophical, although there are still some federal and state tax breaks for alternative energy installation,” commented Normann. “I think it should be incorporated on all buildings because once you start generating your own energy you are more conscientious of where it goes,” he added.

  “It’s like when you throw away your trash now, you just put it at the curb and it’s taken to some magical place,” commented his wife. “But we used to have to bring it to the dump and see where it was going…In SK we all knew what the dump looked like.”

  As for the state’s wind farm idea, “It’s not going to save anyone energy costs…as long as you keep providing people power they’ll keep using power,” believes Normann.

      When asked for any parting tips Normann commented, “just unplug it”.

 “A TV that’s off, uses up almost as much power as a TV that’s on…Anything with a remote is always on,” says Normann. “Shutting off lights when you leave and unplugging chargers, it’s just common sense.”

“I don’t know if I will ever be 100 percent back,” says SKHS junior Jessica Graham, a forward on the Girls Varsity Soccer team.  On September 30^th, against Scituate, as Graham crossed the ball right out side the penalty box, she was taken down hard by the opposing goalie.  She was rushed to South County hospital to find out she broke her Tibia plateau, slightly tore her ACL, strained her MCL and shattered her meniscus to pieces.

  Guerrino Boni, a physical therapist at Olympic Physical Therapy in Wakefield, says he has seen an increase in severity of high school athlete’s injuries over the last six years.  Boni also has helped many SKHS students including Graham recover from these serious injuries.

  Where approximately four million high school athletes competed in 1971-1972, today seven million high school athletes compete in scholastic competition while three million others participate in recreational sports.

  With more athletes, one would assume, comes more injuries, but there are actually fewer injuries.

  SKHS Athletic Trainer, Ms. Morrison says, “We learned how to prevent these injuries, that is why there is less. The injuries are actually a lot more severe”.

  Many athletes are playing their one specific sport all year around, where in the part athletes played a different sport each season.  This creates a problem of overuse of the same muscles and ligaments.  This injury, of overuse, is called a chronic injury according to Morrison.

  Morrison adds that the most popular injuries she deals with are the sprained ankle, bruises and bloody noses.  The sport that brings in the most injuries though, is football and track or cross-country.

  “Football brings in many acute injuries,” states Morrison.  An acute injury according to Morrison is one that happened through direct impact.

  Derrick Stanton, a senior and captain of varsity football broke his hand in practice, two practices before the first playoff game.  The team was running through offensive plays when he made a tackle and landed awkwardly on his left hand.

  Nonetheless, Stanton played in the playoff game with a cast he made himself.  Afterward, he went to the Emergency Room, where the doctors gave him a hard cast.  Stanton played the rest of the season in the hard cast but said he could not play to his full potential with the broken hand.

  Approximately 20 percent of high school athletes visit the Emergency Room each year.

  Similar to Graham and Stanton, many other SKHS students have faced injuries playing sports this year.  Junior Sara Rosa suffered a concussion heading the ball in a varsity soccer game and missed three weeks of the season.

  “Every concussion I get makes the next one even worse,” Rosa said.

  The Centers for Disease Control estimates more than 300,000 sports-related concussions occur each year in the United States

Junior Taylor Readyhough was also injured playing soccer at last year’s soccer try-outs.  Readyhough broke his collarbone and missed most of his season, only being able to play in two games all season.  To this day, he feels pain in his shoulder when he plays basketball and icing after every game is a must.

  Missing a good portion of a season, especially as a senior, is really disappointing.  Senior Liz Clarkin found out she was not going to be able to play for the rest of her soccer season after she broke her Talas bone in her foot and tore a tendon in her ankle.     Clarkin said the injury was devastating.

  “I really just didn’t know what to do,” said Clarkin.  “It took a huge toll on my life; I have never been hurt before.”

  Clarkin was thinking about playing soccer in college but being out for three months makes it difficult to be seen by college coaches.

  “Stress fractures of the foot, ankle sprains and ligament injuries are all, unfortunately, quite common in popular fall sports,” says Dr. David Davidson, a medical consultant to the Buffalo Bills

  Another senior who missed his whole soccer season was Brendan Nolan.  A week before school started, Nolan went in for a slide tackle tearing his meniscus.

  “Knee injuries are the leading cause of high school sports-related surgeries” according to a study conducted at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

  “It was my most important season,” Nolan said.  Luckily he was back running within two and a half months and is having a great hockey season, pain free.

  “It happens, it is apart of athletics,” said SKHS Athletic Director Mr. Lynch.

  Typical overuse injuries in popular sports are runner’s knees, or a pitchers tendonitis, football player’s shin splints, or a swimmer’s rotator cuff.  Also, torn meniscus and Tommy John surgeries are seen a lot more often in younger patients today.

  Stanton and Graham both play multiple sports.  Graham didn’t make it back for indoor track this season, but hopes to be running by February.  Stanton also planned on trying out for the SKHS hockey team, but with his surgery being so close to hockey tryouts, he couldn’t.

  Stanton still complains of soreness in his hand which could affect his future plans as a football player.

   “My hand throbs sometimes, and I get muscle cramps,” he said.  “When it is cold I can feel the screws.”

  At SKHS, there are 514 athletes with one athletic trainer.  Most colleges have three or four athletic trainers for every 120 college students.

  Morrison describes that the injuries witnessed in high school students are so severe because the sports are becoming so much more intense.  The athletes are starting these sports at such a little age.

  The SKHS athletic trainer handled approximately 54 serious injuries last year.

  Every year, she said students, like Stanton, keep on playing through injuries.

  “Listen to your doctors, and stop playing if you are hurt!” says Stanton.

 It’s a theory he now has decided to live by.

On February 4, 2009, Judgment Day came to SKHS in the form of an invasion of pink slips. These notifications greeted scores of teachers and sent an ominous message: numerous positions will be in jeopardy next year.

  Ms. Heather Benz and Mrs. Rebecca Johnson of the foreign language department both received envelopes, well aware of the warning inside.

  While the process is considered a formality, both teachers understand the heightened jeopardy the notices pose given today’s economic climate and the recent discussions about significant slashes of staffing throughout the district.

  “It’s looking bleak,” admitted Benz, a second year Spanish teacher. “There might be a mass exodus of retirees leaving the district, but you don’t know that for sure right now.”

  “I’m pretty anxious about it,” commented Johnson, who has taught French for three years at SKHS, in addition to six years prior in West Warwick

  The reason that Benz, Johnson and other teachers throughout the school are so concerned is that the present seniority-based system discharges teachers exclusively on the basis of years of employment within a school. No regard is given to quality nor effectiveness of the teacher.

  Benz, who started teaching after graduating from URI in 2006, sits at the bottom of the teacher “totem-pole”. Johnson, despite her six years spent teaching in West Warwick, is only just above Benz on the seniority list. Her time spent teaching in other districts has no bearing on her seniority status at SKHS.

  As the inauguration of Barack Obama heralds a wave of educational reform across the United States, many policies of the past appear destined to change. Obama’s plan to bolster American schools carries with it an emphasis on financial support, but the immediacy in which relief will come is uncertain.

  A state spending gap of $357 million suggests considerable cutbacks in school funding for the coming year. As a result many schools will be forced to oust teachers in an effort to compensate for their restricted budgets.

  When it comes to cutting teachers, financially-strapped schools adhere to rules focused solely on seniority. Outlining this rule is Chapter 16-13-6 of Rhode Island General Laws, which states “suspension of teachers shall be in the inverse order of their employment.”

  The problem with this system, some complain, is the blatant disregard shown for the actual quality of retained teachers. No consideration is given to whether a teacher who is new to a particular school is less qualified than a more experienced counterpart.

  The National Council on Teacher Quality publishes a nationwide evaluation of the abilities of states in retaining effective new teachers. The report evaluates three major areas: identification of effectiveness, retaining effective teachers and exiting ineffective teachers.

  In the 2008 report, Rhode Island received a grade of an “F” on its ability to handle the aforementioned three categories. Only six other states fell into this category.

  South Kingstown is at the forefront of this issue. Loss of funding coupled with a decline in enrollment within the district has called for a decrease in staff.

   “They do it for economical reasons,” acknowledges Benz.

  The Providence Journal reports, “The School Department projects to lose at least $1 million in state aid and $1 million in its tax allocation from the town.” These losses, in addition to an expected half million dollar increase in health care costs, put the district in a serious financial crisis.

  In regards to attendance numbers, SKHS records show that the number of students at the high school has decreased significantly recent years. In 2004, SKHS had a 9-12 grade enrollment of 1330 students. Five years later, this number has dropped to 1148 students, a 13.9 percent decrease.

  As a means to compensate for the budget restrictions, SK Superintendent Robert Hicks has proposed several changes within the district.

  One such plan looks to close Curtis Corner Middle School while reopening the former South Road Elementary School. The plan would move all seventh and eighth graders to Broad Rock Middle School while sending all sixth graders to South Road.

  In an early February budget meeting, Hicks maintained that the dramatic change remains open for discussion.

  “This is not the end of the road on the budget,” said Hicks. “There is still hope

that we might not have to do this.”

  These factors make cutting teacher positions inevitable. How exactly teachers are cut, however, is a source of debate. Some argue that such decisions should be made with respect to performance of teachers rather than how long they have been employed by the school.

  Delving into the rationale concerning the rule, Benz asked, “Is teacher seniority in the best interest of the students? The obvious answer is ‘no’.”

  Johnson agrees.

  “If everybody knew that job security depends on your performance only,” Johnson said, “then people would perform their job in such a way that they would want to keep their job.”

  An article in The Providence Journal concerning this year’s layoff notices cited another issue with seniority. The article states, “This process can wreak havoc with a principal’s attempts to build camaraderie among teachers.”

  The consequences that the 600 pink slips handed out to Providence teachers can have on the atmosphere of their respective school communities is brought to light accordingly.

  In other areas of the country, the push for performance-based retention has been growing.

  Michelle A. Rhee is leading the charge for such change in Washington D.C. As School Chancellor since 2007, Rhee has brought a controversial caché of new policies to the school system.

  According to The Washington Times, the current union talks have met a dominating effort by Rhee to end the system of seniority. In the article, one union member acknowledged Rhee’s attempts to bring “new blood” into the schools.
  The union member continued, “She wants to make it attractive for young people coming in to advance.”

  By eliminating seniority, Rhee hopes to lift the shield that has sheltered older, possibly less effective teachers and to give opportunities to aspiring new educators.

  In analysis of Rhee’s policy, Time magazine reports that Rhee has dismissed 270 teachers since June 2007. Furthermore, Rhee’s rampage shows little sign of slowing, as her position on the cover of the magazine—broom in hand—suggests a continued “sweep” of teachers.

  Rhee’s tactics have been met with a slur of overzealous support and disgusted opposition. The success of her measures however remains yet to be determined.
  The means by which performance evaluation could be reasonably implemented is one cause of dispute.

  Mrs. Karen Windley, a 33 year veteran of SKHS, works alongside Benz and Johnson in the foreign language department.
  Windley believes that evaluations would be the ideal means of retaining effective teachers. Unfortunately, she claimed that many teachers are opposed to such new ideas.            .  
  “People in the profession tend to shy away from things like merit pay and performance evaluations,” said Windley.

  She also points out the complications due to unclear standards for evaluating teachers.

  “People are very touchy about what is written, what goes into an evaluation, and what is an evaluation,” said Windley.

  Windley continued, “The policy has always been that the last to be hired is first to be fired.”

  Windley experienced first hand the harshness of the mandate when she started as a teacher. As one of two Spanish teachers in the school at the time, Windley found herself ousted due to seniority when SKHS attendance numbers dropped in the 1980s.

  Her colleague, Mr. Ken “Señor” Plymesser, had become a teacher at SKHS the same day as Windley. “It was by maybe an hour that he had over me,” says Windley. “He stayed and I left.”

  While Windley eventually regained her position, her experience with seniority was one that gave her mixed feelings about the rule.

  “It [seniority] is completely objective,” said Windley. “But it does protect those who maybe aren’t the best teachers.”

  Regardless of her opinion supporting seniority, Windley sympathizes with cases like that of her coworkers Benz and Johnson.

  “I see them [Benz and Johnson] and other people in the building that did get layoff notices and they are in limbo for months,” she said. “It’s a terrible position to be in.”

  A fluctuating statistic that affects the chance that pink slipped teachers have to maintain their positions is the number of teachers that choose to retire.
  This year, changes proposed by RI Governor Carcieri could alter the number of retirees.            .
  In Carcieri’s Address to the Rhode Island Public on January 7^th, 2009, Carcieri focused on the issue of teacher pensions, or the income received by teachers after retiring.

  The current pension plan allows former state employees to collect three percent per year after three years of retirement, in order to compensate for the cost-of-living adjustments, referred to as COLAs.

  Carcieri said, “We can no longer afford to fund cost-of-living adjustments, and I am recommending we eliminated the COLA provision in all state, municipal, and teacher pensions going forward.”
  Carcieri believes savings from such a change could near $100 million.

  These changes, however, could also persuade many teachers in the neighborhood of retirement are now considering quickly before the COLA benefits are eliminated.

  The possible wave of departures could better the probability that pink slipped teachers will retain their jobs.

  While all of the aforementioned factors are important in evaluating the seniority situation, an immeasurable element of this issue is the affect that seniority has on the students and teachers’ lives.

  Mrs. Johnson, despite receiving a pink slip, still holds strong feelings for SKHS.

  “I’m happy with SKHS, and I think SKHS is happy with me,” she said.

  “I hope I have the chance to stay here.”