model, which means firing every single teacher at the troubled school. now again, both options have the backing of the federal government, and i earlier spoke to fran gallo, the superintendent of the central falls school district just a short time ago. let me ask you, firing these teachers enmass, obviously disruptive to the students in the middle of the school year. you had no better alternative? well, first of all, they re not dismissed as of today. it is the middle of the school year that a decision had to be made, but that s because of a rhode island law that insists that we notify teachers by march 1. it would not be my preference, but it is what it is. so these teachers will finish out the school year. there are 88 teachers in all, that s that what you re saying? yes, ma am. are you trying to wipe the slate clean and bring onboard 88 entirely new teachers? no, that was not my preference to begin with. but when we had to move from the
improve test scores. we have a serious problem. you have a 48% graduation rite. we lose more children than we graduate. central falls is one of the lowest performing schools in the state. of the 800 students, 65% are hispanic. for most, english is a second language. half are failing every subject. just 55% are skilled in reading, only 7% proficient in math. meanwhile, majority of their teachers are earning between $72,000 and $78,000 a year. well above the national average. and the district says the teachers wanted even more money, as much as $90 an hour more for the extra time spent with students. this in a community where the latest census figure shows the median income is $22,000. based on federal guidelines, the superintendent proposed teachers work a longer school day, seven hours, tutor students weekly for
randi kaye, cnn, new york. a little more background on this story, low performing schools have four options for shaping up, including two that randi just described in her report. one is called the transformation model. it includes series of changes that teachers just agree to adopt. but when negotiations on those changes nailed at central falls high, the superintendent went with another option. that s called the turnaround model, which means firing every single teacher at the troubled school. now again, both options have the backing of the federal government, and i earlier spoke to fran gallow, the superintendent of the central falls school district just a short time ago. let me ask you, firing these teachers obviously extremely disruptive to the students in the middle of the school year. you had no better alternative? well, first of all, they re not dismissed as of today. it is the middle of the school
we have a serious problem. you have a 48% graduation rite. we lose more children than we graduate. central falls is one of the lowest performing schools in the state. of the 800 students, 65% are hispanic. for most, english is a second language. half are failing every subject. just 55% are skilled in reading, only 7% proficient in math. meanwhile, majority of their teachers are earning between $72,000 and $78,000 a year. well above the national average. and the district says the teachers wanted even more money, as much as $90 an hour more for the extra time spent with students. this in a community where the latest census figure shows the median income is $22,000. based on federal guidelines, the superintendent proposed teachers work a longer school day, seven
central falls high school where less than half the kids graduate, and almost all live in poverty. meanwhile, most of the teachers earn more than $70,000 a year. and pink slips could go out adds early as tomorrow. the trustees vote follows the decision by the school s superintendent and we re going to talk to her in a moment. we re also going to talk to a teacher who s being fired. first up tonight, up close, here s randi kaye. reporter: 75% of the district lives in poverty. a good education may be their only shot at a brighter future. so to give these students a better chance, central falls superintendent this week did something so radical, so unheard of, it s captured the nation s attention. she cleaned house, fired dozens of teachers, because the district says they refuse to spend more time with students to