CENTRAL FALLS — While most high school students enjoy their summer vacations, administrators and teachers at Central Falls High School work at a breakneck speed to ready the school for a big year that includes a first-time partnership with the University of Rhode Island, the new high school diploma system, restructuring and raising scores on state standards.

In the background of all this looms a $3.5-million deficit that the state-run school district must address.

The Board of Regents and Board of Governors recently approved a plan that will pair the high school and the University of Rhode Island to raise educational standards at the school. The partnership is part of a restructuring plan for the high school, which has been underperforming for the past four years.

In two weeks, 49 teachers will gather with professors from the University of Rhode Island to discuss six areas that must be addressed at the high school that includes curriculum, student development, community outreach, technology and operations and facilities.

The meeting is crucial, says Mario Andrade, the school’s new principal, because it will determine what school is going to look like for students this fall.

“The week of July 23, there will be a lot of planning. That’s when the rubber hits the road. The teachers will really be able to touch and see what the partnership will become. Right now, it’s just conceptual,” Andrade said.

“Whether it’s NEASC, or the high school diploma system or the RIDE progressive support intervention, it all overlaps and all the work supports teaching and learning. The URI partnership is not another initiative but a way to support the other programs,” Andrade said.

Andrade will be accompanied at the high school by three assistant principals that include Jerry Manning, who ran the Jump Start Academy, Norberto Hernandez and John Kennedy.

Andrade said the school wants to build leadership and develop more of a voice among the students and as well as prepare them for the higher standards that are being required of them through the new high school diploma system.

A group of students from the upper grades will meet at Alton Jones or URI for leadership training that they will use to help incoming freshmen, according to Supt. Frances Gallo. They will work with the ninth graders for the first two weeks of classes to help them as they adjust to high school.

Once school starts, the ninth graders will also spend time at URI workshops to learn about leadership and what is expected of them at their new school and how they can be successful. They will discuss school attendance and coming to school on time. The freshmen will go through the workshops with their teachers and some upper classmen and possibly former Central Falls student who attend URI, Gallo said.

Gallo says the highest drop-out rate comes between the 9th grade and the 10th grade. “It’s something we wanted to target. Calcutt Middle School moved from a failing school to a moderately improving. Our goal is to make Calcutt continue to climb while the high school comes from the dredges to moderate and high performing,” Gallo said. “I told the [incoming] Calcutt students that they need to be a tipping point at the high school. They should determine their own fate.”

tpina@projo.com