LUSI

PORTSMOUTH — The roiling political waters of this seaside community have not dissuaded Schools Supt. Susan F. Lusi from her conviction that running a school district is the right job for her.

Lusi, who turned down an offer from an educational think tank in Washington, D.C., to focus on public education at the local level three years ago, says she loves the school superintendent’s post precisely because it is the place where educational theory hits the road.

And Lusi said the job she started in 2005 is not complete. Instructional improvements begun three years ago in math and literacy in particular need time to take hold, she said.

“I really like being a superintendent, and I really like being a superintendent in Portsmouth,” Lusi said.

“It’s a challenging job, but I like challenging jobs,” she said.

In July 2005, after two weeks on the job, Lusi discovered she had inherited an operating deficit that was to grow to seven figures and plague her for nearly two years before the school’s financial crisis was resolved.

The saga ended in Superior Court in the spring of 2007, with a judge affirming the position of school officials that the schools had been indeed underfunded. A recent performance audit of the schools reiterated that point.

In March 2007, Superior Court Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia ordered the town to raise over $500,000 in additional revenue, and the Town Council issued supplemental tax bills in the spring of last year.

Lusi, a former Rhode Island assistant commissioner of education who has degrees from Brown and Harvard universities, plans to remain in Portsmouth through the 2010-11 school year.

The School Committee has unanimously awarded Lusi a three-year contract, which gives her a raise of $13,417 effective July 1 of this year, from $116,583 to a base pay of $125,450, plus an additional $4,550 for her doctorate.

The total, an even $130,000, puts Lusi’s earnings just about in the middle of the salary range for school superintendents in Rhode Island for the academic year which just ended.

The new contract also raises the superintendent’s contribution toward the cost of health insurance premiums from 18 percent to 20 percent

Lusi said her original contract did not include a stipend for advanced degrees, even though all teachers and administrators in the district receive one. Teachers receive $4,150 in addition to their base salary for a doctorate and administrators receive $4,550 above base pay for the same degree.

Lusi has a doctorate in public policy from Harvard University.

Despite “some substantial bumps in the road, particularly in terms of the budget, things are more on an even keel” these days than they were in the first two years of her tenure.

Voters cut $1.1 million from operating expenses in 2006 and the School Department subsequently sued the town in a largely successful effort to recoup the money.

The controversy exposed a deep division of opinion on spending for community projects that continues to this day, more recently on the issue of town support for sewers.

Lusi said school budgets “will continue to be a challenge,” not only in Portsmouth but throughout the state.

Property tax relief legislation, which went into effect a year ago, will progressively restrict the amount of new tax revenue available for school and municipal operations over the next several budget cycles.

The new tax relief law was to be coupled with a predictable formula for state aid to education, but the second half of the equation has not been forthcoming.

Despite the continuing fiscal constraints, Lusi said, “I feel like we’re doing some good work, but there’s more to be done.”

During the next three years, she said, she wants the district to continue instructional improvements in literacy and math in all areas.

“We’ve made some real progress in ramping up the curriculum,” Lusi said.

Eighth graders are now taking algebra and are taking a full year of a foreign language, Lusi said.

An earlier introduction of algebra is intended to help improve test scores in mathematics at the high school level.

A new statewide assessment program highlighted deficiencies in math achievement among high school juniors when the first round of results were released last fall, although Portsmouth’s students far exceed the state average.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth High School has eliminated a low-level track of studies and was the first school in the district to integrate special-needs students in regular classrooms, with two teachers working together in an effort to ensure that everyone has access to the same curriculum, Lusi said.

The concept, called co-teaching, has spread to the middle school and elementary schools.

There’s been a “good start at implementation, but it takes a lot to change practice,” Lusi said.

She credited Assistant Supt. Colleen Jermain with introducing assessments that better inform teachers of specific academic weaknesses in their students so that they can tailor their instruction to those needs.

And Jermain has spearheaded improvements in the instruction of literacy and math, Lusi said.

“I have enormous respect for the team of people I work with throughout the district,” Lusi said.

And she said she counts herself fortunate that she enjoys the support of a “very productive and quite cohesive School Committee.”

Not all superintendents have such backing, Lusi said.

Above all else, she said, she wants to honor guiding principles that put a top priority on continuous improvement in the quality of education.

“We will need to work very hard to maintain good schools with declining resources,” Lusi said.

Earlier this year, a performance review by Berkshire Advisors generally endorsed Lusi’s leadership and found that the School Department gives the town a good deal for its money.

Among other things, it recommended a $160,000 annual increase in the operating budget for textbooks, supplies and computer software, which the consultants said had been chronically short-changed.

And Berkshire also advised the school district to shore up its facilities, particularly the Elmhurst Elementary School, which may need to be replaced.

The School Committee is now searching for qualified professionals to assess the bricks-and-mortar needs of the districts and draw up a facilities plan for structural improvements over the next five years.

gmacris@projo.com