By CIARA DOS SANTOS

Summer vacation is rapidly coming to an end and when Warwick schools reopen Wednesday, Sept. 2, fewer students will return to class than the system has witnessed in decades.

In a recent interview, interim Superintendent William Holland said the system expects enrollment to drop below 9,000, a decline of about 300 from the last academic year. In its heyday in the 1980s, system enrollment was more than 19,000.

Nonetheless, while enrollment is dropping, students and teachers can expect changes to keep pace with technology.

In previous school years, First Class was the email system used and taught throughout the district. Ninth graders were required to take a mandatory digital tools class. They would learn how to use FirstClass as it would be necessary to use throughout their high school years.

Now, Warwick schools have converted to Google. The change is immediate; some schools have already switched to Google. Incoming ninth graders will no longer use FirstClass, but will instead learn how to use Google. All returning high school students have already been given their new Google account and will be required to use it to share and create documents.

Not only students, but also any faculty member in any middle or high school in Warwick will be required to learn and use Google in their classrooms. To ensure that teachers will be ready to use and teach the system, a development day will be Aug. 31 to help teachers become acquainted with the new system, although a system-wide director of technology still needs to be hired, Holland said.

Not only will there be changes to the emailing system, but there will also be changes to the technology in the school as well. According Holland, Chromebooks will be available for students to use in class, and will be given to students from grades six and up. The Chromebooks will replace some textbooks and will be helpful as online resources, especially in math. The Chromebooks will be available in chrome carts, which will be located in the classrooms when needed. The carts have their own wireless Internet connection, and have wires to plug in the Chromebooks when they need to be charged. However, the Chromebooks, when used in math rooms, will only be available to those students in math levels up to Algebra 2. Any student in math levels higher than Algebra 2 will not be able to use them. Holland said that the Chromebooks have been bought in bulk at a discounted price at $247 each. Holland also said the district is purchasing more Chromebooks. The district already owns about 5,800 Chromebooks and is buying 2,000 more.

Holland is “not optimistic” that teachers will return to the school year with a new contract. The school administration and the union have been in contract talks and it is thought that if an agreement is not reached by the end of this month, terms of the existing contract would apply.

Holland said safety is key to the reopening of schools and that everything from transportation to school buildings is ready.

All schools open on Sept. 2, but not all students return that day.

Incoming seventh and ninth graders will begin junior high and senior high school respectively on Sept. 2. The following day grades eight, 10, 11 and 12 return to the classroom. Classes at all elementary schools start on Sept. 2.

Holland observed with the planned closing of Gorton and Aldrich Junior High Schools and Veterans High School, “Next year will be a more interesting opening.” This will be the last year for the schools, a response to declining enrollment. Vets will be re-purposed as a middle school, thereby giving the city two middle schools – grades 6 to 8 – and two high schools.

Editor’s note: Ciara Dos Santos, who reported this story, is entering her senior year at Pilgrim. During the summer she completed her senior project at the Warwick Beacon.