Tuesday marked the final School Committee meeting for interim superintendent William Holland, who served in that role for the past three months while leading the district in finding a permanent superintendent.

With the appointment of Philip Thornton, former superintendent of schools in Cumberland, as Warwick’s next superintendent, Holland was ready to step down. In a farewell address to the school community, which he called “A Message of Hope,” Holland laid out a number of “serious problems and challenges” he faced, and the district continues to face, but said “there is hope and the chance for a new beginning.”

Holland listed the following challenges: Contract dispute between the School Committee and the Warwick Teachers Union, which is still ongoing; the city’s level funding of the schools budget; a fractured relationship between the school committee and the mayor and City Council; leading the search for a new, highly qualified superintendent; consolidation of Gorton and Aldrich junior highs and re-purposing Warwick Vets as a middle school; slumping student performance at the junior and high school levels, in which “scores on state and local student assessment tests had dropped Warwick down to the top of the bottom third of school districts in the state”; and an incident in which Mario Atoyan, a middle school science teacher at Gorton, was arrested in March and charged with first- and second-degree sexual assault of a 15-year-old North Kingstown girl that allegedly took place in June 2014, after which it was discovered Atoyan had drawn phallic symbols on the arms of two student girls while in school, which lead to an investigation into whether the administration handled that incident properly, the results of which have not been made public. Holland said the incident damaged trust in the school administration and drove a wedge between the school committee and city council.

Holland said in the past three months, “with tremendous effort by many people,” progress has been made.

“More progress will not come easily and it will take a while, but better times are ahead! With a full effort from all parties, these problems are solvable over time,” he said.

Saying that both sides will lose if the teacher contract dispute goes to arbitration, Holland called on Thornton and his leadership team and union leaders to “jointly find a collaborative process that works so that Warwick schools can return to the glory it once knew and once again be education pacesetters in the state.”

Holland said he hopes consolidation will be an impetus for positive change.

“It is a real opportunity where measurable school improvement can be realized,” he said, adding a tremendous amount of planning is underway and it needs to continue.

Addressing the relationship between the city and schools, Holland said it is not a time to get hung up on the past, but a time for healing.

“I hope the school district leaders and city council and mayor will exercise patience, let tempers subside, and find ways to reconcile their differences,” he said. “This is not the time for actions to get rid of the school committee and place the schools under city council control.”

During his three months in Warwick, Holland said he saw “many talented, hard-working, highly competent teachers, principals, central office educators, and classified staff” that are excited by the new technology and research-based practices in teaching and learning.

“There is general agreement among many, however, that Warwick public schools have stood still for too long and have fallen behind other districts and it’s time to get going,” he said. “Standing still is really regression, given the rapid changes occurring in public education in the 21st century, but there is hope and the chance for a new beginning. Let’s not lose this real opportunity that lies ahead.”

School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn said the district was truly blessed to have Holland as interim superintendent.

“One of Bill’s greatest accomplishments was to put us on a fast track to finding a high quality permanent superintendent. His assistance in recruiting and evaluating candidates was enormous,” she said. “His time here may have been relatively brief, but his vision will be long. Bill is leaving Warwick schools with new and exciting doors cracked open. Hopefully we all can … keep opening the doors that are required to achieve a communal vision of a ‘return to prominence’ for Warwick schools.”

For the business portion of the meeting, the school committee breezed through a brief agenda, in which they approved the following contract awards: $13,500 for the School Dude technology work order software system, which will allow the district to keep track of all 4,500 laptops throughout the district and maintain a repair history to prevent repeated problems from occurring; $8,588 to purchase a key cutting machine for the physical plant to streamline the keys and lock down process throughout the district; and $21,712 for software licenses for the science curriculum in grades 3 through 8, with availability at the high school level as well.

The committee also approved the creation of a teaching assistant position for a certified sign language interpreter to serve a profoundly deaf student returning to Warwick from an out-of-district placement, as well as a principal transfer of Gerry Habershaw from Warwick Vets to Pilgrim High School for the 2016-17 school year.

In a slightly more controversial move, the committee also approved a contract extension for the school department’s public relations consultant, Noel Rubinton, through Nov. 10, 2016 at the current rate of $4,995 per month by a 4-1 vote, with Karen Bachus dissenting.

“I’m wondering why we need a PR consultant,” she said.

“He was active in supporting the administration’s needs and was an asset to Bill Holland during his transition, and he will continue to assist Philip Thornton,” Ahearn said.

During public comment, in which the committee implemented a new policy of an overall 30-minute time limit and two minutes per person, Toll Gate student Nathan Cornell said a PR consultant is a waste of money.

“If you want better public relations, talk to the public yourselves,” he said, which was met with loud cheers and applause from the audience.

David Testa, a parent, said he has no problem with the move.

“The school department is a $160 million enterprise and a communications director is needed for something that size,” he said.

Like last month’s committee meeting, many of the attendees were teachers, who are still upset about not having a contract, which was made all the more evident when Warwick Teachers Union President George Landrie led a call and response chant of, “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!”

Ken Genereux, a special education teacher at Warwick Vets, expressed his displeasure with last month’s meeting, which saw three school committee members walk out of the auditorium after abruptly cutting off public comment.

“It’s obvious you intend to create an environment that was not productive and rather than listen to our concerns, you left,” he said. “I recommend you make that choice permanent and resign.”

Ahearn said she regrets there was ambiguity and people felt they were prevented from speaking at the last meeting.

“We welcome your comments, and if you’re not able to speak during public comment, send us an email,” she said.

Earlier in the meeting, Darlene Netcoh, English teacher and department head at Toll Gate, requested that the public be allowed to speak on individual agenda items before they are voted on and was told she was out of order.

“In the past, the public was allowed to comment on agenda items. What good does a vote do without hearing from people that may be able to provide additional insight on the topic?” she said during public comment. “Instead of limited comment at the end of the meeting, you should open it up to comment during the meeting so you can vote with an informed opinion.”

Although teachers made up the majority of the audience and dominated public comment, there were also a few students who spoke, including Pilgrim students Brendan Lawton and Sophie Carter.

“Teachers deserve a fair contract and everything they are fighting for is justifiable,” Lawton said. “Increasing class size will hurt the quality of education.”

Carter talked about how important teachers are to students.

“My social studies teacher in ninth grade become my mentor and I still visit her regularly for advice. My math teacher stayed an hour and a half after school and it wasn’t even her department night. My Italian teacher attended an award banquet with me. These are details you don’t see,” she said. “The way you’re handling consolidation has been irresponsible and not well thought out.”

Michael Pierce, a teacher at Gorton and a parent, was also concerned with the consolidation process.

“I challenge the school committee members to look at other districts, like Chicago, and the amount of planning per school that was in place the year before implementation, and the amount of detail that want into it, and compare that to what is going on here and ask yourselves if we’re truly ready,” he said. “The process should be nailed down and ready to go by now. It’s irresponsible to start planning in October and have everything ready in September.”