Anna Clancy, an RPL agent, has been involved with the Barrington schools since 1997. Over the years, she has served in a variety of functions—helping in the classroom, serving on district wide committees, working with PTOs—but her most recent engagement is with the Barrington Education Foundation. Three years ago, Anna was invited to serve on the Foundation’s Board. She has been involved with BEF ever since.

The Foundation champions educational opportunities within the Barrington Public School District. Founded in 1992 and entirely staffed by volunteers, the organization has raised over $860,000 for the local schools, funding a wide variety of programs, technology, and materials. Through an annual grant cycle, nearly 100% of the raised capital goes to the schools, providing a direct benefit for the enrichment of students in every grade and school in the district.

The organization was formed in reaction to budget cuts by the school committee and dwindling state funds. Barrington is now one of the highest performing school districts in the state. Since the Rhode Island Department of Education started posting district statistics online in 2003, Barrington High School has been commended by the Board of Regents five times, and has exceeded statewide proficiency targets for seven out of the past eight years. In 2006, 2007, and 2009, Barrington students had the highest scores in math and reading testing in the state.

In her time at the Barrington Education Foundation, Anna has chaired a committee that organizes the Rubber Ducky Race, one of the organization’s largest fundraisers. This year, as co-chair of the Allocations Committee, she “has the pleasure of giving money away,” soliciting and reviewing grant applications from the schools’ faculty and administrators. Ultimately, the committee will recommend which should receive funding to the larger board.

Over the years, Residential Properties Ltd. has been very supportive of the BEF—sponsoring events, opening the Barrington office for use during the annual telethon, donating prizes for the duck race. This year, agents at RPL Barrington pooled their resources to make a significant donation to the foundation.

While the BEF was the first to pioneer the concept, many public education foundations have surfaced throughout the state since it’s inception. Counting the municipalities that belong to a larger school district, 22 out of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns now have some sort of Education Foundation, and many of these organizations have sprung up only in the last three or four years.

The State Department of Education lists this as the first year Rhode Island students scored at or above the national average on all four tests administered by by the federal government on the “Nation’s Report Card,” according to the WRNI Education blog.

We believe that these types of organizations are important to Rhode Island because they consistently impact the educational experience of ALL students within a community.

Nice work, Anna Clancy & the BEF.

How important is the proficiency of a school system in the decision process for a new home? As the school year draws to a close it is a good time to evaluate that question.

GoLocalProv.com, the online newspaper for Rhode Island,  posted their second annual ranking of public high schools around the state.  During their research on the article, we were asked to give our opinion on that decision process from a first hand experience.  Specifically, they wanted to report on how our clients evaluated the schools information.

According to the article the top five high schools in Rhode Island were East Greenwich, Narragansett, Exeter-West Greenwich, South Kingstown, and Barrington.  To see where your school ranked and the rest of the extensive research visit the golocalprov’s site.

Transportation may get a little better in the East Bay. In coalition with the RIDOT, the town of Barrington is working to build a new bridge connecting the Hampden Meadows neighborhood to Barrington Village. The standing 2 lane bridge conveniently joins the area with County Road at the local High School and the Barrington Congregational Church. The new construction over Hundred Acre Cove will stay in the same location. The bridge was proposed in order to combat the heavy traffic flow between the two areas, and the design includes 3 traffic lanes to ease right hand turns.

While this new addition is a welcome improvement to the community, there is some debate over the prospective bridge height. RIDOT plans to elevate the structure 10 inches, but that is 16 inches less than the HarborMaster’s recommendation. However, the number of piers below the bridge will be reduced, so that boaters have more room for travel.

The bridge will be assembled in a way that ensures the present travel patterns will not be affected. Roadway construction will take place offsite, and the final product will be put in place sometime around Spring 2014. The RIDOT and the town of Barrington are shaping this project with the convenience of the community in mind.

Hampden Meadows is a more affordable neighborhood in Barrington. Known for it’s privacy, this quiet area is surrounded on 3 sides by water and is home to the Barrington Yacht Club. It is also an easy commute to Providence.