It started with a call to the Providence Journal. Two employees of the school district, who remain anonymous, claimed that PPSD had become a toxic work environment. And they claim that it’s primarily due to Superintendent Javier Montañez’s senior aide, Joan Jackson. Our morning host Luis Hernandez spoke about the turmoil with Providence Journal Reporter Amy Russo, who’s been closely following the story.
Luis Hernandez: You tried to lay out this very complex story in your most recent piece. It starts with A-Venture Academy’s Over-Aged, Under-Credited program. My understanding is that this is a program that helps students get back on track to graduate. There were claims that students were earning credits without truly earning them. Basically, what was going on with this?
Amy Russo: So the way it happened is that over the summer, there were some allegations that emerged within the school board. There were three members that had said that they were hearing from concerned parents, from other folks within the district, who were worried about, how does this program actually work? And are these kids really getting the grades that supposedly they’re getting, according to the records, or whatever the school is saying? A-Venture in a nutshell is a school for kids who aren’t on track to graduate. And the example they were looking at here is there were a whole group of kids who were taken from Mount Pleasant, who were referred to as, you know, “hallway walkers,” meaning kids that weren’t going to class, weren’t doing work. They took them and they put them into this program. And in a matter of months, these kids were graduating or on track to graduate, they were getting a lot of credits. They were getting fairly good grades, at least passing grades. And so it was just this monumental shift from where they’d been before. And, and some of the kids in this program, we’re getting about two years worth of credits in a matter of months. And so the math for folks just didn’t add up. And that’s where the suspicion started emerging. How does this really work? Is this legit? And then you see an investigation from the Department of Ed[ucation]. But it was authored by the school district’s own attorney, Charlie Ruggerio.
Hernandez: Was it around this time when the Providence Journal got a call from somebody anonymously from the school board about [a] toxic workplace? When did that happen?
Russo: So that, I want to say, was about a month ago. I got a call from two folks who work in the executive leadership team for superintendent Javier Montañez. And they had a lot of concerns. They were calling because I was doing reporting on A-Venture initially, and they were concerned about that program. But then it also turned into, well, we’re concerned about the actual leadership within their workplace, which would be Joan Jackson, who’s the senior adviser to the superintendent. And allegations started flying, saying that she’s creating a toxic workplace that she’s a problematic person, and it just ballooned from there.
Hernandez: When you talk about toxic workplace, did they give specifics? What’s happening?
Russo: So they had said that she was creating this, “intimidating, hostile and abusive” environment. And the examples they gave is that, were that she is unusually forgetful on directives and approval she gave for projects, and that when questions emerge from the Department of Ed that she just turns around and blames other people for doing things and, you know, basically describes them as having gone rogue. There were other complaints that she’s incompetent, controlling, cancels meetings frequently, and that nobody can make decisions in her absence. So it was a variety of things. I don’t know that there’s really this like smoking gun to say, Oh, this is a really toxic person. To me, those allegations sound like a really frustrating work environment. So I think what you’re seeing is sort of like people who are really angry and fed up and like wanting to say something, but I don’t know to what extent there really is something really incriminating here.
Hernandez: Wasn’t that, that led to, though, a school board meeting where basically, didn’t – you know, the superintendent was upset that this, the laundry was getting out publicly. It wasn’t being dealt with internally.
Russo: Right.
Hernandez: And he was angry about that, also because some people were talking about his leadership, questioning him.
Russo: Right. And Montañez was really frustrated about that. He didn’t like that, that people were kind of describing him as this ineffective leader who doesn’t have control over his staff. And he had sent an email out to them basically saying like, this stops now. It was like telling the kids like, “Hey, I’m gonna pull the car over if you don’t stop fighting.” I mean, that’s what it’s read like to me, is somebody who is really frustrated that all of this is pouring out into the open. He had said that he took offense as a Puerto Rican man to the suggestion that he’s somebody who doesn’t have control over his staff, and that he doesn’t really make the decisions.
Hernandez: Is there a call, more of a call for an investigation into what’s going on?
Russo: Yeah. So now at this point, there was a letter that went out from school board leadership, which included President Kinzel Thomas, and they had a list of demands that included a third party investigation, so not one where the school district’s own attorney is going to be helming the effort. So they wanted a third party investigation, they wanted the school district to stop targeting whistleblowers, and that’s something I have been hearing from my sources, is that the district is trying to figure out where leaks are coming from and who authored that anonymous letter. So from what my sources have told me, time is being spent having an attorney talk to people and try to figure out who’s talking. And they also want a whistleblower policy to be created and implemented to protect folks who want to speak out about issues that are ongoing, and they want the removal of any administrators who are found to be causing issues. I would take that to mean somebody like a Joan Jackson, there have been calls from her critics for her resignation. But the superintendent has said that while he’s there, she’s not gonna go anywhere.
Hernandez: Is this setup for, is there a conversation set for the next board meeting? Are they going to approach this at any point soon?
Russo: There is, the last time I heard there’s supposed to be a second board meeting on Dec. 9, which I believe is this Friday. And the catch is that they’re probably going to spend a lot of the meeting in executive session, which means the public’s not going to be able to hear what’s going on. And it’s supposed to be a continuation of the conversation they had in the last school board meeting, which was again an executive session. From what they publicly shared, it was a conversation about the board’s concerns, and they had this conversation with the superintendent. They felt it was productive, and they were gonna continue it. So it’s all very vague for the moment.
