Rhode Island lawmakers on Thursday criticized top state educators for the leaking of plans to close two Providence schools before details were shared with parents and teachers.
The Providence Teachers Union tweeted last weekend about the school closings, leading the state-managed Providence School District to acknowledge the intended targets are the Carl Lauro and Alan Shawn Feinstein at Broad Street elementary schools. The closures will happen at the end of the current school year.
During an hour-long presentation to the House Oversight Committee, state Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said that, after decades of neglect, Providence schools are making sustained progress. A top aide highlighted plans in progress to replace outdated school buildings in Providence.
Oversight Chairwoman Patricia Serpa (D-West Warwick) turned attention to the leak about the two school closings – a move that surprised parents and educators at the two affected schools. “Convince me otherwise that that was the right way to do it,” she said.
Serpa pressed Zack B. Scott, deputy superintendent of operations for the Providence schools, on how the decision was made to close the two particular schools. He said it emerged from senior leadership in the Providence district.
“So the community was not engaged at any point, is that correct, until the news broke on social media?” Serpa asked. “…This was a problem, and I’m going to say it frankly, that you folks created – didn’t need to create. It was a missed opportunity, even if you didn’t have the plan complete, to engage the parents, engage the kids, and say, this is going to happen.”
The effect, Serpa said, was “that, instead of giving them something to look forward to, you created something for them to angst about, them and their parents.”
Asked if the episode was poorly handled, Serpa was met with silence by Scott and Infante-Green.
Infante-Green said that educators had intended to share plans for the two school closings with parents and teachers, but the news had leaked out prematurely on social media, due to the tweet by the teachers’ union.
Infante-Green said Providence School Supt. Javier Montañez – who is away from work while recovering from knee surgery – planned to share the news with the community. “That’s what we were waiting for, the superintendent to come back, to do that kind of work,” she said. “That is the work that we were supposed to do with the superintendent at the helm.”
While Infante-Green’s team initially declined to accept lawmakers’ effort to cast blame for the episode, Scott later said the administration was sorry for how it happened.
A few other lawmakers joined Serpa in criticizing the handling of the situation, although others raised questions about a gamut of unrelated educational issues. Without naming the administration or the teachers’ union, House GOP Leader Michael Chippendale of Foster said efforts to promote a better education should remain the focus.
Earlier, Scott said Providence needs more than $600 million in improvements for every student to have a school that is warm, safe and dry. Thanks to a bond approved by voters, more than 100 million will be available for school construction and improvement.
“This means more investment over the coming decade than in the past 50 years combined,” Scott said.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org.
