Providence City Council Meeting | Committe on Finance | June 4th 2024

Good evening. We're gonna start our meeting. If everyone could be seated, please. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Helen Anthony. I'm the chair of the committee on finance, and I'm calling to order our regular meeting on Tuesday, 06/04/2024 at 05:30PM. Madam clerk, if you would please call the roll. Chairwoman Anthony. Present.

Vice chairman Taylor.

Here.

Councilor Inderwal. Present. Councilwoman Graves. Present. Councilor Sanchez?

No. Five present. No absent. You have a quorum.

Thank you so much. I also wanna recognize that we have some, counselors that are joining us this evening. We have counselor Vargas. Thank you very much. We have counselor Harris.

Thank you. We have counselor Gonsalves. Thank you very much. And the rest of us are committee members, think. Oh, I'm sorry.

Counselor Peterson, thank you for joining us. I'd also like to thank our legal counsel, Ken Scheverini, and our wonderful clerks. So thank you very much.

So noted.

So we are going to... I'll have them read the first agenda item, please, madam clerk.

Item one, resolution of the city council authorizing the mayor to enter into a lease agreement with Achievement First Rhode Island Inc, and Excel Academy Rhode Island for an initial period not to exceed thirty years and total period not to exceed sixty years. For the property at the Carl G. Laurel Elementary School on 89 Canyon Street. Thank you.

So what we are going to do this evening is I just want to give everyone an overview on how we will be running the meeting this evening. We are going to ask the presenters, will be the members of city administration and also the achievement first and excel will be presenting first. And then I will allow any council members, committee members to ask them questions. And then I am going to have anyone who would like to speak who has signed up. I will give you two minutes, but I am gonna say that if the testimony is repetitive, I am gonna make ask you not to testify if it's too repetitive.

We would like you to organize yourselves if you can if you have something to say and one person or two people or three people however many can speak. I certainly would also recognize people at the end by those who are in favor of this lease by standing and those again who are against the lease standing just so that we can see you in the numbers. But we have a lot of people here and I would like everyone to lean into the mic, speak clearly. It's so bad to hear and hear, so I appreciate your cooperation. So with that, we will start with the presenters.

Can you hear me? Okay.

Good. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, council members. My name is Courtney Hawkins, and I serve as chief operating officer for the city. Thank you for the opportunity to provide you tonight with an overview of the proposed lease before you for the building at 99 Kenyon Street. By way of background, this building has been used as a public school since it was built in the nineteen twenties. In December 2022, PPSD announced the closure of Carloro and notified the city of its plans to return the now empty building to the city for future use.

In direct response to feedback provided by this body, as it had related to previous school spaces, the administration released an RFP in December 2023 that sought bidders for two potential uses of the building. One, for the development of residential property, or two, for continued use of the building as a public school. This was a public competitive process. The administration received four bids in response to the RFP, three for school uses and one for residential use. Bids were then evaluated against the established scoring criteria and an award was made to a combined bid submitted by Achievement First and Excel Academy.

In short, their proposal demonstrated a clear plan for use of the building, a capacity to improve the facility, and specific identified funding that would be required to make those improvements. As it relates to the residential use proposed, the estimated cost of the renovation was more than $40,000,000. The two public schools selected to use this building have already been authorized for seats by ride and are currently serving Providence students. It's important to consider this because both schools have significant waiting lists, and the identification of space for their use is critical to the quality of education that their current and future students will experience in both the near and long term. If these schools don't have access to a public building for use, they will still expand, but will likely use a commercial building.

This diverts funding that could go to teaching and learning to a commercial landlord's profit, and the future of this site will remain unknown. After the award was made, the administration worked with both schools to negotiate a lease that protects the city's interests and supports the success of the schools that will serve nearly 1,000 Providence children in the years to come. At a high level, the lease is for a term of thirty years for a dollar a year with three successive ten year renewals. It requires the schools to invest $14,300,000 in the building during during its term, and it requires the schools to care for the building including all of the maintenance and utility costs. I know questions have been raised about the dollar a year concept.

It's worth noting that the city, this is typical practice for the city in renting buildings to nonprofits. We have more than a dozen of this type of lease or arrangement currently in place. That said, the requirement for the entity to maintain this particular building has not been typically included in other agreements. And as such, the city has many dollar a year leases that require the city to maintain all of the liability associated with those buildings. This is not the case for this lease.

Again, in this circumstance, the leaseholders will make significant improvements and take responsibility for the building maintenance and improvements while the city retains ownership. Further, because charter schools don't have funding awarded specifically for lease costs, charging schools money for rent of this building would just be taking public funding away from students, which could otherwise be used for teaching, learning, and other programming. The administration also incorporated a number of standards in this lease based on feedback from the council and conversations regarding other charter leases. For examples... For example, the school must maintain active charters with ride.

In a circumstance where a charter is revoked, the lease would be voided. Further, as mentioned, the lessee is responsible for building improvements and maintenance and must report to both the administration and the council annually about these improvements. So in closing, I ask for your support of this lease for three reasons. One, it supports existing high quality public schools, ensuring that schools which have already been authorized and will exist with or without this building can fully be implemented and that Providence families can make the choice they want to make for their children's education. Two, it makes good use of public infrastructure ensuring that public dollars don't have to be invested in commercial spaces instead of teaching, learning, and programming for Providence children.

And finally, it was awarded through an open and transparent public process and provides for the investment of millions of dollars into a public building while also ensuring this building is maintained into the future without any cost to the city. With that, I'd like to turn it over to the teams from Achievement First and Excel who will tell you more about their schools.

Good evening. My name is Owen Stearns. I'm the CEO of Excel Academy Charter Schools. Thank you, chairwoman, for the opportunity to speak with you all today about we... About what we recognize as a complicated and important issue, the future use of the former Carl G.

Lauro School at 99 Kenyon Street. We would love to operate a neighborhood school there for our families, which is why more than 300 Excel and Achievement First families have written individual letters of support and made phone calls to you, their council representatives, and why hundreds of them are here at City Hall today. Before getting to that, I just want to take a couple minutes to introduce you all to Excel as we are relatively new to Rhode Island and probably new to most of you. Xcel was founded in 2003 to serve students and families in East Boston and Chelsea, historically immigrant communities that currently have largely Latino, Latinx populations. I was part of the school's founding along with a few key community leaders who were eager to have more high quality public options for students in their community.

That core belief that schools have to exist in partnership with their surrounding communities has been with us since our founding, and it's something we still believe in strongly today. Over the past twenty one years, we have grown from that one middle school to three middle schools and a high school in Massachusetts that collectively serve around 1,400 students. And we opened our school in Rhode Island last year, which currently serves two hundred fifth and sixth graders. Our mission is to prepare students to succeed in high school and college, apply their learning to solve relevant problems, and engage productively in their communities. And I wanna say a little bit more about the first part of that mission as it informs a lot of our work.

Families enroll their children at Excel because of their profound ambitions they have for their children. We commit to meeting those ambitions with an education that prepares them for college, not just to graduate high school, but to prepare them for college and career success. In helping our students prepare for that goal, we do two main things. First, we have an academic program that is rigorous and inclusive. Some of our students end up at the top universities in this country, and we wanna make sure they're ready for that.

And about 20% of our students qualify for special education services including some with more significant needs who are in a sub separate or self contained program and we are passionate about serving them with excellence as well. Incidentally, that program is run by Kelly Garcia, who is an Excel Academy alum and a member of the City Council of the Town of Chelsea, Massachusetts, our first alum in elected office. Our student attrition rate is consistently one of the lowest in the Boston area, usually between 46% a year, and that attrition rate is even lower for our students with disabilities and our multilinguals... Multilanguage learner students. Second, we work closely with each student to help them explore and understand their identities and their goals in life, so that they make a more informed choice about what they're doing after high school.

This is best illustrated through our College Access and Post Secondary Success Program. We call it CAPS program. It's a 10 person team that supports students from when they start in fifth grade through up to six years after they graduate from high school. Our first high school graduating class was in 2019, five years ago. Fifty six percent of that class has now graduated from a four year college.

Seventy five percent of them have a productive post secondary outcome, including five members of that class who are now teaching at Excel, joining over 20 other alums currently working in our schools. Like all charter public schools, our students are admitted through an open blind lottery that is monitored by RIDE. It's a free common application only asks for your name, your address, the age and names of your child or children, which school they currently attend, and parent contact information. It is available in multiple languages. The only preference in the lottery is if you have a sibling at the school or if you are a child of a staff member to make things logistically easier for parents.

To ensure as many families are aware of our school, we do a lot of outreach across the communities we serve. We attend community events, particularly in Providence, given most of our students are from there. Our campus in North Providence makes it hard to know we exist. We have ads on Spanish radio, billboards, ripped to advertisements, and social media. All of our communications are in English and Spanish.

Like all public schools in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, tuition follows the student. And our schools operate within the public funding that we receive from the state and federal government based on our enrollment. We do raise money privately for two things. First, for growth and particularly real estate connected to growth. Since charters have to both find and largely fund their own buildings, we have to raise money for that.

And second, for the portion of our CAPS team that supports our students after high school. We started our school in North Providence two years ago, and we've invested over $6,000,000 in that building to make it suitable and safe for our students and staff. Roughly 80% of our students in that school are from Providence. Those students drive or take the bus to attend school every day, often more than twenty minutes... Of more than twenty minute commute each way.

This takes us to the current conversation about our efforts to revitalize the former Carl G. Laura School at 99 Kenyon Street. As Courtney said, we participated in a rigorous and transparent RFP process, competed with other schools and housing developers. Our joint proposal, which even first, as you heard, was viewed as the strongest applicant and includes a commitment to invest more than $14,000,000 to renovate this historic building and give our families a new home in their neighborhood. As we do with our existing campuses, we are eager to make the building accessible and valuable for shared use by the broader community.

Finally, I wanna underline that we have an approved plan to expand the number of students we serve from Ride. The question is where those students, public school students, 80% of whom live in Providence, will be at school. There's a lot, obviously, a lot more to a 21 year old, twenty one year long story, and I'm happy to answer any questions either this evening or another time. I know there are a lot of more people to hear from. So in closing, I wanna come back to a question that president Miller asked last week she was visiting with us.

She said she's been asking everyone this question, so I'm guessing it won't be new to you. What is what is preventing us from providing every student in Providence with the high quality educational experience they deserve? It's a question I've been thinking a lot about. I wish there was a simple answer to it. I'm grateful that she asked it though.

I would say this. We'd excel and I personally believe strongly in public education. We also believe in a parent's right to choose a public education that best fits their child. They should have access to a range of quality educational options. Answering this question also requires us, all of us, invested in this work, to be in productive dialogue with each other, which is why I'm grateful to have this time together this evening.

We are highly motivated to do our part in collaboration with you and others, not just for students who go to Excel and Achievement First, but for all Providence students. We respectfully ask that you approve our proposed lease and look forward to working together with you on this important issue. I want to introduce Alejandra Gill who is an Excel alum and our director of talent.

Mister Stearns, is it possible we'll let you finish your presentation, but I know I have some questions. So go right ahead.

Can I let Alejandra speak first? Okay.

Good evening everyone. My name is Alejandra Gill and I'm a proud Excel Academy Charter Public School alumna and currently serve as the director of talent for Excel. I am proud to be one of over 20 Excel alums who are currently on staff close to 10% of Excel's staff. In my role now, I have interviewed thousands of candidates who want to work in schools as teachers and administrators. We have hired people from all walks of life who believe in our mission.

Excel's mission is to provide a free, high quality education to students that prepares them to succeed in high school and college, apply their learning to solve relevant problems and engage productively in their communities. Today, I will share the story of how Excel Academy changed the trajectory of my life and why I believe that providing this education in the community where our students and families live make this possible. I was born in Medellin, Colombia and moved to The United States when I was five years old. Like many immigrant families, my family was seeking two things, safety and better educational opportunities for their children. In 2005, my parents heard about a new school that had opened in my neighborhood.

My parents were eager to sign me up to the lottery and we went in person back then to fill out the paper application. The school was safe, promised to support me to and through college. There were college banners everywhere. It was located where I lived and near public transportation, and it set really clear and high expectations for every student that signed up that day. The teachers and administrators welcomed us with huge smiles.

Excel was everything my parents had dreamed of when they moved to The US. What they didn't know at the time is that Excel would also provide me with tools and resources to navigate the complexities of being an undocumented student. My Excel education without a doubt prepared me to tackle rigorous academics I faced in high school and eventually in college. My teachers had molded me into a confident writer, a thoughtful reader, and a curious mathematician. As a student, I was often paired with others who did not yet speak English fluently and needed additional support from their classmates and from our teacher.

I received so much support and validation that my identity as a strong student was unshakable. Eventually, I graduated high school and attended Middlebury College in Vermont where I studied psychology and education. I knew I wanted to work with kids and make an impact in my in my community. So in 2016, eight years ago, I returned to Excel, this time as a special education teacher and pursued a master's degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus in special education at Boston University so that I could be best equipped to support my students. I co taught chemistry and Spanish.

I supported all of my students with IEPs and five zero four plans to ensure that they could all access our school. My favorite part of the day was leading and translating meetings with families. At Excel, we make special education jargon accessible and ensure that parents and students are active participants in their children's education. I was later promoted to a leadership role in special education where I founded our compliance department and ensured that every student had a thoughtful post secondary transition plan in their IEP when they graduated high school. Eventually, several years later, I took a professional leap and transitioned to a talent recruitment role where I work and have the opportunity to speak with candidates and share my love for Excel, our mission, and our track record of twenty plus years success in Massachusetts.

None of this would have been possible without preparation, support, and validation from my Excel family. Today, before you today, I am honored to lead our recruitment work in Rhode Island where we currently serve 200 students and where families are just as eager as mine were to provide their children with high quality, free education in the neighborhoods that they call home. What I want you to know more than anything is that what Excel did for me in my formative years and what it did for my family changed the trajectory of my life. This is why I returned to excel as a teacher. It is why I am here today to ensure that our Providence, Central Falls, and North Providence children have the opportunity to receive an education that gives them tools, knowledge, and confidence in their home community.

Thank you.