Providence City Council Meeting | Committe on Finance | June 11th 2024

Good evening. My name is Helen Anthony. Good evening. If everyone can take a seat. If you have...

If you would like to speak. Hope you put your name on the list that are on the table. I so appreciate everyone attending. My name is Helen Anthony. I'm the chair of the committee of finance and we are holding our second public hearing on the budget and I so appreciate this excellent attendance.

Tonight we have with us our committee members. We have Councilor Graves, we have Councilor Anderbaugh, we have Councilor Sanchez, we have Councilor Taylor. We also have with us tonight Council Member Mary Kay Harris, and we have our, from the solicitor's office, Eti Shaub, and we have our wonderful clerks, Lauren and Donna. So noted. Thank you.

And so now we will take the list. Oh yes, I'm going to ask for, to waive the readings of agenda items. Agenda items one through four which are the budget. And with that we'll move right on to the testimony and we'll collect the sheets so that we can allow everyone who has come here to speak. I would ask if you could please keep your comments to two minutes each.

We have a lot of people here. And if you're saying the same thing as anyone else, you certainly can not speak when I call your name if you think it's our... That your points have already been covered. So I will start with our sheets. Okay.

So the first one I'd like to call is Travis Escobar.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening. This is my first time presenting in this space, so yeah, I know, right? So my name is Travis Escobar, I'm the vice president of the Providence School Board. Also been born and raised in Providence, lived in Providence my whole life, grew up in the South Side, graduated from our schools, first in my family to graduate high school and college actually. And being on the school board, one of the first questions that they ask you in that large form in PCTA is sort of like, what are the sort of like biggest challenges and what are the biggest like strengths that you see within the school system?

And when I've always... When I've answered that question, I thought about our strengths being our students, right? Our students, our teachers, our community, and I think our weaknesses sometimes are like the adults, like the systems, the structures, the powers that are in place. And we, you know, province school board leadership, we sent a letter to the city council, we sent a letter to the mayor to sort of talk about how can we increase funding for our our public schools. We certainly do not want to be in a case where we're shaming or demanding.

As a Providence School Board, I think it's very important that we have more of a collaborative aspect, and that's what our letter dictates, and also we know that the city is in a tough situation, right? Over the past six years just on all the presentations that I've seen just on a school level, always talks about you know what we're seeing in terms of you know the cliff or so the tough financial situation that we're in. So I think even our letter and just me coming here today, we know that the city is going through a tough financial situation, but we also believe that as City Council, you have the ability to stretch more dollars and find more revenue, find more funding for our schools because we surely need it. I'm pretty sure you're gonna hear from a lot of young people and a lot of community members tonight on that. One thing I wanted to also take the opportunity to say is that earlier in my term, we did a city council and school board joint meeting.

I would love for us to do that. Again, I want to sort of like preach collaboration, how do we get our school board members and a council to come together and talk about this, and a whole host of issues, because yes, the state is small, the city is small, but we all seem to be distant and disconnected, especially on such an important issue like education. I You wanna wanna go thank you

all over two minutes. Thank you.

Yeah. I wanna thank you for your service, and yeah, hopefully we can get more funding for our schools.

And and mister Escobar, I just wanted to say thank you so much, and I agree. I think we should have more joint meetings between the school board and council, and

I hope that we'll be scheduling those. And I really appreciate your service.

Thank you as much. Thank you. Take care.

Okay.

Next is Clara Perez. Clara Perez. Is it Susli Murillo? Murillo? Okay, Jack Rusley?

I think maybe somebody signed some people up that maybe aren't here, I don't know. Anja Arroyo? Okay. Usimin Escogio? I know I butchered that last name, sorry.

Running right down the list. We do have John Pappay.

Hi all, sorry I thought I had three minutes so I'm working My on name is John Pappay, I'm the parent of three children who attend Providence public schools. Chairman Anthony and counselors, thank you for being here and for your work on behalf of our city. I'm particularly heartened to see chair Anthony's and councilman Gonsal's recent letters. I appreciate your calls for more funding for Providence Public Schools. That said I'm here today to express my continued disappointment in the priorities this administration has made clear in its budget and to ask for allies in the city council to stand with the city's children, families, schools.

Many in our local government insist on playing politics with children's education instead of being open, honest, and transparent with residents. For example, the mayor's office has called its 3,000,000 increase for schools historic, but it's actually a cut in real terms given inflation. The mayor's office knows this. I hope the city council knows this too. I've been in countless conversations about the PPSD budget over the past months.

In nearly every meeting city officials repeat empty excuses. We can't fund schools without bankrupting the city, without eliminating whole departments. These claims are just not true. There is always limited revenue in government budgets, always contractual obligations that create trade offs, but there is money available to spend. Our leaders get to decide what to do with it.

Over the past two years under the city council and administration, the general fund budget has increased by $47,000,000. Nobody in these conversations has made the case that the city is spending these $47,000,000 in ways that best support the youth of this city. Instead, every single conversation has been about excuses. The state should pay more for public schools. The district isn't transparent enough.

The Crowley act is unfair. Instead of articulating how to use budget dollars to advance priorities, the city seems to be trying to score political points. So let's be clear, budgets communicate priorities. With $47,000,000 more in revenue since 2023, nearly three quarters of that has gone to public safety. Just $3,000,000 has gone to public schools.

Now if your position is expanding policing is better for our city more important than improving schools, that budget makes sense. But I haven't heard anybody making that case. The lived values in this budget are neither progressive nor technocratic. I'm baffled how progressive lawmakers can stand by while teachers and guidance counselors are laid off and the public budget explodes. I'm also baffled how technocrats can ignore the reality that public education has the highest return on investment to promote economic opportunity for residents.

It doesn't have to be this way. Take the $47,000,000 in new revenue over the past two years and allocate it differently. Give $20,000,000 more to schools, keep everything else the same as budgeted, and that still leaves $15,000,000 increase for public safety over the past two years. I looked today and saw 51 Providence public school classrooms asking for money on DonorsChoose. One said, give my students enough copy paper for all content area learning in two languages.

Copy paper? It doesn't have to be this way. Are the police asking for donations like this? Is there a GoFundMe for the police department, for the fire department? Why should I ask you...

If could reach up... Finish up

that for your priorities. Make them clear. Please city council, stand for your priorities. If your priorities are are for the city's families, for kids, I hope that you'll stand for our schools. Increase funding by...

For PPSD by $20,000,000. Create a long term plan to sustainably and adequately support public education in our city, help build the world class system that all of students deserve. Thank you for your consideration.

The next is Aubrey Johnson. Aubrey Johnson. Oh, there we go. Thank you. If you could please state your name and address.

Hi. My name is Aubrey Johnson. I am the co chair for the parent advisory council. I'm also a parent of a student at PPSD.

And your address?

Oh I'm sorry 12 Pequot Street.

Okay and lean right in, I know that mic's right in your face, you can bend it down but lean right in there. Is that good? Okay that's better. Okay.

I know you're gonna get a lot of facts tonight, lot of statistics so I kind of wanted to take a different route. I wanted to paint a picture with no filter because our kids past, present and future aren't determined or achieved through a photo op. The filtered version of the mayor cutting ribbon at a new school doesn't change the original image. An image of caution tape surrounding an empty middle school auditorium has been uninhabitable for years because the roof literally fell in and there hasn't been a budget to fix it. The filtered version of the mayor smiling next to the twenty twenty four teacher of the year doesn't change the original image.

An image of new hungry effective teachers with deflated spirits due to displacement and non renewals. The filtered version of the mayor speaking at the mental health fair doesn't change the original image. An image filled with stress, anxiety and fear of the future of PTSD. The filtered version of the mayor comfortably sitting in a classroom reading to students doesn't change the actual image. An image of overflowing classrooms where individuality disappears because they could keep closing schools.

I know it comes down to money but I think we need to also consider how it's affecting our community, how it's affecting our students, how it's affecting our teachers, how it's affecting our parents. We are supposed to be a village raising our students and I think we need to remember that and I think we need to put our priorities first and there are students. Thank you.

Thank you. Zakia Okay.

Good evening. My name is Zakia Mion. I'm a student at West Broadway Middle School. I'm here today to speak not only for myself, but to also be a voice for the students of Providence. I have never heard an adult tell me that school wasn't important, that it didn't matter.

But to be honest, this is what it feels like. A group of adults telling us that our education just isn't important enough. When you fund our when you fund our schools, you show us that we are important, that we are seen, heard, and valued, and we are just not a number on a page. It seems that sometimes adults forget who they affect when they make decisions about schools. It's us.

We are the future doctors, teachers, and leaders. Our schools are where we grow from kids into a successful adults. It is where we can explore new things and interests that can shape our lives. I ask you to look at the students in this city to really see us, our potential, and our dreams. We are not asking for luxuries.

We are just asking to not be forgotten. Invest in us, believe in us, and give us opportunities every student deserves. We might be young, but our voices matter. Our education matters. Our future matters.

By fully funding our schools, you are telling us that we matter. Our success and dreams matter. And that we as students

matter. Thank you so much. Okay. Alright. If everyone could...

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I wanna make sure everyone who wants to can speak. So Iwilda Reynoso. Please forgive me again for the pronunciation.

Welcome.

Alright, good evening. Dear chairperson Anthony and members of the city council for those of you who do not know me my name is Aguilta Reynoso Lopez representing the Latino Policy Institute here in Providence. I'm here to stress the urgent need for increased funding for Providence Public Schools. You guys have heard the previous people that went behind me, there's so many great reasons as to why we need this increasement of funding. As we all know education is the foundation of our society.