Providence Special Committee on HOPE-Monday, December 9, 2024-5:30 PM
Call to Order and Roll Call
The Special Committee on Health, Opportunity, Prosperity, and Education (HOPE) was called to order by Chairman Juan Pichardo. A roll call was taken, establishing a quorum with three members present.
Entering of Exhibits and Agenda Amendment
The committee voted to enter Exhibits 2, 3, and 4 into the official record, which included a presentation, a mayoral letter, and a Special Senate Legislative Commission report. The committee also amended the agenda to discuss a resolution supporting the Senate commission's recommendations and voted to waive the reading of the resolution.
Presentation and Discussion: Special Senate Commission Recommendations for Providence Public Schools
State Senator Sam Zurier, former Superintendent Dr. Susan Lusi, and educational consultant Steve Smith presented findings and recommendations from the Special Senate Legislative Commission regarding labor-management standards, school-based flexibility, and shared accountability. Council members engaged in an extensive Q&A regarding funding formulas, transition to local control from state takeover, teacher evaluations, and charter school impacts.
Public Comment and Community Announcements
Public testimony was provided by Elijah McLean, who shared research perspectives and emphasized community and educator engagement in school turnaround efforts, followed by remarks from council policy staff Miguel Youngs. Committee members also announced upcoming community meetings and student-led forums on Providence education.
Adjournment
A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the committee meeting. The motion was approved unanimously and the meeting concluded.
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Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting for the special committee on health, opportunity, prosperity, and education of
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the moment of hope. May I please have the call over Golden. Chairman Juan Pachata?
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Present.
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Vice chairman, Shelly Peterson, is not here. Counselor Sue Annabelle? Present. Counselor Justin Royes is not here. Counselor Miguel Sanchez?
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Here.
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You have three present, two absent. Have a problem.
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Thank you very much. I I also would like to welcome and recognize our chairwoman Helen Anthony. Thank you for being here. And also our chairman, Jonathan Cox. Thank you for also joining us today.
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We also have from the law department, Steve Nelson. Thanks for being here. So Today, we're going to hear from our esteemed colleague who has been in public residence for the longest time. I think he was born here from he can nothing as he was. But I had the pleasure of also meeting him when he was in the school school committee as a school school member and then the city council in the United States Senate on the important issue of of education, but also most more importantly, the commission that he led, and now he's here before us to provide and speak to us regarding the recommendations and his findings, his findings and recommendations.
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And also with that, I also would like to welcome to our city of Susan Lucie, who is the former superintendent of the province public school district, which again is very similar to to many of us in the city and also for those of us who continue to have our kids in in public school system. And, of course, we also have Steve Smith who's was a teacher, home state representative, and a leader in education and and president of the Egypt Union and now working with us as a consultant in education. So welcome to our guests and the speakers. And and to many of you who are here, and I can go on, but we wanna make sure that we go into into it right away. Members,
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we
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have a couple of items that before just in case, I know that councilwoman Sue Anwar has to leave us most likely closer to 06:30. Just in case, I just wanted to make sure that we have we take a couple of things for as as as you know, to enter items, to enter into the exhibition for discussion. So the first one that I would like to have before us is we entertain a motion to enter exhibit two, which is the powerful presentation from senator Santorio. So moved. Motion?
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Second. There is a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor. Aye.
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The the motion passes. It is entered into exhibit number two. The other item is exhibit number three, which is a letter from the mayor of Providence. Is there a motion? The motion has been moved and seconded in
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the Motion. In favor.
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Aye. Aye. Any motion passes. So that's the letter from the mayor. And then the motion to number four, which is the report, which is the special senate legislative commission to review and provide recommendations for professional and labor management standards that that provide school based flexibility and accountability for employees of Providence Public Schools by the state senate senator senator.
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Is there a motion? So moved. Second. There is a motion and a second. Any discussion?
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Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. The motion copies. And and then the last thing that I would like to have is also this is just for if there's any reference or just discussion, but there will be no vote taken today.
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So I will entertain a motion to amend the agenda to have a a discussion regarding a resolution that was presented. And after that, that at the December 5 council meeting. And for the record, we can only discuss this resolution, and we cannot take the vote. Is there a motion? Mhmm.
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Second. There is a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, the motion has been passed, and the agenda has been amended. And, madam clerk, can you read the item into the record, which
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Resolution in support of the recommendation from the special senate commission to review and provide recommendation for professional and labor management standards that offer school based flexibility.
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Excuse me for a second. Is there a motion to waive the reading of the resolution? So moved. Is there a second? The motion has been moved and seconded any discussion.
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Just for discussion sake, I would do that. Yeah. We'll have it online, but also you will reference it. And so, therefore, this is going to move forward. Alright?
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So the motion has been made and seconded. And if you notice further discussion, the motion has been adapted. Thank you very much. So with that said, we're gonna get into the presentation. The first person that I would like to invite is senator Hassan Suri.
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Welcome, and welcome to the familiar place here in Senegal. We appreciate all that you do and the voice for academic problems since the beginning. Born and went to classical and and really took public service into very serious. And we it is an honor to have you back.
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Okay. Thank you.
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May be good.
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Yeah. And that's perfect. That is great. Thank you. Meeting members.
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So don't see all the council members. So coming on Monday night, I'm sure there are lots of other things you'd be able to do. It's nice to be okay. If you go back to the early two thousands, he was a parent, and I was on school here. And that's when I first showed him all of his advocacy, both for his kids and for the properties going to school.
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And he's obviously had an established curriculum. So since then, it was a privilege getting to know. And it's really a shock to him. We're gonna talk tonight about public education. And we all know the importance of public education or province public schools.
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I think many of us would agree that after public safety, public education is the second most important mission of our local government. And I think if you ask any parent, they would say after the help of their children, what's most important to them is their child's education. They're very, very important. So I'm going to spend, I'm hoping, like, six or seven minutes talking about how the commission was set up and and how it did its job. And then Sue Lucy is gonna come up and go through the power committee to talk about the education policy of the.
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Thank you. So, you know, I would start by saying that our problem solving schools provide a quality public education to hundreds of people every year. And I personally feel grateful for that because of my father. He he got a quality public education many, years ago. He grew up in poverty,
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and he was able to he was able to develop successfully careers in the journey. I my mother is
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a teacher in the Browns Park schools. My siblings and I got a a quality public public education prepared us very well for college. My kids went to the Browns Park school, and they got very, very good here. But with that said, my family and and my kids had some advantages that most kids and families in the kingdom. We had I grew up in a middle class family.
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My parents provided me with supports and supplements that are available to most kids. And same thing with work with the more than we provide our children. And even though hundreds of kids are getting quality public education problems every year, there are thousands that are there. And your ability to get a quality public education progress should not depend upon your family's socioeconomic status. Now there are many reasons why our kids don't get a quality the majority of kids in the province don't get a quality public education.
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Beginning with socioeconomic factors, it's hard when kids aren't getting the support at home that they need. But that shouldn't be a barrier if they're getting quality public education. That's something that's hard for us to control with the world. Similarly, the province public schools don't get enough resources for the state. This is a big battle I've been I've been working on for years.
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I at one point, said, where I sued the state and said, you should give more money to earning schools. But that's, again, something that we don't have control of at the local level. And the the challenge was in the senate, what is it that we can't control? What is it that we can do even as these socioeconomic factors even as this inadequate state aid booms over us? In this winter of twenty twenty two, Steve Smith and Susan Lucy put forward an opinion piece about this.
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Now they had worked together. Steve had been the president of the problems teacher for many years talking to her old students. Sue was the superintendent of the province health schools in early two thousand ten. They were working together towards improvements in labor management relations, site based management, professional standards. And they weren't able to get get it finished before they both left, but they had ideas which unfortunately were not carried out after they left.
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They put them in an opinion piece. And I read that. I said, this is something that they know. This is something we should be able to work on. I want the senate leadership.
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I said, can we have the study commission work on this? They said yes. And the study commission started going over it in 2023. The commission's charge was professional labor management standards, school based flexibility, and accountability. These are things that we can control even as we don't have the budget that we want, even as we can't control kids' socioeconomic background.
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We formed a 15 member commission. It included state senators. It included educators. It's a project's teacher, principal, from the central office, a representative from Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, a representative from the State Department of Education. We have local represent representatives, including council members, not only brought the city council perspective, but also he was a second educator who was very lucky to have he did a great job.
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Also had someone from the school board. We had someone from the mayor's office. We've had a parent. We had a student. And then soon as he were also noncertaining matters.
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The commission had 15 meetings. Three were for public engagement. Three were for presentations from experts. And then we had nine meetings to work on this report. It went through, like, six graphs.
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Ultimately, it was approved by a vote of 10 to one. The report and and, again, it's it's Sue's job to work into the details was recommendations, and the theme was shared accountability. We wanted for our teachers to be free, have more autonomy, the ability to craft their classroom instruction and the needs of the kids in front of you and not to be micromanaged by the minute by. But we also felt that as part of that, there should be shared benefit and that teachers understand that they were they were professionals, and they had responsibility for the outcomes that resulted in. This is the model, and we'll hear that American Federation of Teachers has been advocating for a bot.
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It's worked in other school districts. We need to bring it to the bot. So that's you'll be more concerned about the education policy behind this. But why are we here? Why are we asking for your support?
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Well, as you know, the state took over the province public schools in 2019. In those states, I was excited to sit up here, and I was not excited about the takeover. And I see council here. I was a pro photo attorney, and she had concerns as did council Miller and and Kat Croman, and she was the third one. And so they were concerned.
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They said this isn't gonna work. There aren't benchmarks. There isn't accountability. Those aren't gonna work. The state took over.
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And then at that point, I switched. I said, okay. The state is taking the middle. It's gotta do the best it can and improve the skills before they return the problems. So that's what the state promised to do.
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And so far, they've they've had some improvements, but it's not enough. And as a province resident, I want to see this state take over, succeed further before it comes back to province. And I also think that even province of local government should be developing a plan for a successful return to local control. We know local control is gonna happen in the next two to three years. We don't have a plan right now.
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And we will submit that our study commission offers a plan that that would help properly establish schools for the transition back to local control. We'd like for you to consider it. We hope you'll get your support because it's gonna involve legislation of the. And if that legislation enacted, we will need your help. So that's my introduction, and we look forward to answering your questions.
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But now I'd like to turn the floor over to who who will walk you through our presentation about the education policy and our commission report.