Good evening. My name is Helen Anthony. I'm the chair of the committee on finance. I'm going to order our regular meeting on Thursday, 01/23/2025 at 05:35. Madam clerk, would you please read the rule?
Chairwoman Anthony. Present. Vice Chairman Taylor. Present. Councilor Antigua.
Present. Councilwoman Graves is absent. Councilor Sanchez. Present. We have four present and one absent.
We have a forum. Thank you so much. And I'd like to recognize that we are done this weekend by councilor Peterson, council Espenald, councilor gone solved. We have Pam from the city solicitor's office and our wonderful clerks, Carissa and Dawn. And thank you so much, and thank you all for joining us.
Have been noted. Okay. And I am going to take some items out of order on the agenda this evening. I am going to start with I'd like to start, I'm gonna need a mulligan, with our SOAR candidates. So I'd like to start by typing items five through seven, eight, five through eight out of work.
Actually, there's nine. Nine. Five to nine. Sorry.
Second. Motion made by counselor, seconded by counselor Handyball. All. Okay. All the.
Okay. And with that, I would also ask that the motion to waive the readings of items five through eight, and I'm still taking that all right now. I have a motion.
I'll take Sorry. Motion made by Township Taylor. Is there a second or second? Councillor Vanderbaugh. All in favor?
Aye. Aye. All opposed. So I would like to call Melissa Hughes if you can join with the two of them, and we will swear you in.
Your message is 137 Elton Street,
Also, thank you so much for joining us this evening. I'd like to congratulate you for the appointment. I know we have to deal that with the city council approval. I'll remind the members of our committee and our guests that we heard extensively from Melissa about a year ago when you were before us. And we were very impressed then with what you had to say about your experience in public school.
And because we do have a rather long agenda and we have to move some new new candidates, I would I'm gonna just ask you and probably Angel what And, certainly, we can follow-up with questions. But without going through the entire background and why it is you wanna run, which we have done before recently, I was just wondering if you might like to share with us any insights you have since you've been serving in your capacity on this before.
I would love to. Thank you so much, chairwoman Anthony, members of the committee, and other city councilors. I'm honored to be before you again. It does feel that we just met a very short time ago. I have served for one year on the president's school board.
I had the good fortune of being elected as school board secretary and had the opportunity to work closely with the board president and board vice president as a leadership team. That was a wonderful experience to learn from members who had been serving on the board longer than I've had as well as additional opportunities to collaborate with superintendent Montanjans with his team and members of the board in general. I also was selected to chair the board's policy committee this last year where I had the great fortune of serving in Zoom in, who you'll hear from shortly. And I think that was a great learning experience for me in policy process, in engaging other board members, and really working closely with members of the superintendent's cabinet across various departments. We had the opportunity to work with the equity and belonging office, with the family community engagement office, with student supports, with all sorts of folks that are doing some amazing work for our students.
I would say that the greatest accomplishment of that committee was that we did a lot of work. And the most important thing I think we accomplished this last year was we were able to pass a revised school closure policy. That policy hadn't been revised by the province to work since 1991. And we have known that that can be a really painful and complicated process for families, for staff, and for communities as a whole. And I'm really proud of the work that we did on the school board there in great collaboration with the department to be able to create a policy that builds in more responsiveness, collaboration, and communication at various stages when a school closure is possible and when that school closures happen.
I learned a lot this year. I learned that there was lots I didn't know yet, but I'm really excited at the opportunity to get to continue in that work. And I'm proud to serve the students and families of Providence, and I'm really excited to represent Region One. Wonderful. Thank you.
I am going to open it up to
our committee members. Yes. Councilor Sanchez.
Thank you, chairwoman. Thank you, Melissa, and I will definitely, echo all the the positive things that the chairwoman said. Just one question. And I know this might be a complicated question to answer, but just quick opinion or thoughts on it is after a year of serving on the school board, do you have stronger opinions or new thoughts on returning our district back to local control? Do you think we're closer now from when you started, a year ago?
Do you think, we need to see that next year? Do you have any just quick thoughts on it.
It's just nice to hear a really perspective after a year on the on the board.
Yeah. Thank you, councilman. One thing that I didn't mention in my opening remarks is I also was able to serve as the board designee on a committee that was convened by RIDE this fall to start looking more closely about their time to local control. I was able to work with some senior staff from New York City Council with some folks from the mayor's office as well and folks at Ride and BPSD to really start digging deep to find ways that the school board, the city, and the district can work together so that when we get back to local control, it is even better than when we started with the state intervention. To your first question, are we closer than we were a year ago?
I think definitely yes. I think it's going to require all of us to continue working closely together, communicating better, and being open and honest with each other and and trusting that we all have the the residents of Providence and their best interests at heart. We might just come at that from different perspectives. I'm really proud of that work, and I'm and I hope that that's something that I can continue in whatever role I'm in
on the board moving forward.
Any other committee members questions? Alright. Counselors think the motion we approve number five. I was gonna ask if
just can I withdraw that? Thank you. Well, it wasn't seconded. Okay. Yeah.
Counselors, I just wanted your I just is there anyone else that has any anything? Yes.
I'm happy to weigh in. I I just wanna thank you, chairwoman, and and thank Melissa for her long standing work. I think the work of a board member, the work of an elected official, sometimes it requires little fanfare. And I would say that you're someone who has completely put your head down. You've done the work.
I've seen the work that you've done on the school building committee as well as your long standing work having worked with you as a parent in the PTO at Barton DeGorean, and I think your reputation precedes you. You have great relationships in the community, particularly when it comes to Region 1 in those schools. Appreciate the fact that you have two kiddos who have gone through our public school system, whether it's Barton, Nathan Bishop, as well as classical. And I think that perspective and also that long standing tenure and your expertise and insight is going to be a clear asset to the members of the province. So I just wanna thank you for your service.
And I've been pretty clear about the fact that, you know, I'm, gung ho about supporting your nomination, and I'm hopeful that my colleagues will certainly do the same. So thank you again for your long standing work on the school board and looking forward to the continued collaboration.
Thank you. Thank you for being here. I actually have a quick question with regards to this coming year. Do you have anything in particular that you're looking forward to? Is take back something that you absolutely are looking to have here?
Or also, do you see yourself being involved in different committees from the ones that you were in previously?
That those are both great questions. I'm I'm gonna take your last question first. I think I'm not quite sure what my role should be next. I just this evening got to meet two of the other appointees that are coming before you tonight, and I haven't yet met everyone who was elected this fall. I know we have some I'm really excited that we have some collaborative training coming up for all incoming board members for the Council on Great City Schools.
And so I'm looking forward to that both so that we can all learn a lot, but also get
to know each other a little
bit before we're tasked with the work. I think that's gonna be a very tremendous opportunity. And I think until I meet everyone, I just I want to be there to serve, and and hopefully, we can work out amongst ourselves what best in the life. And my apologies, Antoine Peterson. Could you repeat that repeat
It was kinda convoluted when I said it, so I'll try it again. What is your thought your personal thought on take back? And where should we not see us in a position to do it starting in 2025? What what is your opinion? How should we move forward?
What do you believe would be the next best step?
you know, I am not an expert on what exactly the timeline should be. I think that that is is up for debate. I think what I would share is that it's very clear that when we can try to get, you know, the city entities, the board, the district, and Ride to work together, that that's what's gonna make us successful. And I believe that all parties on all sides, including Ride, wants us to have global control back. And they've made some really clear parameters about what they're looking for.
And I think that so long as we can keep communicating with each other, then then we will be ready to take our schools back.
Thank you. Councilor Sanchez.
Just one more question. Oh, go ahead.
Melissa, how can the city council support the school board more? I know you you had a year experience, and we all kinda get in our own little islands at at times, and, you know, there's a lot of conversations about, like, funding and stuff like this year going forward. How do you think we we can support you guys and and work together in a more meaningful way?
