Special Committee on Health, Opportunity, Prosperity & Education (HOPE) PUBLIC HEARING

Hello? Is this Hello?

Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the special committee on health opportunity prosperity and education also known as the whole committee for a public hearing for Monday July 13. For this purpose, this is just a public hearing. We don't have to have a roll call. We do have, one item, to be heard today.

And the first item, madam clerk, would you like to read it?

Item one, an ordinance amending article two of chapter 21 of the code of ordinances, reforming the procurement process for PPSD purchases.

Thank you, madam clerk. For the purpose of information, we're going to have a as it was advertised, we're going to have a public hearing to hear from the public on this item. And then immediately after that, we're going to go into a regular meeting where we will have more discussion and possibly a vote on this item. Is there a list of members that would like to speak? I would like to recognize my colleagues that are present here today, Vice Chairwoman Shelly Peterson, Councilwoman Shelly Peterson and also Councilman Miguel Sanchez.

Thank you for being here. In addition to, we have Councilwoman Jill Davidson who is the prime sponsor of this item. Councilwoman Jill Davidson, would you like to say a few words before?

Sure. So thank you, chairman, and thank you folks who are speaking tonight for being here. You know, I want to note that this ordinance that we have in front of us reflects agreement among the mayor's office, the city council, and the Providence School Board. I am really grateful for the input that we have received so far in comment. Looking forward to what we have to hear tonight, and we remain committed working with all stakeholders to balance what the district needs, accountability, city's needs, sort of everything that we are committed to moving forward.

When a specific note, just for clarity, this ordinance establishes that a school department purchasing agent, a new position appointed by the mayor with council approval, is responsible for awarding all PPSD contracts under $5,000, are not multiyear and are not made from a single source vendor. I just wanna, like, really clarify that. All other contracts will still need board of contract and supply approval. This is a really significant change. It reduces the number of contracts subject to boxer approval from several 100 to around three dozen.

I'll further note that the city charter requires this purchasing agent. We all, council, mayor's office, school board, want this purchasing agent to be somewhat acceptable to all parties, and I urge the superintendent or his designees to communicate directly with the mayor's office and the council to identify such a person. In other words, we want to do this collaboratively. This ordinance change was crafted in close consultation with PPSD leadership and with the city solicitor's office. I wanna thank them once again for their close attention and support.

I also wanna thank all members of the PPSD local governance working group, which included representatives from city councils, city administration, PPSD, Providence School Board, Rhode Island Department of Education, organized labor, parents, students. And Couple more notes. We agreed that procurement decisions should remain publicly accessible and subject to meaningful oversight, but we definitely didn't wanna replicate the old process in which multiple entities conducted substantially similar reviews of many contracts. It added delay and red tape to the process of getting goods and services to our schools. So to determine what could change, we looked at the law.

We looked at state law. We looked at city we looked at the city charter. And, you know, as a result, while we know that there are further changes we can make in the charter, we're doing what we can by charter amendment by ordinance rather than charter amendment. As I also mentioned on July 2, when I introduced this ordinance, the city is prepared to expedite any contracts essential for the start of school during the time we're in now, before this ordinance is passed on Thursday, June 16. As well, I really wanna commend PPSD leadership, which worked closely with Ride ahead of the school's return to make sure that such procurement necessary for success was already underway and completed.

Zach Scott, the Deputy Superintendent of Operations, really did incredible work to make sure the district will be ready by August 1, and by which time this new system will be in place. So I just wanted to add that context to what we are doing tonight. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you, Councilwoman Davison. I have a couple of people that signed up to speak. And if you haven't signed up to speak, please let us know so that way we can have you on the list. The first person that I have before us is Melissa Hughes and has signed up against the ordinance. Welcome, Melissa.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. My name is Melissa Hughes. I am a resident of Ward 2. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening, Councilman Pichardo and members of the Hope Committee.

As you may know, I'm the parent of two Providence Public School students. Now 11 just graduated. I serve on various committees across the district and I served as a member of the Providence School Board in 2024 and 2025. At various times as secretary, policy chair, member of the finance committee, and a board representative on the commissioner's collaborative working group. I participated in lots of professional development including with the Council of Great City Schools.

Since I finished my board term, I've resumed my role as a parent leader with parents leading for educational equity or plea. I recently completed a certificate in education finance from Georgetown University's Agenomics Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy, and I served as a representative on both the school board's ad hoc committee and the working group under Councilwoman Davidson that you just heard about. I've worked closely and consistently with district leadership and PPST families since well before the intervention through the present moment of transition. It's abundantly clear to me that PPST has made significant progress under state control because of an unwavering commitment to the work necessary to improve student outcomes and the ability to focus solely on that work unencumbered by competing political interests. I believe that the progress made since 2019 is at risk of stalling for many reasons, and I'm not sure that this ordinance is moving us in the right direction.

While I deeply appreciate the effort to engage stakeholders via the working group, the proposed ordinance fails to address the underlying structural barriers to efficient procurement named both in the 2019 Johns Hopkins report and perhaps more significantly named repeatedly in the working group and in other public meetings by leadership from PPSD and RIDE. The ordinance creates a significantly. Different a slightly different duplicative approval process that mirrors pre intervention systems some planting what would be school board final authority in any other Rhode Island district with a mayoral appointed. Approved by City Council purchasing agent for most purchases under 500,000 and reverting to the pre intervention mechanism of the city's board and of contract and supply for most other contracts. While the proposed process may technically differ from the exact pre intervention process, it still adds new bureaucratic layers without increasing any value to students or enhancing community transparency.

Throughout the intervention, PBSD maintained a balanced budget despite chronic underfunding by the city prior to the current settlement agreement set to expire after the current fiscal year. And with consistent transparency throughout the intervention through school board and school board finance public meetings. Outside of the school board, PPST is already subject to several additional areas of municipal oversight, including participation in city council finance and or ways and means committee meetings on their annual budget, and the mayoral appointment and city council approval of five of the 10 hybrid school board members. I would like to note my disagreement with the assertion that this ordinance was crafted with, quote, close consultation with PPST leadership. Given that all educational experts from PPST and ride and several community members, myself included at the working group table, raised numerous substantive concerns not addressed in this proposal.

While we did agree that procurement decision should remain publicly accessible and subject to meaningful oversight, the different stakeholders within the working group did not agree to what those terms mean. And the working group as a whole was never presented with the opportunity to review or take any action to agree on a final proposal or draft ordinance. An agreement between the city council mayor and school board president. All political entities is not a substitute for a collaborative student centric process informed by years of district level expertise in managing procurement efficiently and state level perspective on common school purchasing practices across our state. I cannot in good faith support the proposed ordinance.

The proposed process risks delaying critical supplies to classrooms, student facing services, facilities repairs, and grant funded opportunities, effectively prioritizing adult interests over student outcomes. Thank you for allowing me to share my perspective and for the hope committee's continued commitment to improving Providence residents access to health opportunity, prosperity, and education. As we move forward, I urge the city council to prioritize the structural improvements necessary for PPSC local control to be successful for all students and to continue offering spaces for content experts and community leaders to inform policy that centers student needs. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Again, this is just for public hearing. The next session, if colleagues have asked questions, we'll entertain some of those questions at that time. Thank you very much Our next person we have is Tyrell Stevens president of the Providence School Board.

Four. Thank you. Good evening, Chairman and members of the Hope Committee. Am glad to be here. I wanna speak on today according to this ordinance and be as clear as possible that I am in full support of it.

There's been a lot of work that has went into the crafting of this ordinance. There were many times that I made very clear that I was in opposition of some of the pieces and direction it was going. But after not only just speaking with Councilwoman Davison and members of the Return to Local Control Committee, members of my committee is in support of this ordinance as well. We've worked very closely with the mayor's office. They figured out a situation to make this work very closely with Councilwoman Davison.

She figured out how to make this work and when they presented it, was shocked. I was like, oh my god. This is a step in the right direction. The John Hopkins report made very clear that procurement was an issue. And one of the main pieces that the city council did was address it.

The threshold was $5,000 going up to $500,000 is a big deal. And I think that we ought to give the return to local control committee that was established by the Providence City Council their credit, give the mayor their credit and his team as well for really figuring out a situation here where it will give a lot more accountability to the Providence School Board. So I want to be very clear on tonight that I am in support of this ordinance. I think that there was a lot of community engagement. It lived on the school board's agenda at two separate meetings where if community members felt strongly opposed to it they could have let their committee know and I would say overall that my committee is in support of this ordinance so I just want to just thank you councilwoman Davison you came on and you came on swinging to the City Council and you really wanted to figure this situation out and I genuinely do believe that you have created a pathway to bring more accountability directly to the school board and to try to eliminate a lot of, you know, bureaucracy and processes.

So I just wanna thank you and I recommend that the committee moves forward with this ordinance on today. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this matter? This public hearing? Is there anyone else? Alright.

So seeing none, that concludes the public hearing on this item. And in a few minutes, we will enter into the next phase of this and have a committee meeting that we will have further discussion and questions from our members. Thank you very much.