UPDATED: Taveras Announces School Closings

UPDATED: Taveras Announces School Closings

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras  yesterday announced he is recommending four schools for closure in order to reduce an estimated $40 million gap in the school budget for next year.

The four schools slated for closure are:

■ Flynn Elementary School
■ Windmill Street Elementary
■ Messer Annex
■ Messer School

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The closures are estimated to save about $12 million next year.

Two of the schools—the Messer Annex and Windmill—were on another list of recommended school closings last year but ultimately were kept open. At the time, they were slated for closure because of declining enrollments—not budget constraints.

Taveras said it was another difficult day in the city of Providence. He said the school budget makes up over half of the city’s budget and of that half about 80 percent is personnel.

“It’s always painful to eliminate jobs and close school but there’s no way to meet our fiscal responsibility without cuts across city government, including the school department,” Taveras said.

Taveras announced a number of other changes to existing schools in the district, short of closing them down:

Bridgham Middle School: Will be turned into an elementary school.

West Broadway Elementary School: Students will be moved from Delsesto Middle School. Will serve as only an elementary school.

Delsesto Middle School: Will no longer hold elementary students, will become a middle-school only.

Lima Elementary School: Will no longer be a grade 2 through 5 school. Will absorb kindergarten and elementary students from Flynn and Windmill.

Fortes Elementary School: Will absorb second through sixth graders from Lima.

Fortes/Lima Annex: The dual language program will be moved from Lima to Fortes.

In total 1,925 students would be affected by the four closures and six modified schools, according to School Department spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly.

40 to 70 teacher positions to be eliminated

An estimated 40 to 70 teacher positions will be eliminated as a result of the closures, saving roughly $8 million. The city said it would offer a one-time retirement stipend to teachers eligible for retirement.

“The retirement incentive will also make it possible to significantly reduce, or possibly even eliminate, the number of pre-retirement teacher positions that need to be eliminated due to school closings and financial emergency,” the School Department said in a statement. “The PPSD and Taveras administration are optimistic that the majority of positions can be achieved through attrition.”

Taveras said until the retirements are official, the city was not in a position to comment on the how the city would move forward with rescinding the termination notices of teachers at schools not closing. He said more details would be released within two weeks.

Community forums announced

The closures will ultimately have to be approved by the school board, which will be holding a series of community forums for feedback on the recommendations.

While there will be community input, the list of closed schools is unlikely to change. Superintendent Tom Brady said the conditions of the city are different than in the past, when community feedback has led the city to keep schools recommended for closure open.

“When you start out with the deficit the Mayor talked about and the importance of where we are as a city to work together on that, it brings a different urgency to it,” Brady said. “That’s not to say that it’s going to be a done deal and there’s no input, it’s just a different set of circumstances.”

The following forums are scheduled:

• Tuesday, March 22, 6 to 8 p.m., Juanita Sanchez Complex
• Wednesday, March 23, 6 to 8 p.m., Classical High School
• Thursday, March 24, 6 to 8 p.m., Veazie Elementary School
• Saturday, March 26, 9 to 10:30 a.m., Classical High School
• Saturday, March 26, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Juanita Sanchez Complex
• Saturday, March 26, 1 to 2:30 p.m., Veazie Elementary School

Parents with questions about the closures may call 456-0686.

Teacher union opposes closures

The Providence Teachers Union yesterday came out in opposition to the plan to close the schools:

“While we understand that the city is taking this action for financial reasons, school closings do cause tremendous disruption to students, parents, teachers and the community. This is certainly not the ideal education policy,” said union President Steven Smith in a statement. “As we have experienced in the past in Providence, school closings aren’t always the solution that cities think it will be. At best, school closings offer a short term savings, but in the long run, it may be the more costly action. All too often, there is a need to re-open a school down the line, and this can be a very costly process.”

He added: “The Providence Teachers Union believes that there are many other cost saving options that are less disruptive to students and parents than school closings. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with the mayor, and to working with him to identify other potential cost savings.”

Schools photo credit: Providence School Department