Chair of RI Board of Education Cottam Has Only Toured One Providence School in Past Year

Barbara Cottam, Governor Gina Raimondo’s close ally, was appointed by the Governor five years ago as the chair of the Rhode Island Board of Education. Despite the length of the tenure and the critical role Cottam plays in the State’s education system, other than press events it is hard for anyone to identify Cottam visiting a Providence school.

By every measure, Providence Public Schools are among the worst performing in the United States. At Roger Williams Middle School, 4 percent of student met expectations for English language arts and 2 percent for math. No students exceeded expectations.

Cottam has not met with teachers or visited a classroom or checked in on the physical condition of any of the Providence Schools.

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But, she continues to be a big-time political player in Rhode Island having donated nearly $10,000 to politicos in Rhode Island -- more than half of those donations ($5,100) going to Raimondo.

The state takeover has shown signs of stalling. Despite taking over Providence Schools, the state until now has been unable to recruit a superintendent/takeover specialist to oversee the system.

On Tuesday, acting Providence Superintendent Fran Gallo announced that Friday would be her last day running the Providence schools.

According to the Department of Education, Cottam in the past year has only visited Providence School building once when school was in session and that was tied to a media covered event for Junior Achievement — an organization that her employer Citizens Bank has a philanthropic relationship with.

According to the Department of Education, Cottam has attended the following events -- only the West press event occured when school was in session:

George West - School visit/speaking to students with Junior Achievement, April 2019

D'Abate - Public forum, June 2019

Asa Messer - Public forum, July 2019

Hope - Public forum, July 2019

PCTA - Public forum, July 2019

 

In July, Nick Hemond, the chairman of the Providence School Committee Board, told GoLocal that in the three-and-a-half years that he has served as chaired, he and Cottam met only one time — two-and-a-half years ago.

“In her role as Chair of the Rhode Island Board of Education, a volunteer position, Barbara Cottam oversees both the Elementary and Secondary Council and the Postsecondary Council - so all PK-12 schools statewide and our public colleges – and spends a tremendous amount of time on education issues in our state. On the RIDE side, she meets and is in regular communication with the Commissioner and members of our team on various issues – related to Providence and education writ large – and has also been involved in the interview process for candidates for Turnaround Superintendent in Providence,” said Meg Geoghegan, Communications Director for the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“Chair Cottam was the strongest of advocates for state intervention in Providence, and it was her leadership that helped create the conditions for such action to be possible. Under her leadership, we adopted the RICAS assessment, which was a statewide call to action. In the wake of those results, she also called the former Providence superintendent and his team to the Council table repeatedly to discuss their instructional practices, further laying the groundwork for intervention. As we discussed, Providence schools have been struggling and underperforming for decades, and at the end of the day, it is in Chair Cottam’s tenure that we are taking significant action to bring change to the district,” added Geoghegan.

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