Providence Schools Start in Seven Weeks - Who Will be in Charge?

Providence Schools Start in Seven Weeks - Who Will be in Charge?

Providence Schools are now officially a national embarrassment. The longstanding local secret has now been splashed across the media of the United States.

Providence schools are scheduled to open in seven weeks without a permanent superintendent.

Presently, the Providence School Committee is now conducting a search for an interim superintendent.

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And, this weekend Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Angélica Infante-Green completed her community “conversations” in which she said that she believes the schools are in worse condition than the report by Johns Hopkins University found.

The Hopkins report found that Providence Schools are among the worst in the United States.

Providence has taken a black eye with the Wall Street Journal -- the nation’s leading business publication -- penning an editorial which dubbed Providence “an education horror show — a case study in public school failure and lack of accountability.”

“Shocking, not because I didn’t expect to learn that there were problems — we saw the test results — we’ve seen challenged test results for a long long time — the report showed me it’s much worse than I realized,” said Governor Gina Raimondo in unveiling the Hopkins report. “It’s beyond low test scores — it’s the basics. Teachers students and educators don’t feel safe in their schools, and real learning isn’t happening. It’s on us to fix this system.”

 

State Control — Central Fall and Failed Oversight

As state administrators move towards a takeover of the Providence School System, questions continue to be raised about the Rhode Island Department of Education’s failed management of the Central Falls School system for more than two decades.

A GoLocal review of the performance of the state’s management of Central Falls schools published last week included an interview with the driving force behind the takeover.

Former Central Falls Mayor Tom Lazieh told GoLocalProv.com that he lobbied then-Governor Bruce Sundlun to take over the underperforming Central Falls schools system in hopes of better financial support and stronger educational outcomes, but now more than two-plus decades later, the former Mayor says the experiment has been an educational failure.

“The State takeover of schools doesn’t mean better quality,” said Lazieh. And he has words of warning about a Providence takeover.

Last week, Gary Sasse, the former Director of Administration for the State of Rhode Island said on GoLocal LIVE’s Business Monday, that there was a significant opportunity to improve education in Central Falls and the state has failed the children of Central Falls.

“RIDE dropped the ball -- now what's to say that RIDE won’t drop the ball again is a fair question,” said Sasse.

Today, Central Falls is the worst performing school system in the state with test scores 30 to 40 percent lower than Providence schools.

Last week, Infante-Green announced that she was hiring the Superintendent of the Central Falls schools Victor Capellan who also the godfather to the new commissioner’s son, GoLocal unveiled.

 

What’s Next?

During the course of the summer, Providence Schools are undergoing $20 million in construction improvements, but according to report issued in 2017, Providence Schools need an estimated $500 million in rehab and new construction.

With less than two months before Providence schools are set to open, little is clear.