Providence School Board approves paid coordinator job, disputing state order on who it answers to

The Providence School Board voted July 28 to approve a job description for a board coordinator, a paid staff position that would take day-to-day direction from board leadership while remaining an employee appointed and evaluated by the superintendent. The board approved the description by voice vote at a special meeting, along with amendments loosening the degree requirements and adding an evaluation process.

The vote followed a lengthy legal explanation about a state education commissioner's declaratory order issued in June, and a discussion of who, exactly, the new hire would answer to.

Employment contracts approved

The board first took up a consent agenda — the group of routine items normally approved in a single vote without discussion. Two items were pulled for debate; the rest passed by voice vote.

The first item pulled was a set of one-year and two-year employment contracts to be offered by the board. A board member asked a district administrator to explain who gets which length.

One-year contracts typically go to employees who are new to the district or new to a role, the administrator said, while two-year contracts go to people who have held the same role and "demonstrated strong outcomes." Administrators are not a collectively bargained group, he said, so there are no hard rules, and the superintendent retains discretion. Three-year contracts exist and have been offered before, generally for more experienced principals, though he said he did not believe any were issued this year.

Asked whether short contracts hurt recruiting, the administrator said it "cuts both ways." Competing districts sometimes offer multi-year deals, he said, but longer commitments also limit the district's ability to part ways with someone who does not work out.

A board member asked how many of the contracts represented rehiring people whose positions were cut because of declining enrollment. A few, the administrator said, but he described the majority as staff moving into new roles within the district — an assistant principal becoming a principal, for example — or people hired from outside.

On pay, the administrator described a career ladder developed roughly four or five years ago under a grant for principal and assistant-principal development. Principals and assistant principals enter salary bands and advance through multiple years of effective or highly effective evaluations. A separate school incentive of either $4,000 or $8,000 on top of base pay goes to principals at schools with higher concentrations of students in poverty, students with disabilities, or multilingual learners. That figure is set by a student-count formula, he said, and is "not really at anyone's discretion."

The contracts were approved by voice vote.

The board coordinator position

The second item pulled was the description of the board coordinator position. A board member said she wanted clarity on how the description squares with an order issued in June by the state education commissioner.

The board's attorney gave an extended account on the record. He said the underlying dispute began with two bullet points in a document Providence School Board President Stephens used to prepare for a check-in meeting: a proposal to eliminate a labor and employment counsel position budgeted at roughly $130,000 and redirect that money to board staffing, and a statement that the position should report directly to the board.

The attorney said the commissioner's order characterized that as the board claiming authority to appoint an unlimited number of employees. He disputed that reading, saying Stephens proposed one or two positions and said nothing about who would appoint them. He said the commissioner ruled only that the superintendent holds exclusive appointment power over district employees, and expressly declined to rule that the reporting arrangement itself was unlawful, citing an underdeveloped factual record.

Under the description before the board, the attorney said, the superintendent both appoints and evaluates the coordinator through the district's normal hiring process, while the board directs the person's day-to-day work. "Directly report," he said, means monitoring work day to day and assigning tasks — not hiring, evaluating, or firing.

The attorney was pointed about the June order, calling it "a very charged, politically motivated decision" that arrived on the commissioner's last day with authority. He cautioned board members against relying on dicta — language in an opinion that reflects an author's views but is not part of the actual ruling. He advised the board it can live comfortably with the appointment power resting with the superintendent, but said he would urge a court challenge if a future ruling tried to strip the board of its budget oversight or its authority under state law to set an organizational chart.

Asked what happens if the commissioner concludes the board is defying the order, the attorney said she would have to file a lawsuit and step out of her adjudicating role, since she could not seek an opinion from herself as plaintiff.

Board members raised practical objections to the draft description. One asked how members other than board leadership would request help from the coordinator, noted the description said nothing about how or how often the person would be evaluated, and questioned overlap with the duties of the board's existing support staffer. Board leadership said the existing staffer keeps her role, and that the language would be adjusted to require coordination with her.

Vice President Anjel Newmann said the position addresses a capacity problem residents already notice. She described board members coordinating listening sessions, regional meetings, retreats and even food themselves, sometimes out of pocket. When people complain at public comment that agendas are not posted far enough in advance, she said, "a lot of that is just capacity." She framed the hire as making the seats survivable for future members, including PPSD graduates.

Another member objected to a requirement that candidates hold a bachelor's degree in public administration, noting that neither Rhode Island College nor the University of Rhode Island — nor the state's community college — confers such a bachelor's degree. He said the requirement would screen out graduates of Rhode Island's public colleges.

The board approved the description by voice vote with several amendments: language directing the coordinator to collaborate with the manager to the superintendent and school board; the addition of an evaluation process; a policy committee review of reporting structures; and changes making the bachelor's requirement "public administration or closely related" and the master's preference "closely related or equivalent experience."

Context and what's next

Board leadership said money for a coordinator role has been in the budget for several years and went unspent in each of the last two. The attorney cited larger urban districts, including Boston, as having more than one or two governance staff positions, and referenced recommendations from the Council of the Great City Schools on board communication policy.

Board leadership said the Council of the Great City Schools language on lines of communication would be brought back at the board's August meeting. The description is to be revised before the position is posted. The board adjourned by voice vote.