“I hope it is viewed as a reflection of our priorities as an administration that the first event we’ve planned as mayor is an education event,” said Providence Mayor Brett Smiley at his Education Workshop, his first public facing event since being sworn in. “Because our schools are our top priority. It’s our city’s top priority, it’s our community’s top priority.”

The three hour event was held to get public input into the future of Providence Public Schools and to start working towards the return of city control of the schools once the controversial and largely unsuccessful state takeover ends. In attendance were about half the members of the Providence City Council and current and former members of the Rhode Island General Assembly.

“I stand here today as the product of great public schools. I think so many of us have had the benefit of attending great public schools – and that’s what every child in Providence deserves,” continued Mayor Smiley. “We find ourselves in this challenging time when the state is still in the midst of turnover and the turnaround of our schools so we are trying to focus today on areas where we know we can make progress and areas for which we know we can control our own destiny. We want to stay rooted in that which is tangible and pragmatic realistic…”

Victor Capellan, former senior advisor to the Commissioner of Education, and a member of Mayor Smiley’s transition team, acted as emcee. Full video here.

“The end of the State Takeover cannot be a return to the way things were”, said Mayor Smiley. “We need to create together a new third state: A new governance structure, a new process so that when the state turns back our schools to local control, we are in a position where we can run better schools, where we can better support our educators, where we can deliver better results for our students, where parents can find it easier to engage. And that’s going to take some work.”

Mayor Smiley’s goal is to break the conversation about public education up into “realistic, tangible, meaningful pieces so that it doesn’t feel insurmountable so that the feedback [the public] gives us today is the start of making real changes in our schools to deliver better results for our students.”

To that end and after a brief introduction and lunch, the 200+ attendees broke into four working groups. After a 90 minute discussion, the groups issued reports to the Mayor. The four groups were:

• World Class Facilities: “To make sure that every one of your students, your family members, the classrooms that you teach in, is in fact 21st Century.”
• Out of School Supports: Which includes after school programming in partnership with Providence’s Recreation Centers. “The things that happen outside of the classroom that have such an impact on the incomes inside the classroom.”
• A plan to Transition Providence Public Schools back to local control: “The turnaround will come to an end and it will be here relatively soon,” said Mayor Smiley. “So we need to get ready for that.”
• Youth Group: A fourth group was made up of students currently enrolled at Providence Public Schools through out the city. This group was not mentioned by Mayor Smiley in his opening comments.

The reports:

In their Youth Group Report, students Kim and Juliana reported the following suggestions and issues:

• Redirecting the funds that are used for police in schools to support our mental health advisors.
• Some schools have very bad technology. They don’t have access to good computers or good wifi.
• Gender neutral bathrooms are not available to a lot of students. Some of the bathrooms don’t have doors on them, or don’t even have toilets in most of the stalls.
• A lot of the ceilings are leaking.
• The heating system doesn’t work in my school.
• Accessibility: We want ramps in schools and access to elevators. Right now to use an elevator in schools you need a doctor’s note that can be difficult to get, especially if you don’t have health insurance.
• Stipend opportunities for after school learning.
• Rethinking recreation rooms to not just be basketball courts, but libraries and computer labs.
• Advertising existing programs and opportunities to students better.
• Peer supports
• A student council, district wide, to discuss disparities in PPSD. Center youth voices, reach out to youth and tell them that we’re here to listen.

Out of School Time report came from Tania Quezada:

• Better communication and advertising of what’s available in our after school facilities.
• Transportation: The resources may be there, but students need a way to get there and utilize those resources.
• Utilization of existing facilities, such as school recreational facilities and libraries.
• Youth Employment and Summer Programs
• Safety in recreation centers: “We spoke specifically about representing a welcoming space for those that are utilizing the recreation centers.
• Budget: Bring to the City Council the requests you need filled.

Melissa Hughes delivered the School Facilities report, starting with the question, “How can our school facilities better meet the needs of students and families right now and looking forward to the future?”

• We heard a lot form one particular community, the Washington Park neighborhood and the Broad Street Elementary School, said Hughes. (See below for more on this.) “They don’t feel heard and they need way more transparency around decision making. This is not unique to that community and lots of folks in our city are feeling shut out when decisions are made from the top down.”
• Who makes the decisions about what projects and school closings will happen and how those projects are handled?
• When did this decisions get made and how can people engage better?
• We all want more transparency. We all want to be included in the decisions that affect our children. We need continuous engagement.
• “We’d like to get excited about projects happening right now and projects happening in the future, but it’s hard to get excited about those things until we build trust in our community.”
• “Our school communities need excellent facilities that match the absolutely excellent human beings that are in our schools every single day.”

Allen Williams delivered the suggestions and insights from the Transition from State to Local Control Group:

1. Student, teacher, parent involvement on all levels
2. Command and control structure of PPSD administration
3. Community partnership process and streamlining
4. What would be an equitable return of PPSD from state to city control?
5. Teacher satisfaction
6. What is the plan to communicate with stakeholders prior to the return of control?
7. Make sure the timeline of the transition is understood
8. How will the School Board regain power?
9. Evaluate the district’s capacity and how the Mayor can support it.
10. Invest in a healing process with students, teachers, families and all other stakeholders.

On that last point, Mayor Smiley noted that the state takeover had produced “trauma” in the community, but, “It’s not just trauma,” said Mayor Smiley. “It’s also just exhaustion. It’s not lost on me that many of you have had these same conversations dozens of times over many years, and it can feel like Groundhog Day… All I can ask is… that we do in fact stay engaged and come in with the belief that this time can be different.”

Broad Street Elementary School:

Before the meeting started Mayor Smiley met with parents and students concerned about the closing of Broad Street Elementary School. He promised to visit the school.

“Our school’s not crumbling,” said one parent to the Mayor, who promised to visit within the month.

Video from the protest outside the event: