With State Still in Charge, Providence Will Elect New School Board Members

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

This article is part of The 74’s EDlection 2024 coverage, which takes a look at candidates’ education policies and how they might impact the American education system after the 2024 election.

Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, won’t have as much power over their city’s schools as some had hoped when they elect five new school board members on Election Day — but it will be more than they’ve had in decades. 

For the first time since the late 1960s, voters will elect half the school board — picking new members to join the five the mayor will appoint — as the district navigates a minefield of budget woes, declining enrollment, school closures, test scores that are still below pre-pandemic levels, and a demand for more charter schools.

On top of all that, the new board will have limited power and will need to split loyalties between voters and the Rhode Island Department of Education, which took control of the district in 2019 and just extended its control for another three years.

That extension by the state Council on Elementary and Secondary Education last month deflated hopes of some the district would return to the city’s control. A release of state control would have given the new board power to govern the schools, not just be an advisory board to Infante-Green.

Even so, 17 candidates are vying for five seats representing different sections of the city in this non—partisan election with no primary. Candidates include four current school board members and others who have previously run for city council but lost.

The Providence Teachers Union has endorsed five candidates, one in each of the five races. Stop The Wait, a charter school advocacy group, has endorsed candidates in four of those races in opposition to those who are union-backed.

Both the union and charter advocates are hoping for board members sympathetic to their side in an ongoing battle over whether to close schools with falling enrollment and turn the buildings over to charter schools. The debate most recently flared this summer over a proposal to put two charters in a recently-closed district school. Advocates say there is a long waitlist of students seeking spaces in charter schools, while the union says charters drain students and money from the district.

District funding is set by the city and state. And the city, not the board, controls who can use old school buildings, a key issue as charter schools seek facilities to grow. Still, contributions are likely to flow into the school board races, helping candidates on both sides. Campaign donations were not available to review in time for this story.

Though the new board members won’t have much power right away, observers and advocates say their role will still be important.

Brown University Professor John Papay, who has helped advise the district, said the new board can counter Infante-Green’s “clear concerns about the board’s current capacity” to govern.

“The Board, both as individual members and collectively as an institution, must fundamentally focus on building their capacity to constructively support the district,” she wrote the city and board after her decision.

Papay said the board can use the three years to learn best practices of how boards work and improve its interaction with the state and others, which has often been confrontational.

“I’ve heard that people are excited for the school board,” Papay said. “Maybe this election will help…do the work necessary to be able to facilitate the return to local control.”

Others, like charter school advocate Janie Segui Rodriguez, are taking a longer view. The board members are all running for four-year terms, which leaves them with a year left when state control ends.

“The board is very limited in their power, but at the same time, this is the board that’s going to receive the schools back in three years,” said Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Stop The Wait. “These are the people who are going to have the ability to implement and voice how we should do things going forward.”

The Providence Public School District, whose board has been appointed by the mayor since the late 1960s, has struggled academically for years and has lost more than 4,000 students over the last 20 years to now have less than 20,000 enrolled in its 37 schools.

A study last year found that Providence lost almost 17 percent of its students since 2019 alone, some to charters, some to homeschooling, dropping out and population loss

The state took control of the district in 2019 after a Johns Hopkins University report found its academic performance and management faulty. Since then, the board has had little control. Infante-Green, not the board, hired and then extended the contract of superintendent Javier Montanez. 

With that control originally planned to end this year, voters in 2022 passed a city charter amendment calling for half of the board to be elected and half to be appointed by the mayor after this year’s election.

Though four current board members are running — Toni Akin in Region 2, Night Jean Muhingabo and Michael Nina in Region 3, and Ty’Relle Stephens in Region 4 — Mayor Brett Smiley isn’t endorsing anyone. He also won’t say if he would re-appoint any of the four if they lose or any of the five current members not running.

He must appoint a member from each region, however, after a nominating committee sends him recommendations.

Loyalty to the mayor or willingness to challenge him looms as a recurring issue for board members, both over charter schools and school funding.

Though Infante-Green placed some responsibility on the board for not governing well, she also delayed ending state control because the city does not give the school district enough money. State law requires Providence — or any city with schools under state control — to increase school funding each year by the same percentage as the state does.

Infante-Green has repeatedly warned the city that it is failing to meet that requirement, but school board members appointed by Smiley have criticized Infante-Green more than Smiley. The mayor even tried to have the law changed earlier this year, but failed.

The funding issue has flared up again, as superintendent Montanez outlined a budget deficit of $10 million Oct. 9 that he blamed on too little city support. The shortfall, he said, could force layoffs, and cuts of busing and winter and spring sports.

Candidates have not weighed in on those potential cuts yet. 

The 74 asked every candidate who made contact information available whether the board or other officials were most to blame for Infante-Green not ending state control. All avoided blaming the board and though a few mentioned the budget issues, none assigned responsibility to anyone.

The ability of charter schools to open in the city is another hot button issue. The Rhode Island Department of Education said about 32,400 students statewide — more than 19,000 from Providence — applied for about 2,900 open charter school seats for this school year. To charter advocates, that’s a clear indication more charter schools are needed.

“Despite the fact that there’s growing demand…we probably have the largest wait list in the country…our politicians don’t respond to that,” Rodriguez said.

She added: “We need people who are going to be able to champion what parents and families want, not one system over the other.”

She was frustrated that Providence City Council blocked an agreement earlier this year between Smiley and Achievement First Rhode Island Inc. and Excel Academy Rhode Island to place two charter schools at the closed Carl Lauro elementary school.

Stop The Wait has endorsed four candidates — incumbent board member Michael Nina in Region 4, private school administrator Michelle Fontes in Region 2, Jenny Mercado in District 3 and DeNeil Jones in District 5.

The Providence Teachers Union has endorsed Corey Jones, a former city council candidate with several other endorsements from local officials in Region 1, Andrew Grover in Region 2, Heidi Silverio in Region 3 and incumbent board members Night Jean Muhingabo and Ty’Rell Stephens in Regions 4 and 5.

The union did not reply to a request for comment on the endorsements from The 74.

But Muhingabo and Stephens angered charter advocates and strengthened support of teachers when they questioned the lease of the Lauro school to charters.

“This resolution promotes the expansion of charter schools, diverting essential resources from our public schools and undermining our commitment to quality public education for all,” Muhingabo wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We need to protect our public schools!”

Overall, candidates have mostly called for better cooperation between the city, state and schools and for making sure the state can release the district from its control. A few have broken out of that mold by also offering other ideas, including:

• DeNeil Jones, in Region 5, wants to move students in low—performing schools to open seats in higher—performing ones to improve learning and save money. Though not stated, such a change could open schools for charters.
  
• Corey Jones in Region 1 wants state and other social services placed in schools to easily help students.
  
• David Talan in Region 4 wants to make it easier, as students are assigned schools based on openings, for students to attend schools close to them and to open a school in the Washington Park neighborhood.
  
• Mercado in Region 3 hopes to create an app that helps parents with school registration, dual language programs and access to local services.

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter