Providence school leaders grilled over teacher shortages and poor student performance

PROVIDENCE — The Senate Oversight Committee grilled Providence school leaders about everything from teacher vacancies to student progress during a hearing Thursday on the state takeover of the school district.

In materials provided to the oversight committee, the district reported 124 school job vacancies as of Oct. 22. Sixty-five of those are classroom positions; the rest are non-teaching positions.

More: State council renews Infante-Green's contract as education commissioner

More: Providence has experienced an exodus of teachers during the past two years

Deputy Supt. of Operations Zach Scott said the district hired between 100 and 120 teachers last year. However, over the same time period, 150 teachers left the district.

“We’re hemorrhaging teachers! We’re losing more than we’re hiring,” said Sen. Steve Archambault, D-Smithfield. “How about last year? I’ve been listening for the past hour. I’ve heard a lot of empty rhetoric.”

The senators expressed dismay that out of 150 interview requests sent to teachers who left the district, only 9 responded. Teachers said the emails went to their Providence school department addresses, which had been turned off.

“You’re not getting the feedback,” Archambault said. “That’s extremely problematic. Out of that exodus, how many teachers have been sat down with last year?”

He was told there is no policy requiring principals to meet with teachers before they leave the system.

More: Chronic absenteeism was almost 60% for Providence students last year. Here's the plan to fight it.

Things got more heated as the meeting went on

Teachers repeatedly applauded or shouted out answers to questions posed by the committee, which was holding its third hearing on the Providence takeover this week.

Committee chairman Sen. Lou DiPalma, D-Smithfield, was particularly outraged by the response to his questions about annual academic performance goals, saying there are two dozen discrete goals but no real guidance to teachers about what the priorities are.

He also repeatedly questioned K-12 council chairwoman Barbara Cottam on why the council had abdicated all responsibility for the schools’ turnaround, leaving the takeover solely in the hands of state education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green.

Infante-Green wasn’t present. She had a medical appointment that couldn’t be rescheduled.

Under the Crowley Act, the Council on Elementary and Secondary Schools has sole authority over state takeovers, DiPalma said, yet the council has delegated that power to the commissioner.

“I’m at a loss,” he said. “When has the council ratified something that the commissioner brought to them? When has the council taken a vote on anything?”

Cottam acknowledged that the council has given the day-to-day operation of the Providence schools to the commissioner.”

“Our responsibility is oversight,” she said. ”We’ve provided guidance, asked questions. ...”

DiPalma’s response: “The council appears to be spectators” in the turnaround effort.

“I don’t want any one person making the decisions,” he said. “Who is minding the store? There is no school committee anymore.”

What's changed since the state takeover of the Providence school system?

The state took over the Providence schools more than two years ago after Johns Hopkins University issued a scathing report on the city’s schools, saying they were failing on every front, from academic performance to the condition of the school buildings.

Although school administrators Thursday said the district is making progress, citing a uniform math and English curricula, more teacher training, hiring guidance counselors for the elementary schools and a streamlined procurement process, teachers say morale has never been lower.

School administrators stressed their commitment to hiring more teachers of color, citing a loan forgiveness program for new hires.

But Sen. Jonathan Acosta said that while this is an honorable goal, there might be more pressing needs.

“Our kids can’t do math,” he said. “I’ve heard no one discuss how we can do this. If I was a principal, I’d want the person who can teach quadratic equations. Has nothing been done to recruit people in these high-demand fields?”

DiPalma also asked if the central office had expanded during the takeover. A bloated central administration was one of the findings of the Hopkins report.

Scott never answered the question. He said when the office was reorganized in the spring of 2020, 30 positions were cut from central administration.

The district, according to WPRI, then leased part of an office building owned by Superior Court Judge Richard Licht to house dozens of staffers who were previously located at the Fortes-Lima Elementary Schools. The district spent nearly $100,000 furnishing the office.

Scott said the district needed to relocate 40-odd staff in part due to COVID and in part to the consolidation of the two elementary schools.

What Scott didn’t say is that the district leased Fortes Elementary School to the Achievement First charter school, moving the Fortes students into Lima.

When asked, Scott said he didn’t expect the lease with the new office to continue after this year.

Linda Borg covers education for the Journal.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Key Senate committee grills Providence school officials over takeover