To run his new Learn365RI plan, McKee pulls education veterans from his orbit. Here's who they are.

PROVIDENCE — At the center of Gov. Dan McKee's education-turnaround plan is a brand new nonprofit co-founded by Robert A. Walsh, a trusted McKee political adviser who recently retired from his three-decade-long career as executive director of the state's largest teachers union, the National Education Association Rhode Island.

In a April 12 speech announcing his new out-of-school learning initiative — "Learn365RI" — McKee said a "new nonprofit called Always Learning Rhode Island [is being formed] to work directly with municipal leaders to help them be successful in this effort."

"More news on that in weeks ahead," said McKee, adding in his next sentence that he was allocating an initial $4 million "to help municipal leaders jump-start this work in their communities," with another "$47 million in the queue that the General Assembly approved in my budget last year."

There are still many unanswered questions.

But the board of the newly created Always Learning RI met for the first time on Thursday; elected Walsh as its chairman; and voted to hire Jeremy Chiappetta, the former superintendent of the Blackstone Valley Prep — a charter school founded by McKee when he was mayor of Cumberland — as its first executive director.

Chiappetta told The Journal he has actually been doing the job part-time for several months, with another nonprofit, the Partnership for Rhode Island, providing "seed money" for those early efforts.

Now that Always Learning RI has been incorporated — and had its first organizational board meeting — "we are now in the process of soliciting funds and trying to raise money so that we can go from a part-time volunteer effort to a robust full-time staff that can really be a major change agent for the state," Chiappetta said.

What is known so far about McKee's Learn365RI plan

McKee's turnaround plan is a spinoff of the "municipal learning centers" he created in his days as mayor of Cumberland, and he is counting on current city and town leaders to sign the same pledge that Newport Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong signed to explore and create "learning opportunities ... inside and outside of the traditional school settings."

No other municipal leaders have done so yet.

But, in Newport's case, that means a math booster camp hosted by the Boys & Girls Club; a literacy initiative at the Potter League for Animals, where kids would read to shelter pets; and a Sail Newport program that would utilize science, technology, engineering and math skills.

What questions have yet to be answered?

It is unclear how much, if any, money the McKee administration has committed to Newport's efforts.

Among the other unknowns:

What source of money will fuel Always Learning Rhode Island — a nonprofit created on March 27.

The nonprofit lists, as its directors: Walsh, the former executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island; former Community College of Rhode Island vice president of student affairs Sara Enright; Victoria Criado, an adviser at PLT Strategies Group; and attorney Stephen Huttler.

According to McKee's communications staff, the governor is "not directing any state or federal funds towards Always Learning RI," and there was no official "request-for-proposals" — known in state lingo as an RFP — before McKee built the new nonprofit into his turnaround plan.

When asked if the selection had gone the normal route — from RFP, to competitive bidding, to contract — McKee spokeswoman Andrea Palagi said: "The nonprofit is not paid by the state and will not be receiving funding from the state, therefore there is no RFP."

How does this compare with McKee's municipal learning centers?

There is also no written agreement with Always Learning RI, according to McKee staff, so there is no clear way to compare its role to the one McKee envisioned when his administration gave an ill-fated contract, worth up to $5.2 million, to the ILO Group.

But there is a clear similarity in purpose.

“The governor believes students across Rhode Island, pre-K through 12, should have opportunities to extend learning beyond the school day,” McKee's then-press secretary, Alana O'Hare, explained to WPRI in response to questions about the ILO contract in November 2021.

In McKee's hometown, for example, she said: "The Office of Children Youth & Learning provides young people with year-round learning opportunities in areas like science, art, math, technology, literacy and more.”

What role will the nonprofit Always Learning RI play in the governor's program?

Asked this week what role Always Learning will play, McKee spokesman Matt Sheaff repeated what the governor said in his speech in Newport: "To provide technical assistance to municipalities working with community-based organizations, colleges and universities, schools and businesses in creating opportunities for out-of-school learning time. "

"For example — a city might need assistance getting an SAT prep course set up with instructors — so that would be one area where the nonprofit would assist.

"The nonprofit is also there to be a resource to the municipalities as they execute their Learn365RI compacts and create these out-of-school learning opportunities, which over time will increase results in the metrics we’ve identified that we’re tracking."

Asked how a new entity co-founded by Walsh became the linchpin for McKee's turnaround plan, Sheaff said: "As the governor has said multiple times publicly, he has been convening education leaders, including Bob Walsh and many others, for months ahead of the rollout of this initiative."

In a filing with the secretary of state, the new nonprofit said it had been created "to support and advance learning for Rhode Island youth by augmenting the 180 days of the traditional school schedule ... [and] providing resources such as grants, services and other support for year-round learning."

It is not yet clear who will select the grant recipients.

Walsh has not yet responded to Journal questions.

But he called McKee's "Learn365RI ... a sound proposal," without taking any credit for its creation, in a column on The Public's Radio website.

"Before I spent a 30-year career working with educators throughout Rhode Island, I was a board member of Lippitt Hill Tutorial and a founding board member of Volunteers in Providence Schools (now called Inspiring Minds)," Walsh wrote.

"In all those experiences, I witnessed firsthand how out-of-school time activities had direct positive impacts on student learning, engagement, and attendance."

Chiappetta's background before he moved into administrative roles in Rhode Island schools: "I taught New York City public schools. I have an MBA from Yale. I have a master's degree from [the University of Rhode Island]. And I'm really, really focused and intent on improving outcomes for kids here in Rhode Island.

"And I think this is a great strategy to do just that. I mean, I really think that if we can really work community by community to light a fire on how important it is that kids achieve at high levels and we set that goal, we can do great things."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Former NEARI head, others tapped to run Learn365RI. Who are they?