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January 2008
Incorrect W-2 Forms
Posted Thursday, January 31, 2008
January 31, 2008
Dr. Donnie W. Evans, Ed.d
Superintendent
Providence School Department
797 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
Dear Superintendent Evans:
Your communication department has notified all teachers of your administration’s errors in preparing all W-2 forms distributed on Tuesday, January 29, 2008.
You should be aware that knowledge of these errors was brought to the attention of your administration by Providence teachers and the Providence Teachers Union.
As a result of the errors (which are conveniently being called a “computer glitch”), your administration has issued yet another apology.
Although teachers are required by law to reimburse various accounts, I have been assured by your Business Manager that all monies due will not be collected in a lump sum but rather in equal installments over the 2008 calendar year.
It should be noted that this latest error reinforces the disregard for teachers by the McClure/Evans team and clearly demonstrates the lack of ability by the McClure/Evans team to manage the day-to-day operation of the Providence School Department.
Continued mistakes of this type and continued apologies are not building confidence and morale. How about getting things right for a change?
Sincerely,
Steven F. Smith
President
SFS/mmf
c: PTU Membership
Mayor David Cicilline
Providence City Council
Providence School Board
First teacher council meeting focuses on communication
Posted Thursday, January 31, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Last fall, Supt. Donnie Evans did something bold: he wrote a letter of apology to the district’s 2,000 teachers in which he acknowledged that the district’s number-one problem was a lack of communication.
At the time, Evans said he recognized that teachers were feeling frustrated and that morale was low. To correct that imbalance, Evans promised to create a teacher council to advise him on faculty issues and concerns.
Tuesday night more than three dozen teachers met with Evans for the first time. The council is as diverse as the district’s schools — 45 teachers, one from every public school in the city. The representatives were selected by their peers, or, in some cases, the local School Improvement Team. The council, which also has union representation, is the first and most comprehensive organization of its kind in the district in many years, according to School Department spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly.
The purpose of the council is two-fold: to allow teachers to give Evans feedback about what they’re seeing and feeling and to allow the superintendent to regularly float proposals with a cross-section of teachers.
“In my experience,” Evans said, “teachers, as front-line staff, provide a wealth of input and direction. It is my hope in bringing this team together that I will hear honest and frank feedback from the teachers who spend every day with our students.”
Kim White, a teacher at Roger Williams Middle School, said she was pleased with the way the superintendent took time to listen to each teacher’s concerns, which kept returning to the issue that Evans brought up in his letter: morale.
“People were saying that morale is not good in Providence,” White said. “People are overwhelmed with all of the new initiatives.”
The No Child Left Behind Act, the sweeping federal reform law, has been a double-edged sword for teachers. While it has pressured schools to identify which student subgroups are not performing, it has also stigmatized some schools as low-performing, a label that some teachers say is unnecessarily harsh.
“We try not to label our kids,” White said, “and yet our schools are being labeled as low-performing.”
The council also discussed ways in which outstanding teachers could be rewarded, including a Teacher of the Year program. Evans said that he wants to restore the district’s practice of sending a Providence teacher to the statewide Teacher of the Year committee, which picks someone to represent Rhode Island in the national program.
Evans also discussed the need to burnish the district’s image by getting word out about the good stories in the schools.
After the meeting, White said she was optimistic about Evans’ commitment to making sure that teachers have an opportunity to provide feedback on district policies. The Roger Williams faculty members have already given White a list of questions for the superintendent.
“My hope is that this is an avenue for teachers to voice their concerns and ask questions,” White said. “It’s a starting point to open communications.”
Audit will target whether district meets its needs
Posted Tuesday, January 29, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Why don’t the Providence schools have a consistent curriculum? Why do textbooks used for core subjects vary from one high school to another? And why does each high school have its own set of graduation requirements?
These are just a few of the questions that Phi Delta Kappa International, based in Indiana, will attempt to answer during its exhaustive evaluation of the district’s curricula.
According to Sharon Contreras, the School Department chief of academics, the audit, which costs $106,900, will determine whether the district has the capacity to deliver a consistent curriculum. Although the district adopted scope and sequence 10 years ago, no one has studied whether this system matches state and national standards that were adopted more recently.
Scope and sequence spells out what skills students should master at certain grade levels. But school officials don’t know if the plan fits well with the state’s new assessment, the New England Common Assessment Program, which was jointly developed with two other New England states.
“Most curriculums are revisited every six years,” Contreras told a recent meeting of the High School Steering Committee. “The audit will ask, ‘Is the curriculum there? Is it any good? Is it equitable? Are advanced placement courses offered at every high school?’ ”
The audit team will visit dozens of classrooms and review hundreds of documents, including School Board policies, budgets, curriculum guides, state reports and any other pieces of information that reveal how well the curricula is working.
The end result will be a 200-page document that will be presented to the School Board and Supt. Donnie Evans in approximately three months. The state Department of Education is paying for the evaluation with federal funds, school officials said.
At the high school meeting, Patrick McGuigan, executive director of The Providence Plan, asked why the department was tackling the evaluation now.
“We don’t have an instructional plan for the district,” Contreras told him. “One hundred and seventy districts have engaged in this process. This hasn’t been done by this city.”
Rick Landau, the former principal of the Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, questioned why the district needed to spend money on an audit when it already knows the answers.
“Why not spend the money on the curriculum,” he said, “instead of spending the money on what you already know.”
Evans explained that the School Department needs an outside expert to weigh in on the district’s weaknesses and lack of uniformity.
“One of the issues is credibility,” he said. “A panel of experts saying, ‘Here’s what you need to address’ goes a lot further than one individual saying this.”
According to Evans, it’s also important for the district to collect baseline information (What does the curriculum teach? Where are the gaps? Does the curriculum conform to grade-level expectations?) as part of the district’s state-ordered corrective action plan. Last winter, Peter McWalters, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, told Evans to produce a detailed plan for improving the district’s lowest-performing schools or face possible state intervention. According to the federal No Child Left Behind law, the entire district is listed as being in need of corrective action because students at a significant number of schools have failed to make adequate progress on standardized tests.
In addition, a dozen schools are classified as in need of restructuring, which means that their students haven’t made adequate academic progress for four, and, in some cases, five years.
Evans’ plan calls for introducing a new math curriculum for struggling students in elementary and middle schools and a new algebra readiness program in schools that face corrective action sanctions. At the middle school level, the plan calls for the creation of student advisories, common planning time for teachers and a new 90-minute block of intensive reading for low-performing readers.
In addition, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, based at Brown University, is conducting a review of the School Department’s central office to determine if the administration has the capacity to carry out its various responsibilities.
At the high school meeting, Nkoli Onye, the principal of the Providence Academy of International Studies, said the curriculum audit is long overdue.
“Scope and sequence is not a curriculum,” she said. “How can we implement end-of-course exams when people aren’t teaching the same curriculum? Right now, there is no place to find out what is the right science textbook.”
As part of its review, the audit team will interview School Board members, the superintendent, other top administrators, principals and some classroom teachers and parents. It will visit as many schools as time permits. And Phi Delta Kappa will also meet with three focus groups, including parents, teachers and community leaders, who will be asked whether the district is meeting their expectations for programs and services.
Lack of raises spurs school budget approval
Posted Friday, January 25, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — School Supt. Donnie Evans got his budget approved last night but not before the City Council Finance Committee wrung some concessions from the school district.
The $314.3-million school budget does not include salary increases, a move that members of the council had been demanding for some time. According to Mark Dunham, the district’s chief financial officer, the School Department withdrew several raises based on staff promotions for a savings of $250,000.
That effort satisfied the Finance Committee, which quickly ratified the budget with hardly any criticism or inquiries. In fact, a new spirit of accommodation prevailed at yesterday’s Finance Committee meeting, with Chairman John Igliozzi praising Evans for holding the line against budget increases during a time of fiscal austerity.
“The School Department graciously agreed not to give anyone raises,” Igliozzi said. “It would have been the wrong message to send to the State House. We are all doing our part. We are all tightening our belts to get through this financial crisis.”
During the brief discussion, Igliozzi pointedly asked Evans if any raises based on promotions were included in the budget and Evans said no. The school budget does, however, include several new positions, but they are funded by federal money and called for by state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters because the school district is under corrective action, which gives McWalters the authority to require that the district make certain reforms.
Since last summer, the City Council had told the School Department that salary increases were unacceptable at a time when the city was keeping the lid on wage increases. As a result, the School Department has been operating since July under the terms of last year’s budget.
The relationship between the council and the School Department only worsened after last month’s snowstorm left 60 busloads of students stranded on area roads for hours, prompting some council members to call for Evans’ removal. (They backed down after Mayor David N. Cicilline made a strong case to allow the School Board to complete its evaluation of Evans.)
Two weeks ago, Igliozzi accused the department of ignoring the Finance Committee’s repeated requests for additional information about school salaries and the district’s organizational structure. Evans complied with those requests early last week and the Finance Committee held a hearing on the budget on Thursday.
Last night, Igliozzi said his committee was successful in convincing the School Department of the severity of the city and state financial crisis. Evans and his administration saw “the reasonableness of our request,” Igliozzi said.
“I’m pleased that the School Department was willing to work with the City Council,” he said. “The council is willing to work with everyone. But we need to be fully informed.”
Superintendent’s critic is leading drive to support him
Posted Friday, January 25, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — One of the superintendent’s harshest critics has launched a petition drive to demonstrate parents’ support for Donnie Evans, who has come under fire for the busing crisis during last month’s snowstorm.
Osiris Harrell told the School Board last night that he has gathered 100 signatures from parents who support Evans’ efforts to improve student performance and communicate better with parents and other members of the community.
“It’s important that our children have consistency,” Harrell told the board. “Every time you bring in someone new, that consistency is lost. This man has done great things. We feel confident that he will continue to be willing to hear us.”
Harrell said he decided to solicit parent support after Evans took a beating from the City Council in the wake of the Dec. 13 snowstorm, which left more than 100 students trapped on school buses for hours. Some members of the council called for Evans’ resignation but they were persuaded to let the School Board finish its evaluation of the superintendent.
Last night, Harrell said that the drumbeat of criticism of Evans was motivated by politics and personalities, not by the superintendent’s job performance. He said that the superintendent has made a heartfelt effort to inform and involve parents in policy decisions and has made a decided improvement in the rigor of the curriculum.
“Hands off Dr. Evans,” he told the school board. “And Dr. Evans, let your focus be on the children and the parents.”
However, Steve Smith, president of the Providence Teachers Union, had harsh words for the way Evans treated one of his top employees, Deputy Supt. Tomas Hanna. Hanna was suspended without pay for 30 days for his role in the school bus debacle, and the city’s emergency management director Leo Messier was fired.
“You sent a clear message that if it’s politically convenient, you will throw someone under the bus,” Smith said to Evans. “There is no credibility. We have classes in terrible condition and schools that are unsafe.”
The union is in the midst of protracted contract negotiations with the School Board and both parties have called in a mediator to help them reach an agreement.
Finance panel offers suggestions on budget, but delays approval
Posted Friday, January 18, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The City Council Finance Committee did not approve the School Department’s budget last night, despite a warning last week from state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters that further delays could jeopardize $3 million in federal aid.
The School Department has been operating since July under the terms of the 2006-2007 budget because the Finance Committee demanded more information about salaries and new positions before it approved the 2007-2008 budget, which the School Board passed in October.
The budget has become part of the ongoing feud between the School Board and the council that surfaced after the Dec. 13 snowstorm, which stranded more than 60 busloads of students for hours. The council was infuriated by the School Department’s handling of the storm and some members initially called for Supt. Donnie Evans’s resignation but backed down after a strong lobbying effort by Mayor David N. Cicilline.
City Council Finance Committee Chairman John Igliozzi said last week that the School Department has been stonewalling the council by failing to respond to several requests for more information on the department’s organizational chart, including the responsibilities and salaries of each person on that chart.
Evans said, however, that his office had complied with the Finance Committee’s requests, chalking up the problem to a misunderstanding.
Last night, Igliozzi said that Evans had provided the information in question on Monday.
“I promised to expedite the matter,” Igliozzi said, “and that’s why we’re here today.”
The Finance Committee, which started 20 minutes late and broke up 15 minutes early, spent an hour questioning school officials about the $314-million school budget, focusing mostly on the cost of busing students, which totals more than $1 million.
Councilman Kevin Jackson suggested that the department no longer buy RIPTA bus passes for high school students because he said that many of those students receive passes through another state agency.
“Maybe parents should be responsible for picking children up from after-school programs,” said Councilman Nicholas Narducci, adding that he sees too many school buses that are only half-full.
Several councilmen said they would like to see a return to the concept of neighborhood schools. In 1991, Providence adopted a limited choice plan that allows parents to choose where their child goes to school, with a certain percentage of seats reserved for neighborhood children.
“Has anyone come up with a plan to eliminate busing in favor of neighborhood schools?” Councilman Terrance M. Hassett said. “You guys ought to take a crack at it.”
Igliozzi suggested that parents carpool to bring their children to school:
“Do we have to bus everyone?” he said. “Why don’t we ask parents to take more responsibility in their child’s education?”
Evans explained that his department is about to evaluate the entire student assignment plan, with an eye to reducing busing costs. He also said that any student assignment plan has to be approved by the Rhode Island Department of Education, adding that Providence operates under a voluntary desegregation plan. School Board member Robert Wise said the board is looking at changing the percentage of neighborhood children permitted to attend each school, but this will not eliminate the need for busing.
Members of the council also questioned Mark Dunham, the school’s chief financial officer, about the rising cost of special education tuition, which totaled $700,000 this year, an increase of 4.1 percent. Evans said that the district has hired a private consultant to analyze the cost of special education services and said that the district is trying to care for more children in-house.
Council members also wondered why Providence should have to pick up the tab for busing private school students to school. Public school districts also pay for the cost of nurses at private schools and some textbooks at private schools. In Providence, the cost of private school busing and textbooks adds up to $3 million.
Finally, Jackson asked if the School Department could apply for a waiver from the state that would exempt the district from paying for charter schools. Dunham said that the district pays only 20 percent of the cost, with the state picking up the rest of the tuition, but Jackson countered that the state should cover the entire cost.
Charter schools, however, are public schools that serve public school students. Providence actually saves money when public school students attend charter schools because the state picks up the lion’s share of the expense.
Dunham concluded his presentation by warning that the district’s financial future is dire. Without an increase in state or local aid, he estimated a budget deficit of $15.1 million for fiscal 2008-09 and a shortfall of $28.2 million for the following year.
Adding to the grim news, Governor Carcieri announced yesterday that he wants to make dramatic cuts in this year’s budget to address a $151-million budget deficit. That translates into a $2.9-million cut for Providence.
“Maybe, we need to redefine what our core programs are,” Igliozzi said. ‘We couldn’t raise taxes high enough to satisfy what you’re looking at.”
Members of the Finance Committee postponed action on the school budget last night because they didn’t have time to review two other budget proposals that dealt with school personnel and wages. The Finance Committee wanted to meet again next Thursday, but the School Board has scheduled a meeting for that evening.
No date has been set for the next hearing on the school budget.
New call center for schools tested by storm
Posted Wednesday, January 16, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The School Department’s new call center worked smoothly during Monday’s snowstorm, a school spokeswoman said yesterday.
The center, established in the wake of the Dec. 13 snowstorm that stranded school buses for hours, was lightly used on Monday because the School Department had already notified parents about the cancellation of school through a computerized phone system called Connect-Ed.
Only a handful of parents called the center, which was staffed on Monday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. by members of the district’s parent engagement office.
The call center opened earlier this month to give parents one-stop shopping when they have questions about buses or school closings during a weather emergency. Last month, Mayor David N. Cicilline fired his emergency management director and suspended for 30 days the School Department’s deputy superintendent of operations because of the breakdown in communications between the city and the schools and the schools, the bus company and parents.
Cicilline spelled out several measures that he wanted the School Department to take to prevent last month’s busing debacle from happening again. One of them required Supt. Donnie Evans to establish a hotline to address parents’ questions during a school emergency.
The hotline number is (401) 456-0686.
Education commissioner warns district on budget
Posted Friday, January 11, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Saying that more than $3 million in federal money is in jeopardy, state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters urged the City Council and Mayor David N. Cicilline to approve the School Department’s $314-million budget or face the consequences.
In a letter sent Monday to the mayor and the council, McWalters reminded them that the state placed the school district under corrective action in February because the district has a large number of low-performing schools. In response to a directive from McWalters, School Supt. Donnie Evans developed a number of plans to improve student performance, especially at middle schools.
As part of his response, Evans must give the commissioner quarterly updates on the status of his reforms and any barriers to the plan’s implementation. According to McWalters, the district, in its Dec. 7 update, said that there were continued delays in the implementation of several aspects of the corrective action plan, including the reorganization of the superintendent’s cabinet, as well as some staff job description and hiring matters. McWalters called those delays unacceptable:
“I need to impress upon you the regulatory and fiscal implications for the continued lack of implementation of the approved district corrective action plan,” he wrote. “While the school district has spent considerable time redesigning the central office organization, it has yet to implement these functions so that there is sufficient capacity to lead, monitor and implement the ambitious activities that are necessary to improve student performance.”
McWalters also pointed out the School Department’s need to improve communication between the district, parents and members of the community.
The School Department has taken a beating this past year over several breakdowns in communication, most recently the lack of information during the stranding of more than 100 students on school buses while their parents waited for word of their children’s whereabouts during the Dec. 13 snow storm.
“I am sure we all understand the need to improve communication among the school district, parents and the community,” he wrote. “I understand that failures to implement these corrective actions are caused by delays at the city level, and in particular, the review by the City Council. I am urging each of you to do everything possible to support the district’s implementation of these specific activities.”
The School Department has been operating since the beginning of the fiscal year in July on the fiscal 2006-2007 budget because the City Council has not approved the new school budget.
The department and the council’s Finance Committee are at odds over information the committee is seeking on salaries and new jobs in the department.
In an interview yesterday, Cicilline said that he has asked members of his administration to work with the City Council to expedite passage of the school budget.
“There is no good explanation for that budget having languished in the City Council,” he said. “The reality is that what the people in this city expect is for the budget to be passed so we do not lose any of our federal resources for our schools. The budget must be passed and I’ve called on the council to do it.”
City Council Finance Committee Chairman John Igliozzi blames the School Department for the budget impasse. Evans, however, says the budget deadlock is the result of a misunderstanding over what information the Finance Committee wanted. He claims that the School Department has tried to comply with the council’s request, adding that the level of detail requested by the council is time-consuming.
Meanwhile, McWalters said that the council’s failure to act might jeopardize the future status of more than $22 million in federal Title I funds, which provide aid to districts with large numbers of children living in poverty.
“The Providence school district is failing to fully and evenly spend down the fiscal 2008 Title I allocation,” McWalters wrote, “placing Providence in grave jeopardy for a loss of over $3 million in federal funds in the current year alone. Given the current state of fiscal conditions in Rhode Island, we cannot afford to put at risk any federal resources that are available.”
Yesterday, Igliozzi stuck by his argument, saying that he would not move forward on the school budget until the School Department provides the information the council wants.
“Once the council receives the information, we’ll move as quickly as possible,” Igliozzi said. “The sad part is it took the action of Commissioner McWalters for the School Department to finally start cooperating with the simple and reasonable request of the City Council.”
Asked about the corrective action plan, Igliozzi said he would be reluctant to approve anything until certain questions have been answered.
“We don’t know what the corrective action plan means,” he said yesterday. “Does it mean that when the federal funding dries up, the Providence taxpayers have to pay for the jobs? Does federal funding cover the salaries but not the benefits? People have the right to know what they are paying for and who’s paying.”
Council to form panel to probe storm problems
Posted Friday, January 11, 2008
By Daniel Barbarisi
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — For what might be the first time, the City Council is preparing to use its investigative authority and issue subpoenas to secure records and question members of the Cicilline administration as it tries to document exactly who knew what, and when, during the Dec. 13 snowstorm that crippled the city.
Last night, at a freewheeling meeting that included speakerphone calls to track down Mayor David N. Cicilline’s chief of staff — and the accusation by the city’s internal auditor that the Cicilline administration is intentionally obstructing his ability to secure city records — the council’s Finance Committee voted to create a three-person independent review board to investigate the response to the storm.
The chairman of the Finance Committee, John J. Igliozzi, would have subpoena power to procure documents and testimony for the review board.
“This is a precedent-setting event. It’s never happened before. Never,” Igliozzi said. “This is the first time ever that the Providence City Council is invoking its investigative power and subpoena authority.”
The board would be composed of three unpaid members selected from outside city government. They would be given $5,000 to hire experts and reimburse their expenses,and report back within 60 days. The full council will need to approve the board’s creation at its meeting next Thursday, but the independent review is expected to have the support of both the council’s majority and minority factions, and should pass.
The council has been aggressive in trying to determine fault for mistakes made during the Dec. 13 storm. As a result of that afternoon snowfall, school children were stranded in traffic on more than 60 city buses late into the night and council members have been trying to determine whether it was due to negligence. Once the city police were notified at roughly 8:30 p.m., they drove to each bus and took the children off. As a result, Emergency Management Agency Director Leo Messier was fired and Deputy Supt. Tomas Hanna was suspended without pay for 30 days.
They have directed much of their ire at Supt. Donnie Evans. A push to pass a resolution demanding Evans’ resignation failed to come to a vote last week, but council members continue to seek ways to press the issue,
The council had previously instructed Internal Auditor James J. Lombardi to obtain the e-mail correspondence and telephone records from city and school officials the evening of the storm. But Lombardi’s efforts have been halted, he said, by the efforts of Deborah Brayton, Cicilline’s chief of staff.
“There is a pattern and practice of preventing myself and [Igliozzi] from obtaining information in a timely fashion,” Lombardi said.
“They are attempting to undermine my office’s ability to obtain documents and be helpful to the City Council. They are violating the code of ordinances by interfering with my office’s obtaining direct access to records,” he concluded.
Lombardi said that he sought records from the city administration, the School Department and the police. The city’s information technology staff told him that “Deb Brayton, the chief of staff, was holding up the request,” he said.
“This is the public’s information. Is someone ever going to get that in this administration?” said Councilman John J. Lombardi, who initially made the call for an independent investigation.
Cicilline said last night that he does not have a problem with another review, but that he wants to move past the issue.
“Even though my administration has already taken numerous action steps in response to the Dec. 13 storm, we will certainly assist the City Council in another review of the storm should the council vote to do so,” he said. “But let’s be clear — city government has a lot of work to do and it is critically important that we focus on the difficult challenges ahead, such as pension reform, passing the school budget and the ramifications of a $450-million state budget deficit.”
The council’s Finance Committee had asked Brayton and Kim Rose, the School Department’s chief communications officer, to attend last night’s meeting and testify about their actions the night of the storm. Rose attended, but Brayton did not.
The meeting was delayed as Igliozzi tried unsuccessfully to track her down. Then, Igliozzi asked that Stephanie Federico, the ranking member of the Cicilline administration at the meeting, to give the city clerk Brayton’s city cell phone number.
Federico provided the number, and Igliozzi called it on speakerphone during the meeting.
The committee room was silent as the call rang out on the speaker.
The call went to Brayton’s voice mailbox.
“Hmm. She must not be available,” Igliozzi said in a deliberate tone. “I think it’s very concerning that one of the individuals who played an integral part in that day is not responding.”
The committee did interview Rose, who testified that she had learned that there were problems with the busing at 6:30 p.m., when she received a call from a concerned parent, but she did not know the widespread nature of the problem at the time. She then called Hanna to discuss that one child, but the conversation did not touch on larger issues.
She became more conscious of the scale of the problem at roughly 7 p.m., when she began receiving media inquiries about the busing situation. A little before 7:30 p.m., she called Hanna back, and after asking him specific questions, learned the scope of the problem. At around 7:30 p.m., she said she called Evans to alert him to the situation.
After her testimony, several council members said that Rose was clearly not at fault for the situation, and that they still want to bring Evans to the table.
“I think we have the wrong person in front of us,” Councilman Nicholas J. Narducci said.
Hassett says that he was ‘hoodwinked’ by McClure
Posted Wednesday, January 9, 2008
By Daniel Barbarisi
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — City Council Majority Leader Terrence M. Hassett is claiming that he was “hoodwinked” by School Board Chairwoman Mary McClure, after McClure publicly voiced support for embattled School Supt. Donnie Evans.
McClure’s comments came soon after the council shelved, at the request of McClure and Mayor David N. Cicilline, a resolution calling for Evans to step down.
The council had been ready to pass that resolution Thursday night, until Hassett and McClure had a lengthy conversation and McClure prevailed upon Hassett to allow for a month-long “cooling-off period” in which the School Board would evaluate Evans’ future.
After that, Hassett rerouted council votes to postpone voting on the ordinance at the last minute. “I requested that the City Council take no action on a critical resolution regarding the superintendent so that a ‘cooling-off’ period could exist, thus affording a measured response to the status of the superintendent,” Hassett said. “Now, just four days later, Ms. McClure announces that she supports the renewal of his contract. I got hoodwinked by a so-called non-politician.”
McClure, in an article in yesterday’s Providence Journal, praised Evans’ performance, but never actually stated that she would support renewing Evans’ contract.
“She didn’t say it, but that’s the way I read it, that she would be supporting him,” Hassett acknowledged. He called her comments a “betrayal of trust.”
McClure, when reached for comment yesterday, was traveling, and said, “I’m not prepared to respond.”
Hassett said that the council is now likely to revisit the Evans resolution and is also exploring stronger measures, though he would not say what those were.
Evans has taken heat from the City Council for his role in handling last month’s snowstorm, where city school children were stuck on school buses late into the night.
Evans’ contract expires later this year, and he must be told by Feb. 19 whether it will be renewed.
Later at the same meeting when the Evans resolution was considered, a split council voted to confirm McClure for another three-year term on the School Board. Hassett said that it seems as if McClure only wanted the council’s support on the confirmation
“Having this done right after the vote looks as though you get confirmed and then you do what you want to do,” he said.
Hassett said this worsens the flawed relationship between the School Board and the City Council.
Council still looking for info on school expenses
Posted Wednesday, January 9, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Six months after the start of the fiscal year, the City Council has yet to approve the school budget and the chairman of the council’s Finance Committee says it’s because the School Department has repeatedly failed to provide information on salaries and new positions.
“The City Council isn’t holding up their budget,” Finance Committee Chairman John J. Igliozzi said Monday. “The School Department has been recalcitrant in forwarding information about their proposed budget. They have been uncooperative. They’re stonewalling us.”
Igliozzi said he sent two letters to School Supt. Donnie Evans, one dated Nov. 26 and the second dated Jan. 2, requesting a copy of the school district’s organizational chart, including the positions, salaries and names of each person with an explanation of his or her duties. Igliozzi said he never received a response to his letters and accused the School Department of playing politics with the budget.
But Evans, who called the issue a big misunderstanding, says his office has been providing information to the city, including James Lombardi, the city’s internal auditor. Lombardi could not be reached for comment yesterday.
“Take my word for it,” Evans said. ‘With each request that came, we responded.”
Evans said his office began pulling together information before the holidays and said some of the council’s requests required extensive research.
“The requests that were made could not be put together on a moment’s notice,” he said. “When the initial request came, we thought we provided the information only to find out later that it wasn’t what they wanted.”
But Evans was not able to answer why — three months after the School Board approved a $314.3-million budget — his department had not satisfied the council’s requests.
“I can’t answer that,” Evans said. “We submitted the budget to the council quite some time ago. That’s really a question for the council.”
Evans said his office submitted a detailed package of material to the City Council yesterday, a day after The Providence Journal began inquiring about the budget, and said he plans to follow up on the submission with a call to the council’s office.
But Igliozzi said late yesterday afternoon that he still hasn’t received any information in response to his numerous requests:
“Our requests were clear, concise and reasonable,” he said. “On our part, there was no misunderstanding.”
Meanwhile, the School Department has been operating within the confines of last year’s $311-million budget, according to school Finance Director Mark Dunham. In an interview Monday, Dunham acknowledged that his office was asked to submit the information but it was never given to the council.
“The information was never given,” he said. “We should have given it. It was asked of us. I do think, for whatever reason, we were going to try and get the budget passed without having to provide the information.”
Evans emphasized that the budget snafu has not affected what goes on in the classroom. There have been no cuts in teaching staff or direct services to students as a result of the budget impasse, he said.
The budget situation has affected the district’s ability to fully implement state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters’ orders regarding schools under corrective action. Last January, McWalters ordered Evans to come up with a detailed plan for improving the city’s lowest-performing schools or face possible state intervention. Under that law, schools that fail to improve for four consecutive years face corrective action, ranging from changing the school’s leadership to hiring more staff.
In response, Evans promised to introduce new math and reading curricula, create common planning time for middle school teachers and introduce 90-minute blocks of reading for struggling middle school readers. His plan also called for hiring administrators to help rewrite the math and reading curricula and monitor the implementation of the new programs.
These positions have remained unfilled because of the budget deadlock. But Evans said that all of the school-level reforms have been put in place.
According to Igliozzi, the school budget initially ran into trouble because it proposed adding new positions or awarding salary increases at a time when the mayor and the council asked department heads to hold the line on raises for city employees.
“We said, ‘Please don’t submit a budget with pay raises and new jobs,’ ” Igliozzi said. “No one on the city side got any raises. Fiscal prudence was our main priority. We knew the State House was going to give us less money this year.”
The council was particularly annoyed when the School Board in November hired a new facilitator of communications at a salary of $68,000, even though the person was filling a vacancy left by Maria Tocco, who resigned in September.
Yesterday, Kim Rose, the district’s chief communications officer, explained that the school budget did not include raises for any senior staff.
According to Evans, there was a misunderstanding between the School Department and the council over a half-dozen administrative positions. These positions, he said, reflected a reshuffling of current staff rather than adding new people.
Janet Pichardo, for example, works in the parent engagement office as a facilitator. Under the proposed school budget, she would assume the director’s role, but the department hoped to save money by not filling her original position.
Council members want school chief ousted
Posted Thursday, January 3, 2008
By Daniel Barbarisi
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The fallout from the Dec. 13 snowstorm continues to roil Providence City Hall, with a significant contingent of City Council members now calling for the resignation of Schools Supt. Donnie Evans for his role in a fiasco where school children were stuck on school buses well into the night.
Members of the all-Democratic council are also calling for an independent investigation of the city’s performance during the storm, and for the mayor to name a public safety commissioner, rather than performing the job himself.
Resolutions covering all of these topics will be introduced tonight at the council’s first meeting of the new year.
The resolution urging the mayor to jettison Evans is co-sponsored by five members from the council’s majority and minority factions, including de facto minority leader John J. Lombardi and council Majority Leader Terrence M. Hassett.
“The superintendent failed to address the safety of the schoolchildren once it was well known that a snowstorm was on the way,” Hassett said.
The Dec. 13 storm left the city’s roads snarled with traffic, and as a result, dozens of buses carrying schoolchildren were stranded in traffic as late as 9 p.m. In response, Mayor David N. Cicilline suspended Tomas Hanna, deputy school superintendent for operations, for 30 days and expressed his disappointment in Evans. The mayor also fired the city’s emergency management director, Leo Messier. The council held a public hearing days after the storm, when council members roundly criticized Evans for the events of that night.
Lombardi said that the real blame lies at Evans’ feet, not Hanna’s.
“I think that Tomas Hanna is definitely a scapegoat in this,” Lombardi said, adding that he felt the snow incident was the latest in a line of communication failures by Evans. “I think he really needs to go and that’s been consistent with the way he runs that department.”
The resolution has no binding effect, but it is a clear signal that the council at the very least does not want the superintendent’s contract renewed. Evans is in the final year of his deal, and he must be informed by February if his contract will be renewed or not.
Cicilline said he will consider Evans’ future on the job over the next month, but that the council needs to pull back and respect the process without letting politics pollute the outcome.
“There’s a process in place for the evaluation of our superintendent and a requirement that he be provided with notice of the district’s intention to renew his contract or not, in February,” Cicilline said.
“That’s how that decision must be made. Obviously the council’s free to pass resolutions, but the leadership of our district and the work that’s being done in our schools is too important to be subjected to that sort of political process.”
Evans did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.
Lombardi is also seeking an independent, outside investigation into the city’s performance during the storm, conducted by a respected, impartial official such as a retired judge, he said.
He is also asking for a report to the council from the city’s Department of Public Works detailing the number of trucks assigned to plow each ward, the types and numbers of trucks assigned to plow the city and their marching orders after the storm, including procedures on “rounding the corners/cleaning sidewalks and widening street openings at intersections,” according to the ordinance.
Lombardi was motivated by the perception that certain wards, including his on Federal Hill, were ignored in favor of other parts of the city.
“Absolutely. Certain wards were complaining that nary a plow went through. So we need to know what the order is and where the priorities are,” he said.
Lombardi said the city has conducted detailed studies of how to respond to snowstorms before — most recently, a 2004 report overseen by then-Chief of Operations Carol Grant — and has not made the changes recommended. The council has also passed resolutions pressing the Public Works Department to create additional protocols for snow removal.
“At this hearing that we had a couple weeks ago, I kept saying, this isn’t new stuff, this isn’t rocket science,” Lombardi said.
Hassett said an independent investigation may not be necessary; he said the council is analyzing data and testimony collected in the days following the storm. If that proves insufficient, then council leadership might back an independent investigation and its costs, he said.
But both council factions agree on the need to fill the vacant job of public safety commissioner, now held on an acting basis by Cicilline.
Hassett said that the presence of a public safety commissioner to coordinate the actions of various agencies during the storm might have helped the city to avert the crisis.
“There would have been a lot more coordination if there was an appointment of a public safety commissioner,” Hassett said. “The mayor shouldn’t be doing both jobs.”
Cicilline has acted as commissioner since taking office in 2003. He replaced former Lt. Gov. Thomas DiLuglio, who was put in place during acting Mayor Lombardi’s brief term.
Before leaving, DiLuglio wrote a report that criticized the commissioner’s office as a waste of money and an unnecessary level of bureaucracy. He recommended disbanding the office and letting the mayor fill the role, as allowed by City Charter.
Cicilline said yesterday that he’s willing to fill the job, but is considering combining it with the Emergency Management Agency directorship when that job is filled permanently to save money.
“It’s an opportunity to determine whether that person could both be public safety commissioner and director of EMA for the city, or whether that should be a separate and distinct position,” Cicilline said.
“I’m not opposed to it in concept, but I just think we ought to look at whether to do it in a combined way or separate.”
There are actually two resolutions calling for a public safety commissioner before the council tonight, one sponsored by Lombardi, Councilwoman Balbina A. Young and Councilman Luis Aponte, and another sponsored by the council’s eight-member majority.
The two are identical in purpose, and Lombardi said that the minority group’s resolution to fill the vacancy was filed first. After that, he said, the majority submitted its version, leading to a back-and-forth over whose would appear on the docket first and which side would get credit for the ordinance, he said.
“It’s really childish and infantile and it shows a lack of leadership,” Lombardi said.
Hassett said that the two could be consolidated, but that it’s likely that the majority ordinance would go through, because with eight co-sponsors, it already has the required majority.
“It could be consolidated. They both say basically the same thing,” he said.
School district opens hot line for parents
Posted Thursday, January 3, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — In the wake of problems resulting from the Dec. 13 snow storm, the School Department has established a call center where families can get answers to questions about bus transportation delays as well as other aspects of their child’s education.
Located at the parent engagement center behind the school administration building on Westminster Street, the center will begin with five phone lines, which will be staffed daily from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. The hours will be extended during a school emergency, like last month’s storm that left 60 school buses and scores of young students stranded for hours on the city’s gridlocked streets.
“The call center will provide a central point of contact that will allow us to track incoming calls and questions,” said School Department spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly. “In case of an emergency, that number will be kept active. This center will address the mayor’s recommendations and also serve a broader function.”
Last month, Mayor David N. Cicilline fired Leo Messier, his emergency management director, and suspended for 30 days Tomas Hanna, the School Department’s deputy superintendent of operations, because of what he called a complete breakdown in communications between the city and the schools and the bus company and the School Department.
Cicilline outlined what measures his office is taking to ensure that the bus problem doesn’t happen again. One of the requirements was for the School Department to establish a hot line to answer parents’ questions during a school emergency.
Cicilline also asked that Supt. Donnie Evans improve communications between First Student, the school bus company, and the central school administration office and establish a communications plan that requires parents to be called every hour when there are substantial bus delays.
According to O’Reilly, the call center had been in the works before the mayor’s mandate. In fact, Evans had mentioned the need for a call center during his state of the schools speech last year. O’Reilly said that the center will be run by parent engagement staff for now. The School Department will eventually hire a call center specialist to be in charge, she said.
2007 recap in the Providence schools
Posted Thursday, January 3, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — From school closings to school-bus strandings, 2007 was a tumultuous year for the city’s public schools.
The year began on a high note, with Supt. Donnie Evans looking forward to opening a new high school, introducing new literacy and math programs for struggling students, rolling out a new discipline plan for younger students, and filling the final openings on his administrative team.
It didn’t take long, however, for the real world to intrude on Evans’ master plan, “Realizing the Dream.”
Two weeks into the new year, parents and neighbors learned that the West Broadway Elementary School would be shuttered in June because of fire-code violations. The school, east of Olneyville Square, had long received variances from the city excusing the egress problem, but in late 2006, the fire marshal told the School Department that it would no longer grant the variance.
Evans said there were other reasons for the closing, however, including the results of a study, also released in January, that said the 102-year-old school would be too costly to renovate.
Evans’ decision enraged parents and staff, who argued that the school was an oasis of success in a district marked by low academic performance and limited parent involvement. Preservationists argued that the brick building was a landmark in a rapidly changing neighborhood. And neighbors fretted that Evans’ plan to temporarily house high school students in West Broadway would be disruptive.
The uproar over West Broadway overshadowed the city’s $792-million plan to renovate or rebuild the majority of the city’s aging schools. “Building a Legacy,” the moniker given to the multi-year campaign, was developed by an outside consultant called DeJONG Inc. after an analysis of all 42 buildings in the district.
But at one public forum after another, West Broadway was the only thing on most residents’ minds. During a community meeting in February, the friends of West Broadway poked holes in the DeJONG study, which called for building 19 new schools and replacing the sprawling Mount Pleasant High School.
Evans wasn’t the only public official who took a drubbing during the furor over the school closing. Residents vented their anger at Mayor David N. Cicilline, who was the driving force behind the DeJONG study.
“There is a hidden agenda,” John Zayas, a West Broadway parent, told school officials. “We want some answers and we want them today.”
Several parents appealed the closing to state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters, arguing that the Providence School Board ignored the overwhelming wishes of its constituents and failed to give West Broadway parents the same consideration that East Side families received during their successful fight to save Nathan Bishop Middle School.
After McWalters upheld the local school board’s decision, parents appealed to the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education. Ultimately, however, their efforts failed and, in September, West Broadway students and faculty were moved across town to the Pell complex, which also houses a middle school.
Parents were much more successful in preserving Nathan Bishop, on the city’s East Side. When Evans announced that the school would be closed because of chronically low academic achievement, East Side parents mobilized and peppered city and state leaders with letters to keep the school open.
After a public outcry, Evans formed a parent study committee that ultimately recommended re-opening the middle school with a focus on advanced-placement classes. In late June, the Providence School Board voted to renovate the school at a cost of $35 million.
In the wake of these public relations snafus, Evans in October wrote a letter of apology to the district’s 2,000 teachers in which he acknowledged the difficult and often-unpopular decisions that he had to make because of deep budget cuts.
“Know that I hear your concerns, and for each of the situations that caused them, I am extremely apologetic,” he wrote. “I know the challenges you face each day in our classrooms.”
Meanwhile, Hope High School, the first public high school to fall under state intervention, continued to improve. In April, the East Side school regained full accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, a prestigious voluntary association that evaluates schools.
NEASC had placed Hope on warning status in 2003, detailing more than 100 problems that required correction.
In its April letter, the association commended Hope for changing the learning environment and the culture of the school. According to a NEASC spokeswoman, “This is a school where education is going on, kids are engaged in their learning, [and] instruction practices have changed.”
In November, Hope High School earned high marks from a visiting team of 25 educators, who spent two days observing classrooms, shadowing students and interviewing teachers before preparing their report. Their findings will be one of many pieces of evidence presented to McWalters when he convenes a public hearing on the high school next month. McWalters has three options: to continue the state’s involvement in Hope, modify its involvement, or return the school to the district’s control.
In April, the school board approved a $322.2-million budget, a 3.5-percent increase over the previous year. It also included a nearly $6-million budget gap, which the department hoped to close with a combination of fresh state and local aid.
But the district wound up slashing $6.2 million from its budget after the General Assembly voted against giving cities and towns a 3-percent increase in school aid.
The School Department ultimately closed the budget gap by increasing the class size for special-education students and reducing the number of administrators who oversee the program.
The changes in class size infuriated parents of special-needs students, who claimed that the budget was being balanced on the backs of their children. School officials, however, said they had sound educational reasons for increasing class size to 12 students, from 10. They said that research showed that the quality of instruction has more impact on student learning than smaller classes.
During a series of public hearings, parents, teachers and union leaders argued that the special-education system was already broken and that increasing class size would only cripple an already ineffective system.
The Providence Teachers Union wound up suing the district in Superior Court, an attempt to prevent the district from changing the class size until the issue was heard in court. But the court sent the question to the Board of Regents on the grounds that this was a policy decision best left to the state’s education policymakers. The regents are supposed to hear the appeal next week.
As the summer wore on, the budget crisis took its toll.
Dozens of teachers received pink slips, and the majority of them were assigned to the long-term substitute pool. A long-term substitute is no longer assigned to a specific school but bounces from building to building, as need arises.
The deep cuts demoralized teachers and principals alike at a time when Evans was trying to assemble a new administrative team. For the second time in as many years, Evans also made sweeping changes to the leadership of schools, moving more than a dozen principals at all levels.
The district also experienced an exodus of principals and teachers, several of whom were recruited by school leaders in Fall River and Central Falls. Frances Gallo, the former deputy superintendent in Providence, runs the Central Falls schools. In 2006, Deb DiCarlo left a longtime administrative post in Providence to run a middle school in Fall River.
There were some victories to celebrate, however. For the first time in recent memory, the city’s elementary and middle schools made dramatic progress, according to state rankings released in May.
Seventeen schools are now classified as moderately performing, up from seven schools in 2006, which means that these schools met all their 37 academic targets. Even more encouraging was the fact that many of the schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress missed only two targets. The rankings, required by the federal No Child Left Behind law, show whether a school is high performing, moderately performing, or failing to make sufficient progress.
Still, less than a third of Providence students in grades 3 through 8 were proficient in reading and math, and less than a quarter met the state standards in math. And only two schools were high-performing: Vartan Gregorian Elementary School and Times 2 Academy, a charter K-12 school.
Meanwhile, the teachers’ contract remains a dream, not a reality. Negotiations resumed in earnest this fall after the school board approved a budget, but uncertainties about this year’s state aid figures have stalled efforts to negotiate big-ticket items such as salaries. Both parties hired a mediator from the University of Rhode Island in early October help facilitate negotiations.
On another positive note, a $20-million high school opened on Adelaide Avenue in September after more than two years of opposition from neighbors, who feared that the former Gorham Manufacturing site was too contaminated to be cleaned up. E3 Academy Principal Wobberson Torchon was tapped to become the school’s first principal and he immediately set high standards for the building’s 600-plus students and staff.
The school year began with a bumpy start. Hope High School was so over-enrolled that some two dozen students spent their first two weeks sitting in the library, while 50 other teenagers sat at home, waiting for classroom space to open up. Evans said the district was slammed with a last-minute surge in high-school enrollments, but union leaders claimed that the problem could have been averted with proper planning.
But Evans’ biggest embarrassment occurred Dec. 13, when six inches of wet snow paralyzed Greater Providence, stranding between 50 and 60 school buses for hours. School buses were late in picking children up at school; others became mired in snow or traffic; one bus never showed up at all.
A week after the school-bus debacle, Cicilline held a news conference and suspended for 30 days the School Department’s deputy superintendent of operations, Tomas Hanna. The mayor also fired the city’s emergency management director, Leo Messier.
Taking full responsibility, Cicilline expressed serious disappointment with Evans, and later that night, Evans acknowledged his failure during a special meeting of the City Council. Evans agreed that there was a complete breakdown in communication between the bus company and the schools, and his administrators and his office.
Although the first 911 calls began coming in after lunch, Evans said he didn’t find out about the magnitude of the problem until between 7:30 and 8 p.m., when he got a call from Police Chief Dean Esserman asking whether he needed help.
“There was a total breakdown in communication from the bottom up,” Cicilline said last week. “This was a system that failed.”
Cicilline and Evans promised to make several changes, including improving communications between bus drivers and the bus yard, establishing a hot line to answer parent’s questions during a storm, and calling parents every hour when there are bus delays.
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