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July 2008
Brady goes face to face to determine district’s needs
Posted Thursday, July 31, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — School Supt. Thomas Brady fielded plenty of tough questions last night, but no statement was as poignant as the one made by Charlotte Whittingham, a teenager who said that the public schools repeatedly fail their most disadvantaged students.
“I’ve been in four public schools in Providence,” she said, her voice breaking. “The kids at Classical High School have everything. It’s appalling. No, it’s disgusting how low the expectations are for the kids in the other high schools.”
Brady thanked her for her honesty and said: “I wish I could look you in the eye and say that every student will be challenged. But we will begin the work.”
For nearly two hours at Hope High School last night, the new superintendent heard that the school system was broken, that the School Board wasn’t effective and that some of the teachers no longer care. He heard from parents who said that they weren’t taken seriously and parents who asked when art and music would be restored for their children.
Through it all, Brady tried not to make promises he couldn’t keep, and sometimes he said he didn’t have the answers.
“You sound very good,” said Osiris Harrell, a parent activist. “But we’ve heard this before. Dr. Evans was very qualified. But because of the bull that goes on here, he wasn’t allowed to do what he wanted to do.”
Brady asked for six months: “Let’s see what the litmus test is then.”
One parent spoke about the racial and economic disparity that exists between East Side schools and the rest of the city.
“There is the East Side and the South Side,” Jean Nicolazzo told Brady. “There are different schools and different standards. We have to think about integrating schools along socioeconomic lines. We have to figure out how to entice the middle class to come back.”
Brady made it clear that he wasn’t going to address the needs of the few over the needs of the many. When a parent complained that Classical wasn’t as rigorous as it once was, the superintendent pointed out that the district had to raise the standards at all of its high schools, not just the jewel in the crown.
A school psychologist explained that Providence has a disproportionately large number of students in special education and said that the district’s suspension rate was among the highest in the country. Black males, she said, are suspended at much higher rates than other student groups.
Brady said he was putting together a group (not a task force) to look into the city’s large number of special education placements. He also said that there are alternative education programs where disruptive students can be placed until they are ready to return to the regular classroom.
The new superintendent was careful not to take pot shots at the Providence Teachers’ Union. A parent complained that the contract allows teachers with more seniority to bump those with less, which removes the responsibility for hiring faculty members from the principal.
But Brady, a former Army colonel, said that it would difficult to allow each principal to pick his or her own staff in a system as large as Providence, which has more than 2,000 teachers.
“I’m not going to say that bumping doesn’t work,” he said. “Seniority is an important factor. My job is to train teachers and move them up to these new standards.”
Parents also expressed frustration with the fact that superintendents come and go, yet nothing really changes at the school level.
“The most critical thing is to bring change down to the micro level,” Gail Gifford said. “If my child isn’t doing his homework, I want to know right away, not at the end of the semester.”
And parent engagement, parents said, has to be more than skin deep. As one speaker said, parents want to be part of the educational process, not consigned to holding bake sales.
During the evening, Brady said that he supported K-8 schools, a model favored by former Supt. Donnie Evans. He said he is open to working with charter schools, adding that they have a lot to offer. And he acknowledged that the district’s biggest challenge is how to fix the middle schools, which is where student performance falls off the cliff.
But the night wouldn’t be complete without a question about the Dec. 13 snowstorm that left dozens of children trapped on school buses until late at night.
“I’ve been making weather decisions for the last 10 years and I haven’t made one right decision,” Brady said.
“But all of those decisions were made in the best interest of the children. I can’t make it stop snowing. But I can say that there will not be children on buses at 11:30 p.m.”
Summer Update
Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008
TO: All Union Members
FROM: Steven F. Smith
DATE: July 24, 2008
Conference with Superintendent Brady/Negotiations
I met with Superintendent Brady on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 and I’m pleased to announce that he is very much interested in reaching an agreement as soon as possible, and we will be resuming negotiations immediately.
In addition, Superintendent Brady has expressed an interest in resolving the union’s back-log of grievances appealed to Level B, School Board, and has already taken steps in resolving several grievances.
Summer Placement Meetings
During the past month, our office has spent a vast amount of time rectifying personnel matters involving this year’s Consolidation, Job Fair and Recall meetings.
Among the issues with the Consolidation meeting were Human Resources’ failure to make available the teaching programs for teachers to review, Human Resources allowing teachers to select positions out of seniority order and Human Resources not having sufficient positions for all consolidated teachers. As a result, several portions of the Consolidation meeting were re-done and a Union grievance was filed regarding the lack of teaching schedules.
The Job Fair and Recall meetings were also riddled with errors where positions were offered that did not exist. We are working closely with representatives from Human Resources to ensure that teachers’ rights are not being violated while these errors are being corrected.
Additionally, this office will forward copies of all correspondences to Superintendent Brady on all personnel matters until I am satisfied that administrators are held accountable for these careless errors and teachers are treated in an appropriate manner.
Professional Development
At a meeting held on June 18, 2008 with the Administration, it was brought to our attention that Commissioner Peter McWalters had requested the names of teachers who do not participate in summer professional development.
In a subsequent meeting with Commissioner McWalters, the Commissioner stated, contrary to the administration, that he never requested said information. Furthermore, the form disseminated to teachers relative to “being excused from Summer Professional Development” has been rescinded by the Administration per my request.
Although it is our obligation to complete a number of designated professional development hours throughout the school year, it is also the obligation of the Administration to offer a variety of opportunities so teachers can meet the mandated professional development requirement.
As always, I thank you for your continued support and assistance and hope you’re enjoying your summer.
Brady optimistic he can work with union and council
Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — Less than two weeks into his new job, School Supt. Thomas Brady faced his first baptism by fire: an irate union that was pressuring the City Council to restore teacher assistant positions.
The Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local 1033, turned out en masse at last week’s City Council meeting to protest the loss of 40 elementary school teacher assistant positions in the school budget. A week earlier, the union took out a half-page ad in The Providence Journal decrying the cuts, claiming that first-grade students would suffer from the loss of personal instruction provided by the aides.
The district said that its hands were tied. Because of state and federal regulations, the School Department has to dedicate $2.9 million in federal anti-poverty funds, called Title I, to the high schools this year. Approximately $2.2 million will come from a reorganization of kindergarten and first-grade teacher assistants.
The union claimed that 40 positions would be eliminated. The department, however, said the reductions would come from positions accrued through retirement or attrition.
The union was making a lot of noise. The council was feeling a lot of pressure. The end result was a potentially toxic mix waiting to explode and possibly derail or delay passage of the school budget.
Enter Brady, who has already made a point of reaching out to various constituencies, from parents to union leaders. Brady knew that the school budget was before the City Council on Monday. He knew the union was upset. And so he called Local 1033 business manager Donald S. Iannazzi and asked to meet with him on Monday.
Yesterday, Brady said that he didn’t want the budget sidetracked by the furor over teacher assistants.
“I wasn’t concerned about the protest,” he said. “I wanted a resolution of this issue. And I felt the dialogue should be about the needs of the children.”
After lengthy conversations with the union and top School Department staff, Brady and Iannazzi reached a compromise:
•The reduction in teacher assistants from 160 to 120 would not result in any layoffs.
•Every kindergarten class would continue to have a teacher assistant.
•The remaining assistants would be reassigned as instructional assistants. These individuals would be assigned to work in elementary schools with the greatest academic need, with a minimum of one assistant at each elementary school.
•Vacancies resulting from retirements and resignations will not be filled.
What broke the logjam was Brady’s offer to train teacher assistants to help struggling students to become better readers, professional development that has not been offered in the past. The goal is to move teacher assistants from a custodial role to an instructional one.
“Here was an opportunity to talk about teacher assistants versus instructional assistants in a district that needs more adults in classrooms,” Brady said. “My vision is to see that they be provided with the proper professional development. Mr. Iannazzi concurred and said that, in fact, he had been thinking about this for the last couple of years.”
Brady said he never felt that the council was holding the school budget hostage over the teacher assistant issue:
“Number one, I never got the impression that we couldn’t get the budget passed without restoring those positions. Number two, the council showed a remarkable [restraint] as in, ‘We’re not going to get into the details. We’re going to let him run it.’ ”
At a special meeting Monday, the City Council approved a $322-million school budget and voted to raise the city’s tax levy by 3.75 percent.
Brady said that he hopes this agreement will demonstrate that he is serious about establishing collaborative relationships with the council, the unions and other school partners.
“I think this reinforces my intent that we will partner together for kids.”
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008
New superintendent making the rounds
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — School Supt. Thomas Brady is embarking on a series of meetings with parents, teachers and community partners to remake the school district’s tarnished image as a system in which students are struggling and leaders don’t stick around.
Brady, who began his new job on Monday, said he has already met with 250 teachers during an informal coffee hour on Tuesday, the first of three such gatherings this week. In a couple of weeks, he will hold four community forums at schools and hopes to meet with parents this summer through a series of backyard chats sponsored by parent-teacher organizations.
“My wife,” he said, “is making the cookies.”
Brady also promised to visit every school during the first week of school next month, no small feat in a district with 45 schools and nearly 24,000 students. And the new superintendent said he plans to get to know the city by going on a couple of drives with Police Chief Dean M. Esserman.
Brady recognizes that the public’s perception of the school system has been battered on several fronts, from the infamous Dec. 13 snowstorm that left dozens of schoolchildren stranded on buses for hours to the tepid pace of teacher-contract negotiations, which have continued in fits and starts for nearly two years.
He says the only way to turn things around is by deeds, not words.
“We need to be visible in the community,” Brady said yesterday, “and we need to have some successes.”
The new superintendent said the School Department’s hand-ling of the storm took up far too much energy and resources that should have been spent on teaching and learning. August and September, he says, are the months when school officials should be putting the finishing touches on a school emergency plan to deal with serious weather problems and threats to safety, one that spells out who is responsible for what and when those actions should be activated.
“The worst thing,” he said, “is having children out on buses at 11:30 p.m.”
Brady is no stranger to running large organizations. Most recently, he was the interim chief executive officer of the Philadelphia school system, which serves nearly 200,000 students, and before that, he served as chief operating officer for the District of Columbia public schools, which has more than 75,000 students.
Survey: Your turn: What are you looking for from the new Providence superintendent
Brady has already begun to develop a “90-day focus” plan to address his five goals: increasing student achievement in a district where 40 percent of the schools are classified as low-performing; improving the efficiency of the business side of the school system, which recently received a scathing review from a consultant; creating a positive culture for school employees; improving the public’s trust through open and honest communication, and working collaboratively with the unions.
Brady also wants to rebuild frayed relationships with the City Council, which initially called for the ouster of former Supt. Donnie Evans in the wake of the storm-related stranding of the students. (Members of the council later backed down.) As a goodwill gesture, Brady will ask each councilor to take him on a tour of his or her ward.
Brady relies on a management style that he calls “leadership by walking around,” which means spending time listening and talking to staff and community partners before making any major decisions.
Although he is still getting his feet wet, Brady has identified three major challenges facing the schools:
•Creating a uniform curriculum. Algebra I should look the same no matter which school you attend. Continuity is especially important in a district where students move from one neighborhood to another. Evans had also identified the need for a uniform curriculum and his staff was beginning to look at this issue.
“Providence,” Brady said, “has a long way to go. I don’t see cohesion.”
•Making the business system more efficient and more responsive to the needs of staff, another problem discovered by Evans and confirmed by two consultants. Brady said that he has invited the Broad Foundation, a private organization that trains nontraditional school leaders, to loan him a human relations expert to help the department reorganize the operational side.
“We are not going to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “It’s not just the people. Let’s go deeper. What kind of leadership is in place?”
•The failure to reach agreement on a new teachers’ contract has been a persistent drag on faculty morale, which has already been buffeted by three consecutive years of budget cuts that have led to the loss of approximately 300 jobs. Brady envisions signing a short-term agreement, which, while not perfect, would assuage the current uncertainty.
“Give us a year to understand what will work,” he said. “Right now, we need a contract.”
Brady stressed that all the necessary elements are in place to turn Providence into a district of high-performing students. The mayor, he said, is committed to public education, the state education commissioner is committed, the colleges and universities are committed, and the local political officials are committed.
In January 2007, state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters placed the entire school district under corrective action because more than 40 percent of its schools were chronically low-performing. Evans was ordered to come up with a plan to improve those schools or face state intervention.
While Brady acknowledges that the district faces significant financial challenges, he said student achievement is about more than throwing money at a problem. It is about making better use of limited resources. Philadelphia, a district wracked by a recent leadership turnover and budget woes, managed to improve student test scores by an average of 4 percent, Brady said.
He’s the other Tom Brady
Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — “Hey, you look like Tom Brady,” a sixth grader said, his eyes wide.
“Nice to meet you,” said a tall, gray-haired man in a similarly colored suit and tie. “I’m the new superintendent.”
“I thought you were Tom Brady,” the boy said, crestfallen.
“I am, but I never played quarterback.”
“Awesome,” the boy said, smiling.
That’s how the day went for Thomas M. Brady, retired Army colonel, father of five and the incoming superintendent of the city’s 23,800-pupil school district. On his first day in Providence, Brady visited a couple of schools, met in small groups with teachers and central office staff and tried to get a feel for his new assignment.
Brady, 57, arrives here with an impressive resumé : a 25-year career in the Army; interim superintendent of Philadelphia, the eighth-largest school district in the nation; and, before that, chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C., district.
As Brady told teachers yesterday, “I know how to spell urban.”
Related link
Video: Watch Brady on his first day at work
Mayor David N. Cicilline recruited Brady in March after Supt. Donnie Evans announced that he would retire when his contract expires in September. At the time, Cicilline said that he tapped Brady because the school system needed a strong leader, adding that the district couldn’t afford to spend time on a national search, something the School Board did with Evans.
Yesterday, Brady exuded the sort of confidence that puts people at ease. During a visit to a summer school on Thurbers Avenue, Brady popped into classrooms, observed students at work and chatted briefly with teachers.
Nothing seemed to get past him. At one point, he stopped, glanced at a candy wrapper on the floor and immediately asked when the schools are cleaned. When Brady discovered that the doors to the library were closed, he explained that it isn’t unusual for the building principal to “feel proprietary,” locking up supplies and books when a summer school principal takes over.
In every class, Brady asked students where they were from because he said he was curious to find out where children lived in relationship to where they attended school. Because he is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, he made himself small, kneeling down to talk with the fifth and sixth graders and speaking softly.
“How are you doing?” he asked one boy. “Is this keeping you engaged? Are you keeping busy? Is the work challenging enough?”
Brady was full of questions, asking when teachers received their summer school training, how substitute teachers were used and how the Woods-Young building, which houses two separate elementary schools, was organized.
In one class, Brady checked a child’s math to make sure it was right. In another, he commented on how well a teacher used a common object — a packing box — to explain how to calculate surface area.
Brady faces some formidable challenges, however. The school district is struggling with a third year of budget cuts, the Providence Teachers Union issued a vote of no confidence in Evans lastwinter, and the state has placed the district in corrective action because a large number of the system’s 36 schools are chronically low-performing.
Yesterday, Brady tried to dispel some of the apprehension and distrust that has permeated the district since Evans surprised everyone by announcing his resignation. Teachers are frustrated by continued budget cuts and the steady exodus of experienced leaders. And they are discouraged by the glacial pace of contract negotiations, which have languished since the Evans’ announcement.
First, Brady said he believes in “management by walking around.”
“If you see my smiling face, I’m trying to find out what you’re doing,” he told a group of 70 teachers and staff. “Don’t be concerned if I’m asking questions. It’s not a threat. I’d rather catch someone doing something right.”
Next, Brady told the crowd that he is not about “screaming, ranting and shooting the messenger.” Let’s fix the problem and move on, he said.
When he worked in the District of Columbia, a school district where nothing worked, Brady said his office was lined with bookshelves full of studies, none of which had ever been implemented.
“I’m all about getting things done,” he said. “I don’t want a briefcase full of plans.”
And, he is all about accountability. When Brady was running on the Hope High School track this weekend, he noticed some graffiti. It was gone in no time.
“Graffiti,” he said. “If we leave it up for 24 hours, what message are we sending? That we don’t care.”
Brady made it clear that he would build on the hard work done by previous superintendents, adding that Evans did a very good job and is now moving on. Although Evans slipped out of the office early yesterday, he has been talking and meeting with Brady on a regular basis.
Brady also offered an abbreviated version of his agenda: increase student achievement; make business operations more efficient; improve communications with teachers, parents and taxpayers; spread the word about the district’s mission; bolster the administration’s relationship with the unions, and make sure that teacher training is aligned with the curriculum.
When Evans arrived here almost three years ago, he promised that Providence would be his last stop. Brady didn’t go that far, but he did say “I don’t want to be chancellor of New York or Los Angeles.”
He also shared a bit of his personal history: he is married with five grown children and six granddaughters and he began his career in education as president of a parent-teacher association in Fairfax, Va., an affluent community. Later, in the District of Columbia, he helped close 11 schools in one year as part of a $4.5-billion overhaul of the city’s aging school buildings.
At least one administrator was so impressed with Brady’s take-charge attitude that she said she was almost moved to tears.
“I felt for the first time, ‘Wow,’ ” said Kim Luca, supervisor of literacy and the humanities. “He exudes greatness. He’s a team player. He wants to treat people with respect and dignity. I haven’t felt this good about someone right off the bat in a long time.”
Leadership takes Adelaide High to a new level
Posted Wednesday, July 2, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — In August, Adelaide High School principal Robbie Torchon was assigned a daunting task: to create a new high school out of whole cloth.
Torchon’s job was to imbue the building with meaning — to create a sense of community, a shared mission, where there was none. This was no easy task because the 600 students and the staff were plucked from high schools all over the district. Many of the students, however, came from Harrison Street, a shell of a high school where students and staff felt abandoned.
When school opened, Torchon hit the ground running. He divided the student body into teams of 130 and assigned each teacher to one of five teams, which focused on school climate, data assessment, rules and regulations, a teachers’ handbook and curriculum. On Fridays, the faculty was freed up for one period to discuss the school’s progress.
Torchon runs his building with military-like precision. During a fire drill, he timed how long it took students to leave and reenter the building. He speaks with tremendous authority and passion. Recently, Torchon reflected on what the school has accomplished in its first year and the challenges that still remain.
“The biggest challenge of the year?” he said. “Learning to be patient. I was too quick to implement too many things.”
Without missing a beat, he added, “Next year, I will make sure that 100 percent of the faculty buys into my vision. I will create an appeal from the heart.”
One of the biggest challenges this year was getting teachers to take leadership roles. According to Torchon, teachers were accustomed to an adversarial relationship with administrators. Torchon upended that approach by asking faculty teams to develop their own expertise and make recommendations to the entire faculty.
One team looked at suspension data and discovered that student misbehavior rose immediately before and after vacation. Teachers also found a direct relationship between the quality of classroom instruction and behavior in the classroom. Teachers who were highly engaged had the fewest student behavior problems.
The team met with Torchon and recommended that administrators use suspension as a last resort. This represented a sea change, Torchon said, because teachers typically clamor for disruptive students to be removed from the classroom, not kept in school.
Starting this fall, disruptive students will attend focus groups, where a team of teachers and guidance counselors will help them learn how to address their behavior. The school staff will get an assist from a member of the community who works with at-risk students and who talks with them about anger management and conflict management.
“We’re already seeing a ripple effect on attendance,” Torchon said. “We have an 82-percent attendance rate but we’re aiming for 92 percent.”
Torchon also asked the faculty to think of rituals that would make the school more welcoming to students, teachers and parents. His mantra, repeated at staff meetings and school events, went something like this:
“This is your building, your community. You are no longer guests here, you are hosts. Your diploma’s value will be based on the impressions people have of your school.”
As the year progressed, Adelaide High School began to create its own traditions, which were designed to foster a feeling of shared purpose. On Fridays, students invited their peers from The Met, E{+3} and Central High School to spend an hour or two playing basketball and volleyball. Nothing breaks down barriers between rival groups better than sports, Torchon said, especially when the teams are a mixture of students from different neighborhoods.
“We can invite other schools to get to know each other,” he said. “We have a responsibility to make sure we’re welcoming to one another.”
Adelaide also holds an academic celebration every quarter to recognize honor-roll students. Perhaps because the event is more celebratory than cerebral, it attracts 200 parents, a huge turnout for any urban school. The celebrations are popular, in part because they feature the food of a particular culture. But they are also serious. At each celebration, parents receive a mini-lesson on topics ranging from the senior project to the new statewide assessments.
“We eat together and then we talk,” Torchon said. “We try to alleviate that parental anxiety, that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling that happens when you walk into school knowing you’re going to hear something bad.”
This fall, the International Institute will offer classes to parents on the Adelaide campus, including English as a second language and courses leading to a GED. The institute, which is a clearinghouse for new arrivals to the United States, will also offer Spanish language classes to teachers.
“This suggestion came from the climate and culture committee,” Torchon said. “It’s an example of an idea bubbling from the bottom up.”
Thanks to suggestions from staff, Adelaide has also adopted a fresh approach to parent-teacher conferences. Instead of the typical five-minute meetings with teachers, parents will now be able to make an appointment with a guidance counselor; together, the counselor and parent will discuss how to improve the student’s academic performance.
Adelaide has also developed an academic probation program. Once a month, teachers from the core subjects in each team meet to discuss students who are in danger of failing. Any teen on academic probation must sign up for extra help after school. This year, those students were not eligible to participate in sports, but that policy will change in September.
Why? Because the data team decided that students who are trying to improve their grades shouldn’t be penalized while working toward improvement.
John Craig, one of two assistant principals at Adelaide, said he has never worked for such an inspirational leader, adding this has been his best year in Providence. As Craig put it, “Robbie Torchon isn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty.”
Torchon said he doesn’t spend much time alone in his office. He’s out in the corridors, popping into classrooms, handling discipline issues and meeting with parents.
“It’s leadership by doing,” he said.
Providence School Department may change financial practices
Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008
By Linda Borg
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — The School Department manages 26 separate health insurances packages. It operates four different payroll cycles. And it processes more than 17,000 benefit checks for former employees.
According to Mark Dunham, the department’s chief financial officer, some employees are paid weekly and some are paid bi-monthly. Complicating matters further, some employees choose to be paid 52 times a year while others choose to have their salaries spread over 42 weeks — the length of the school year.
At least one School Board member, Ronnie Young, called the multi-tiered payroll system “an obvious waste of money,” and asked why the department structured the payroll that way. Dunham said that union contracts dictate part of the schedule and added that the district has had some conversation with the teachers’ union about streamlining this system.
Although he didn’t have any estimates, Dunham agreed with board member Robert Wise that placing everyone on a bi-monthly payroll would significantly reduce overtime costs accrued by School Department staff.
The department processes 127,085 payroll checks a year, which translates into 15,885 checks handled by each payroll employee. His staff also processes 1,437 retirement benefits and 17,244 benefit checks, at considerable time and expense to the district. And Dunham said that he is in the process of talking to the state retirement board about taking over this responsibility.
The discussion over payroll systems occurred during a presentation by Dunham that detailed how the district’s Finance Department functions.
School Board member Rosanna Castro asked why the budget was driven by contractual obligations rather than programs. She referred to a recent audit by a private consultant, Phi Delta Kappa, which concluded that the budget does not reflect curriculum priorities, nor does it lay out a series of scenarios for bare-bones funding, desirable funding and optimum funding.
While Dunham agreed with the audit’s findings in theory, he said that the severe budget constraints under which Providence has been operating recently has prevented the department from using the budget to drive student improvement.
Meanwhile, the budget deficit is something of a moving target. After the School Board failed to approve a 2008-2009 budget, Mayor David N. Cicilline submitted a $319.9-million budget to the City Council, $6.7 million short of what Dunham said was needed to meet the district’s expenses.
Late last month, the General Assembly awarded an additional $3.5 million to the district, but state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters warned districts not to count on getting all of that aid because it is contingent on additional overnight gambling revenues from the Twin River casino, which is dealing with its own financial crisis.
“We’re trying to survive,” Dunham said. “There is no [local] money for student enhancement, no money for intervention. There is nothing left to cut, no money left to be had.”
Providence, however, does get some money from the state Department of Education to provide additional resources to schools that have consistently failed to make annual yearly progress. It also receives federal Title 1 monies, which are awarded to schools with large numbers of children living in poverty. But the federal dollars can only be used to pay for supplemental services; it can’t be used to pay for supplies, building repairs or teacher salaries.
The scale of the School Department budget became clear during last night’s workshop. The school budget is the largest municipal budget in the state. It manages 40 grants totaling $46.6 million and those monies are distributed to nearly 100 schools — more than half of them private or parochial schools. No matter where a Providence student attends school, that student is eligible for a variety of federal grants, some keyed to poverty.
The district not only administers these grants, it also must send staff to each of these non-public schools twice a year.
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