Mayor’s Press Conference- City Budget and Schools

In case you missed the evening news yesterday, or the ProJo this morning, Mayor Cicilline held a press conference yesterday in which he explained the impact of the recent state budget on the city’s finances.
Here are excerpts, related to education, from the ProJo story in today’s paper. The city “is facing what now appears [...]

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Mayor’s Press Conference on Budget Tomorrow

The following has just arrived via email. The potential implications for education budgets are obvious:

MAYOR TO ANNOUNCE STEPS CITY WILL TAKE TO ADDRESS
RAMIFICATIONS OF STATE BUDGET
News conference will be held on Wednesday, June 27 at 1 p.m. in the Mayor’s Office
PROVIDENCE – Mayor David N. Cicilline will announce steps the City of Providence is [...]

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Official Press Release on Nathan Bishop

The link below is to the official press release (small PDF file) announcing the authorization of the Nathan Bishop renovation. Note that the School Board also authorized construction of a technical education high school.
Press Release

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School Board Approves Nathan Bishop Plan

Last evening, the School Board voted unanimously to approve the Nathan Bishop renovation project. This is a remarkable achievement, considering where we started from more than a year ago.
Many thanks to members of the School Board, Superintendent Evans, Mayor Cicilline, Councilman Cliff Wood, and other officials who have helped to get us to this point.  [...]

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School Board Vote on Bishop Design

We have all had a chance, either in emails, here on the blog, or in person, to hear the recommendation of Ai3 that Nathan Bishop be renovated rather than torn down and rebuilt. The School Board will hear the recommendation at tonight’s meeting at 797 Westminster. You are encouraged [...]

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Last night’s AI3 presentation

Last night at King Elementary, Scott Dunlap of Ai3 presented their recommendation for the new Nathan Bishop. We learned that they will be recommending a renovated building, rather than new construction, to the City and School Board. It’s clear that not everyone will agree with this recommendation, but neither would everyone agree with [...]

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More on Pending Legislation- From Cliff Wood

You may have read in the ProJo this morning that there a several pieces of legislation pending in the General Assembly that would allow cities and towns to collect various user fees and
taxes.
The good news is that these funds could be used to plug the hole in education funding that was created when the G.A. [...]

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Effects of the Budget on Providence

The ProJo has a story today on the effects of the state budget on the City of Providence. Some quotes are below, the full story is here.
The House of Representatives passed its budget Friday without including any carrots for the City of Providence, leaving city officials waiting to see if they will [...]

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Final Planning Meeting for Nathan Bishop

We have just received the following from Maria Tocco, Communications Officer for the Providence Schools. This will be your last chance to have a say in what kind of school Nathan Bishop will be.
Please plan to attend this meeting!
Please note the last community meeting on the Bishop Middle School building will take place on:
WEDNESDAY, JUNE [...]

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Nathan Bishop and the Value of Your Home

More than a year has passed in the fight to open Nathan Bishop. Understandably, fatigue may be setting in. Why keep working toward opening Bishop, securing adequate funding, and reforming policies? Why even keep paying attention?
We’ve emphasized community-building and neighborhood stability. We’ve talked about democracy and equality of opportunity. We’ve preached [...]

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The Flawed Logic of Cutting State Ed. Funding Part I

We heard from the House floor on Friday that Rhode Island schools are getting enough money from the state already, so that it’s OK to flat-fund the schools, even if inflation means that last year’s budget buys less this year. The following facts are often adduced to support this sort of argument:

RI ranks 8th [...]

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The Vote and Debate on School Funding in the House

Article 21, “flat-funding” public education, passed yesterday on a 50 to 25 vote. Of course, given an inflation rate of 2.5% or so, it’s not really flat-funding, but a cut.
All 13 House Republicans voted against flat-funding (they support the Governor’s proposal for at 3% increase). They were joined by 12 Democrats, including [...]

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How does RI Education Compare?

RIPEC has an interesting page comparing RI, CT and MA on expenditure per student, teacher salaries, level of state vs. local funding. RI comes out lower on all measures except level of reliance on local taxes, where RI is 3rd in the nation (or 47th, depending on how you look at it). It’ll [...]

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House Flattens Education Funding

I’ve just returned from the State House, where I watched debate and the vote on Article 21 of the budget bill. This is the provision that rejects the Governor’s proposed 3% increase in state education funding, and freezes the state’s contribution to local education at last year’s levels.
I am sorry to say that the [...]

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Education Funding and Taxes

While we’re thinking about public education funding, I am reminded of the survey done by the public education network in 2004. I wish our state legislators would read it: It found that:

Education was voters’ top priority, after jobs and economy. Higher than healthcare, terrorism, crime, etc.
Education was the item that should be [...]

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ESPEC email updates

Every time I send an update to the 400 people on our email list, a few to a dozen or more bounce back to me.  Sometimes it’s a bad address so the person doesn’t get any updates, sometime a particular server rejects one particular update for unkown reasons.
Updates #18 and #19 were sent out in [...]

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Sign our CitizenSpeak petition today

Over a year ago, ESPEC launched a CitizenSpeak campaign that resulted in a turn-around of the decision to close Nathan Bishop. We’re at it again, this time with a petition directed at the Providence delegation to the state legislature.
Join us in urging legislators to refuse to accept the drastic cuts to education in the [...]

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Deep Cuts Coming for State Education Funding for Providence

[update for 6/13]: Todays’ Projo states that 9 [oops.. the ProJo's error...that should be 29] democratic representatives and 15 dem. senators have petitioned the leadership to restore the 3% education increase, and to restore the 5% capital gains rate, creating parity between RI and MA. East Side representative David Segal is quoted: “If [...]

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Joan Countryman at Hope High

Passing this along as a service to a great organization:
Join VIPS for a conversation with Joan Countryman…
Former Interim Head of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa and former Head of Lincoln School in Providence, speaks about the value of public education, community service and volunteerism.
$20    Admission to a conversation with Joan [...]

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ESPEC letter to Mayor Cicilline

   The steering committee sent the letter below to the Mayor on May 31, outlining ESPEC’s priorities for the upcoming decsion on renovation or new construction for Nathan Bishop.
May 31, 2007
HAND DELIVERY
The Honorable David Cicilline
Mayor, City of Providence
Providence City Hall, 2nd Floor
Dear Mayor Cicilline:
At a series of public meetings held at the Martin Luther King, [...]

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