Good News on Hope High Theater

The Hope High Theater Program has been spared, or at least given another chance. You can read the story in this Projo article (free registration required). Kudos to those who worked hard to save this valuable experience, and to the officials who realized its value and kept it. Also to RIC, which will be offering an after-school theater class this fall that will enable students to receive college credit.

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Followup on taxes

Despite the poll results below, the legislature last night passed a cap on property tax increases. Property owners may rejoice, but friends of public education will be concerned. There is still no adequate state funding formula. Last year the ProJo reported:

RHODE ISLAND ranks near the bottom — 43rd nationally — for state support of education. The state claims second place in dependence on property tax to pay for schools. Only Hawaii relies more heavily on property taxes than Rhode Island, according to studies cited by the speakers. (3/13/05).

While property tax relief is welcome, the combination of high reliance on property taxes and limits on those taxes could spell trouble for public schools, as in California after Prop. 13. Perhaps the silver lining will be that it will force a rethinking of the state formula- hopefully before too much damage is done.

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RIC Poll: Taxes and Public Education

Here's another issue that's not on ESPEC's immediate agenda, but which matters to the success of public education in Providence. Results from the recent poll done by my colleague Vic Profughi and the RIC Bureau of Government Research Services were reported in the ProJo. I don't think this item made it into the paper:

60% said that before enacting property tax relief, the state should "come up with a new, more equitable state education aid formula". 30% said property tax relief first, and 9% didn't know. The margin of error was +/- 5%.

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News release on Bishop Committee

The Providence Schools site has this news release on the Bishop committee. (Link opens a PDF file)

The press release from Superintendent Evans lists the names of the committee members and says,

The Committee was created when it became evident that many residents, parents, teachers and students wished to become active partners in school improvement efforts after the announced closing of Bishop for the 2006-2007 school year.

“The East Side community has been overwhelmingly vocal about preserving Nathan Bishop Middle School and quality public education on the East Side of Providence for future generations,” said Superintendent Donnie Evans. “We welcome members of the Nathan Bishop Planning Committee to help the School Department in making recommendations for the future of Bishop, and we always welcome the involvement of the community to play a part in the improvement of our schools.”

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Hope Theater & School Board Meeting Monday 6/26

Although ESPEC has been focused on the elementary and middle schools, and Bishop in particular, we're concerned with good-quality education at all schools on the East Side, including Hope High. Clearly, if we are successful in bringing back good-quality middle school education, the high schools will have to be on our agenda sooner or later.

Recently, it was announced that Hope High was going to lose its theater teacher and program. This is at a school with Arts as one of its core components. It would leave only 2 theater teachers in Providence, one at Greene and one at Classical. The issue was before the School Board last Monday.

Last Monday's school board meeting was shut down by protests. The most vocal group was protesting the removal of a middle school principal but there were also Hope theater supporters there. (The meeting was not scheduled to allow public comment. The Board said they were legally precluded from adding a comment period. The protesters took exception and kept talking until the Board decided to postpone the meeting).

The Board moved the meeting to Monday, June 26 and scheduled public comment for then. The agenda can be viewed here. The Hope theater issue is still on it.

If you want to speak on this subject (or any other agenda item), or just want to hear the discussion (which will without question be highly interesting), the meeting is at 797 Westminster at 7pm Monday. (Usually the public meeting begins at 6:30, but this is special). There is usually 1/2 hour for comment. 3 minutes per person. You must arrive early to sign up.

As of tonight, we are hearing rumors that the program may not be cut after all, but have no confirmation of this. Until there's an official announcement, it's probably best to regard this as a live issue.

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ML King School points of pride

Moe Finigan (She's a King parent and PTO leader) posted this in the comments on the "Public School Success" topic. I'm not sure how many readers follow up comments on older posts and thought this deserved more attention:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Good News
Mr. Lazzareschi is the principal at MLK and has worked wonders in that school. He’s a person who comes up with solutions to problems instead of getting caught up with complaints. He’s made the year a great one for everyone at the school and will continue to do so.

I was told by our principal that 55 students from MLK School will be attending Nathanael Greene next year. He thought that was how many made it into the Academic Advanced Program there, but I haven’t checked to confirm that.

This year the Solatiti Trio, a world-reknowned classical music trio, came into the school to do a 10-week program with 4th grade students which culminated in a final performance in December. This was funded by a grant from RISCA and was a big success.

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Bishop & King in today’s ProJo (6/22)

This could go as a comment on the Bishop meeting, but it's important enough for its own post:

Linda Borg's report on the Bishop Committee (link here when available) appears to be generally accurate and fair. One point, however, stood out to ESPEC members. Ms. Borg says,

"Keeping Bishop open does not come without certain costs, however. Under the DeJong proposal, at least one of the three public schools on the East Side would be closed"

(She refers to King, Bishop or Gregorian, but DeJong's plans don't propose closing Gregorian).

The futures of Bishop and King are certainly linked, but it doesn't have to be an either/or choice. Firsst, as Bill DeJong frequently points out, his proposals are recommendations based on current enrollments, and the City of Providence (that's us!) will make the choices. (He is helping us reconcile the fact that PSD's enrollment figures are significantly below the census numbers).

We think demand for public education on the East Side is strong enough to support the schools we have. We think this will be seen soon after Bishop is reopened with an attractive building and good programs including advanced academics. Some people will be ready to jump right in (those already in public schools, those for whom the economic burden of private education is highest, those who really believe in public education for its contributions to democracy and social mobility, etc). Others may need a year or two of successful operation to be convinced. Under the DeJong plan, things don't all happen at once, so there should be time for this to happen.

To a great extent, we have argued that "if you build it, they will come". At the same time, PSD and the city are going to have demonstrate to skeptics that they are serious about providing excellent schools and are working effectively toward that goal. East Siders themselves are going to have to step up to the plate too. An intelligent, creative, cooperative and long-term effort is going to have to be made to avoid the eventual loss of one of the East Side schools. We all need to pitch in.

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Committee Meets: Toward a new Nathan Bishop

This post is nearly identical to the email sent to the mailing list. The real value here should be the comments readers make:

The first meeting of the Superintendent's Committee on the future of Nathan Bishop was held on Wednesday, June 21 from 4:30-7:00.

To see the committee's charge, click on the "Bishop Committee Charge" link under "pages" on the right.

The committee is chaired by Dr. Evans. Deputy Superintendent Fran Gallo and middle school administrator Denise Carpenter also serve. School Board members Bob Wise and M. Touray and Councilperson Rita Williams are the other public officials appointed to the committee.

The rest of the committee consists of community members. Some are East Siders, but citizens from all parts of the city serve as well. Four members of the ESPEC steering committee (Sue Greenfield, Harlan Rich, Sam Zurier and Tom Schmeling) have been appointed. Observers included representatives from Gilbane Construction, Mayor Cicilline's education aide Stacey Jordan, city council candidate Cliff Wood and reporter Linda Borg from the Providence Journal.

At the meeting, Dr. Evans presented on the committee's background and purpose and Bill DeJong presented data on enrollments, demographics and buildings.

The most important point is certainly that the committee unanimously supported the Superintendent's previously stated plan to re-open Bishop as a public school.

Several points of discussion emerged:

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Nathan Bishop in Today’s Projo (6/18)

The Sunday ProJo has an interesting piece by education writer and former School Board member Julia Steiny. I won't reproduce the whole thing for copyright reasons, though you can find it here (ProJo web site, free registration required).

Ms. Steiny reviews the sad state into which Bishop was allowed to fall and agrees that closing Bishop was the only available option. She notes that,

The neighborhood banded together in inspiring numbers to make painfully clear to the new superintendent that Nathan Bishop had not been the sort of place that middle-class people who can afford to pick and choose would send their children. Refreshingly, they lobbied hard for schools and programs attractive to people who have a choice. They wanted the school kept open, but fixed.

and,

Evans has said he plans to reopen the school in September 2007. I hope it will be as a model middle school with a rigorous, engaging curriculum.

When the Bishop closing was initially announced, and even after the temporary high school plan was withdrawn, there was no indication of any plan for its future. At that point, we launched our first phone and email campaign. We lobbied to keep Bishop open on the assumption that, once it was closed, it would never reopen and the East Side would lose yet another school. We were therefore gratified when, on April 3, the superintendent announced his intention to reopen the school at the same time he asked the School Board to shut it down for the year.

We join Julia Steiny in the hope that the New Bishop will emerge as a model school, and are committed to continue to work toward that goal. I would only add that, while we do want to create schools that are "attractive to people who have a choice" to pay for private schools, we are also determined that Bishop would benefit many students who do not have that choice.

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Public School Success Stories

We've found a recurring theme: People who have a low opinion of Providence public schools and refuse to send their children to them, but know little about them and may have never been inside one.

If you're already involved in public education, bring a friend to your child's school. You may have to wait until Fall, since schools let out this coming Friday.
Meanwhile we thought it might be good to share success stories from public schools that may change some minds. For East Siders, the stories are likely to come from Gregorian ES, King ES, Greene MS, Classical HS and Central HS, but all public schools can be mentioned.

Public school parents and teachers: post your stories in the comments!

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CitizenSpeak email advocacy for public schools

The post below reminds me that I neglected, at the June 1 meeting, to mention that ESPEC Steering Committee member Jo Lee is the founder and operator of CitizenSpeak, which is a wonderful public advocacy tool that ESPEC used to great effect just after we organized.

Our CitizenSpeak letter, modified to reflect subsequent events, remains online. If you aren't one of the more than 100 people who have already done so, show your support for public education by sending this letter, along with an optional personal statement. New names will demonstrate the breadth of demand for public education, but if you've already sent the letter, there is no need to do so again, and we may need to launch another campaign in the future

Click here to go to CitizenSpeak and send the letter.

The letter goes to Superintendent Evans, Mayor Cicilline, City Council President Lombardi, Council members Jackson, Segal and Williams, School Board President Mary McClure all members of the School Board.

The letter states:

We write to urge you to ensure that the commitment that has been made to reopen Nathan Bishop as a public school is kept.

Nathan Bishop should be transformed into a high-performing neighborhood school with advanced academic and other programs that will draw East Siders back into the schools, as well as serving students from other parts of Providence.

We believe that strong neighborhood public schools should be available to all children of Providence at all grade levels, and that the participation of East Siders in public education will strengthen the system in ways that will benefit students in all parts of town.
East Side residents stand ready and willing to work with the City and School Department to make this happen.

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Summit Neighborhood Association

This evening, Steering Committee members Sue Greenfield, Sam Zurier and myself met with the board of the Summit Neighborhood Association to make a brief presentation on ESPEC's activities. Summit resident Mona Delgado came along with us.

Summit, in Ward 3, includes the neighborhood the City calls Hope, and crosses Hope St. to take in a bit of Blackstone. It has a large number of children, a good percentage of which are already in public schools. A large proportion of the people who signed our initial CitizenSpeak letters back at the end of March were from this area, and it's evident that the demand for strong public schools here is exceptionally high.

SNA is a well organized and active neighborhood association. We are grateful for the opportunity to talk with the Board, and we look forward to working together with them. Special thanks to Jon Howard and Allan Tear for inviting us.

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Open Thread

Justin Boyan suggests the following:

As an alternative to letting people initiate new threads, I suggest posting “Open Threads” periodically – simply a blog entry with no specific subject, encouraging people to contribute comments concerning whatever’s on their mind.

My sense is that everyone has been posting what they want, where they want already- and that's just fine.  But, if an open topic will encourage more people to speak out, I'll give it a try.

So, what's on your mind?

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School Board meeting report

Sam Zurier reports from last night's School Board meeting:

Keeping with our message to the Community last Thursday, I went to last night's School Board meeting. It was sparsely attended, and there was not any discussion of issues of direct interest to our group.

The focus of public comment was on the plan to lay off a drama teacher at Hope High School. A total of around 10 students and teachers from Hope came forward to protest the decision. Some background to the decision is described in a report in this morning's Providence Journal, although the School Board discussion is not included in the article.

While this topic is not directly on point to our group, the general background raises a similar issue. The School Department's rationale for laying off the drama teacher is that only 31 students signed up for the program, while the teacher needs to teach 6 classes of 25 students each, or 150 students. The critics noted that the School Department could have done more to promote interest in the program either at Hope or at the middle schools.

We had a similar problem a few years ago at Classical High School with its Latin program. In that situation, parents and alumni protested the layoff, recruiting of Latin students increased, and the program was revived. This would appear to be the way to save the Hope program if people are willing to do some work.

I also think that this provides insight into how to return East Siders to the public schools. As was true for the Latin program at Classical and the drama program at Hope, the public schools used to operate on the East Side with a high level of success. At some point the program lost interest. Rather than eliminate the program, it would be better to revive it.

While this analogy is useful in terms of discussion, we obviously take the position that the fundamental existence of a school on the East Side is even more of a core function than Latin at Classical or theater at Hope Arts.

The Projo article Sam mentions is here (free subscription required): http://www.projo.com/metro/content/projo_20060606_hope6.12ab4412.html

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School Board meeting tonight, June 5

There is a School Board meeting tonight at 6:30 at 797 Westminster St.  There doesn't appear to be anything on the agenda specifically related to ESPEC's core concerns, but topics that should interest anyone are approval of a supervisor for elementary education and a proposal to change special education requirements.  Additional materials indicate that the Superintendent will report on the student behavior code and School Improvement teams.  The full agenda is at:

http://www.providenceschools.org/dept/board/meet05-06.html
We encourage all who are interested in public education to attend School Board meetings if their schedule allows.  Public meetings begin at 6:30.  Public comment is usually at the beginning of the meeting, and you need to arrive early to sign up.

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Blog Trivia: ESPEC Blog readership

ESPEC's Blog is now a week old, and has proven pretty popular. We get statistics on use each day. For the first 7 full days, the number of times the blog was hit by someone's browser:

Sat 77
Sun 83
Mon 111
Tue 174
Wed 78 (hmmm)
Thu 216
Fri 229

There are fewer readers than hits, since some people read several times, but that's still pretty good! In addition, we have (or so the software says) 27 people reading through RSS feeds.

Just so you know that when you post a comment, it will be widely read. 

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ESPEC’s Sam Zurier in East Side Monthly

The just-out June issue of East Side Monthly has a great piece by ESPEC steering committee member Sam Zurier. Sam talks about the past and future of public education on the East Side and, of course, talks up ESPEC. Be sure to read the column. Thanks, Sam!

For those of you who missed last month's issue, there's a long article by Dave Goldstein on Nathan Bishop, in which ESPEC gets good coverage. It's on-line at http://www.providenceonline.com/eastsidemonthly/covermay1.html

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Reflections on the Public Meeting

We had an excellent turnout tonight. We filled the basement room of the Library with between 80 and 90 people. Councilpersons Rita Williams and Kevin Jackson were there, as well as Council candidates Cliff Wood and Seth Yurdin. Steve Smith, president of the teachers' union showed up, as did a number of teachers from various schools. Many people identified themselves as public school parents, but an even larger group (a majority) identified themselves as people who WANT to send their children to good public schools!

ESPEC steering committee members presented on our past activities, the history of public school closures on the East Side, why we need continued action and ways in which people can help.

The main point of the meeting was for people who have been reading ESPEC's emails for the last 6 weeks to speak out about what they are looking for in public schools and from ESPEC. We got lots of ideas from the discussion and from the data sheets that people filled out, and we'll be pouring over those in the coming days.

We also got volunteers- hurrah! If we're going to keep the momentum we have we will need to spread the work around and we appreciate those who came forward- we'll be contacting you soon. (If you weren't at the meeting and want to volunteer, email us at espec.earthlink.net)

If you were at the meeting and didn't get to say something, add it as a comment below. We'll take all suggestions for what we should be doing.

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Bishop Committee to meet

The School Department's committee on the future of Nathan Bishop middle school is at last being constituted. One change in plan is that the Superintendent himself will chair the committee. Rita Williams and Denise Carptenter will serve as members, rather than co-chairs.

The exact composition of the committee has not yet been announced, but we know it is relatively large (25 or so). ESPEC steering committee members, as well as other East Side residents have already been asked to serve.

The first meeting of the committee is scheduled for June 21. This is quite a bit later than we expected when the committee was announced on April 14th. The committee was said previously to be charged to report by October, and we hope that time-frame will be kept, as efforts to make Bishop safe and attractive by the scheduled Fall 2007 re-opening would have to begin very quickly.

ESPEC is ecouraged that some movement here has taken place. We intend to do everything possible to ensure that the committment to re-open Bishop is kept, and that East Siders will again have a Bishop that they want to send their children to, as they have for many years in the past. We hope ESPEC will be a valuable conduit for your ideas to reach the committee.

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Meeting Tonight!

Just in case anybody missed it:

East Side Public Education Coalition public meeting

Tonight, June 1- 6:30 pm

Basement of the Rochambeau branch of the Public Library at 708 Hope St.

The purpose of this meeting is:

*To introduce East Side residents to the steering committee and ESPEC's efforts to-date

*To discuss the ways we, as a community, can best advance the goal of restoring good-quality public education for all East Side students

*With your help, to build a larger and stronger organization that can effectively advocate for public education on the East Side, and encourage officials to find creative and effective education solutions.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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