City Council Brawls Over School Board
Friday, May 06, 2011
With raised voices and impassioned speeches, the Providence City Council debated at their meeting last night firing the bulk of the Providence School Board, and having the voters decide who will serve on the school committee.
Nerves were still raw from a contentious school committee meeting last Thursday where the school board voted to close five Providence schools. Discussion of a resolution by Councilmen Nicholas Narducci (Ward 4), Bryan Principe (Ward 13), and Davian Sanchez (Ward 11) to request the immediate resignation of six members of the board who voted for the closings, quickly segued into a loud back-and-forth over the resolution that followed on the agenda, which asked for a 2011 Providence ballot question to amend the Home Rule Charter to allow for an elected school board.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFrom Firings to Fireworks
Narducci led off the discussion on firing the school board members, after promising to file such a proposal after last Thursday’s schools closing vote.
Arguing in the same vein as he had the week prior about unanswered questions to the board, unnecessary costs, and busing of students out of their neighborhoods, he wrapped up by saying “I will not support any school board member from this point on, because I can’t be sure they do what’s right for our kids,” adding a defiant, “I will not give up.”
An Elected or Appointed School Board?
With the permission of Council President Michael Solomon, Narducci then addressed the resolution to allow city voters to decide if they wanted to change Providence’s school to an elected body. The school board currently consists of nine members appointed by the mayor from recommendations sent to him by a nomination committee. (For an earlier GoLocalProv article on the elected vs. appointed debate, click here.)
“I am now in favor of elected school boards,” Narducci said. “I urge the council to take an elected school board seriously.”
Councilman Sam Zurier (Ward 2) rose to the defense of the school board, saying that while he had worked with Narducci to get answers from the committee, and was an advocate for the students and their families, “I have to respect decisions once they are made.”
“They (the board members) are honest people, acting in good faith,” Zurier said, and urged his fellow council members to avoid blaming one neighborhood for another’s woes.
Zurier than spoke in favor of remaining with an appointed school board, saying that is was “the composition of the board, not election or appointment” that most mattered.
At this point Councilman Kevin Jackson (Ward 3) loudly declared himself in favor of moving to an elected board, rebutting Zurier by saying “We need elected (school board members) in neighborhoods for people that don’t have an advocate.”
“Now is the time to make each and every person (on the school board) accountable to the people of Providence,” Jackson said. “Let taxpayers and the electorate choose a school board.”
You Have to Defend Your Decisions
In the debate that emerged about an elected school committee being more neighborhood-centric than an appointed board that takes the entire city’s situation into account, Councilman Luis Aponte said, “I don’t buy that people would be more parochial in their decisions.”
Aponte’s main problem was “It is all about ‘Where do I go to get redress for a decision?’ Today, we do not have it,” he said. “The school board should have to go out and get approval, go out and defend their decisions.”
“Who are they accountable to?” asked Aponte. “Those who appoint them. It’s the structure, the way it is today.”
Citing Chaucer: A Cautionary Tale
Councilman John Igliozzi (Ward 7) brought the council chambers back to room temperature when he spoke of learning from Chaucer the concept of “a cautionary tale. “ He used the example of the Johnston school committee, which has an elected school board, and ended up taking their town council to court for more money for education, which they won in the legal decision.
If that is to be the case with an elected committee, Igliozzi said, then an elected school board should be responsible for raising their own tax revenues for education, not having the City Council do it for them.
Igliozzi further explained after the meeting, telling GoLocalProv, “You have to first put it into the proper context. If you don’t separate the taxing authority, the school board gets the benefit of educating the children, but no liability for the funding. We need to take a look at it all, the pros and cons,” he said, before he or the City Council could make a final decision.
Referred to Finance Committee
At the end of the debate, both the resolution calling for the school board resignations and the proposal for a 2011 ballot question on an elected school board were referred to the Finance Committee.
Also referred to the Finance Committee earlier in the meeting was a packet of four financial reform resolutions related to recommendations made by the recent “Corrective Action Plan to Restore Sound Financial Management” report. Designed to implement the corrective actions suggested by the report, they involved guidelines to replenish the city’s “Rainy Day Fund”; create an audit committee to oversee Providence’s accounting procedures; institute mechanisms to ensure managerial compliance with the City Charter; and establish penalties for violations of the Home Rule Charter, including punishment by fines and possible jail time.
If you valued this article, please LIKE GoLocalProv.com on Facebook by clicking HERE.
Related Articles
- Making the Grade: What Schools Did the Best
- BREAKING NEWS: Providence School Committee Votes to Close Five Schools
- BREAKING NEWS: Gist ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Providence Schools
- BREAKING NEWS: Four More Failing Schools in Providence
- New Group: RI Schools Need to be Fundamentally Changed
- Schools That Didn’t Make the Grade
- UPDATED: Providence Schools Chief Leaving