Taveras Administration Blocks School Information Request
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Critics of the Taveras administration are once again challenging the city’s lack of transparency when it comes to school-related matters after city officials refused to make two high-level staff members in the Providence School Department as well as the city’s Senior Advisor on Education available for interviews with GoLocalProv.
Since August 24, GoLocalProv has made repeated requests to interview the three parties about allegations that a member of the Taveras administration attempted to pull strings in order to get the children of elected or connected officials into public schools on the East Side of Providence despite living outside of the neighborhood.
School Department spokeswoman Christina O’Reilly and City Communications Director Melissa Withers issued one statement shortly after the initial request was made, but have refused to return e-mails asking follow up questions.
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The original inquiry asked School Department COO Carleton Jones and interim Director of Student Registration & Placement Dr. Jose Gonzalez if they had ever been asked, or had knowledge of other school officials being asked, to place students in East Side schools without going through the lottery system the city uses when a school is overenrolled.
Providence uses an 80/20 rule when it comes to school registration, meaning 80 percents of students going to a given school are require to be from the neighbor the school is in. The other 20 percent is reserved for students from other parts of the city.
In a statement released to GoLocalProv nearly two weeks ago, O’Reilly said the school district does not comment on the enrollment status or share personal information about individual students.
“The district offers parents choice in selecting schools,” she said. “In many cases, parents select, and are eligible, to send their child to a school outside of their neighborhood. Other students may be assigned to a non-neighborhood school if that school has programming better suited to a child's unique needs.”
They Refuse To Answer Legitimate Questions
But both the city and the district has refused to answer questions about an alleged list of children presented to school officials at school registration this summer. Sources say the list included the children of City Councilman Bryan Principe and School Board Member Julian Dash. Principe and Dash denied comment for this story.
For former School Board President Kathy Crain, the administration has gone too far in its efforts to withhold information from the public. Crain, who is now an outspoken critic of the Mayor, said the city should answer questions about whether a city employee attempted to manipulate the enrollment process.
“Mayor Taveras was elected by the people of Providence with the promise of an honest and accountable administration,” she said. “Yet his refusal to answer politically sensitive questions, such as whether his administration tried to manipulate the school enrollment process for children of politically connected families, or whether he issued an illegal "Executive Order" to place a hiring freeze on external teaching candidates, suggest anything but a willingness to be honest with and accessible to the public. In the growing number of cases where the Mayor and his staff refuse to answer legitimate questions, their reticence speaks volumes. “
Who Got Bumped?
Veteran City Council member Kevin Jackson also said the city’s silence on the matter is disturbing. Jackson said he wants to know what happens to a child from the neighborhood if the students from other neighborhoods are being enrolled instead.
Jackson said he doesn’t like the idea of a member of the administration attempting to pull strings.
“My question would be, ‘did any kids from neighborhood schools get bumped because of other kids getting in?’” Jackson, who represents Ward 3 on the East Side, said. “If it were a kid in my neighborhood, I’d be happy to make a call. But I don’t like someone from City Hall doing it.”
Former Mayoral Candidate: It Doesn’t Matter Who The Child Is
During his campaign last fall, Mayor Taveras made transparency a top priority. On his campaign website, he blasted corruption and “pay to play” politics.
“Our city has made great strides in ending the ‘pay to play’ corruption that damaged public trust in government and imposed enormous costs on taxpayers for decades,” the website says. “As the only candidate in this race who is not a career politician and does not accept campaign contributions from city workers and city vendors, my administration will pride itself on its honesty, openness and transparency.”
But former Mayor John Lombardi, who lost in the Democratic Primary to Taveras, said the Mayor hasn’t lived up to his pledge.
“The Mayor has said he wants to be open and transparent, but I’m not sure this is it,” Lombardi said. “It doesn’t matter whose child it is, no one should be above the rules.”
Lombardi compared Taveras to his predecessor, David Cicilline.
“It should be by the book,” Lombardi said. “The same thing happened with the last Mayor. He campaigned on being honest and transparent. This Mayor has done the same.”
The city had no comment for this story.
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