UPDATED: State Senator—Abolish Appointed School Boards
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
State Sen. Paul Jabour has submitted legislation that would require that all school boards be appointed—which would affect the cities of Providence and Central Falls, which have the only appointed boards in the state.
The bill also could potentially affect a third city, Woonsocket, which is permitted by state law to have an appointed board, but currently elects its school board members.
In fact, state law already requires that boards be elected. The new legislation would simply remove the exemption for the three communities.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTJabour, D-Providence, said his bill would increase public accountability for school boards in those three cities.
Those two cities also happen to be the only places where wholesale firing of teachers has occurred in the state recently. The Providence School Board has also stoked controversy recently over decisions to close schools and the Central Falls School District has been under scrutiny for accusations of mismanagement.
Senator: School closing disproportionately affected neighborhoods
In Providence, Jabour said he believes the current makeup of the school board does not adequately represent all city neighborhoods. As a result, he said recent decisions on school closing and teacher layoffs disproportionately affected some areas of the city over the others.
“With the disproportionate closings of schools in some neighborhoods and the spending of significant money on renovations of schools in others, it really seems like some Providence neighborhoods are being completely disregarded. If the School Board had to answer to voters in their own wards, they would be much more responsive to the will of the people in the neighborhoods who are affected by that kind of change,” Jabour.
Jabour also noted that schools represents a large part of local budgets and make a “significant difference in the quality of life in a community” and property values. “The people in my neighborhood deserve better representation on the School Board, and they are entitled to the same rights as other Rhode Islanders to choose the people who make the very important decisions that affect their schools,” he said.
Officials in all three affected cities declined to comment.
CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this article stated that Woonsocket has an appointed school board. State law does allow Woonsocket to have an appointed school board, but the city currently elects school board members.
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