Regents Hear Mayoral Academy Debate

Inside a brand new middle school in East Greenwich, Rhode Island’s Board of Regents and Education Commissioner Deborah Gist listened in on the contentious debate swirling around Mayor Allan Fung’s proposed mayoral academy.

Public testimony, mostly related to the academy, took up almost an hour and a half of the Board of Regents scheduled two-hour meeting. As a result, the Regents never had the opportunity to discuss among themselves the Achievement First proposal or hear from Mayor Fung on the issue.

Instead they adjourned the meeting at 6:00 p.m. and agreed to discuss the matter at their next meeting on June 16.

Most of the time was taken up by public testimony.

The parents of some students at the Blackstone Valley Mayoral Academy were there to tell the Regents what a difference the school has made in their young children’s lives.

School Committee Chairman Andrea Iannazzi and Superintendent Peter Nero were also there to tell the Regents that the school will have a detrimental effect on an already underfunded Cranston public school system.

Both reiterated the point that according to an analysis Fung commissioned, the Cranston schools were funded $3.9 million below what is needed to meet the Basic Education Program.

Fung said the figures were being used by school officials out of context.

“That’s the number that the superintendent keeps throwing around," Fung said. "Unfortunately what the superintendent fails to tell everyone is that in the past three buget years I’ve given the schools over $5 million.”

He added that the City Council agreed with him to give the money to the schools based on recommendations by the experts he hired.

“I’m not arbitrarily giving money or not giving money to them,” Fung said, “I relied on the school and finance expert that reviewed their budget request.”

David Hallin, from the Coalition to Defend Public Education, said at the meeting that a job posting had already been put up for the position of principal at the Achievement First mayoral academy in Rhode Island.

“We’re in a discussion and you’re being asked to approve or not approve,” said Hallin, “It’s a little disconcerting that they’re already posting jobs for principals in Rhode Island.”

He noted that he saw it on their website.

“Maybe they know something that we the public don’t know,” said Hallin.

Cumberland Mayor Dan McKee was also at the meeting in support of the charter school and to stand by Fung. He said he believed mayors should be more involved in public education and this "is a great way for mayors to have that."

Lincoln Town Administrator Joe Almond also spoke on the matter.

“I’ve heard comments about siphoning, draining,” said Almond, who represents a town served by the Blackstone Valley mayoral academy. “These schools are structured to take entire classes. . .there should be a net offset in funding, funding follows the child, if you lose 200 children, your expenses should equate to that.”

He added that from 2002 to 2006, funding for schools in Lincoln increased by 40 percent and that did not result in an increase in performance. In fact, he said, "we've had a decline."

The proposed academy will be funded on a per-pupil basis according to Mike Magee, chairman of Rhode Island Mayoral Academies. So the mayoral academy will only receive funds if Cranston students use it, which will result in less funds for the general public schools, but also in less students in those same schools. The per student funding will remain the same – about $13,600.

The public debates so far have featured many speakers who are teachers, union members or public officials. Magee said he hopes to hear from more parents "who don't have any stake in the outcome except for their own children."

“We want to hear from parents that are not connected to any organization,” Magee said. “That are not involved in the day to day political conversation in these communities, but are just looking for good public school options for their kids.”

He said that there were a small amount of parents that came to the hearings for Blackstone Valley Prep but now they get 900 applications every year for the available seats at the school.

Magee added that the funding issues are manageable down the road and said the district would be involved in the charter school. He said the districts handle the Achievement First lotteries in the New Haven, Ct. schools, which could be an idea used in Cranston.

One of the trump cards in this debate has been the issue of the Race to the Top funds. Rhode Island was recently awarded $75 million in federal education funds as part of the Race to the Top program. As part of that application, the state has a commitment to “continued growth of high quality charter schools,” according to Bill Fischer, of the state branch of Democrats for Education Reform.

“If the state does not continue to grow high quality charters then we are breaking our commitment with the Department of Education and there will be ramifications,” Fischer said. He said the Department of Education could withhold funds if the state does not meet the proposals in its application.

After the public discussion, the Regents voted to adjourn without hearing from Fung or from representatives from Achievement First. Betsy Shimberg was the only member of the Board not to vote for adjournment.

Chairman George D. Caruolo voiced concern that a job had been advertised for a position that hadn’t been approved yet and said that, “No one should think we arrived at a decision without considerable public consideration.” 

“The philosophy of this board is we listen to everybody, within reason, for as long as they would like to talk to us,” added Caruolo. 

The next meeting of the Board of Regents is scheduled for June 16 at 11:30 a.m. at the Rhode Island Department of Education building, 255 Westminster Street, Providence.