The Rhode Island Foundation is inviting Newport County residents to share their thoughts about the issues that matter most to them at a free community dinner on Tuesday, June 2.

The event will be held at Innovate Newport, 513 Broadway, from 5 to 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Registration is available at rifoundation.org/togetherri.

“We want to hear what matters most to you. Sharing your perspective will help guide our grantmaking, community engagement and more,” said David N. Cicilline, the Foundation’s president and CEO. “Your input will help us better understand how you see things in your community. These conversations will help us shape our work going forward.”

Participants will share ideas over family-style meals, with the Foundation providing moderators to help guide the conversations, though attendees will drive the discussions.

“We’re giving people the opportunity to talk face-to-face with each other over family-style meals,” Cicilline said. “Bring your ideas for improving your community and the local challenges you’d like to see the Foundation address.”

Three additional gatherings across Rhode Island are scheduled through September, and the public can attend any session regardless of where they live. The complete schedule is posted at rifoundation.org/togetherri.

As part of its “the Rhode Island Foundation in Your Community” initiative, Foundation staff will also be at Innovate Newport from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. to talk one-on-one with the public about local charitable giving, grantmaking and nonprofit capacity-building opportunities.

Last year, the Foundation awarded $5.2 million in grants to Newport County nonprofits for work in education, health care, economic opportunity, the arts, the environment and housing, among other sectors.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. More information is available at rifoundation.org.

As warmer weather arrives in New England, so has its annual crop of shark sightings, as some Rhode Island residents recently found out.

The Atlantic Shark Institute, a local research nonprofit, documented several sightings over the weekend. Those observations led them to a porbeagle shark that beached itself and died Sunday afternoon, the organization said on Facebook.

The first sightings began Saturday afternoon at Salty Brine State Beach in Narragansett. Witnesses said the shark was found wedged in rocks by the breakwater but eventually freed itself and swam in circles, according to Atlantic Shark Institute Executive Director Jon Dodd.

The shark later ended up in the shallow waters of Point Judith Pond and swam towards Billington Cove, where it beached and died the next day. Researchers said they presumed that it was the same shark in both sightings.

Porbeagles aren’t an uncommon sight in New England waters compared to other types of sharks because they prefer colder water, according to Dodd. However, a porbeagle swimming that far into Point Judith Pond is a first for the Atlantic Shark Institute.

Like many sharks, the porbeagle was likely making its way north to follow the colder water as summer approaches and temperatures rise. After it died, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) performed a necropsy and towed it out to sea.

Dodd noted in a statement to Boston.com that the shark never presented a danger to the people who spotted it. In fact, Dodd said, of the near-1,000 shark attacks documented in the International Shark Attack File, only two involved porbeagles, and neither were fatal.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — In an unexpected development, R.I. Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green announced Wednesday she is recommending the state relinquish control of the Providence schools by July 1.

The commissioner will make the recommendation to the R.I. Council on Elementary and Secondary Education on May 26, saying her decision came after “deep deliberation and consultation” with city and state leaders.

“This is an important moment, and I want to be clear: this conversation is happening now because of the work you — the students, families, educators and support staff, the community,” Infante-Green wrote in an open letter to the Providence Public Schools community.

If the handoff is successful, Providence would regain control of its school district for the first time since November 2019, following a devastating Johns Hopkins University report documenting systemic failures.

Infante-Green’s decision represents an about-face from Tuesday when she told reporters that she wanted to begin transitioning the district back to Providence this summer, but with the eventual handoff not happening until July 2027.

“I’m the one who put the line in the sand and said it’s going back in 2027,” Infante-Green said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, internal negotiations spilled into public view, exposing tensions over how the transition would unfold. On Tuesday, Infante-Green spokesperson Victor Morente chastised the Providence School Board for making those internal discussions public.

“Violating the confidentiality of these meetings undermines the mutual trust needed for a successful transition and raises serious questions about board leadership’s ability to manage complex, high-stakes negotiations,” Morente said in a statement.

In a draft order Infante-Green plans to recommend to the council, the commissioner outlined a series of steps the district should take to support its “long-term success.”

“The commissioner hereby states her firm conviction that the progress made by PPSD while it was under state control will not continue, and in fact student achievement in the district will regress, if the following measures, or substantially similar measures, are not undertaken by the responsible parties,” she wrote in the order.

The recommendations include hiring a board coordinator, commissioning a third-party review of governance strategies, properly funding schools and requiring training on the R.I. Code of Ethics.

The state’s nearly seven years running the problem-plagued school district has been a mixed bag. In her letter, Infante-Green cited examples of “measurable progress” during state control, including stronger academic outcomes, higher graduation rates and improvements in chronic absenteeism.

Yet only a third of students are proficient in English language arts, and just 31.4% are proficient in math, according to the latest standardized test scores. Many local and state leaders have also characterized the state takeover as a failed experiment, accusing RIDE of repeatedly moving the goalposts on measures of success and the return of local control.

The timing of the handoff to local control would come at the same time state and local politicians are vying to keep their jobs.

Gov. Dan McKee is trying to fend off a challenge from Democratic rival Helena Foulkes. Foulkes has said, if elected governor, she would fire Infante-Green and return local control to Providence.

McKee said Tuesday “the time has come” for the schools to go back to Providence.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley is facing his own Democratic primary challenge from state Rep. David Morales. Both men have supported regaining control of the Providence schools.

According to her draft order, Infante-Green said she would maintain authority over the schools until they are handed off. Until that time, she would retain “the right to rescind or modify” the order, she wrote.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated.

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