A Rhode Island Superior Court judge on Friday ruled in favor of the state education department, which has withheld $8.5 million in aid from Providence for failing to meet funding obligations for city schools, widening the rift between city leaders and state education officials.

Rhode Island Superior Court Associate Justice Jeffrey A. Lanphear issued two rulings in favor of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), backing the state-run Providence Public School Department (PPSD)declaring that the city is not paying its fair share to the school department. 

“This court, in everything that it does, somehow always seems to apply principles of fairness,” Lanphear said at an afternoon bench motion that followed the release of written decisions Friday morning. “But frankly, balancing the equities is simply not an element of this motion…Here, the only issue is whether or not the city can pay its obligation to the state department. Otherwise, the state can freeze the money.”

Providence School Board makeover is halfway there after Tuesday’s election

The first ruling partially denied the city’s appeal to stop RIDE from withholding over $7 million in state aid from the Distressed Communities Relief Fund in fiscal year 2024. The judge’s decision underscored the state’s authority over municipalities when they fall short of fulfilling the Crowley Act — the statute that authorized the 2019 state takeover of Providence schools and also prescribes how much funding a state-controlled district must receive from local sources.  

Lanphear’s second ruling concerned an October request from RIDE Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green to state Treasurer James Diossa to withhold $8.5 million in car tax payments, claiming Providence owed nearly $30 million to the district overall. The city then filed a legal complaint. The disputed funds remain in escrow — which is where they’ll stay for the time being, as just how much the city will owe is still unclear.

Lanphear scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 9:30 a.m. to help complete what he called “a simple mathematical calculation” that will determine the city’s debt to its schools. Lanphear said he didn’t trust his own mathematics and would be leaving that to experts at next week’s hearing.

While the judge didn’t trust his math, he was more confident in his reading of the Crowley Act. The state could probably fund the entirety of the budget shortfall on its own, Lanphear thought, but the Crowley Act compels the city to increase financial support for the school district each year, regardless of the state’s financial health. RIDE and the city’s wildly different interpretations of the act have formed the terra firma of the ongoing legal contest. 

Lanphear rejected the foundation of the city’s argument: That the act requires municipal aid to state-run school districts to mirror the increase in state aid to that particular district. 

“Since the statewide total school aid increased, the City must increase the amount of funding to the PPSD with an equal percentage increase,” Lanphear wrote in his first decision. “The increase in aid to the particular district is not a factor in this calculation.” 

Infante-Green’s request to withhold funds followed Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s public feud with Providence Superintendent Javier Montañez. Montañez called Smiley ahead of a school board subcommittee meeting on Oct. 9, and requested nearly $10.9 million in emergency funding. Without the money, there could be cuts to winter and spring sports, student bus passes and numerous other areas, the superintendent warned. 

Smiley responded with a $1 million offer the following day, promising to use money from not-yet-finalized payment in lieu of taxes agreements recently struck with nonprofits in the city. The City Council promised an additional $1.5 million from the final reserves of pandemic relief money. Both mayor and council agreed that the school district would be subject to a third-party audit before they could get any funds. The school department has yet to take any action on the offers, and the City Council earlier this week canceled a meeting that would have authorized the funds, due to the court battle.

Consequences may be very costly

A “deeply disappointed” Smiley issued a statement Friday, arguing that the decision could have expensive consequences for residents across the capital city, including students and their families.

“This decision puts the City’s finances at risk and in the days ahead, we will need to make difficult decisions that we had hoped to avoid, including the potential to increase taxes, cut programs and stop future borrowings, the largest of which is for the future development of new school buildings for our students,” Smiley wrote.

The mayor then echoed his previous skepticism about the district’s budgeting skills: “I am disappointed that the wasteful, irresponsible spending of the Providence Public School District and the historical lack of sufficient State funding for our highest need students has led us to this point today,” Smiley added.

Providence City Council President Rachel Miller issued a statement Friday lamenting the judge’s “striking decision,” saying it may endanger the city’s financial health. RIDE, Miller argued, sacrificed collaboration and transparency to pursue “an adversarial route” that ignores city needs beyond the school department.

“While RIDE does not have to consider the impacts of cuts to critical city services or tax increases on a struggling community, we do, and the families of PPSD students do as well,” Miller wrote. “Why should Providence taxpayers be forced to bankroll an opaque and irresponsible budgeting process that treats students and families as collateral damage?” 

On the greener side of the grass were the victorious Infante-Green and Montañez, who celebrated the ruling in a joint statement. 

 “Today’s Court ruling is a win for our kids,” they wrote. “Our priority throughout this legal dispute has been clear: making sure Providence students, teachers, and school communities have the proper resources they need and deserve.”

Jennifer Wood, executive director of Rhode Island Center for Justice, said after the bench motion that she would be meeting with Providence students and parents to consult further about the new developments.“Even from preliminary conversations I know that they are tremendously relieved that further immediate cuts to their schools may be avoided based on the two rulings today,” Wood said.

Wood also highlighted Lanphear’s argument focusing on “the harm to students and their families” without a “‘great’ school system.”

“There are so many small decisions that can make a difference in what a student learns and how they develop and become adults,” Lanphear said at the bench motion.

Head to the Pawtucket brewery this Saturday night to watch the local football club compete in its second playoff game.

Rhode Island FC (RIFC) made it to the playoffs in its first season and after winning against Indianapolis’s Indy Eleven last weekend, they’re taking on their next opponent in the club’s second playoff game this Saturday. RIFC will compete against the number one team in the league, Louisville City FC, on the opposing team’s home turf. 

You can watch the two teams go head-to-head at the Guild in Pawtucket Saturday night for a special watch party event, featuring the brewery’s RIFC Pale Ale — “The Official Craft Beer of Rhode Island FC” — an American-style pale ale that was created especially for the local team by the Guild Brewing Company. 

Courtesy of RIFC/The Guild

It’s sure to be a close one, with both teams performing similarly well — both RIFC and Louisville have not lost in seven matches since late September, and Louisville leads the league with a 24W-6L-4D record, which rivals RIFC’s 12W-15D-7L regular season record. Even though RIFC has a weaker record than Louisville, they’re the only club in the USL Championship that Louisville failed to beat in multiple meetings this season. 

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If you want to watch the match with fellow RIFC fans, be sure to head over to the Guild this Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. And if you can’t make it to the Pawtucket brewery, the match will also be streamed live at breweries and sports pubs across the Ocean State, like the Providence Brewing Company, Moniker Brewery, Troop PVD, The Thirsty Beaver Hometown Pub & Grub in North Kingstown and Smithfield, Newport Craft Brewing in Newport, Providence G Pub and Picos Restaurant and Lounge in Pawtucket. 

To learn more about RIFC or to get 2025 season tickets, head to rhodeislandfc.com. 

 

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Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s office begins accepting applications Friday for five open seats on the city’s school board. Voters on Tuesday already decided who will fill the other five.

For the first time since 1966, Providence voters had a say in who sits on the school board after a new, hybridized board structure was approved by the city’s voters in 2022, reversing a decision the city’s electorate made a half-century earlier. In 1968, about 56% of the city’s voters approved a change to make all seats on the school board appointed

According to unofficial, preliminary results, the winning, nonpartisan candidates are:

• Corey Jones in District 1.
• Miche’le Lee Fontes in District 2.
• Heidi Silverio in District 3.
• Mireya Mendoza in District 4.
• Ty’Relle Stephens in District 5.

The Providence Public School Department (PPSD) has been under state control since 2019. That takeover left the board’s powers severely limited, which means its members often act in a consultory or symbolic role, and have no direct influence over how the district spends money, or how it hires or fires teachers and staff. Those important decisions are made largely at the state level. 

Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green oversees the state takeover, which she extended in August, forecasting its end sometime in the next three years. Since board members stay on for four years, both newly elected and appointed members could enjoy more decision-making power in the latter portion of their terms.

Power limitations didn’t stop enthusiasm for the race, which saw endorsements from both union and charter stakeholders.

“Voters chose candidates that will ensure parents, community, students and educators will have a voice in the conversation and a seat at the table to strengthen our schools, collaborate on a fair funding formula, and chart a course for successful public schools,” said Maribeth Calabro, outgoing president of the Providence Teachers Union, in an email Thursday.

Jones, Silverio and Stephens had the teachers’ union endorsement, while Fontes was the sole victorious candidate endorsed by Stop the Wait RI, a pro-charter school organization. Stephens, who did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, was the only incumbent board member who won his contest. Three of his colleagues — Michael Nina, Toni Akin, and Night Jean Muhingabo — lost their respective races.

The defeated incumbent Muhingabo is hopeful he may still be appointed by Smiley, said his spokesperson Diego Arene-Morley in a text message on Thursday. Muhingabo, 25, ran for the first time. Arene-Morely noted that some of the candidates have been in Providence politics for as long as Muhingabo has been alive.

The City Council will presumably vote on Smiley’s nominees in February, said Anthony Vega, a spokesperson for the mayor. The school board will elect its president during a full meeting that same month. Erlin Rogel, the current president of the school board, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. 

“One of the hardest things in the education space is it feels like we keep doing the same thing over and over again,” Smiley said at a press conference Wednesday.

Smiley said he had spoken to and congratulated the newly elected board members, who were “full of energy and enthusiasm,” that morning. But he also noted they would need to learn the ropes quickly.

“In an attempt to not repeat the mistakes of the past or start from scratch yet again, we’re going to be working closely with them to brief them on the turnaround plan, brief them on the history of how we got to this point, and bring them up to speed,” Smiley said, referring to the guiding document for the takeover.

The mayor plans to interview finalists from Dec. 30, 2024, through Jan. 6, 2025, before sending his choices over to the City Council for their stamp of final approval.

Currently, the board has nine members, and their terms will expire at the end of the year regardless of when they were appointed.

Voters on Tuesday also approved a bond worth $400 million — the most expensive in Rhode Island this election year, at either the municipal or statewide level — to make capital improvements to the city’s schools. With interest, the bond’s estimated cost is $686 million, and the construction projects are expected to last from approximately May 2026 to June 2029.    

Funding fights continue

While capital improvement got a big boost from voters, the district’s finances are in seriously bad shape. Just how bad is a matter of contention between the district, RIDE, the mayor’s office and the Providence City Council. On Oct. 10, Mayor Smiley called a press conference to criticize the“ultimatum” Superintendent Javier Montañez made the previous day asking for $10.9 million for the district. 

Montañez warned that without the emergency cash infusion, schools could soon see programs slashed apart, including winter and spring athletics and bus passes.

Smiley promised $1 million in additional funding from city coffers — ones newly stuffed from payments in lieu of taxes from local, major nonprofits like Brown Health, formerly Lifespan. The City Council would need to approve the funding — which it did, offering another $1.5 million along the way on Oct. 22. But both mayor and council were aligned that their gifts came with a caveat: The school district would be subject to an independent audit of its finances. The City Council additionally asked that the emergency money be used to restore bus passes and sports. 

Montañez has not accepted the offers. He wrote to the mayor on Oct. 11 that “the City has money, but it’s choosing not to invest in schools,” and replied on Oct. 23 to the City Council’s Chief of Staff June Rose that their offer was “insufficient.” The City Council then held a press conference on Oct. 29, noting the superintendent had ignored a followup letter from Council President Rachel Miller.

The district’s money problems are something of a tradition. Back in 1968, the push for an all-appointed board was led by then-mayor Joseph A. Doorley Jr., who wanted to disassemble the elected board because of “muddled school finances,” the Providence Journal reported then. Mayor Doorley also noted that an independent audit of the district’s finances had found a $2.4 million deficit — about $22 million in today’s dollars but almost the exact same figure city officials are offering to repair the budget gap in 2024.

A City Council subcommittee was originally set to discuss this emergency funding — which would be pulled from pandemic relief that expires in December — Thursday. But the meeting was postponed, citing a court hearing earlier that day regarding a legal battle between the city and state. 

Following a request from Infante-Green to Rhode Island General Treasurer James Diossa to withhold $8.5 million in car tax refunds, Providence filed a Superior Court complaint on Oct. 16 to block the action.

“We now also need to resolve the recent withholding order as it will affect the City’s ability to provide any additional support,” said Josh Estrella, a Smiley spokesperson, in an email Wednesday.

Whoever ends up footing the bill, some students and their families are getting restless with the back-and-forth, and they congregated outside Providence City Hall on Monday to call for the district’s acceptance of the $2.5 million, even if it doesn’t meet the full amount needed. A video by Steve Ahlquist shows students speaking on the steps.  

“Brett Smiley, the city of Providence, and every adult in power: Do better,” said Nya Isom-Agazie, a junior at Providence Career and Technical Academy, who was recorded in Ahlquist’s video speaking on the steps. “I don’t want to be back up here.”