Rhode Island
How a Central Falls school is inching its way towards year-round schooling • Rhode Island Current
Angelo Garcia likens our current education system to a snow globe. Everybody basically agrees on what should be the bits of educational snowflake materials – the math, science, geography, even recess. Once in a while the globe might get shaken up by demands for accountability, radically changing reading instruction, or whatever.
But in time, with hardly anyone noticing, the snowflakes quietly drift back down to what Garcia, co-founder and executive director of the Segue Institute for Learning, calls “the same inflexible, contained environment.”
With, I might add, the same lackluster results.
For 15 years, Garcia and Segue co-founder, Melissa Lourenco, have been experimenting with how to rearrange the necessary elements of education, but get past its conventional confines.
For example, kids’ summer learning loss is an accepted liability of the agrarian school calendar. For students at this school in Central Falls, the poorest community in Rhode Island, it’s dire.
On a recent, hot summer day, Lourenco took me on a tour of what initially looked like a typical, remedial summer school, with a phonics lesson here and math puzzles there.
A Spanish-dominant group of squirmy little kids hovered around a young instructor helping them unpack the meanings and feelings of emotion words. Would, for example, getting a shot at the doctor’s office make you worried, or “preocupada?” The kids erupted with anxious chatter. The adult switched easily and often between English and Spanish, to translate and commiserate.
The instructor is one of six extra adults who are either doing their teaching practicum through the Rhode Island School for Progressive Education or are completing a B.A. through College Unbound. These programs fast-track would-be teachers who need experience.
Several schools work with these programs since education badly needs more teachers, but especially teachers of color. Other than maternity leaves, Segue has had zero teacher turnover, but they’ll need new teachers eventually. For them, the extra adults helped make the student groups smaller, giving more attention to students who need as much help as they can get.
The kids in that squirmy group are incoming kindergartners getting a jumpstart on language skills, and making friends and adult allies. Few summer programs would bother with students who don’t yet need academic remediation.
The Segue summer strategy has the groups – K-8 – cycling through six “stations” Monday through Thursday. Each station lasts only 25 minutes, so they don’t have time to get bored before moving on to a new subject and place. Three stations are academic – math, English Language Arts and the social-and-emotional learning one we observed. The other three stations promote creativity and collaboration with soft-sell academics woven throughout – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), arts and crafts, and recreation, which is essentially organized recess.
Summer staff experiment beyond the regular curriculum in search of lessons that might be more effective or engaging for use during the regular school year.
On Friday, a.k.a. Fun Friday, kids go bowling, to the beach, the movies, or whatever the grant they got for the purpose can afford. It’s a huge draw.
Indeed, a fifth-grader steamed up to me singing the praises of “all the fun stuff,” while proudly assuring me that while he still had “bad behavior” feelings, “I know how to behave.” He’s apparently a handful, but strongly motivated to stay in the program.
Lourenco says the older kids moan and groan about summer school, but they come. During the regular year, Segue’s 360 urban students have a remarkably low chronic absenteeism rate, 10%. But the 120 enrolled in the summer program come almost as faithfully.
A fifth-grader steamed up to me singing the praises of “all the fun stuff,” while proudly assuring me that while he still had “bad behavior” feelings, “I know how to behave.
A cohort of kids referred for chronic absenteeism work with a social worker who brainstorms with the older kids about how they could get themselves to school regularly. The younger students attend the academic program to make up for lost time and learning while the social worker engages with their families, who should be getting them to school.
Other students come because they have special needs. A few come because their families badly need child care and plead their case with school officials.
Garcia insists that Segue’s is not really a summer school, “but an extension of the school year. There’s always a need to prevent regression, which is why we’re talking about a year-round school.”
Lourenco experienced year-round schooling in another state. She started “whispering” the possibility to the staff, and found them to be surprisingly open. The school would stay within their 185-day year, but take intermittent two weeks off for, say, a fall break. The breaks would be timed differently from the other public schools so families aren’t competing with the rest of the state for flights or space at the Children’s Museum.
To boot, Garcia believes such a year-round schedule would ease teacher burnout as well as staunching learning loss. Teacher burnout is as big a problem as learning loss and probably contributes to it.
That said, teachers already work more weeks than is typical, starting the first week of August. While that sounds like a deal-breaker for many, Segue’s teachers stick around and their chronic absenteeism is zero.
“Obviously,” Garcia says, “Segue is not for everybody.”
But it’s not a snow globe either.
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A new era for State Troopers in southern RI
Closing the State Police barracks facilities in Wyoming and Wickford marks the end of an era in community policing
Republican candidate for lieutenant governor John Loughlin wants the office to become the Rhode Island inspector general his party has been seeking in vain for years.
Loughlin, a former state representative, said on May 11 that, if elected, he would staff the underutilized office with people who would help him expose “fraud, waste, abuse, and government corruption.”
“Rhode Islanders are sick and tired of watching their tax dollars disappear into a black hole of inefficiency, cronyism, and outright corruption while the General Assembly talks a big game but delivers nothing − year after year after year,” Loughlin said in a news release. “For more than two decades, the legislature has failed to create a true Inspector General with real investigative power. Enough is enough. If they won’t do it, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office will − starting on day one.”
Why turn the lieutenant governor into an inspector general?
The Rhode Island Constitution gives the lieutenant governor little to no authority beyond being available in case the governor is unable to finish their term. That’s prompted some to call it a “do nothing” office and others to propose abolishing it.
“Frankly, the current workload of the office leaves ample time and resources to do far more for taxpayers than ceremonial appearances and ribbon-cuttings,” Loughlin said in his news release. “Rhode Islanders deserve a Lieutenant Governor’s Office that works every day to protect their money and hold government accountable.”
The lieutenant governor’s office has a budget of $1.4 million, which Loughlin said is enough to staff and run an effective investigative team made up of “certified auditors, investigators, and compliance professionals” to review state agency spending and contracts.
He acknowledged that the lieutenant governor does not have subpoena power, but believes that investigations can be completed utilizing public records requests and gathering publicly-available data.
Loughlin, who ended his talk radio show earlier this year when he announced his campaign for governor, said he would communicate his findings through “RI Report” publications, news briefings and podcasts.
He said he would also make the office’s resources available to city and town leaders.
Republicans have been fighting for an inspector general
Rhode Island Republicans have for years promised to lower state spending by rooting out government waste, fraud and abuse. The last GOP Rhode Island governor, Donald Carcieri, launched a “Fiscal Fitness” program that aimed to save money and find efficiencies.
Democrats criticized Carcieri’s tenure for featuring exorbitant privatization and outsourcing.
Since Carcieri, the idea of creating an independent inspector general similar to those in other states has become a holy grail for Rhode Island Republicans, but the Democratic General Assembly has had little interest in it.
“If our office saves just 1% from Rhode Island’s bloated state budget, the savings would return more than ten times the entire cost of the Lieutenant Governor’s Office to taxpayers – and that’s only the beginning,” Loughlin said in the news release.
The Rhode Island Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 10, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Numbers numbers from May 10 drawing
Midday: 9-9-9-0
Evening: 5-5-0-9
Check Numbers payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Wild Money numbers from May 10 drawing
01-13-14-16-32, Extra: 02
Check Wild Money payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 10 drawing
01-03-20-35-46, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes less than $600 can be claimed at any Rhode Island Lottery Retailer. Prizes of $600 and above must be claimed at Lottery Headquarters, 1425 Pontiac Ave., Cranston, Rhode Island 02920.
- Mega Millions and Powerball jackpot winners can decide on cash or annuity payment within 60 days after becoming entitled to the prize. The annuitized prize shall be paid in 30 graduated annual installments.
- Winners of the Millionaire for Life top prize of $1,000,000 a year for life and second prize of $100,000 a year for life can decide to collect the prize for a minimum of 20 years or take a lump sum cash payment.
When are the Rhode Island Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Midday): 1:30 p.m. ET daily.
- Numbers (Evening): 7:29 p.m. ET daily.
- Wild Money: 7:29 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Rhode Island editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Watch: Khano Smith speaks with media after RIFC drew Tampa Bay
Watch as Khano Smith speaks with media after RIFC drew Tampa Bay
PAWTUCKET — JJ Williams finally had his space and rose to the opportunity.
The Rhode Island FC striker, deep in the attacking zone, came back to a cross and headed Nick Scardina’s service to the near post to salvage the night for Rhode Island. Williams’ goal landed in the 86th minute to draw Tampa Bay Rowdies, 1-1, in rain-soaked Pawtucket.
It’s the third draw in USL Championship play for Rhode Island at Centreville Bank Stadium this season. RIFC was turning in a familiar performance before snagging the tie against the league-leading Rowdies as Williams supplied his third regular-season goal of the year. The draw is the first time RIFC has earned a result after the opposition opened the scoring since its 1-1 tie vs. Birmingham Legion FC on July 5, 2025.
Rhode Island now travels to USL League One side Portland Hearts of Pine for its second game of the 2026 Prinx Tires USL Cup group stage on Saturday, May 16 at 4 p.m. The club returns to Pawtucket on May 23 against Brooklyn FC.
“All night they made it tough because they were doubling,” Williams said of Tampa Bay. “And wherever I went to, they were going contact first, especially in this league with no [Video Assistant Referee] … but on that one, the ball was so good that they spun around, and then I was able to make good contact.”
Rhode Island had a string of missed chances in the first 15 minutes that fed into a goal for Tampa Bay and then a triple substitution in the second half that provided little spark. Max Schneider’s cross from right of the box found Pedro Dolabella at the far post for a clinical header in the 29th minute in front of an announced attendance of 6,790.
The game’s first score came just 10 minutes after attempts from Hugo Bacharach and Jojea Kwizera were saved and Williams sailed an open shot past the bar.
“We tried to correct some of those things that we struggled with last week,” Williams said. “Getting to the ball, making tackles, making a stick, I think that we weren’t as clean in possession as we would have been, especially as we won the ball and played forward. We had a lot of turnovers in the first half where we could have seen more chances, but we did well to weather the storm early and create some. But for me, I [have] to bury that first one.”
Rhode Island creates plenty of chances — it is tied for fourth with 112 attempts — but has just 12 goals this season. If it had finished one of the early chances against Tampa Bay, it would’ve shifted the tenor of the match and forced the visitors to play outside of its form. But the final scoring sequence is still missing with the summer months coming soon.
“Happy with the spirit, happy with the effort, happy with the fight,” RIFC coach Khano Smith said. “You’ve seen that a lot with our team. They just fought to the end, never gave up, kept pushing. Ultimately, it’s two more points dropped at home, and we need to find a way to stop doing that. We need to be ruthless – just ruthless in front of the goal.”
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