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Rhode Island
R.I. families scramble to enroll elsewhere as Croft School faces sudden closure – The Boston Globe
“We wanted to have a sure thing,” said Roman, who enrolled her son last year. But now his school year is about to be upended amid allegations of fraud by Croft’s founder, and questions about whether the school will have enough money to stay open past the end of this week.
Roman and her husband are among hundreds of families weighing their options for finding last-minute schooling for their children next week after they abruptly learned about the school’s financial problems during spring break. Some are forming home-school pods, enrolling in local public schools, or scrambling to find a private school with an open seat.
There are about 220 children enrolled in the Providence school, and another roughly 370 at two locations in Boston.
“Obviously, our first hope is that the school can stay open,” said Roman, who is planning to enroll her 6-year-old in the Providence Public Schools if Croft closes. She can rank preferences, but doesn’t know which school he will attend.
In her search, she found private schools were not issuing financial aid midyear, and she can’t afford to pay full freight. She also entered the state’s public charter school lottery, but it doesn’t award seats in the middle of the school year.
Providence schools Superintendent Javier Montañez sent a letter to families on Friday pledging support, and set up a Google form to help parents enroll. Information sessions are being held to help.
Depending on where they live, families will not necessarily be able to enroll at the school in their neighborhood, though they can list preferences. Spokesperson Alex Torres-Perez said there are 639 open K-7 seats throughout the district, grades that are currently enrolled at Croft. At the elementary school closest to Croft, Vartan Gregorian Elementary School, there are 22 seats currently available; at the closest middle school, Nathan Bishop, there are 19 seats.
“Our district is committed to providing a high-quality education for every student every day with the help of our dedicated educators,” said Torres-Perez, who noted that the district is in the middle of a $1 billion program to reconstruct its school buildings. The project includes building new K-8 schools, and some students have been moving around to swing spaces while construction is ongoing.
In his letter to parents, Montañez touted “tremendous momentum,” including new dual language programs, career and technical education, and improved graduation rates.
Molly Birnbaum first heard about Croft after Given came to her daughter’s day care to pitch the school.
“I was really taken by his vision, and the way he spoke about education and equality, and project-based learning,” Birnbaum said. “When she was old enough for kindergarten in 2022, we were so excited to tour the school and see what he had built.”
She enrolled her daughter, who is now in third grade. Her son, a kindergartner, joined a few years later.
Now, Birnbaum has been going to information sessions across the city at different schools, deciding where to send them. The closest public school to her is Vartan Gregorian, and she is also looking at private schools.
Like many parents, Birnbaum prepaid the tuition at Croft for next year, and may be out tens of thousands of dollars. And her children could lose their teachers, who will be furloughed next week if more money isn’t secured. She hopes some of them could be hired by families who opt to form homeschooling groups for the rest of the year.
“These are some of the most special, loving, warm teachers that I’ve encountered,” Birnbaum said.
Katherine Linwood, whose 10-year-old daughter Vivienne is in fifth grade at Croft, said she’s been “burning the candle at both ends” to try and keep the school open, but is also planning for contingencies if school closes next week. She compared it to the scramble to find child care when schools went remote during COVID.
“In terms of trying to patchwork, keep her safe and secure and engaged, while working a full-time job,” Linwood said.
This isn’t Vivienne’s first time going through something like this. She previously attended the private Henry Barnard School on the Rhode Island College campus, which closed in 2020.
Linwood, who works at Rhode Island Kids Count, a child advocacy organization, is not considering sending her daughter to the low-performing Providence Public Schools.
“To me, this also speaks to why we need to have better investments in our public education system,” Linwood said. “I strongly believe that every child has the right to a wonderful education.”
The problems at Croft came to light in mid-March, a week after the four-member board that controls the school was told by executive director Scott Given, the founder, that he had “mismanaged and misrepresented” the school’s finances, including hiding large debts.
Given was suspended and then fired. His lawyers said last week he is cooperating with the ongoing investigation and “has never used any school funds for his own personal benefit.”
The board told families it has enough cash on hand to make payroll on Tuesday, but would need $5 million to keep the schools open through the end of the year.
In an effort to keep the Providence campus open, a group of eight parents has filed a petition in Rhode Island Superior Court, asking a judge to put the school into receivership, a type of state-level bankruptcy.
If granted, a receiver would be given authority over the school and could make financial decisions. A lawyer for the families said Tuesday there is an anonymous donor willing to fund the school for the rest of the school year, but only if it is removed from the control of the current board.
Superior Court Judge Brian Stern did not immediately make a decision on the receivership during a hearing on Tuesday.
Time is of the essence; a memo from board member Mike Goldstein, which was cited in court documents, said teachers would be furloughed as of April 1 if the school does not have funding for the next payroll cycle by Friday.
Roman said she tried to explain to her son, in age-appropriate terms, what is going on. He asked why someone would take money from a school, and opined: “That’s not kind.”
“I’m not afraid to send my child to public school, he will be fine,” Roman said. “I worry that people will think this is just a rich person problem, but it’s not. The school was trying to do something different and make education accessible to everyone.”
Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com. Follow her @StephMachado.
Local News
“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” wedding planner Nicole Simeral said.
WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) — When a large tent appeared next door to Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill estate this week, it didn’t take long for speculation about the superstar’s impending nuptials to ripple through the affluent New England seaside village — and the internet.
Soon, fans were swapping theories online, photographers were staking out vantage points and residents found themselves fielding questions about a wedding that never was. Or at least, a wedding that seems yet to happen.
The rumors, so far, have proved unfounded. But they offered a glimpse into life in Watch Hill, the Rhode Island beach community in the town of Westerly, close to the Connecticut border, where Swift has owned a home for more than a decade and where curiosity about the singer has become woven into everyday life.
Rumors take hold
From the nearby lighthouse, visitors craned for a better view of Swift’s mansion, a sprawling white home perched atop a rocky bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Security cameras dotted the property, and a guard called out to visitors who strayed too close.
Wedding planner Nicole Simeral, dressed in black, stood outside the small white chapel across from the massive yellow Ocean House hotel — Swift’s neighbor on the beach — waving along cars and buses that slowed and directing traffic to keep moving.
She watched visitors speculate about a wedding she said she knew wasn’t Swift’s. She’s working a different wedding every weekend in June in that spot. Still, the questions kept coming.
“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” Simeral said.
She said there had been “a lot of chitter chatter” as people tried to connect sightings of people who know Swift in local shops to impending nuptials. But she doubted Watch Hill would be practical for a wedding of that scale because of its limited luxury lodging.
The Watch Hill rumors also dovetailed with separate online speculation that Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, were planning a celebration at Madison Square Garden, though no details about the pair’s wedding have been released, despite multiple requests for comment to Swift’s spokesperson.
The tent itself, Simeral said, was hardly unusual. “Next weekend, there’ll be another tent just like this.”
For two summers, Westerly Police Department community service officer Nick Quaratella has stood at the entrance to a public path leading to the beach beside Swift’s estate, answering questions from beachgoers and keeping traffic moving.
“They come to the beach, but then they also ask if she’s here or not,” Quaratella said.
He said he can’t help but joke around with some fans.
“I’ll say, ‘Oh, did you hear that she moved?’” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘No.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson moved in.’ And they’ll go, ‘Oh, really?’ and then they’ll walk away.”
“That’s pretty funny,” he concluded.
Over the years, he’s seen plenty of unusual reactions. His coworker once spotted a fan on their knees, bowing toward the entrance gate near the property. Visitors have shouted “I love you, Taylor!” from the roadside. One woman convinced her granddaughter he was Swift’s security guard and posed for a photo with him.
Quaratella has fielded a few questions about the supposed wedding, but not as many as he expected.
“At this point, it’s part of my job,” he said. “It makes me smile. It makes me laugh. I have no problem with it. It makes the day go by.”
Living with Taylor Swift
Down near a strip of beach boutiques, lifelong resident Lauren Nigrelli said the frenzy surrounding the star has eased since Swift first moved into the neighborhood in 2013. Back then, Nigrelli recalled, fans would drive around in circles by her shop playing Swift’s songs.
“Things have definitely calmed down since then,” she said.
Today, Swift’s presence remains a fixture among local businesses in what she described as a “quaint New England coastal community.” Nigrelli, a Realtor who owns the boutiques Tide and Tide Kids, said she began selling apparel emblazoned with “Holiday House,” the nickname associated with Swift’s mansion, after children began coming into the store asking for it. On Saturday, she was also selling a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding sticker book.
“I think every shop has something related to her,” Nigrelli said.
On the beach below the mansion, Audrey and John Curtis, a married couple from Connecticut who have been vacationing in Westerly for years, settled into beach chairs and debated the wedding rumors.
“We were just looking up at her house,” Audrey Curtis said, pointing toward the mansion. “She’s not getting married here now, though.”
Curtis said she had heard various theories, including speculation that a wedding might be held at Ocean House. But as she thought through the logistics, she became skeptical.
“Then I was thinking about, ‘How would everybody get here?’” she said. “In New York, you’ve got JFK, you’ve got LaGuardia, and she’s got two penthouses in New York that she combined, so I figured they could obviously have more people there.”
Her husband wasn’t so sure.
“They could lie and say it’s happening there, but it’s happening here,” John Curtis said. “When important people do things, they don’t want people to know.”
Six friends from New York, posing for photos in matching Watch Hill sweatshirts while celebrating a birthday, said Swift wasn’t the reason they chose the beach town, though they weren’t sure they would have discovered it if not for the singer.
Leslie Aucapina, 24, who attended Swift’s Eras Tour in Philadelphia, said she grew up listening to Swift’s music and thought the Taylor-themed merchandise was “really cute.” She liked that the excitement surrounding Swift helped local businesses and enjoyed visiting the inspiration for “the last great american dynasty,” a song about Holiday House from Swift’s 2020 Grammy Album of the Year-winning album, folklore.
But she said the speculation at times crosses a line. “If she wants to share it, she wants to share it,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s someone’s house.”
The fourth annual Newport Juneteenth celebration was held at Fort Adams State Park on Saturday, June 20, an expanded event that paired the holiday with a Rhode Island 250th anniversary theme honoring the history of Black and Indigenous people across the state.
Presented by Rhode Island Slave History Medallions, the daylong program opened with a reenactors’ parade and an honorary musket salute before turning to tributes from civic leaders, including a keynote address by Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore and remarks by Governor Dan McKee.
The parade ground program continued through the afternoon with presentations by historians, youth activities, craft vendors and food trucks, alongside performances tied to the 250th theme. The lineup featured colonial music, Indigenous dancing and drumming by the Thawn Harris family of the Narragansett people, a performance by members of the Pokanoket Tribe, a drum circle led by African drummer Sidy Maiga and a gospel performance by RPM Voices of Rhode Island.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years after it took effect freeing enslaved people in the Confederate states.
RISHM, a statewide nonprofit, works to educate Rhode Islanders about the state’s role in the history of slavery by sharing documented stories of enslaved people. More information is available at rishm.org.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Thousands gathered in downtown Providence on Saturday for Rhode Island PrideFest, marking a major milestone celebration for the LGBTQ+ community.
The area between Dyer Street and the Providence River filled with music, vendors and community groups as the 50th annual PrideFest became a day-long celebration of identity and inclusion.
NBC 10’s Martha Konstandinidis reports on Providence’s 50th Annual PrideFest. (WJAR)
Attendees described a lively atmosphere and strong turnout.
“It’s a great turnout and it looks beautiful outside,” said Analisy Huertas of Providence.
Vendors said steady crowds and high energy made for a busy but enjoyable day. Many attendees said the event’s welcoming environment keeps them coming back each year.
“I love seeing everyone expressing themselves and being really happy,” added Adeline Lamoureux-Hathaway.
Eventgoers walking in Providence Saturday, June 20, 2026. (WJAR)
For William and Carrie Hatcher, it was their first time attending PrideFest, saying the experience stood out for its sense of community and acceptance. “There’s so much to see, so much to look at, and we’re meeting so many different people,” Carrie Hatcher said.
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PrideFest continued into the evening, with many planning to stay for the illuminated night parade.
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