PROVIDENCE – The City Council on Tuesday stated that it proposed an additional $2.5 million in funding to the Providence Public School District to prevent it from cutting all winter and spring sports and some student bus passes.
However, council leaders say PPSD officials have been aware of this offer for more than a week and the district has not accepted it, with the superintendent arguing that amount won't help.
This is the latest development in the ongoing financial battle between the city and PPSD in which school leaders say the district needs $10.9 million to close the budget gap for the 2025 fiscal year. Earlier this month,
city officials offered to provide $1 million in additional funding to PPSD to help address its budget deficit under the conditions that the district commits to a third-party audit of its finances and the R.I. Department of Education increases its current year funding by $3 million.
Council leaders on Tuesday said the latest funding offer includes $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, which are contingent on PPSD agreeing to the audit and spending said money to reverse its cutting proposal. The offer also includes $750,000 from the new
payment in lieu of taxes agreement the city made with Brown University Health – formerly known as Lifespan Corp. – and $250,000 from a parking agreement with the Rhode Island School of Design.
In an Oct. 23 letter to the city, PPSD Superintendent Javier Montañez rejected the city’s offer, and said it “falls way short” of the $10.9 million gap, “does not meet the needs” of local schoolchildren and their families and it doesn’t come close to the city’s financial legal obligation. Montañez also argued in his letter that throughout the R.I. Department of Education’s intervention of PPSD, the state’s contribution to PPSD has “increased by $30 million while the city has increased theirs by just $5.5 million.”
Montañez also said in the letter the district is aware that the city has a “rainy day fund” of at least $29 million, and that amount has grown by close to $10 million since the start of the intervention in 2019.
“The city has the money to make the District – and thus the student experience – whole but chooses not to do so,” Montañez wrote. “As a result, we will move forward with implementing the difficult decisions we have communicated to the city for months.”
City Council President Rachel M. Miller responded in an Oct. 24 letter and said the city has “more than upheld” its legal obligation to PPSD in the upcoming 2025 fiscal year discussions. She also wrote the additional $5.5 million appropriated to the district represents a “greater increase than the percent increase PPSD received from the state.”
“While disappointed, I continue to hold faith that we can work together as mutual partners in our students’ and [families'] success,” Miller wrote. “[But] to portray the city of Providence as unwilling to work with or support our students is factually incorrect. The city is by no means wealthy or sitting on unnecessary funds. We are, as every local government must, making the best possible decisions we can to ensure the fiscal health of our city and the well-being of our residents.”
Miller also said PPSD needed to decide on the city’s offer by Oct. 28, but the council says the district has not responded “despite repeated outreach.” PPSD spokesperson Jay Wegimont declined further comment Wednesday on the matter, citing the ongoing litigation between the city and district.
City officials say the council’s finance committee postponed its final ARPA reallocation ordinances vote to Nov. 7 and urges PPSD to “seize this opportunity and prioritize student needs.”
(UPDATED 10th paragraph to include comment from PPSD spokesperson Jay Wegimont.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
