Infante-Green: Community will have say in Providence superintendent search

R.I. EDUCATION COMMISSIONER Angelica Infante-Green said Wednesday that the Providence community will have a say in what it would like to see in a new superintendent for the Providence Public School District. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO R.I. EDUCATION COMMISSIONER Angelica Infante-Green said Wednesday that the Providence community will have a say in what it would like to see in a new superintendent for the Providence Public School District. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
R.I. EDUCATION COMMISSIONER Angelica Infante-Green said Wednesday that the Providence community will have a say in what it would like to see in a new superintendent for the Providence Public School District. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

PROVIDENCE – Along with including additional layers in the vetting process, various segments of the community will have a say in what they would like to see in a new Providence Public School District superintendent, R.I. Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green told Providence Business News on Wednesday.

The R.I. Department of Education is preparing its search for a new superintendent for the state’s largest school district, which has been under state control since November 2019. Harrison Peters’ contract was terminated on May 21, two days after Infante-Green asked him to resign.

Peters’ departure came after the arrest of a now-former Providence school administrator, Olayinka Alege, who was charged allegedly taking a juvenile’s shoe off at a Warwick gym and forcefully massaging his foot without consent. Peters acknowledged to state senators on May 10 that he knew about Alege’s past, which included “toe-popping” punishments Alege reportedly performed on students when he was assistant principal of King High School in Tampa, Fla., and Peters did not share it with state officials in Rhode Island.

Infante-Green also said RIDE was made aware by Peters of another past incident in the Hillsborough County (Fla.) School District – where Peters served as its chief of schools before coming to Rhode Island in January 2020 – in which Peters in 2017 failed to notify parents for two months after a substitute teacher was fired for doing a sexual act in a middle school classroom, according to a story from WJXT-TV 4 in Jacksonville, Fla. The commissioner said Peters informed RIDE that the responsibility of that situation fell on the school’s principal.

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Infante-Green said the process of searching for a new superintendent will be extensive, with the hopes of having a person in place by the second week of August, weeks ahead of the new school year. She also confirmed that RIDE will name an interim superintendent the beginning of next week.

There will be a committee to help search for a new superintendent, Infante-Green said, with individuals performing various tasks as part of that process.

“There will be different groups of people that will be working on looking through the resumes, seeing if [the candidates] met the qualifications and making recommendations to myself, the governor [Daniel J. McKee] and [R.I. Board of Education Chairwoman] Barbara Cottam,” Infante-Green said.

Mayor Jorge O. Elorza said in a May 19 press conference that he would be “happy to be involved” with the decision-making process as much as possible. When asked if Elorza will be involved, Infante-Green said she would know more next week who would take part in the search. .

“We will be reaching out to all of the stakeholders,” Infante-Green said. She also thinks the Providence Teachers Union will help build on what RIDE believes are important qualifications for a superintendent.

Providence Teachers Union President Maribeth Calabro recently told PBN that the vetting process in the past gave the community, parents and students more of a voice, and she believed this should have been the case when Peters was considered for the job.

“Had that happened this time, we wouldn’t have chosen Superintendent Peters given that he … lacked the experience that we needed to have the turnaround be successful,” Calabro said.

Infante-Green said the vetting process will remain unchanged in selecting a new superintendent, but there will be more layers and thoroughness in background checks.

“We’re going to have another group of people do a final sweep of the candidates, so that if anything comes up, we have the information,” Infante-Green said.

RIDE spokesperson Victor Morente said these “sweeps” will include going through social media accounts of prospective candidates.

Infante-Green also confirmed that the turnaround plan for PPSD, which was jointly unveiled in June 2020 by RIDE and PPSD, will not be changed with a new superintendent coming in.

“The plan was created by the community, so the job of the superintendent will be to enact that plan to meet the benchmarks in the plan,” she said. “If [a new superintendent] wants to add on or do additional things, that’s great. But we are committed to meeting those benchmarks in the plan. We made that commitment publicly and we intend to keep it.”

Delivering on the plan is a key factor in restoring recently broken trust in the Providence school community in part caused by the Peters fallout, Infante-Green said, along with having the community have a say in who they want for a superintendent.

“It has to be about meeting the work, meeting what we said what we’re going to do. At the end of the day, what the parents and the community want is for a better school [system] for their kids. That’s how we intend to build trust is by delivering on our promises,” she said.

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 Twitter at @James_Bessette.

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