PROVIDENCE – Two “crumbling” schools within the Providence Public School District will close next year as part of a plan to increase the number of students and teachers learning in more modern school facilities, PPSD spokesperson Nick Domings announced Sunday.
Domings said the communications rollout plan will begin early this week. However, it is unclear which school buildings within the city will be taken offline. Domings in Sunday’s email said PPSD will not comment any further on specifics “until our educators, families, and the school board are fully informed.”
Domings did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from Providence Business News as to when this week any for additional details will be made public.
Domings in the email also said both RIDE and PPSD haver been “actively engaging” community members about the district’s major school building deficiencies after city voters approved the $125 million school facility bond back on Nov. 8. Six community engagement sessions were held by school officials within the last month, Domings said.
Additionally, PPSD has launched a new website, titled Rebuild Providence Schools, outlining potential school building plans the city plans to invest in, Domings said.
The district’s announcement comes after the Providence Teachers Union tweeted over the weekend that the district and the R.I. Department of Education decided to close some schools after discussions dating back to earlier this fall, and claimed that the district and RIDE had yet to inform the union and the community at-large about the upcoming closures.
“@RIDeptEd @pvdschools must immediately name the schools that are facing closure and hold community meetings,” Providence Teachers Union representative Jeremy A. Sencer tweeted Dec. 10. “Takeover leadership has a track record of keeping families in the dark. All stakeholders deserve ethical transparency. Are these permanent closures? Will the facilities be given to charters like [Charles N. Fortes Elementary School] was? Why was there no family/public input? Why didn’t you collaborate with @PTU958? These are questions @RIDeptEd @pvdschools must answer.”
Domings in the email responded that had the union reached out to the district in lieu of tweeting, union leadership would have known that the plan to take the two run-down school buildings “will not result in any teacher layoffs, and will instead result in thousands more Providence Public School educators and students in the modern facilities they deserve.”
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.
