In Newport, Mayor Xaykham “Xay” Khamsyvoravong sees all the ingredients for student success – not just within the school system and among students but in the broader community’s offerings.
Still, the dots aren’t connecting, he says. The district struggles with chronic absenteeism, with almost a third of its students in elementary school meeting this designation. And a recent report by Newport-based nonprofit the van Beuren Charitable Foundation found that 80% of students aren’t reaching proficiency goals in reading and math.
“Newport has a school system with some wonderful attributes, but it’s not doing as much as it has to be doing to reach students,” Khamsyvoravong said. “The shortfall is not just in schools but in the entirety of the school system.
“We have a wonderful network of nonprofits in the community … but the baseline data isn’t reflecting the quality of opportunities we have in our school system,” he said.
With a recent infusion of $345,000 in state-allocated money, Khamsyvoravong and Newport Public Schools Superintendent Colleen Jermain hope to change that.
In the spring, Newport was the first community to sign on to Learn365RI, a state initiative offering participating communities a cut of $4 million toward outside-of-school programming intended to boost student outcomes.
Among those goals, the initiative, announced by Gov. Daniel J. McKee in April, targets Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System scores, attendance rates and completion rates of federal student aid applications – all categories where Rhode Island trails Massachusetts.
Though Newport officials were eager to sign on to the initiative, some observers approached the program with skepticism.
Among those skeptics were leaders at Johnston Public Schools, who maintain concerns that the program offers little form or guidance – in fact, Johnston Mayor Joseph M. Polisena Jr. says it’s hard to think of the loosely defined initiative as a program at all.
After a videoconference with Jeremy Chiappetta, executive director of Always Learning Rhode Island – a nonprofit established alongside the Learn365RI initiative – Polisena and Johnston Public Schools Superintendent Bernard DiLullo “both had some questions that we felt were unanswered,” Polisena said, with the initiative ultimately presented as “not really a program” but a set of vague ideas.
The state gave them limited information aside from, “We have this money, we want to do after-school activities, and that’s it,” Polisena said.
“They didn’t come to us saying, ‘We have a group of these nonprofits that want to engage in after-school learning,’ ” or other measures to assist municipalities in supporting more programming outside of school, he said.
Additionally, Polisena says that Chiappetta told him and DiLullo that the funding could only be used for new programming, and they were surprised when they saw other districts use their awards toward ongoing programs.
In response to a PBN inquiry, Matt Sheaff, a spokesperson for McKee, highlighted a portion of the Learn365RI request for proposals stating that communities can use funding toward ongoing or new programs. But Polisena and DiLullo say they didn’t have access to the RFP at the time of the videoconference on the initiative.
And while community-focused organizations may be abundant in cities such as Newport, they aren’t so readily available, Polisena says, placing further onus on municipal and school leaders to develop a plan and accurately assess how much funding any new programming would need.
Charlestown, Exeter, Foster, Glocester and West Greenwich also haven’t signed the compact as of early September.
Khamsyvoravong doesn’t dispute that the program gives generalized guidelines. But to him, that’s one of its strong points.
“Every community in the state is very different,” Khamsyvoravong said. “Each community needs the flexibility to innovate and try new things, so I think the broadness of this program was intentionally designed to afford that flexibility.”
Khamsyvoravong and Jermain spoke with McKee about their interest in working with the state before Learn365RI had materialized, and the eventual partnership evolved from there, Jermain says.
The McKee administration announced an initial round of $3.8 million grant funding last month, with Newport receiving the second-highest award, trailing only Central Falls’ $394,564 grant.
In descending order, East Providence, South Kingstown, Pawtucket, North Kingstown, Burrillville, Smithfield and Middletown received grants ranging from $203,445 to $340,000, while most remaining participants received a “standard” $50,000 grant.
The exceptions were Barrington, Cranston, Cumberland, Providence, Warren and Westerly, which did not receive funding but “remain eligible to access standard grant funding and will be provided technical assistance and support” from the R.I. Department of Education, according to McKee’s office.
Rhode Island’s fiscal 2024 budget includes another $4 million set aside for Learn365RI initiatives.
Polisena says he would reconsider participating if the McKee administration clarifies the program’s purpose, but he adds that increasing programming outside of school doesn’t seem like the best way to address students’ needs.
“I kept going back and saying, ‘We want to increase learning during school hours and create programs during school,’ ” he said. “I think you need to fix what’s going on during school hours before you start focusing on programs going on after school. That’s a belief that both myself and the superintendent shared.”
