Hundreds crowd the Providence School Board meeting in support of teachers facing non-renewal

"We want these jobs. We want to be here and we do good jobs. We’re good at what we do. So why have we been non-renewed?”

There was an extraordinary outpouring of support Wednesday night for the three non-binary teachers who received non-renewal notices from the Providence Public Schools Department (PPSD). When a teacher receives a notice of non-renewal, they can no longer keep their current teaching position, cannot apply for open positions at other schools in the District, and are essentially banned from teaching in Providence for the rest of their careers.

As I wrote here, three teachers, Brandi Tucker, a grade 5 ESL teacher at Webster Avenue Elementary School; Em Schluter, a grade 6 ELA/ESL teacher at DelSesto Middle School; and Sam Wallace, a librarian at DelSesto Middle School, received non-renewal notices. In addition to the non-renewals, the three teachers have two things in common: They are all members of the Providence Caucus of Rank and File Educators (PVD CORE) and non-binary. They also all use they/them pronouns.

Support for the teachers came from elected officials, such as Providence City Council President Rachel Miller and City Councilmember Miguel Sanchez - and students organized under the OurSchoolsPVD Coalition - but the first chance for public testimony in support of the teachers came at the first meeting of the newly constituted Providence School Board.

The meeting lasted five hours, but even without the public testimony supporting the three teachers, it would have lasted three hours. The first order of business was to elect a Board President. Ty’Relle Stephens was elected president. Anjel Newmann was elected Vice President, and Miche’le Fontes was elected Secretary.

The basement overflow room late in the evening. At one point it was standing room only.

There was a brief discussion about moving public comment to the front of the agenda, so that people in the room who intended to testify could leave the rest of the meeting. It also allows students wanting to testify to get home to their schoolwork and beds. Unfortunately, the new committee failed to understand these considerations and voted not to move public comment. The 60 people crowded into the meeting room - and the approximately 120 people crammed into a basement overflow room - were forced to listen to two hours of reports.

Knowing that there was going to be a sizeable presence in support of the three teachers at the meeting, PVD CORE leadership made several requests to the School Board to move the meeting to a larger venue - like an auditorium in one of the nearby high schools (There are three high schools across the street.) This did not happen. Instead, there was a fire marshall on hand to ensure the meeting room was not overcrowded, and people were crammed into a basement with insufficient chairs, where people told me the temperature was around 80 degrees.

Happily, when Brandi Tucker, one of the non-renewed teachers, was called up to testify, they reminded the School Board President that there were students who wanted to testify, and the students were moved to the front of the line.

Here’s the video of all two hours of testimony:

“Yesterday,” said Brandi Tucker, one of the non-renewed teachers and a math teacher testifying with math. “The union brought together all of the non-renewed teachers. There are 17 total. Nine of us were physically present. Out of those nine, there are two special educators, two male teachers of color, three math teachers, and one librarian - with four open librarian positions in the District. These stats alone are very concerning considering that all those positions are hard to fill and that we need more male teachers and teachers of color. Plus, of the nine of us in the room, five of us were queer. Five. I don’t know about the eight teachers that were not present, but five of nine is 55.5%, and if it’s five of 17, that’s still 29% of the non-renewed teachers falling under the LGBTQ umbrella when ... it’s estimated that approximately 3.3% of the queer population become K-12 educators versus non LGBTQ at approximately 4%

“Now, those percentages don’t sound like they’re all that far apart, and they wouldn’t be if the population were 50% queer. The estimated adult queer population in the United States is approximately 13.9 million versus non-queer of 248 million. And now let’s look at these numbers in teachers. The queer K-12 educator population is estimated at 459,000 teachers in the United States. That’s it. 459,000 versus non-queer teachers at 10.9 million. That is huge. This is a statistically astronomical number that needs to be explained.

“How do you explain our jobs, what we’ve done, and that we choose to be in Providence? We want these jobs. We want to be here and we do good jobs. We’re good at what we do. So why have we been non-renewed?”

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“I’m not from Rhode Island,” said Em Schluter, one of the non-renewed teachers. “I moved here from California in 2021. This is my second year in a sixth grade ELA/ESL position. As of right now, there are currently six vacancies for my position. There is a vacant sixth grade ELA classroom on my floor. My non-renewal is adding another vacancy. You’re removing a consistent educator who’s a stable and supportive adult for the students, which will impact their learning.

“They already don’t have enough teachers. Most of my kids have maybe half teachers and half vacancies. They only have five stable adults in their school for the day. I have students from my first year of City Year in eighth grade right now who are gearing up to graduate and move on to high school. And I would like to be celebrating that with them. Like Sam said, our kids are doing the musical. They’re so excited. I couldn’t focus on that today because I was preparing for this. I want to focus on my kids, and instead I’m here trying to fight for [my job]. I want to continue to contribute to my community.

“I’m teaching students I’ve known since they were in third and fourth grade. I’m teaching the siblings of students that I had in 2021. It’s more than school to me. This community of students, parents, faculty, and staff has supported and believed in me - and I want to return that favor.

“I know I’m a new teacher. I’m learning and growing. I’m actively seeking feedback. I love feedback, and I’m implementing it. I am in two graduate programs right now. I’m doing my ESL and my secondary - and PPSD is helping fund that education. I’m doing the best I can for my students. I know there will be other students and districts, but this is my community, where I want to teach. These are the students I want to support.”

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“I’m here today because I want to stay the school librarian,” said Sam Wallane, one of the non-renewed teachers. “It’s so much fun, you should be jealous. But I’ve been non-renewed and I’m pissed. I had to leave the best Beauty and the Beast musical rehearsal. We had to stop rehearsal so that Emma and I could submit testimony. We had to say, "Hey everybody, we’ve got to fight to keep our jobs."

“I want to let you know that our kids are scared. Our families are afraid. Our communities are scared. I know that folks are working hard to deal with all of the terror coming in. We have students who have been hearing TikTok rumors about ICE raids and they’re not coming to school. If attendance matters, we need to communicate with our families. We asked for things like Know your Rights training, both in person and virtual, and training for school staff, which I have not yet received. We need to share community support like the ICE Alert Hotline proactively. We need unaccompanied minor policies. We need those. We need to be aware of what’s going on and we need to retain teachers.

“But we have heard the language - ‘Try not to be a target. Don’t talk about this.’

“I want to be clear: In my time at DelSesto, I’ve had four different principals for nine administrators. Without consistent leadership in schools, we faced enormous challenges. We have over a hundred vacancies in the school... I’ve pointed this out before, and I worry that my participation in my community advisory board, school improvement team, and instructional leadership team has put a target on my back. I’m an organizing teacher. I organize, and when I organize, I get fired.

“The truth is I need the Board to stand up. This is the second time that the Commissioner has bypassed the Board. I want to be in this school.”

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Testimony came from students, parents, teachers, librarians and more. State Representative David Morales testified. It was overwhelming, exhausting - and necessary. I can’t quickly summarize the 40+ people who testified, but some broad themes:

• Providence Public Schools uses non-renewals to punish outspoken teachers. As members of PVD CORE, all three educators present last night were outspoken by definition. Over the years, outspoken teachers have been consistently targeted for non-renewal. Still, this year, there was an increase in non-renewals for educators and organizers in the LGBTQ+ community.

• The stated reason for the non-renewals is “to find a more qualified teacher, as yet unidentified.” Providence Public Schools has over 100 vacancies, and many students face empty classrooms daily. Some middle schoolers have only 1-2 certified teachers for their entire school day and multiple periods of per diem substitutes or other teachers who cover the classroom for that hour.

• The teachers are beloved by students and staff, have numerous awards, and have specialized training. Much of that training was paid for by Providence Public Schools.

The future of the three teachers and 14 others who received non-renewals is unknown. The Providence School Board does not control the Providence Public Schools, but the State does through the Rhode Island Department of Education. This discussion takes place while the Trump Administration talks about abolishing the Department of Education, and the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island are in the difficult process of returning the schools to local control.