Opposition to the Excel Academy lease of the Carl Lauro Elementary School building continues to grow

“The city council will not hand the keys of a shuttered public school building to a charter school," said Providence City Council President Rachel Miller.

A press conference scheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m. outside Providence City Hall to oppose the new lease and the expansion of charters in the city was cancelled shortly after noon.

Last Thursday, the Providence City Council Ordinance Committee voted to advance a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a proposed lease with Excel Academy charter school for the Carl G. Lauro School building. Having determined that converting the school to housing was economically unfeasible, Council President Rachel Miller negotiated a 35-year lease with Excel Academy that requires the school to respect the right of employees to unionize and forbids the use of public funds for union busting. The full City Council is expected to vote on the new lease Thursday.

Opposition to the deal is partly based on the financial impact of charterization on public schools. Providence School Board member Corey Jones and State Representative David Morales maintain that if approved, the lease would "permanently shift students and funding away from our public schools."

“Even when enrollment drops, a school district still has expenses they have to account for, such as transportation, school building maintenance, and special education staffing and support," said Representative Morales. "None of these expenses go away just because a school district’s enrollment has dropped. The result is less support and resources for the students still enrolled in their local school districts.”

Jones maintains that Excel Academy will divert 2186 students from the Providence Public School system, taking an estimated 10 to 51 million state and federal dollars.

Jones points out:

"In 2016, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, appointed by President Donald Trump, visited Excel Academy in Washington, D.C. and publicly praised it as a ‘shining example’ of a school meeting the needs of its students, parents, and community, as quoted in a Salon article and also referenced in Grid.org. However, just a year and a half later, the same school was shut down by the D.C. Charter Board due to poor academic performance."

The 35-year lease, “is more than about a building,” said Representative Morales. “It sets up a financial model that is going to be harmful to our Providence Schools as it defunds them at the expense of pumping up enrollment for big box charter schools that don’t serve all our Providence students, including special education learners.”

School Board President Ty’Relle Stephens¹ wrote that transferring Lauro to a private operator “would siphon vital public resources from neighborhood schools, intensify segregation, and erode equitable educational opportunities for Providence students.”

Stephens lists the concerns as:

• Deepening segregation and civil rights alarm

  • Leading civil rights groups—NAACP National, the Movement for Black Lives, and the NEA Black Caucus—warn that unchecked charter growth creates separate and unequal schools without improving academic outcomes.

• Massive revenue shortfall

  • This expansion is projected to drain more than $50 million by 2030. Since the 2020 state takeover, Providence Public Schools has lost over 4,000 students, costing the district millions, prompting litigation and taxpayer‐funded bailouts.

• Underfunding and rising taxes

  • Continued enrollment decline risks pushing PPSD below 15,000 students, forcing deeper program cuts and another round of tax increases.

A press conference scheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m. outside Providence City Hall to oppose the new lease and the expansion of charters in the city was cancelled shortly after noon. On Wednesday, Providence City Council President Rachel Miller issued a press release opposing the charter school lease of the Carl G. Lauro Building.

“Mayor Smiley’s lease proposal attempted to solve two challenges at once – ensuring Providence students with already assigned charter seats have a suitable place to learn and finding a path forward for a vacant historic building,” said Council President Miller. “After careful consideration, I’ve determined that such an arrangement would not be in the best interest of the neighborhood or city. The city council will not hand the keys of a shuttered public school building to a charter school.”

The council president continued:

“After defeating the original $1/year charter lease last year, the city council kept all options on the table, including commissioning studies on the architectural and financial feasibility of converting the building to housing. We then considered the mayor’s most recent proposal to lease the building to Excel Academy, and worked with Excel Academy and the administration to propose major changes from the original lease.

“The lease would not have created a new school or expanded charter seats, but would have housed a school already granted expansion by the Rhode Island Department of Education. Since the state has sole discretion over the total number of charter school seats in Rhode Island, only the state can prevent their further expansion.

“I viewed it as my role to make this lease as strong as possible for our community, including negotiating revenue for the city and historic labor neutrality, and then hearing the community’s response. I have listened closely to my neighbors and will vote no on the proposed lease. We need to ensure that our public spaces are utilized to reflect the needs of surrounding communities. I will work closely with my neighborhood and our partners to find a solution for this building that benefits Federal Hill.

“Every Providence student deserves equal access to quality education, and this council remains committed to ensuring our city’s public schools can deliver that education. We will continue to work with the mayor, the school board, and the Department of Education to build a public school system worthy of our students and families.”

1. School Board President Ty’Relle Stephens released the following open letter:

Dear President Miller and Members of the Providence City Council,

I am writing to strongly urge you to reject the proposed lease of Carl G. Lauro Elementary School to Excel Academy, scheduled for discussion this Thursday, July 24, 2025. After carefully considering the concerns of my constituents, including parents, teachers, former educators, and students, I am convinced that delaying this decision until local control is fully restored to the Providence School District is in the best interest of our community.

First, I must acknowledge how distracting this is from the real work. We are preparing for local control, and instead of focusing on that, we are distracted by a proposal that continues to dismantle public education. This raises serious questions about the city’s readiness for local control when it focuses on low-hanging fruit like this and gives away buildings that drain resources from the education system. This is the same system that was underfunded, leading to millions of dollars being paid in a legal settlement between RIDE and the city, which resulted in tax increases. Yet now, we are considering further undermining this system instead of strengthening it for our students. I am just so confused at this point.

As the conversation around charter school expansions heats up, I have engaged in numerous discussions and conducted thorough research to understand the underlying reasons behind the push for or against them. What I discovered was deeply concerning: charter school expansions align with the broader agenda of the Trump Administration, which has actively worked to dismantle public education.

How do I know this? In 2016, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, appointed by President Donald Trump, visited Excel Academy in Washington, D.C. and publicly praised it as a “shining example” of a school meeting the needs of its students, parents, and community, as quoted in a Salon article and also referenced in Grid.org. However, just a year and a half later, the same school was shut down by the D.C. Charter Board due to poor academic performance. This raised serious concerns among activists, who argue that when DeVos called it a “shining example,” she actually meant a school that failed to meet the needs of its students.

Further investigation led me to discover that several well-known civil rights organizations, including the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the Movement for Black Lives, the Journey for Justice Alliance, and the National Education Association’s Black Caucus, all oppose charter expansions and any support for such expansions.

In the 2010s, the NAACP passed a resolution raising concerns about the unintended segregation caused by some charter schools. The resolution highlighted how certain charter school systems, including their selective lottery processes, often exclude high-needs students, particularly those with special education and multilingual needs. This is a pressing issue here in Providence, where we currently spend over $4 million on special education services, while charter schools spend significantly less, under $34,000 for these services. This disparity only deepens the segregation and inequities that already exist in our educational system.

Furthermore, research from the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes, which analyzed data from 15 states and Washington D.C., found that only 17% of charter school students outperform their public school counterparts, 46% show no improvement, and 37% perform worse. This is consistent with findings here in Rhode Island, and the reality of charter schools underperforming cannot be ignored. There is a reason why the Movement for Black Lives, Journey for Justice Alliance, and the National Education Association’s Black Caucus all oppose charter expansions. It is because these expansions go against what African Americans fought for.

For generations, students of color were denied access to public schools in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1869, Maritcha Remond Lyons became the first Black student to challenge the segregated education system in the city. At the age of 16, she was denied admission to Providence High School simply because of her race. Refusing to accept this injustice, she legally challenged the segregation with the state legislature and the school committee. Her efforts ultimately led to a legal victory, and she became the first Black student to graduate from Providence High School. Her victory was not just a personal triumph; it was a victory for all students of color who sought the right to an equal education. Additionally, the first Black teacher in Rhode Island, Elizabeth Howland Smith, was hired at Meeting Street School, breaking barriers and setting a precedent for the role of Black educators in public schools.

These trailblazers, Maritcha Remond Lyons, Elizabeth Howland Smith, and countless others, fought for educational equity in this city and paved the way for future generations of students to have the right to quality public education. Now, we find ourselves in a troubling situation where the very system they fought for is being threatened. Charter school expansions risk re-segregating our schools, offering what is falsely presented as "something better," when in reality, it fails to provide the same level of support, resources, or opportunities for all students. This is a disservice to the legacy of those who fought so hard for educational equity, and it represents a dangerous step backward. This is why the NAACP and other organizations do not support this national agenda.

With the facts at hand, it’s clear that voting in favor of this lease proposal is a vote to further segregate our school system. I ask that you trust your newly elected and appointed School Board, giving us the time we need to carefully review this matter. This is literally our job as the Board to find solutions for issues that others may claim have no solution. Once local control is restored, we will be in a better position to take back the building and repurpose it for essential educational programs that will serve all of our students.

This facility can be used in many ways. It can offer in-district services for students with special learning needs, reducing the need for expensive out-of-district placements. It can also support Career and Technical Education programs in fields like healthcare, hospitality, technology, and trades, where there is growing demand. Additionally, it can house adult education programs, such as GED preparation, ESL instruction, reentry services, and job training, in partnership with local institutions like CCRI and RIC. The building can also provide alternative learning pathways for students at risk of disengaging from school. And, given the increasing mental health needs of our students, this space can be used for mental health services, housing assistance, food support, and family programs in partnership with trusted local organizations.

I urge you to make the right decision for the future of Providence students. By allowing the Providence School Board the time to evaluate this, we can ensure a solution that truly serves the needs of our community and upholds the values of equity and inclusion. I look forward to working with President Miller and the City Council to craft a fair and sustainable plan for Carl G. Lauro in the coming years. The choices we make today will shape the future of our schools for generations to come.