Providence Student Leaders to Mayor Smiley: Why we aren’t attending today’s Community Conversation on Education

“We have tried our best to gain the support of Mayor Smiley by showing up again and again. It’s unfair for us to keep giving our participation while receiving no action in return."

After extensive participation in Providence Mayor Brett Smiley’s community engagement initiatives for a year, youth leaders with the OurSchoolsPVD alliance will not attend the Mayor’s next Community Conversation on Education.

OurSchoolsPVD brought the only students to Mayor Smiley’s September and December Community Conversations on Education and collaborated with the Mayor’s Office to host a youth-led Community Conversation with 100+ participants in December. At each avenue, students expressed their wishes for an increased voice in decision-making, desires for more accountable processes, and demands for Ethnic Studies. Yet Mayor Smiley has taken zero concrete action to support students’ needs.

“We had high hopes when the Mayor’s Office initiated a partnership with us, but in the past few months, they’ve fallen short, especially concerning our Ethnic Studies campaign,” said Julianna Espinal, an 11th grader at Classical High School and a youth leader with Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM). “Uplifting youth voices doesn’t mean including them in a report and moving on; it means doing everything you possibly can to make sure we’re constantly at the forefront of decisions that affect us and our families.”

Most recently, Mayor Smiley refused to sign a resolution unanimously passed by the City Council to support OurSchoolsPVD’s youth-written Ethnic Studies bill. After expressing disappointment in the Mayor’s negligence in supporting student leadership through a symbolic, non-binding action, OurSchoolsPVD did not even receive an email from the Mayor’s Office.

Youth leaders feel the hypocrisy in watching Mayor Smiley make the case for a return to local control while refusing to do the bare minimum to support community needs for Providence schools.

“We have tried our best to gain the support of Mayor Smiley by showing up again and again. It’s unfair for us to keep giving our participation while receiving no action in return,” said Jesslynn Melendez, a former student at Central High School and youth leader with OurSchoolsPVD. “Mayor Smiley made a choice not to sign our Ethnic Studies resolution, disappointing many students in the fight for Ethnic Studies to get implemented in schools.”

To engage with the Mayor’s Office in the future, students must see clear, genuine pathways between community engagement initiatives and decision-making processes. Providence students are eager to be partners in designing a return to local control that brings real power closer to communities. Still, youth refuse to be used as pawns to drive up stakeholder engagement numbers with no authentic voice in change.

For more information about OurSchoolsPVD, you can visit @OurSchoolsPVD on Instagram.

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About OurSchoolsPVD: OurSchoolsPVD is an alliance of youth-led organizations and community allies organizing for education justice in Providence Public Schools. We came together in 2019 after the state took control of Providence Public Schools to ensure that those most impacted by what happens in our education system have a voice in decision-making. OurSchoolsPVD builds power to transform Providence Public Schools and advance Democracy, Dollars, and Dignity for all youth and families.

OurSchoolsPVD includes the Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), Providence Student Union (PSU), Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), Youth In Action, Young Voices, Parents Leading for Educational Equity (PLEE), Rhode Island Center for Justice, and the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education (CYCLE).