Respect is a one way street as unionized Paul Cuffee teachers struggle to reach a contract

"I’ve worked here half my life, and the school means so much," said teacher Jennifer Bifulco. "Going through this is very painful, but we can’t not go through it."

Last Thursday’s meeting of the Paul Cuffee Board of Trustees was revealing, but perhaps not in the way the board members might imagine. The Board oversees the three Paul Cuffee schools in Providence: the lower, middle, and upper. Paul Cuffee is a charter school, established nearly a quarter of a century ago with the promise of bringing new ideas into education, but over time, that promise has diminished.

I spoke with teachers at the Lower School ahead of the board meeting. They have unionized with the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals (RIFTHP) as the Paul Cuffee Collaborative to work for many things, including better pay, healthcare benefits, collaboration with management in creating curricula, and more. There’s a lot to negotiate, and teachers are ready and willing to work with the board, but in the bargaining sessions, every proposal from the teachers is met with the phrase, “We respectfully reject.”

You can watch the board meeting here:

[All transcriptions have been edited for clarity]

During the meeting, much was said about respect, but it became clear that the board expected to receive respect from the teachers without reciprocation.

The board’s lack of respect, perhaps even disdain, for its teachers is perhaps best demonstrated by its reaction to a unanimously approved resolution from the Providence City Council, introduced by Council President Rachel Miller, supporting the teachers and their unionization efforts. Councilmember Justin Roias (Ward 4) was allowed to address the board and give them the resolution.

“I’m not here to tell you what to do,” said Councilmember Roias. “Only you can make that decision. I’m not here to shame or preach. I’m here to proudly say, on behalf of the City of Providence, that workers have the right to organize in this city. In this city, we stand with educators who want fair wages and conditions, not only for themselves but so that they can, with confidence and dignity, carry out the noble and often thankless task of preparing our next generation to thrive and to lead. That’s why the Providence City Council unanimously passed a resolution to support the unionization efforts here at Paul Cuffee School last month."

“I implore you to listen to your staff, work with them, and find a path that honors this school’s mission and name. On behalf of my colleagues—all of my colleagues, which is not something I can always say—I’m here to reaffirm that the Providence City Council stands with educators and workers across the city seeking to collectively bargain and advocate for better conditions, better resources, and greater respect.

“Please accept this resolution with our deepest respect, which we brought tonight, and thank you for having me today.”

The board’s attorney, Jon Anderson, read the board’s response, and I can only assume he was paid to write it. Instead of a gracious reply, Attorney Anderson prepared a disingenuous resolution for the board to approve that parodied the City Council’s. The board’s reply, approved by most members, was childish, cruel, and condescending.

Attorney Anderson started by reading the City Council’s resolution aloud. He seemed particularly delighted that a member of the city council was present to hear his reply in person. Then he said, “This resolution was transmitted from the Providence City Council to the board. The board has a copy of it… I’ve got a draft of a resolution from the board to the Providence City Council, and I think it’s great that we have a member of the Providence City Council [here] who can bring this back to the Providence City Council. A lot of it sounds very similar. We heard about collaboration, and this is a wonderful opportunity for collaboration.”

Attorney Anderson then read his resolution aloud. He seemed rather proud of it. But the board’s reply falsely characterized the teachers as interested only in a cash grab. The board’s reply not-so-subtly chastised the city council for supporting the union’s effort to shake down the board, when all the council resolution did was support the teachers’ right to unionize and ask the board to negotiate in good faith.

I put Attorney Anderson’s reading of the board’s resolution in a footnote.¹

During his recital of his clever response, teachers interrupted Attorney Anderson to call out the hypocrisy, as Board President Briggs demanded order.

Teacher in the audience: A living wage!

Another teacher: There’s a lot of free stuff you can do, Jon. There are a lot of free things you can do.

Board President Kevin Briggs: Order, please!

When Attorney Anderson finished reading, a teacher said, “That’s just one part of the proposal, right? One part. There are lots of other things in the contract that we are not addressing.”

“Order, order, please,” said Board President Briggs. “If you continue to have outbursts, we will end the meeting.” In other words, Board President Briggs demanded that the teachers sit quietly and accept the board’s admonishment.

Respect is a one-way street.

The issue is that Attorney Anderson’s framing suggests that the teachers are asking for unreasonable and impossible things that might bankrupt the school. It pretends that the only thing the teachers are interested in is more money, but as I said above, there are many things the union wants to bargain for.

Upper School teacher Eric Fulford took the microphone to address this point.:

“I’ve been teaching at the upper school for over eight years. I love my job, the community, and what I do, and I want to add some context for what was just said.

“We were talking about negotiating in good faith, but the framing of this negotiation in that resolution feels the exact opposite to me. We are not demanding a salary bump as our only recourse in this negotiation. It’s one of the things we’re throwing out there as a recognition of the value of our work.

“We fully appreciate that negotiations are back-and-forth, but many of the things we care most deeply about have no dollar value at all. Yet at every negotiation meeting so far, many of the proposals, even the ones that cost $0, are met with “We respectfully reject” without any reason given.

“If you don’t have the money or Providence cannot provide the money for us immediately, which is reasonable, then what can you work with us on? That’s all we want. We want to work together.”

When the teachers first took the microphone for their allotted public comment, they asked that their union be identified as the Paul Cuffee Collaborative. The board insisted on referring to them by the placeholder name they listed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) when they first unionized.

Griffin, a teacher: We’re the Paul Cuffee Collaborative. I had asked that to be corrected.

Attorney Jon Anderson: Let me be clear that what you have registered with the National Labor Relations Board is the RAFT, so if you want to fix that, please fix it with the national.

Griffin: I’m just trying to bring some clarity.

Again, no respect. There is no legal requirement that the board must use the union’s original name in its minutes. Minutes are notes from a meeting, and vary greatly.

Board President Briggs: We have to go by what you registered, that’s why. We can put [the new name] in parentheses.

Counting Eric Fulford above, nine teachers spoke to the board:

Griffin: Thank you so much. It’s an amazing feeling to have that level of support from the Providence City Council. I see and feel less support as I look in this direction [towards the board]. This is a board, a community, that serves us, and we are finding more support outside of these walls than inside. We can work on that and find pathways to solutions that get us a fair contract.

Andrea Lahlum, teacher: I appreciate the chance to speak to all of you tonight. During our negotiation session on April 15th, Mr. Briggs made a few comments that really affected me. One comment was that we all choose our professions. He later made another comment that seemed to insinuate that while we were volunteering our time to come to negotiation sessions, we were doing this by choice. These comments struck me for many different reasons.

First, yes, I did choose education as my profession. Let me be clear: I did not become a teacher because I love working with kids, because I was called to the profession, or because I get summers off. I became a teacher because there are great inequities in our country. I’ve always felt, and still feel, that giving all children what they need to attain a high-quality education is the most impactful way to create a more equitable future.

However, I did not choose to feel silenced. I did not choose to feel disrespected. I did not choose to fail to give our students what they need and are entitled to - to be the most successful they can be. These things just happened. They’re the current realities of Paul Cuffee School. They are the reasons that have brought us to unionize. They’re why we volunteer hours upon hours to negotiate our first contract.

So I ask all of you, does any of this seem like a choice for Paul Cuffee faculty and staff?

Additionally, Mr. Briggs’ comments struck me for another reason. Our negotiation sessions have become us versus them—management versus teachers. They are tense at their best moments and extremely adversarial and hostile at their worst. The sad part is that it never had to be this way. Our vision is to create a community where we all collaborate and a school where we all work together as one team united by a common goal.

Our name captures this sentiment—we are the Paul Cuffee Collaborative. I hope we can move forward together soon to improve students’ futures.

The last thing I want to speak on is what I want for Paul Cuffee’s future and why this vision is so important to me. On a very personal level, many of you know that I’m the mother of two beautiful, smart, empathetic boys. What some of you may not know is that both my boys have special needs. My five-year-old was diagnosed with autism last year, and my three-year-old has albinism. Albinism is a condition that results in many things, including visual impairments. Going to IEP meetings has become a very familiar practice in my work and home life.

What has also become familiar is sobbing after my children’s IEP meetings out of frustration, anger, and outrage. Not because my children aren’t getting what they need, but because they get everything they need without me needing to advocate or fight for a single service or support. The difference in resources available at Paul Cuffee School versus my children’s school is unjust.

Now, I know I don’t live in Providence, I don’t even live in Rhode Island. However, it shouldn’t matter where I live. My children are no more deserving of more resources than my students - our students. None of us should be content with different schools having different amounts of resources. None of us should accept this as a fact of life. We should be doing everything in our power to fight this inequity. We should use our collective strengths to advocate for change in the status quo.

So my message to all of our board members today is this: Yes, I proudly chose education as my career, just as you all chose to become board members at this school. I will continue to choose this career at this school so long as it becomes a place where teachers are heard and respected and where students receive the support they need to be as successful as they can be. I hope all of you choose to work with us and choose to support student success for a better Paul Cuffee today, tomorrow, and into the future.

Fair contracts for Cuffee.

Teacher 1: I echo everything Andrea said, especially about the tense negotiation meetings and the amount of time we spend at odds with each other. I ask us to move negotiations forward in a more collaborative tone.

Fair contract now.

Griffin: I have experienced working with a board that is either disengaged or disinterested, and I remain disheartened. We deserve better, our community deserves better, and you can do better. We need a fair contract now.

Teacher 2: I am here because I support having a fair contract for teachers so all students get what they need.

I would also ask that the board make public comments a regular part of meetings. That will open the doors for collaboration and all of us to work together. Please consider adding public comment to the meetings so we don’t have to get on the agenda to share our thoughts, like most open meetings in Rhode Island and across the country do, if I’m not mistaken.

Noah Provost, teacher: Our staff and students deserve much better. A fair contract supports us and our kids, who deserve everything and anything they need.

Teacher 3: My hope and wish is that as negotiations move forward, they will become more collaborative, to echo what another speaker said. The things being asked for and proposed in this contract are not immensely radical or haven’t been pulled from existing contracts. The teachers at this school have done a really good job of trying to work with the negotiation team in good faith, and I would like management to do the same.

Teacher 4: I will keep showing up and being positive, but it’s difficult when we’re repeatedly told, “We respectfully reject” proposals that the collaborative has put forward.

Fair contract now.

Teacher 5: I want to briefly comment on the financial cost to the school of unnecessarily drawn-out contract negotiations. Every contract meeting represents thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees for the school, in a year we were told that the budget for our school was pretty dire. We all need to tighten our belts. I would think it would be in the administration’s interest to say the union is here whether we like it or not, and we need to move these contract negotiations along, because this is costing us too much money in lawyers’ fees every time these unproductive meetings happen.

Fair contract now.

---

After the meeting, I approached Board Chair Briggs and Attorney Anderson for a comment. They declined.

Left to Right: Attorney Jon Anderson, Board Chair Kevin Briggs, and Administrator Christopher Haskins

---

I sat with several teachers to discuss their work and unionization efforts an hour before the meeting.

Steve Ahlquist: You guys are unionizing, and as far as I know, this hasn’t happened at a charter school in Providence yet. Can you talk to me about what got you to this place?

Andrea Lahlum: I started at Cuffee Lower School in 2016-2017. There was a mass exodus of teachers the year I came in. A lot of the teachers left due to a failed unionization effort. They tried to work with the NEA back in 2015. Unionizing has always been something at Cuffee. For as long as I’ve been there, that’s been talked about, but we always thought it wasn’t possible because it got shut down the first time. There were a lot of rumors about how it had something to do with how our charter is written.

At the beginning of this year, we started catching rumors that the Upper School was unionizing, so one of my coworkers from the Lower School and I met with [union organizer] Jeremy Sencer in September and started talking to him about what the process would look like. From there, it took off fast. On November 5th - election day - we gave management our statement of intent to unionize with the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals. We had our vote on December 2nd, and we had 91% for unionization.

Steve Ahlquist: Wow. What are you looking to do as a union?

Andrea Lahlum: There are a few different pieces. Number one, we want a seat at the table. Typically, we have listening meetings. Teachers at our school have different avenues to have conversations with the administration, but there’s nothing set in stone saying they have to listen to us in any way, shape, or form. We want a seat at the table so we can have a voice.

Steve Ahlquist: A voice in shaping school policy, the curriculum, and things like that?

Andrea Lahlum: Correct. Things like that. I’m the lower school representative on the Board of Trustees. I have a statement prepared that I will read during the meeting.

I live in Massachusetts. I have two children who are both special needs. I have a son with autism and a son with albinism, and that comes with visual impairments. I’ve been blown away by the services and supports they receive at their school, without me needing to fight or advocate to get any of those things. It’s such a stark contrast to my experience of getting kids what they need here at Cuffee.

The bigger conversation for us is making sure our students get the services and supports they need. I didn’t go into teaching because I liked kids. I didn’t do it because I got the summer off. I didn’t do it because I always felt like I was going to be a teacher. I did it because there are great inequities in education in our society, and I feel like this is the most impactful way to give kids a fair and equal education. That should be the cornerstone of American democracy, and it’s not.

Steve Ahlquist: We are far from that.

Andrea Lahlum: Correct. Unfortunately, if you’re at Paul Cuffyee or you’re in Providence Schools, it doesn’t matter. The fact is that kids who are Black and brown aren’t getting the same resources that other kids get, and I can’t sleep at night with that anymore. I can’t go with the status quo - I want to be able to advocate for my students and the supports they need, and not have it be such a battle.

Noah Provost: I started at Cuffee around three years ago. I was a teaching partner for many years at a public school. I came from a place that had a union, so coming to a place that didn’t was a shock to the system in terms of how the administration talks to teachers and how they’ve been able to treat them. The two big reasons to unionize, for me personally, are to give students and teachers access and advocate for what our students need.

Our students are not getting what they need, and a big part of that is the roadblocks that the administration - and the board, to be honest - puts in the way.

Steve Ahlquist: What roadblocks?

Noah Provost: They come up with a myriad of reasons about why we can’t pursue or talk about certain things or why we can’t test out new ideas. The second reason to unionize is to be protected from retaliation by the administration.

Steve Ahlquist: That is what can happen if you speak up too much - suddenly you’re a problem and you get removed. But a union helps you prevent that. Just taking certain steps towards unionization confers protections. The administration can’t do the things they might want to do. They have to deal with you as a union.

Noah Provost: I started three years ago, so a lot of the stories I’m hearing are secondhand, but countless teachers have left because of retaliation. They didn’t want to leave - they were pushed and forced out. The stories are horror stories. They’re terrible.

Andrea Lahlum: We were targeted. Ahead of the March board meeting, we handed out flyers and sent notes home to families, encouraging them to come to the board meetings, which are public, but they weren’t on our public calendar. Now magically, after our last meeting, they’re appearing on the calendar. We were chastised by management for handing out and taking pictures of flyers. All the flyers said was “come to a board meeting and hear what’s going on in your children’s school.” It had nothing to do with our union, and it had nothing to do with anything against the administration. It just encouraged families to be a part of the process because families should know what’s going on.

Noah Provost: The parents are grossly uninformed.

Andrea Lahlum: We were chastised for handing out flyers to encourage families to participate.

Steve Ahlquist: The board falls under the Open Meetings Act because Cuffee is a public/private - however that works in this case. This is publicly available knowledge. It’s not secret.

Andrea Lahlum: Correct, but it wasn’t on our district website. It’s only on the government website, and some of our families might not know how to access that.

Steve Ahlquist: Tracking public meetings on the government website is a lot of work.

You talked about not being able to try new things. I thought trying new things was the entire point of establishing charter schools in the first place. Can you talk about that a little?

Andrea Lahlum: We’ve been told that the Rhode Island Department of Education [RIDE] has mandated that we select high-quality instructional materials from the dropdown menu that RIDE puts out. Because we’re a public school, we’re beholden to that. We have to click the programs that we want. For those reasons, we can’t create as much of the curriculum as we used to, though a teacher who left the upper school last year spoke to RIDE and got a different understanding of that mandate. We are told that we have to follow the programs we’re adopting with fidelity.

Steve Ahlquist: Given that, what is the difference between a charter school and a public school, aside from the fact that you guys aren’t unionized? Am I missing something? Is there another feature? Are you paid less?

Andrea Lahlum: Yes.

Steve Ahlquist: So the financial savings we ostensibly get from charter schools are just savings from not having a union to advocate for teachers regarding salary and everything else. If you’re beholden to RIDE and following RIDE guidelines, I don’t know what a charter school offers that’s different.

Andrea Lahlum: We used to offer more. When I started at Paul Cuffee nine years ago, some of the traditions were starting to diminish. We used to teach swimming because it’s a maritime charter school. In the past, every grade level had some tie to a maritime-themed activity or project.

Steve Ahlquist: You used to teach sailing, right?

Andrea Lahlum: They used to, but they don’t do that anymore. There used to be swimming lessons for K through 2 students at the Y. We don’t do that anymore. The Paul Cuffee play is still a tradition that happens every year, which is a wonderful thing, but other than that, there are few opportunities. With our school’s financial situation, our budget to go on field trips has been slashed. Last year, we went on a seal migration event with Save the Bay. We got to bring the kids out on the water in Newport, which was beautiful. It was such a nice day. It was so cool to give the kids that experience. When we drove over the bridge, they said, “Oh my god, there’s so much water.” But in our budget now, we no longer have the money to do those things.

Steve Ahlquist: How is that budget determined?

Andrea Lahlum: The main way we get revenue is per student expenditure.

Steve Ahlquist: So the state pays the school on a per-student basis.

Noah Provost: They often harp on the funding formula and that the board can’t change that.

Steve Ahlquist: The state’s education funding formula is a problem, but it’s a problem for every school in the state.

Do you feel like your schools are top-heavy with management?

Noah Provost: Yes.

Andrea Lahlum: That’s where a lot of the money is going. When you do the ratio of what we get paid to what Providence teachers get paid, and what top-level Cuffee administrators get paid to what Providence administrators get paid, the ratio is way off. We are far less well compensated than Providence teachers, whereas management is closer.

Steve Ahlquist: So you might be at 60% and they’re at 90% - just making up numbers for an example.

That could be why you can’t afford field trips, teaching kids to swim, or going sailing.

Andrea Lahlum: Those are the enrichment programs. We would love to do them, but even basic things, like providing students with the special education services they need, are being cut.

Noah Provost: Or just hiring enough staff.

Steve Ahlquist: What kind of staff are we talking about?

Andrea Lahlum: Rob started as a teaching partner. He can also speak to how grossly underpaid our teaching partners are.

Steve Ahlquist: What is a teaching partner?

Robert Capellan: It’s the equivalent of being a teaching assistant in other districts. It’s assisting teachers in the classroom. For us, it’s a little convoluted because kindergarten and first grade have their own teaching assistant in the classroom, but as you go up in grades, there’s only one teaching partner for that grade, so that person moves around a lot. They’re responsible for being in the classroom and during recess and lunch. They may also be asked to substitute, if necessary. If a teacher calls out, I would normally fill that role if we didn’t have a sub.

Steve Ahlquist: You’ve been a teacher here for 23 years?

Jennifer Bifulco: I started the second year Cuffee opened.

Steve Ahlquist: As a teacher, how is it?

Jennifer Bifulco: It’s a challenging place to work. As a charter school, we have a unique set of challenges. Initially, it was like building a house while you live in it.

But it felt like we were doing something big together. You know what I mean? So the challenge, as stressful as it was, felt rewarding. A lot of the staff from the beginning stayed together for a long time, and we turned a building into a school. At that time, we only had elementary school. We added a grade each year, then we added the middle school. There was a little gap, then the high school opened. It’s developed into a large school.

But it’s like we’ve had two phases: the initial decade and the last 10 or 11 years. It was a pretty big shift.

Steve Ahlquist: What do you mean?

Jennifer Bifulco: I mean, the school got larger, and at that point, our original principal and head of school retired. We had some administrative changes, and it was a little bumpy. But these last 10 or 11 years have been different because it’s been very top-down. The school was built on collaboration. Our original head of school was a Quaker. We have Quaker roots. Our original head of the board was from Moses Brown. It’s very different now.

Teachers aren’t treated as the priority here anymore. Students aren’t treated as the priority here anymore. It feels like a super-controlled environment where no one’s needs are being met.

Steve Ahlquist: Did they lose sight of the vision of the school?

Jennifer Bifulco: The current administrator, Christopher Haskins, has a vision for the school. His vision of the school is what it is right now. He controls everything. There’s a culture of fear, at least at the lower school, and high turnover. It’s become a revolving door of staff. If you advocate for things, it usually backfires, and you’re retaliated against. It’s become a pretty toxic culture.

Steve Ahlquist: Is that what brought you to the decision to unionize?

Jennifer Bifulco: At the Lower School, we tried to unionize about nine years ago. It was Haskins’ second year as head of the school, and things got pretty messy, pretty quick. A lot of people were starting to be mistreated, and Haskins didn’t like it if people questioned anything.

I’m nervous about saying this stuff.

Steve Ahlquist: I’m sorry.

Jennifer Bifulco: No, it’s okay.

Noah Provost: He intimidates people.

Jennifer Bifulco: A lot of people have either been pushed out by him or left because of how he runs things or his treatment of them. He’s been a large factor in the change.

Steve Ahlquist: And, I would guess, a large factor in your need to unionize.

Jennifer Bifulco: Yes. Charter school teachers have needed more say, and even before Haskins came in, I thought a union wouldn’t be the worst thing because I saw what was coming down the line. The kids are getting more challenging, and charter school teachers have high expectations placed on them. We serve the same population as Providence Schools, but we are expected to outperform Providence and give the kids almost a private school experience as a public school.

Because we’re a small institution, we haven’t had the best pay or health insurance - things a lot of teachers get and take for granted. We never had that here, but I don’t think people cared too much because we were doing something big together. But now, we don’t get treated well, and we don’t have all those perks other teachers get. It’s like, what do you want us to stay for?

We love the kids, but eventually, you say, “I can love the kids somewhere else.” I can be treated better and not come into school with my shoulders up, worried about what’s going to happen today, what’s not going to be supported, and who will be upset that we’re advocating for things.

We tried to unionize in 2015 and 2016, and it wasn’t successful because our Haskins found out we were doing it (behind the scenes because we were afraid), and he filed an appeal and blocked the vote.

Steve Ahlquist: I didn’t know that was possible.

Jennifer Bifulco: We didn’t either. We didn’t know too much about what we were doing. When he filed that appeal, we just stopped and lost 90% of the staff that year. We had a mass exodus.

We got word that the Upper School was unionizing this fall. I contacted some people, joined one of their Zooms, and asked, “Can we join?” They were already ahead of us, so we quickly followed behind them. They got their vote, and about six weeks later, we voted. We turned it around quickly because we wanted to be part of it. We also felt we needed the protection because if they had a union and we didn’t… Even in those few weeks in between, stuff happened that felt retaliatory.

Steve Ahlquist: And I'm sure you’re noting everything they do that seems retaliatory.

Jennifer Bifulco: Yeah. We’re noting things with the union, but also with human resources and things like that, because now that we have the union, it’s easier to feel like you can go to HR and be protected, where before, going to HR felt unprotected. You felt like HR had to report things to Haskins.

Steve Ahlquist: I get that.

As I said earlier, with all the changes here, the only difference between a charter school and a public school in Providence is that you are paid less and treated worse.

Jennifer Bifulco: Yes. They save money by not paying us or giving us decent healthcare or whatever, and they’re not giving the kids anything more than they might get in a public school.

If you talk to former students who went to Cuffee in those early years, it was a happy experience for them. The school’s energy was so positive and different, and parents raved about it. It felt like a community. I still feel like teachers are working hard and giving the kids everything they can, but it doesn’t feel like a tight community. It feels like there are pockets of community. It makes me sad because we had something special for a time, and it doesn’t feel special to me anymore.

Steve Ahlquist: And this union is an effort to get that back?

Jennifer Bifulco: Yes. It’s to get that back and advocate for what’s been taken from our students since this change. Right now, one person, Christopher Haskins, holds the power of the budget, and whatever his vision is, is the vision for the school. That’s not what our vision is. It’s not the support services we were once giving kids. It’s not collaborative in any sense.

Steve Ahlquist: At a certain point, you’re basically a McDonald’s employee making the fries the way they tell you, and that’s it.

Jennifer Bifulco: We truly could get robots in. The curriculum is all given to us. We used to write our curriculum. Originally, we had a ton of autonomy, and kids could feel how passionate we were about what we taught. Now, it’s all stuff we’ve been given. We haven’t been part of any committees to select curriculum, whereas before, we were part of everything as a group.

Steve Ahlquist: So you’re trying to get that back, too.

Jennifer Bifulco: A hundred percent. Our hope, and quite possibly our last hope because we’ve been told the doors might close, is to get back on track and hopefully get back to where we were.

Steve Ahlquist: I don’t think the Providence Public School system is ready to absorb the students from this school right now, with cuts coming locally and what’s going on with the US Department of Education.

Jennifer Bifulco: I’ve always felt like we’ve been pitted against Providence Public Schools, like we’re different in some way. We’re not. We’re serving the same population, but we want to take the chance to make it better. Providence Public Schools runs much better than our school has been running, even with the takeover and the mess.

Our kids had so many unique experiences because we have a maritime theme. It was much more significant back then, but our kids were sailing, swimming, building wooden boats, and had a lot of experiences that no longer exist. The answer is always, “We don’t have the money for that.” But so much money has been wasted at the school on lawsuits against the head of school. The money is not in our salaries. I don’t know where it goes. The kids are not getting any unique experiences here anymore..

Steve Ahlquist: I asked earlier if management is becoming a little top-heavy because that’s usually where the money goes.

Jennifer Bifulco: We have this mid-management line, like curriculum people, and all these people who get paid to critique what we do and look at the data we have to put into spreadsheets.

Steve Ahlquist: What are you trying to do at tonight’s board meeting?

Noah Provost: Tonight is about asking for a fair contract and for them to negotiate. They are dragging their feet, and little progress has been made. We’re not asking them to move mountains. We’re asking to be treated like human beings, with basic respect and dignity. We’re asking for our students to be able to get not just what they need, but what they’re entitled to. I am not in their heads, but judging by their actions, they want to keep the status quo.

Jennifer Bifulco: It’s been sad for me because as we sit in negotiations and listen to them, I think, “Wow, their opinion of teachers is so low that I wonder one, if they’ve ever heard anything positive about us.” The board and the whole collective group seem to have a negative opinion of teachers as people who take advantage of policies or systems. We’ve never had that here, so to approach it with such a negative mindset… teachers deserve to be treated with respect.

Getting this far has been a huge push, and then we’re not getting anywhere. You know what I mean?

Steve Ahlquist: Yeah. I’ve seen other unionization efforts. Negotiations are tedious. The fact is that you’re a union now. You’re a union whether you have a contract or not. That gives you certain protections. They can’t fire you now without real cause, for instance. You’re already in a better position now than you used to be. I know it’s hard, but now you can be a little bit more fearless and not feel like there’s a sword over your head.

Andrea Lahlum: It’s still super scary. We have this text chat, and before election day - before we handed in our statement of intent - we were sending out videos and GIFs to one another. I found this statement, “Bravery comes from being afraid but doing it anyway.” That’s what all of this feels like. Coming here, I had butterflies. I am so scared. Even though we have that level of protection,

The Martin Luther King Jr. quote, “The time is always right to do what is right,” has carried me through this because I’m scared to death of all these things. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know this is right. Whether I stay here for my entire career or however long, I know that this is what is right. I know, in my bones, that I can’t just leave my colleagues, the kids, and the families. Those are the people I’m loyal to. I’m not loyal to the institution, I’m loyal to the people who make the institution. I know this is hard, but what is right has to be done.

Jennifer Bifulco: The school means too much to too many teachers, students, and families not to fight for what everyone deserves. I’ve worked here half my life, and the school means so much. Going through this is very painful, but we can’t not go through it. This school has served so many people in different ways. This school deserves to be fought for.

Steve Ahlquist: You deserve it, too. There’s a lot of data out there about hostile work environments and the effect they have on workers, not only on our mental health, but also on our physical, emotional, and everything else. If you’re suffering from that, you need to punch back or it will just hurt all the time. It is really important to stand up for yourselves and support each other.

Jennifer Bifulco: I’ve mentioned the administrator a lot, but the board supports his decisions. We don’t have a board that supports teachers; they support the administrator’s decisions, and we need a board that supports the school.

Another teacher: I’m sure you’ve covered a lot of different public meetings.

Steve Ahlquist: I’ve been to maybe a thousand.

Another teacher: How many of those thousand have public comments?

Steve Ahlquist: Most of them.

Another teacher: We do not have public comment. To have a public comment, we have to ask to be on the agenda.

Steve Ahlquist: In my opinion, open meetings that don’t have public comment mean someone is trying to shut people down and shut people up. The city and town councils that don’t allow it are usually up to something.

1. "Whereas in October of 2024, educators at Upper School voted to unionize with the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers in Health Professionals RIFTHP, and,

"Whereas in December of 2024, the educators of the Paul Cuffee Lower School voted to unionize with the RIFTHP; and

"Whereas the Paul Cuffee board of trustees and the Providence City Council support good faith negotiations between educators and school administrators; and,

"Whereas the Providence City Council is resolved to pledge their support for the educators of the Paul Cuffee Upper and Lower Schools in their unionization efforts and commitment [sic] to strengthening and improving the school environment; and,

"Whereas the Paul Cuffee Upper and Lower Schools unions have sought a 19% pay raise; and,

"Whereas to fully fund that pay raise, the Providence City Council would need to make a special appropriations of $1,786,106 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year $1,937,716 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year and $2,122,020 for the 2027-2028 school year to cover salary increases and supplemental appropriations in an amount of at least $2,122,020 for each and every school year thereafter; and,

"Whereas the Paul Cuffee Upper and Lower Schools unions have sought additional salary increases to bring teaching partners to attend step salary scale at a cost of approximately $50,000 per year.

Jon Anderson: "Whereas the Paul Cuffee Upper and Lower Schools unions have sought that Paul Cuffee School hire three building substitutes per school and an additional school psychologist at a cost of approximately $500,000 per year; and,

"Whereas the Paul Cuffee Upper and Lower Schools unions have sought caseload maximums per specialists at a cost to be determined; and,

"Whereas the Paul Cuffee Upper and Lower Schools unions have sought that the health insurance copay for their members be capped at 5% of each member’s salary, at a cost to be determined;

"Now therefore be it resolved that the Paul Cuffee School Board of Trustees requests that the Providence City Council immediately approve special supplemental appropriations of $1,786,106 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, $1,937,716 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year and $2,122,020 for the 2027-2028 school year to cover salary increases and supplemental appropriations in the amount of $2,122,020 for each and every school year,

"Plus an annual appropriation of $50,000 per year to bring teaching partners to accept step salary scale, plus an annual appropriation of $500,000 to hire three building substitutes per school and an additional school psychologist for each and every school year,

"Plus sufficient funds to adjust the case loads for specialists,

"Plus sufficient funds to cap health insurance copays at 5% of each member’s salary.

"Be it further resolved that the head of school shall cause to be delivered forthwith to the Providence City Council and each of its members a copy of this resolution."