The "Students Ignite Change: Shaping Our Schools Candidate Forum" focused on real policy issues
The event may have been the best forum this election focusing on Providence's School Board elections.
For the first time in over 50 years, Providence residents will elect School Board members, thanks to the hybrid model approved in 2022. This model allows voters to select five out of 10 School Board seats, with the remaining seats appointed by the Mayor. The city has been divided into five regions, each with its own eligible candidates.1
On Tuesday, the Providence Public Library was the site of a student-led forum where 10 of the 17 candidates answered questions. The “Students Ignite Change: Shaping Our Schools Candidate Forum” was hosted by Providence Student Union, Brown Votes, NAACP Providence Branch, OurSchoolsPVD, United Way of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Coalition of Black Women, PLEE - Parents Leading for Educational Equity, ARISE, and Providence Public Library.
The forum was intended to “provide a platform for Providence School Board candidates to address critical issues in education, with a focus on the future of Providence's schools.” Students and attendees had an opportunity to ask candidates how they plan to advocate for a better educational system.
The student moderators were Lia Tavarez and Milia Odom. The forum lasted for about 90 minutes. The transcript below has been edited for clarity. The event was bilingual, with translation provided in real-time, and the transcript relies on this translation where needed. Each candidate has been identified by the region in which they are running. [R1, R2, etc.]
Moderators: How do you plan to involve caregivers, students in the broader community, and decisions that affect our schools? And what would you do to improve transparency and communication between the school board and the public?
Kobi Dennis [R2]: My entire reason for running for school board is to bring policy to the people. What I want to do- the first thing I would do when elected is to find different ways to get the school board meetings, activities, and involvement period to the community. Because I don't think the system is working right now. 10, 15, 20 people showing up to school board meetings with a population of 19,500 plus students? There is no reason for that to be happening. The only reason that's happening is that we're not doing what we're supposed to do to bring the information to the people. Times have changed. We need to change with the times. The best way to do that is to involve more youth. This should be a school board committee that mirrors the school board of young people at the meetings with us so they can bring it to the young folks in their language. I guarantee you the school board is not Tweeting, TikTok-ing and Facebook-ing. They need to.
Michael Nina [R4]: This is my first year on the school board. I was one of the three candidates that were selected last December. One of the things that was mentioned just now is that we need a better system because the process we have right now is not working, and attending many of these meetings is challenging for parents and other people. These meetings are already held virtually through YouTube, Facebook, and social media. But as board members, we have to be more inclined to go where people are already at. Why reinvent the wheel when there are already places where young people gather? Let's just go there and meet with them.
There are already meetings happening in the community, whether at the local churches, local organizations, or libraries, where people already gather. Instead of having them conform to what we want or what's convenient for us, we should go to the community. Events are happening in the community that we should be already attending. Making it easier for parents, students, and community members to engage is going to be easier in the long run. Going back to how it used to be, even during the pandemic, when we had the ability to use Zoom, people could go in there and have conversations. We could do better with this. For me, it's more about going to where people are already gathering instead of reinventing the wheel.
Corey Jones [R1]: I'm chief of policy and planning at the Department of Labor and Trainings State Workforce Board, and I'm running for School Board on the East Side in Region One. I do policy and research for a living. Sometimes, I'll get a little bit technical and in the weeds, but when it comes to empowering young people's voices, a model that's been successful around the country is what they call 'student-focused governance.' It's what it sounds like. It's when you give students decision-making power in all of the work we do.
In Chicago, they call them local school councils. Each school has a local council that has two students and two community members, and then half of the committee is parents.
The local school council has delineated some of the school's responsibilities, such as the academic improvement plan and the selection of the principal. Local school councils can also include items like participatory budgeting where the youth, specifically the local school council, would have some type of control over a sliver of the money. It could be the cafeteria dollars, the activities dollars, or the dollars for anything in the building, and the students would have some type of power. Getting on this school board [means] I'm going to have the skills to make the technical changes to empower student voices in a way that we know has been successful.
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: Thank you so much for your question. So, the districts have the parent’s advisory council, the superintendent, and the youth advisory board. Clearly, that's amazing, but if elected, in my region, I'm going to create my own youth advisory board and parent and teacher advisory boards.
I want to tell you a little bit about me. In 1994, my family fled the genocide in Rwanda, and I lived as a refugee. I grew up in the refugee camp for 15 years; seven years ago, before Barrack Obama left office, he gave my family asylum. When I came here to Providence, the residents and the public helped me succeed. After succeeding in high school, I went to college and came back to volunteer as a mentor to give back to my community. When the John Hopkins report came out, I was very mad because of the lack of transparency. The City and State weren't doing enough to reach out to our community in Providence. So, I joined the Providence School Board. Since I've joined the school board, I advocated to make sure students’ parents have a voice in a child's education. As the Chair of the Health and Awareness [Committee], I'm proud to advocate for] student mental health. For example, I tried to expand the smart clinics in schools.
Toni Akin [R2]: I am your current school board volunteer. I've been on the school committee for about two years, and one of the ways that I've asked for your voice to be more involved with the school board is by making a recommendation for a student representative on the school board. That policy was not approved because of the current bylaws. Should I be elected to represent you in Region Two, I would also be looking at having a student representative on each active subcommittee to be that voice to help us get out to the community for more involvement and conversations to bring everybody to the table.
Another resolution that I put forward recently that got approved is to have our school board meetings revolve around the various school campuses. I agree that we have to meet our families, caregivers, and students where they are. I was very pleased with that approval.
As a member of the Health and Wellness committee, being involved with the student-led health and wellness program that we have - was a major success. We are looking into having that twice a year, and we're looking to get more vendors, stakeholders, and community members to come and share their insights with us and you.
There are a lot of good movements going on, more expansion is needed, and I thank you for this wonderful student led forum this evening. It's wonderful to see all of our students and future leaders, and I hope that I can continue my work with you.
Herman Batchelor Brewster [R1]: I'm in District One, and I'm attempting to be on the school board for a different reason. I'm not so concerned about school board meetings. I am concerned about being able to work from the inside and find out why we have failing schools.
The school district or the superintendent's office has approximately 15+ people on staff, and none of them have a posted phone number. The school district sort of works in secret. It's not open and above board.
My concern is determining if the Johns Hopkins evaluation of the schools has actually changed or is the same. If it's the same, then we need to have an impact. If we don't have an impact, if we don't change it, we will have these meetings forever without any progress. The passion of the student union is important because we need to bring that passion into finding out why our schools fail. Those same students and teachers go to charter schools, and charter schools splurge. They don't suddenly become different people.
Jenny Mercado [R3]: I'm running in Region Three because I'm a mother, and I want to be able to use my voice as a mom on the school board to do something for all of the kids in our State. As a mother, I want to have the opportunity to give my girls a better future, and that means being involved - getting involved as a mom.
The lack of transparency and communication when school board meetings are held is not good [for] our community because most of the time, and I'm sure a lot of parents here could say the same thing, we're not invited, and we're not welcome. The reason I'm running for school board is because I want to be the voice of all of the people who are out there because of the language barrier and the lack of time. They cannot attend those meetings. I want to use my voice and say, “We need to make these changes.” I also work in the emergency room hospital, so I know it's hard for parents to be in two places at the same time. That's the reason I'm running for school board. Thank you, guys, for having this debate because it shows that you care about the future, and it shows me that my girls are going to have a better future than mine.
DeNeil Jones [R5]: I'm running for school board in Region Five. One of the reasons I'm running is my children. I have two kids in the system, and when my oldest was in kindergarten, her curriculum was misaligned. They weren't teaching her how to read in kindergarten. Since then, she's changed to charter schools, and I'm now running to provide that opportunity for all the rest of the students. As far as the question that you guys asked, how can we have students lead more? I strongly believe that students should have more of a voice, and I want to promote an advisory student council at each one of the schools so that they can report to the school board. Being involved is the biggest thing. I've lived in Providence for 20 years. I have not seen this many students get involved and tell the adults, "You guys need to change." I'm one of those adults that wants a change.
Michelle “Miche” Fontes [R2]: I am largely known as “Miche” in the community. I'm running for school board because I believe that students should have multiple options for schools, and all those options, whether it's charter, public, private, or independent, should be good schools, they should be resourced, they should be safe, and they should have everything they need. I'm running because I strongly believe that, and I'm hoping to push that. What is the way we get more parent and student voices into the system and meetings? As a lot of people said, of course, we have to meet people where they're at. But everything doesn't have to be a forum. Everything doesn't have to be a meeting. I come across my information through simple conversations with students. When I'm at a community event, I'm like, "What's going on? How are you doing?" If I see something on Facebook and a parent is ranting about something that happened on the school board, I'm quick to inbox and ask, "Hey, what's going on? How can I help?" [I'm trying to] be available to people who are already voicing their opinions, listening, taking it down, and making sure it's getting into the right ears. That's my answer.
David Talan [R4]: I'm running in Region Four, which is the South Side of the City. For the past 60 years, the school board has been all appointed, and for most of the 60 years, I've been a community volunteer, whether it was a 50-year coach in the Elmwood Little League, working with thousands of our school-aged children, as President of my neighborhood association where we adopted the schools in our neighborhood, Alvarez High and Reservoir; as a member of the School Improvement Teams for several schools in the area; or just doing all sorts of other stuff. I also served on Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green's team to help plan the state takeover.
But there's only so much you can do as a volunteer where you just complain about everything. If I was an elected official after November 5th, there's a lot more I could do, and my biggest priority would be improving community involvement in our schools. I want to do that by making elementary schools and middle schools into neighborhood schools for parents who want the opportunity for their child to be able to walk to school. What they would do is get the parents involved, get them to know each other, get the communities involved, have walking school buses where all the kids go together to the school, and make it possible for parents without a car, which is 50% of all the parents on the South Side, to be able to walk to school and get involved.
I know most of you are high school students, and you're wondering why you would care about that. Because if parents don't get involved when their kids are in elementary or middle school, they're surely not going to get involved in high school. If they get involved earlier, they'll stay involved with your high schools. My plan for neighborhood schools is also going to save $10 million in busing by cutting in half the 9,000 kids who are forced to ride a school bus. And $10 million, by coincidence, is the same amount of money that the superintendent is trying to shake the Mayor down for. My idea would be to save that money and make it available for other things.
Moderators: OurSchoolsPVD (OSPVD) worked with Travis Escobar to introduce a resolution in support of ethnic studies that the School Board, including members currently in this forum, passed. The resolution called for the creation of a year-long ethnic studies course required for graduation, a student-led ethnic studies leadership council, and increased teacher diversity and support for ethnic study teachers. How would you ensure the implementation of this ethnic studies resolution?
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: As a school board member, I was able to work with the Providence Student Union and different youth organizations to pass the ethnic studies [resolution], and I can promise you if I am elected, I'm going to continue to make sure that the school district implements them. The other policy I researched is we have a successful program that's working at Leviton Elementary School in bilingual education. 50% of our students speak a second language at home. 50% of our school should be bilingual. If we look at the study at the Leviton Elementary School, students there have increasing reading levels, absenteeism is decreasing, and family engagement is working very well. We need more bilingual education schools for languages like Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Michael Nina [R4]: I went through the ESL program when I came to the United States back in 1992. They didn't have bilingual classes back then, so I was basically in a corner with a computer, trying to learn something. It was the only thing available at the time. Then, I went to Roger Williams, where I was able to enter the ESL program, and then to Central High School. At Central, I was able to go from ESL to regular English classes. So, I know the importance of having bilingual classes. We have over 55 languages spoken in the Providence Public Schools. That should be reflected in a lot of the things that we do, including ethnic studies - not only learning a language but also maintaining a little bit of the cultural background that we all have.
We're all from diverse communities. We have a city where we celebrate Dominican and Guatemalan festivals. We are a very cultural city. We're one of the most diverse communities in the United States for such a small state. That should be reflected in what we do with the schools, including everything that happens from the board level to the staffing of the teachers. That is essential for us as board members. One of the things I would like to find out is what's going on with these policies. Are they being implemented? Because I don't believe a lot of the data. I'd like to be in person at the school and be like, "Okay, where's everybody? How is this reflected?" Ethnic studies and community relations in regard to culture and diversity are crucial for us to make sure that we have a more positive future for our students.
Kobi Dennis [R2]: This is what you call traditional learning, and I can see some of you starting to doze off. Don't try to act like you're not. I'm going to talk about what I would do when I become a school member. I'm not going to talk about what they've already done because I wasn't a part of that. I'm going to try to bring new things to the table. I believe ethnic studies and cultural learning should be brought to the streets where you guys are. The Dominican Festival- you guys should be interning for all these things. You should be hosting the Dominican Festival, the Puerto Rican Festival, the Cultural Festival, and the PVD Fest. If you want to learn about different cultures, you have to be a part of it, right? I traveled the world. That's how I learned.
I can tell you guys all this stuff - talk analytics and transparency and all that, and you will all be leaving here and say, "I don't know what that guy was talking about." I want you to know that when I become a school board member, I'm going to get out into the streets, and we're going to do what needs to be done, and that's got with the people.
Corey Jones [R1]: First, I want to talk a little bit about my background. I was the co-founder and former executive director of the Black Lives Matter RI Political Action Committee. A bunch of us protested every day during the BLM movement, and we decided to do something about it. We decided to form that PAC and endorse Black and brown candidates and get them into office because if we have those people in higher places, our policies will reflect. What's stopping things like ethnic studies, which everybody at this stage, I would hope, supports, is that folks are hyper-obsessive with testing regimes. They're obsessed with instructional time. They're obsessed with these core elements. And the truth is, if we want to be like China or Taiwan, sure, we can be obsessed with test regimes, but the truth is that countries like China and Taiwan are trying to figure out how they can be like us.
The way we create innovative people like Steve Jobs and Walt Disney is through arts and ethnic studies, and we help kids become more creative. We have to empower our young people to be innovative, well-rounded people who are taking care of their mental and physical health. That's how we move our students, schools, and City forward. It's not by teaching to the test, and it's not by being obsessed with markers that don't reflect a successful young person. First, we have to identify what's holding us back, which is this obsession with tests, and then we have to get that out of the way and focus on what will move us forward. And that's things like ethnic studies.
Toni Akin [R2]: I am very proud of the ethnic studies resolution being unanimously approved by myself and the other sitting board members on this panel. I understand that because it's a newer campaign, there are delays in getting that enacted. It takes time to roll out. It takes time to teach teachers and it takes time for the materials and the curriculum to be drafted and written. The fact that we are an advisory board at the moment creates further delays. This was the first time I heard about a delay based on your demands, and I put an inquiry in with the Vice President of the Board, who helped shepherd that resolution to the full board for approval. I was told that it has been sent to the administration and requires more investigation, quite frankly, about what that holdup is about.
By the way, I've also presented various curriculum requests for climate change and resiliency, and these things take time to develop. I totally understand that. But I will, if elected, get these front and center for approval so that we can at least have a timeline of expectations because we shouldn't be putting these fantastic campaigns together that our students work so hard for and then have them delayed without any reason. As far as diversity, this curriculum would create more awareness of our diversity in the capital city. We have so many great things here, as every prior candidate mentioned.
Moderators: Last year, students saw many beloved teachers get laid off. What will you do as a school board member to be accountable for the impact this has on students and teachers?
Jenny Mercado [R3]: [If elected,] this will be my first time being on the school board. A lot of teachers are burned out of a lot of things going on in the PPSD. Unfortunately, various things could be seniority based on the union and all those things. I would say create a plan where teachers are welcome. Create a plan where we can teach and let the teachers know what our kids need so they can develop a better plan so they can stay, feel welcome, and want to stay. And most importantly - teach our kids, right? A lot of the teachers feel like they don't have the support that we're supposed to be giving them because, technically, they're the first person our children see every day, after me, of course, when I bring my kids to school, but they stay with the teachers for eight hours.
Of course, I want the teachers to be happy to come and teach our kids. If I get elected, create a plan where our teachers are - first of all, here's their needs - because a lot of our teachers are tired. They're tired because there's no accountability or transparency. Create a plan where they can come and gather and say, "This is what's going on, this is what I want to see to change." Optimally, with the school board, we could create that plan and make it happen because one thing is to create a plan and not put it into action. That will be one of the things that will help retain our teachers in our schools.
Herman Batchelor Brewster [R1]: When the budget is created, it should enable teachers to stay in their jobs from the beginning of school until the end of the year. If, for some reason, a teacher has to be laid off, then it should - this is very difficult - but at Vartan Gregorian this year, a teacher was laid off. One of the complaints of the parents is that the union controls who gets laid off. If you have seniority, then the chances are you're not going to get laid off compared to someone who doesn't. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but the complaint that parents had was that the person who was laid off was the teacher that most of the parents felt was doing the most for their kids and that the person who was kept was not that type of teacher. It's important to have a budget that provides continuity and continues throughout the year.
DeNeil Jones [R5]: As far as retaining teachers, I would suggest that we look to best practices in the industry as to how to retain those teachers. They would have to provide the professional training they want, and I would push for the City to put forth the funding they need to keep the teachers that we need.
Michelle “Miche” Fontes [R2]: I work at Sophia Academy. I'm a dean of students there. We did not lay this teacher off, but we did lose a teacher last year. She was, some were saying, the most beloved teacher. Their parents felt most connected to her. Students felt most connected to her. What we offered was support - a space for students to be able to voice how they're feeling. Why did you love this teacher? When we are looking for new teachers, we can find ones that have those values, qualities, and connectedness to our students. The impact when a teacher leaves a job, it's grief, it's loss. It is the same thing as when someone passes away. You feel that grief. It feels the same. It's hurt. Let students know that it happens, they are supported, and we are here for them. But I agree. To retain and keep teachers, we've got to pay attention to the budget. That's the bottom line. We have to make sure our schools are funded so that the teachers who are making an impact on our students can stay. That's the bottom line.
David Talan [R4]: No teachers are actually losing their jobs within the system because, if anything, we're having trouble hiring enough teachers to fill all the positions. But what we do have happening is bumping of teachers from the school they're working well with, where they know all the students, and someone else with more seniority is bumping them out of there. I'd like to change the teacher's union contract so you cannot bump another teacher out of their position and give the principal authority to decide what teachers they want to keep as part of their school team and not worry about them getting bounced out by a teacher from another school.
You didn't ask the question, but I know one of the questions is: “How do we recruit more minorities to teach in the Providence School system and fill the positions that are vacant right now? One of the good things that Commissioner Infante-Green did was she overrode the teacher's union contract and where before you were not allowed to recruit minority teachers from out of State until June when anybody was any good had already taken a job elsewhere, she changed that to March where you could start recruiting teachers that look like our students to come in. We still haven't been able to fill all the positions. I'd like to go even further and allow 'em to start earlier, even in December or January, recruiting good teachers from out of State who look like our students and fill those positions.
Michelle “Miche” Fontes [R2]: We need to start hiring and training our parents. Our parent volunteers need to be trained. They need to be sent to school to get their degrees and teaching certificates so they can be in the schools teaching our kids. They know our kids; they know our community. They know what they need, not out-of-state teachers.
Moderators: We'll now open it up to the questions from the audience. Up to four candidates will answer each question.
Audience Question 1 [To David Talan [R4]]: You want to fix teachers being laid off by hiring out-of-state teachers?
David Talan [R4]: Teachers from outside of the system, not necessarily from out of State. But realistically, if we're looking to make teachers look like the students they're teaching, meaning hiring minorities, outside of the City of Providence, there is not a lot available. So they haven't gone to places like Washington or heavily Black colleges and universities to recruit teachers to come here, and that's a good thing.
Audience Question 1: But what about the teachers who are currently being laid off?
David Talan [R4]: Nobody's actually being removed from the Providence School system. They are being sent to different jobs or different schools other than where they've been. But I'm not aware of any teachers who have been totally fired.
Audience Question 1: You were talking about supporting buses. Can you elaborate on that?
David Talan [R4]: Right now, instead of students being allowed to go to their neighborhood school, if that's what they and their parents want, they're being sent to other schools outside of their neighborhood against their will, while kids from other neighborhoods are being bussed into their own neighborhood schools. They waste hundreds of hours a year riding a school bus with no good purpose. It makes it really difficult for their parents to get involved because people live on the same street. The kids go to different schools, so they don't talk to each other. They don't get involved in the PTAs or involved in general. For those students who want to be able to walk to the neighborhood school, I want to make sure that that's a default instead of not being given that option. It definitely is not the case right now. Nine thousand kids are forced to ride a school bus. I believe that number would be cut in half if we went to the neighborhood schools.
Audience Question 2: My name is Kiana. I'm a senior at Classical, and I'm with the youth org Arise. The City of Providence has historically and is currently underfunding PPSD schools. This year, there is a gap of $10.9 million, and cuts are being made that impact our most vulnerable students, whether that be transportation, like the city buses, youth sports, and English language learner reimbursements. How are you going to hold the City accountable?
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: As a board member of public Providence schools and also the chair of the Health and Wellness Committee, I've been advocating and holding the Mayor accountable to make sure he pays his fair share. I'm a member of the Finance Committee as well. I've been on the school board for three years. I've seen the District mismanage money during Covid. For example, we passed a $70 million contract that was supposed to help teachers. We could have used that money to expand more programs to help our students. What's happening right now? The Mayor is asking for an audit to be able to add additional funding, which we need: $10.9 million. In the last two board meetings, I want to thank every student because they came and spoke, and the District agreed to an audit. Now it's time for the City and the Mayor to pay their fair share.
Toni Akin [R2]: Just echo, as the Chair of Finance, we did try to tackle many of these cuts well before the second announcement. However, a memo went out last spring giving the administration suggestions on how to avoid these budget cuts for sports and recreation, transportation, and our special needs students. But we closed the books with a large deficit for 2024. We are going in with this large deficit. Now, the City has put a little bit more effort into this year, but it's not enough. There has been movement and discussions on that end. It's a bit litigious at this point, but we did get letters out to RIPTA requesting some bus pass discounts, and we also requested the Mayor's office to make a timeline so we can expect when this will be resolved so that our budgets don't get cut for these programs. We've already gone behind the scenes with things underway, and we will continue pushing forward. The board here and the hybrid elected officials will continue to push forward so that does not happen.
Corey Jones [R1]: In the last four years, the City of Providence has increased its overall budget by $88 million. We're over here talking about $10 million. The Mayor's saying he'll give us a million, but they've increased their budget by $88 million - they're increasing police budgets and these other budgets and not prioritizing the schools. The schools are the least they've increased in the last four years.
Here's the thing. I'm going to be able to go through these budgets, and I'm going to be to pick them apart, and when they don't listen, I'm going to call you guys, and we're going to go to the City Council, City Hall, and the Mayor's office and we're going to make some noise. Then, after we make that noise, we're going to sit down with them and lay out the facts. "You guys are increasing police, but you're not increasing the schools."
It's unacceptable. I don't think we should have any cuts to education if we're increasing these other departments; if we're increasing the City's budget by $88 million, we shouldn't be having a conversation about recommended cuts. There should be no cuts at all. Raise the budget, end of story. End the takeover. The audit is great, but the negotiation should have been, "We'll fund the schools, and then the takeover ends." Then we can do our own audit. To me, it looks like the Mayor doesn't want the takeover to end because he's not doing enough.
Michael Nina [R4]: I totally agree with everything that's being said. I went through public school. I know what it's like when they take your teachers away, especially for somebody who can't speak English. Speaking legally, we need to know what's going on. We have no power unless we have actual numbers. The only numbers we have are those the school has given us. We need something that we can leverage and be like, "Hey, the schools receive over $500 million per year. Every year, there's a different budget amount, and we only see the reports that we get. We have got to find out what's going on.
For example, if I'm fixing a car and somebody tells me, "Just give me $3,000 for me to fix it." I'm like, "No, I need to know what's wrong so that when you fix my car, you don't try to trick me."
We all know the stories about mechanics. That's what's going on with the schools. The City's trying to find out, "Hey, before I give you all this money, we need to figure out what's going on because the students are suffering, the teachers are suffering. We need some evidence that we can use here and find out like, hey, this is not working."
I'm totally against the state takeover. It hasn't worked in any other states. It hasn't worked ever. The only two districts that supposedly had some positive outcomes - two or three years afterward, they flunk completely. They went right back to the same mess they had before. State takeovers do not work. They need a collaborative community impact into this entire process, and in order for us to get those things, we need to get the numbers clear so that we can show them they're not working. This is not right. "You're using money to fund your project, and you're so stubborn." Sometimes, what's going on with the school is that they're so stubborn about their projects and ideas. They don't want to admit that they're wrong. And that's a problem for me because I can't experiment with the kids in Providence. I can't run experiments with your education. We should be doing stuff that is honestly already proven to work instead of experimenting.
Audience Question 3: Which of you on this panel support the cuts that Providence Public Schools are facing, and which of you are against it?
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: The school board doesn't have the power to control.
Kobi Dennis [R2]: We do not have the power.
Michael Nina [R4]: I don't think anybody's in favor. That's why we need to have an audit. We need these numbers because we can't go and blindly believe everything they're telling us. I want to see the numbers. I want to see the statements. I want to see the facts so that then we can figure out what the problem is. "You're spending a lot of money hiring your buddies in the school department or doing all this nonsense over here. How come there's more money in the administration office than in the actual schools?" That's why we need this.
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: When the students came to the last school board meeting, and they testified, the District agreed to an audit. Now it's time for the City to play their part and pay the money.
Herman Batchelor Brewster [R1]: The main reason I'm running for the school board is because the school board has to change its role. As it stands, it seems like you are sometimes the last to know when things are happening somewhere within the system. Rather than knowing about it at the beginning, when you can discuss, evaluate, and make decisions, you find out about it after the fact. It's not you personally, but it's the way the City is structured. There are so many people who have a role, and you don't know what that role is until something goes wrong. The Mayor has a role, and the superintendent has a role. Infante-Green has a role, and none of those people are talking to us. They may talk to each other, but they sure as hell aren't getting us involved.
We're left with trying to fix it, and you can't fix it if you have a structure that you don't want to be fixed. There are benefits for people who are in charge that we are not always aware of, and as long as we accept the structure as it is, we are not going to make progress. The important thing is the number of students here tonight, the students who are part of this union, their parents, and friends. We need to speak as one voice and say, "This is not working for us. We need to demand change."
Audience Question 4: Can you guys explain why you want an additional audit? Can you just elaborate on what that means for the people who don't know its significance?
Michael Nina [R4]: Right now, from the reports that we've gotten, we haven't had an audit done by an impartial committee without any type of community involvement. It has all been done by the school, and they just report every year the budget that they've used, what they've done with the money, and everything else. There hasn't been any actual audit done the way that is supposed to be done. That's why the City is demanding an audit from somebody who's not related, connected, or hired by the public school so we can trust the numbers.
It is like me asking my best friend to be in charge of the audit. He's my best friend. He's not going to make me look bad with the numbers. He's going to try to word it in a way or put it in a way that's going to be convenient for me. We need an impartial, clear audit of what's going on with the school department in Providence in order to find out what's being done with the money and not hide the numbers - to show that the takeover is not actually working. The numbers do not show that it works, and it hasn't worked anywhere else. It's not working here. Central Falls has been under state takeover for over 30 years. How is Central Falls doing 30, 33 years under state takeover? We don't want to end up in the same way. We don't want Providence Schools to be 30 years later under state takeover, and nobody knows what's going on.
Kobi Dennis [R2]: I'm not on the school board. The red flags go up. You guys all know that red flags go up when somebody calls somebody else and asks for $10 million. Did you guys see how that went down? That's scary to me. There are budget meetings. This is a long process. You cannot make a phone call to somebody and tell them I need $10 million. That is not how this works.
That's what happens when they incite the people. Get people like yourself. You got people picketing and protesting. These are called scare tactics. You've got to be very careful of that. I'm not saying who is scaring who because I don't know. I want to know why we would start the school year $10 million short. Why would we do that? You have to think about that. I know you all want to fight, and that's great, but think a little bit about that. That's all I got.
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: I want to echo what you're saying. I'd been on the Finance Committee before I became the Chair of Health and Wellness. I've seen the District mismanage and pass an unnecessary contract. I'm talking about $200 million, right? We passed past the $70 million contract that was supposed to help teachers and mentor them. $70 million. They were supposed to give teachers mentors, but none of them showed up. It's nonsense. These people mismanaged the money, and they don't want to be transparent with us. There's a lack of transparency in the school department. That independent audit is going to help out a lot. When the students came into the last meeting, the District agreed to the audit. Now it's time for the City to do an audit and pay the money.
Audience Question 5: Why is the Mayor appointing school board members? The Mayor doesn't have children in the school. How did that happen, and how can we change it?
Kobi Dennis [R2]: That didn't happen. That's been happening. This is the first time that we're being able to elect by people. It's always been the way it was.
Audience Question 5: Has he appointed any of you who are up there now? I'm an alumnus of Central High School and a former employee of the Providence School Department. For several years, I was a human relations specialist at Nathan Bishop Middle School, and I've worked in several of the schools for several of the principals. I won't go there, but what I want to know is how you can change it.
Michael Nina [R4]: For the first question, there was a process. For example, the board members. It's not just the Mayor who chooses them. They have to go through a rigorous process of interviews. I became a board member last December because three members were basically at term. They were termed out, so they needed three new people. We had a meeting with about 60 applicants who were being interviewed by the community at PCTA, by the Mayor, by the City Council, and by Community Leaders. It was a rigorous process. It took about three months to finally get through, and it dwindled from 60 to 20 to 10 and then to the final three. That's basically what it was. It wasn't just like, "Oh, the Mayor's just handpicked, and you're the one."
The other thing to consider is that the City of Providence needs to make sure that we have people with specific expertise in certain areas. For example, if the voters choose, it's not the case now, but if there are five parents that get nominated to be on the school board and none of them have any financial experience, we need somebody to have some sort of financial background in order to understand the Finance Committee meetings and run those. For example, Toni and I, right now we're on the Finance Committee. We're dealing with all these contracts. We need at least one person who can explain and break those down for us. We have somebody on the Health and Wellness Committee for the school board who is 19. He needs to have a background and understanding of a lot of the policies to know what gets approved or not. There's a process behind it, and that's what happens behind the scenes when the City nominates somebody.
Corey Jones [R1]: My assumption is that a lot of people who are running in this race are going to get a chance to be appointed by the Mayor. Personally, I wouldn't want to be because then you're kind of beholden to the Mayor's agenda. But I want to respectfully disagree with something you said, Michael. The school board should be a hundred percent elected. Our state legislature is a hundred percent elected.
Michael Nina [R4]: I was just explaining the way it was.
Corey Jones [R1]: We can have people who have those skills and understand those different committees, just as our state does. What's important about an elected school board is that you have the people putting the fire underneath you, so you are always accountable to those people, and you're always going to move according to the people who elected you, like what President Catala said earlier.
It should be a hundred percent elected. In the next charter review change, we should advocate for them to make it a hundred percent elected. Then, we should advocate for voters to vote as they did in the last process to make it a hundred percent elected. That means my constituency would be smaller, but that's okay with me because the people of Providence will have their voices heard across the City, and they will have more representation.
Toni Akin [R2]: I would like to revert back to the original question about the audit. We are bound by GAP, which is the General Accounting Principles and the Federal Accounting Standard Board, to have an independent audit because, as many of these candidates and colleagues have mentioned, that has not been done. We ended the year with a deficit, and we've been asking for an audit for a while. As Mr. Muhingabo mentioned, there was a major contract for $70 million for training teachers that I had recommended that we cancel in the spring while we could still get a refund. That would've been a sizable multi-million dollar credit back to the District. That was not acceptable.
These are the reasons why we hear about what's happening in Brockton Public Schools. I'm not saying it's here in Providence, but they have an issue with their CFO being under criminal investigation.
Audience Question 6: I am a lead organizer for the youth organization PrYSM. We are here at an event for students - Ignite Change. Once you're elected, how would you center and elevate youth voices in your decision-making process?
DeNeil Jones [R5]: One of the things that I do want to promote is advisory councils at all of the schools in Providence. As a parent, I've been on the PTO and Parent Teacher Organization at Providence Public Schools, and I'm also on the Parent Leadership Council at a charter school. Both of these schools do not have a student advisor counselor. The students at the school don't get to put [their ideas] in anywhere. Their parents go to the parent/teacher conference and talk about the school. Unless you're going home, listening to your student, and bringing that to the meeting, the students in the school should be able to have their own meeting and speak with those adults. Every school should have a student advisory council so that students have the voice to lead in their education.
Jenny Mercado [R3]: If I get elected, I would love to work with you guys, the union students, because you are the voices. I agree with DeNeil that we should have a student advisory board in every school because, at the end of the day, you are going through the schools, right? We, as parents, we're going to support you. We're going to give you the best advice, but at the end of the day, you guys go to school every day. You guys know what's going on, what's happening in your classrooms, what's happening at every level of the school. I would bring the youth to our meetings and make you feel welcome at our meetings.
Kobi Dennis [R2]: First of all, when get elected, we're not going to have any meetings like this because I don't people going to sleep I would have it where we are listening to you. We should be sitting there, and you guys should be up here. We should be asking you what you need us to do because you are the only people who can move the needle. If I were to win on November 5th, it's going to take two to three years for any real change to happen. I'm going to tell you that right now because you're not coming to my house saying, "What did you say on stage that day?" I'm telling you right now, it's going to take about two to three years for some real change.
What I can do for the young people is what I've been doing for the last 30 years. Programs after school and summer jobs. We talked about festivals and things like that for the young people to get them involved and then incorporate the educational aspect. That's what we do. We have to bring this committee aspect to you so it's not boring and it's not a three-hour meeting waiting to speak. We need to change this whole system now.
Herman Batchelor Brewster [R1]: How are your schools working for you? How many feel that you are in a school that is meeting your needs? That's an important question. You are the people who are being served, and if you're not being served, it's like when my son was in school and decided he wanted to go to another school. I called up a principal that I knew, and she said, "Don't send him to that school because if he needs Spanish, he's not going to get it because the teacher doesn't teach." There are situations like that, and you are the guy who knows. In order to make change, we have to hear what is happening within the school. You are the people who can bring about change, and I believe that when you are in numbers, numbers have an effect. You've got to be loud, you've got to be noisy, and you've got to say what's important.
Michael Nina [R4]: I love that you asked that question. I was a student council member when I was in Central High School, and I remember having these kinds of meetings. It was a bit different back then, but one of the things that I would love to see is more participatory budgeting within the schools. Two years ago, I was involved in the first participatory budgeting program in Providence, where a million dollars [in spending] was decided by young people. I worked closely with Mount Pleasant High School, and we had the students create programs. The students created six programs, and now four of them are in the community, funded by the community, for the community. It is very important that we involve the kids and not only give them a microphone for a voice - I want you guys to actually have some voting power on how the money's being spent.
For example, one of the programs that the young people at Mount Pleasant created through this process was peer-to-peer mental health training to train all these young people to be able to work with other young people and their mental health needs. As somebody who wanted stuff like that in high school, that's something that I would love to see for young people, which includes afterschool programs because that's where you get to practice what they're learning in school - It's in these afterschool programs, it's in these summer jobs, afterschool programs. I want to see more of that and in order for us to be able to do that, we need to r have control over the budget and what's going on with the budget in the school department. It's a lot of money. We need to know what's going on.
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: As one of the youngest school board members, I've always worked with students. When I was appointed as the Chair of the Health and Wellness Committee, I worked with students at Central High School to create the biggest mental health fair. Four hundred members show up. Right now, I'm working with students and the Mayor's office to make sure they get hired to create another mental health fair. If I get elected, I'm going to create a regional youth advisory, parents advisory, and teacher advisory committee to hear directly from them.
David Talan [R4]: As elected members of the school board, we need to be proactive - going out and visiting the schools and talking to students and not waiting for them to show up at a school board meeting once a month and have three minutes of public comment. I've actually done that. I've visited all 23 of the schools around the South Side of the City. I'm on the school improvement team at Alvarez High School, where I worked with the teachers who have also put me together with some of the student groups working on special projects. They've invited me to work with them and talk to them as a longtime coach in the Elwood Little League. I'm always talking to kids up to high school to find out what they think. Not just the ones who get into trouble for something like this, but ordinary students who would never come to something like this but still go to the schools and have opinions that are worth listening to. I'll be out there constantly, not just once a month, at the school board meeting. I'll be out there visiting all the schools if I'm elected.
Moderators: Closing statements
Toni Akin [R2]: Thank you for inviting me to this forum. It's been wonderful to hear your demands and hopefully be able, if elected, to work with you to solve these matters collectively. As far as expanding your voices, I love the fact that you have the high school chapters, and I love the fact that you, in your demands, state the Youth Alliance. I'd like to even expand that for a partnership with parents, for an alliance to work on keeping your school safe and secure, and also having school board members present during special events, being able to visit you in your schools to be supportive during your every day and more of the day-to-day. I've gone to the Kennedy [Plaza] to try to greet students after school coming off the buses to make sure they're having a good day. I've also tried to reach out to them to check in on how they're doing. And I've seen any of you there. Thank you again for inviting me today.
David Talan [R4]: A couple of things I'd like to add that haven't been asked. People are asking me since the state has taken over the Providence Schools, what do I expect to actually be able to do if I'm elected? One advantage I have is that I was on Commissioner Infante-Green's Community Design Team and helped plan the takeover. I got to work with her, and I found that if you do your homework and you have some well-thought-out ideas to present to her, she's willing to listen, which is not something I could say about a lot of school administrators and staff. I would be aggressive with using that ability if I'm elected. If I get elected, the first thing I would do is be on the phone calling Commissioner Infante-Green and asking to meet with her again to share some of the ideas I have for improving the schools. I think she'd be willing to listen.
One of the things people ask me is what needs to happen before the state turns the schools back over to the City. The biggest thing is that the state has the authority to override the teacher's union contract even without the teacher's permission. The City does not have that. It's very important for the state to replace the factory model that they have for the contract now with one that serves the students and their families ahead of everybody else. I want to make sure that the state does that.
Night Jean Muhingabo [R4]: I want to thank students for creating this amazing forum. If I get elected, I'm going to continue to advocate for you. As chair of Health and Wellness, I was able to work with you to create a subcommittee to prioritize mental health in our schools. For example, when that school was closed, I was there with you to advocate for mental health clinics and pass a resolution. I will also continue to advocate for bilingual education.
Jenny Mercado [R3]: It is beautiful that at this forum, we had an opportunity to speak in a native language, and I am grateful for you and the way that you spoke so passionately about how important it is to get involved. This is why I'm here. This is why I'm running for school board: as a mom, I want my boys to be heard, and I want the voice of the community to be heard. It doesn't matter if you speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, or any other language. That's what we want. I am grateful to have this opportunity to speak with you.
Corey Jones [R1]: I'm Cory Jones, Chief of Policy and Planning at the Department of Labor and Training. I am also co-vice chair of the Pathways to End Gun Violence with the city committee, which I was instrumental in forming. I am also a staffer for the Governor's Young Leaders Advisory Committee, and I was sure to assert that we need to include PSU students. I recognize some folks in the crowd that we've recently admitted, and we will continue to admit PSU students.
I have a history of advocating as an activist, working in the classroom as a substitute teacher, working as a policy advisor, and working on the state budget, a $14 billion budget, and also the Department of Transportation's budget.
One of my priorities is going to be a community school model that recognizes the connection between mental and physical health and academic outcomes. Two, student-focused governance, which is the technical way of lifting student voices. And three, ensuring that every student is college or career-pathway-ready by the time of graduation.
And another plug: if you guys are on TikTok, you can follow me. I post multiple times a day. Corey Jones, P-V-D-C-O-R-E-Y-J-O-N-E-S-P-V-D. That's a way that I'm going to stay communicating with our young people. I'm going to post constantly. I'm going to post what we're doing. I'm going to post my ideas. Stay plugged in with me. I'm also on Instagram and Twitter. Utilizing social media is a great way to stay engaged with young people. Thank you all for putting this on. Happy to be here.
Herman Batchelor Brewster [R1]: I would like to have you check out in December; there's going to be another Saturday meeting at the Central Vocational School that the Mayor organizes. At the first meeting, which took place about a month ago, there were a number of folks, and unfortunately, the meeting ended before many of us could exchange emails. There are a lot of people who are interested in working on the issue of improving schools. I taught for a number of years. I taught at Nathaniel Green, Roger Williams, and Hope. Even then, things were not great, but it's important for you to be involved, to have a voice, and to continue doing what you're doing.
Michael Nina [R4]: Thank you for hosting this event. This is very important. I went to elementary, middle, and high school here in Providence. I went to Johnson and Wales University here in Providence. I'm a Providence kid, and I'm a Providence advocate behind the scenes. I used to tutor teachers. I used to teach them Spanish. As a student, I volunteered for many community activities. For example, I'm one of the site psych coordinators for the Back to School celebration that gives out 16,000 backpacks every year. I've been involved with Quisqueya in Action, which is part of the Dominican Festival. I've been involved with Parenting Matters, a conference for parents in English and Spanish. I've done a lot of work with different community agencies and organizations and community leaders. I'm about community.
It's very important that community voices are not only lifted but given the ability to have power over the choices because you can yell and lose your voice. If there's no power behind what we're doing, nothing's going to change. I plan to have my family here. I want the schools to be better. I was that Providence kid in school who was being impacted by decisions adults were making for me. Now I'm this adult seeing the same thing all over again. We need to change that. The only way to do that is by having people who have gone through the entire system. I went through the Providence schools. I know what it is to be on the other end. It's important to have people who, because of their community involvement, understand the politics behind it in order to push for change - because we need to have all these different connections and knowledge. Nothing can be done without community power. It has to be by the community. Nothing for the community without the community. That's my saying.
Kobi Dennis [R2]: I'm running for Region Two, and I have other folks who I'm running against who are here today. I'm happy you guys invited me here, but as I said before, I would love to hear from you more. It should be more student-heavy next time because that's who's going to run the school board, not us. We are just the figureheads.
Audience Member: What does that mean practically?
Kobi Dennis [R2]: What that means is that I would love for you students to tell us what they would like to see because that's what should be happening. That's how school boards run in all other cities. Here, they act like this is a nonpartisan group, but it's not because the Mayor picks people. We can say we went through the schooling process, and no offense, but what happens is very political. I'm trying to take that out of it. I believe anyone can run for school board. You don't need a certain skill set. If you are a concerned community member, you should be able to run for School Board.
I'm in the community with the groups that are here. I've worked with almost every group that has spoken here. I know the folks that run these groups. I helped to start a lot of those groups. I'll continue, whether I'm elected or not, because [preventing] summer learning loss is the biggest thing that we need. During the summers, none of this is happening. We need involvement in the summertime because we need to catch up and close the gap for sure. Thank you. Thanks for having me. That's it for me.
DeNeil Jones [R5]: Thank everybody for inviting me here. I am going to introduce myself. My name is DeNeil Jones. I'm a resident of District Five, and the main thing that I'm running for is introducing personalized learning approaches. There are many special needs students who aren't getting their needs met, but your student isn't having their needs met. Every student should receive the tools they need to succeed.
Here is the full list of candidates on the ballot:
REGION 1 (Wards 1, 2, 3)
Herman Batchelor Brewster
Michael L. Jefferson
Corey Jones
REGION 2 (Wards 4, 5, 14)
Toni Akin
Kobi J. Dennis
Michelle “Miche” Fontes
Andrew David Grover
Christopher Ireland
REGION 3 (Wards 6,7, 15)
Jenny Mercado
Jorge Porras
Heidi Silverio
REGION 4 (Wards 8, 9, 10)
Mireya Mendoza
Night Jean Muhingabo
Michael Nina
David Talan
REGION 5 (Wards 11, 12, 13)
DeNeil M Jones
Ty’Relle Stephens