Brady Goes Face to Face to Determine District’s Needs
By Linda Borg
PROVIDENCE — School Supt. Thomas Brady fielded plenty of tough questions last night, but no statement was as poignant as the one made by Charlotte Whittingham, a teenager who said that the public schools repeatedly fail their most disadvantaged students.
“I’ve been in four public schools in Providence,” she said, her voice breaking. “The kids at Classical High School have everything. It’s appalling. No, it’s disgusting how low the expectations are for the kids in the other high schools.”
Brady thanked her for her honesty and said: “I wish I could look you in the eye and say that every student will be challenged. But we will begin the work.”
For nearly two hours at Hope High School last night, the new superintendent heard that the school system was broken, that the School Board wasn’t effective and that some of the teachers no longer care. He heard from parents who said that they weren’t taken seriously and parents who asked when art and music would be restored for their children.
Through it all, Brady tried not to make promises he couldn’t keep, and sometimes he said he didn’t have the answers.
“You sound very good,” said Osiris Harrell, a parent activist. “But we’ve heard this before. Dr. Evans was very qualified. But because of the bull that goes on here, he wasn’t allowed to do what he wanted to do.”
Brady asked for six months: “Let’s see what the litmus test is then.”
One parent spoke about the racial and economic disparity that exists between East Side schools and the rest of the city.
“There is the East Side and the South Side,” Jean Nicolazzo told Brady. “There are different schools and different standards. We have to think about integrating schools along socioeconomic lines. We have to figure out how to entice the middle class to come back.”
Brady made it clear that he wasn’t going to address the needs of the few over the needs of the many. When a parent complained that Classical wasn’t as rigorous as it once was, the superintendent pointed out that the district had to raise the standards at all of its high schools, not just the jewel in the crown.
A school psychologist explained that Providence has a disproportionately large number of students in special education and said that the district’s suspension rate was among the highest in the country. Black males, she said, are suspended at much higher rates than other student groups.
Brady said he was putting together a group (not a task force) to look into the city’s large number of special education placements. He also said that there are alternative education programs where disruptive students can be placed until they are ready to return to the regular classroom.
The new superintendent was careful not to take pot shots at the Providence Teachers’ Union. A parent complained that the contract allows teachers with more seniority to bump those with less, which removes the responsibility for hiring faculty members from the principal.
But Brady, a former Army colonel, said that it would difficult to allow each principal to pick his or her own staff in a system as large as Providence, which has more than 2,000 teachers.
“I’m not going to say that bumping doesn’t work,” he said. “Seniority is an important factor. My job is to train teachers and move them up to these new standards.”
Parents also expressed frustration with the fact that superintendents come and go, yet nothing really changes at the school level.
“The most critical thing is to bring change down to the micro level,” Gail Gifford said. “If my child isn’t doing his homework, I want to know right away, not at the end of the semester.”
And parent engagement, parents said, has to be more than skin deep. As one speaker said, parents want to be part of the educational process, not consigned to holding bake sales.
During the evening, Brady said that he supported K-8 schools, a model favored by former Supt. Donnie Evans. He said he is open to working with charter schools, adding that they have a lot to offer. And he acknowledged that the district’s biggest challenge is how to fix the middle schools, which is where student performance falls off the cliff.
But the night wouldn’t be complete without a question about the Dec. 13 snowstorm that left dozens of children trapped on school buses until late at night.
“I’ve been making weather decisions for the last 10 years and I haven’t made one right decision,” Brady said.
“But all of those decisions were made in the best interest of the children. I can’t make it stop snowing. But I can say that there will not be children on buses at 11:30 p.m.”
Thomas M. Brady, superintendent of Providence Public Schools, holds a “community discussion” for the city’s parents and students at Hope High School last night. The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch
Charlotte Whittingham, a junior at the Providence Center School, talks about the lack of resources available to the students.
Ruthie Corria, a volunteer in the public schools for 60 years, talks about weak points in the curriculum.
Wayne Barboza addresses his comments to the new superintendent at a community meeting at Hope High School last night. lborg@projo.com / (401) 277-7823
Originally published by Linda Borg, Journal Staff Writer.
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