After releasing a $792 million master plan to redesign Providence public school facilities in December, educational consulting firm DeJONG Inc. is gathering local feedback before implementing the large-scale renovations.
The group's plan, titled "Realizing the Dream," calls for the renovation of Providence's 42 public schools, the construction of 19 new schools and the closing of five schools. DeJONG is awaiting approval from the city government and Rhode Island Department of Education. The city will finance the changes with either $50 million per year over 37 years, $70 million over 20 years or $95 million over 13 years.
The Providence Journal reported Jan. 28 that Mayor David Cicilline '83 is strongly promoting the 20-year plan, which would be nearly double the city's average investment in school construction over the last 10 years.
"This is the first comprehensive thinking that the Providence government and schools did about the facilities ever," said Frank Locker, DeJONG's director of the Providence project.
"The facilities are going to get better and smarter to support learning, and the facilities will make it easier to have programs to run in addition to classroom spaces," Locker said of the renovations, which will include teacher support spaces, collaborative conference rooms, special education rooms and analysis rooms to go along with the proposed flexible, pod-like classrooms.
"Those are the kind of things that old school buildings don't have because they were built long before we had any of those needs," he added.
DeJONG is a Chicago-based private educational planning firm that focuses on facilities planning in urban and rural areas. DeJONG is working on 40 projects nationwide, including the redevelopment of the Long Beach Unified School District and Mt. Lebanon, Pa., schools.
Carolyn Staskiewicz, DeJONG's vice president of operations, said the firm aims to "develop flexible spaces that can accommodate inevitable changes in educational pedagogies" that include project-based learning, schools within a school and partnerships between public and private institutions that encourage real-world experience beyond the classroom.
Prior to contracting DeJONG, the city government hired an architectural firm, Gilbane Inc., to evaluate the conditions of Providence's school buildings. The city then contracted DeJONG to look at the buildings from an educational point of view in order to discern "the capacity of the schools, the learning conditions and how many students should be there," Locker said.
"We invited community leaders, advocacy groups and people from universities and local schools to discuss the interface between schools and community, like walking distance, school size, districting, et cetera," Locker said.
According to DeJONG spokeswoman Rebecca Pazienza, the company worked with groups like Providence After School Alliance, Volunteers in Providence Schools, East Side Public Education Coalition, the Providence Preservation Society, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Urban Education Policy program at Brown.
Since announcing the plan in December, DeJONG coordinators have hosted community and special interest meetings to solicit local feedback, Locker said. "We are in a listening mode right now," he said.
DeJONG has also set up a hotline for Providence locals to call with recommendations and made copies of the "Realizing the Dream" master plan available on its Web site.
"The critical next step is to develop the liaison with the state Department of Education, because they have a responsibility to do their part of the funding," Locker said. "We are pretty much done and now we need to hear comments from the city and the schools to figure out whether there are any adjustments that need to be made."
Pazienza said the Providence School Board, Providence Public Schools Superintendent Donnie Evans and Cicilline are working closely on the process of financing the program and expect there will be "some type of public announcement in March or April" regarding the plan's progress.
"We created a launching pad to get the schools to think critically about their needs and get it right. Our goal is for them to carry on the program, embrace it and make it their own," Locker said.
It is unclear how the DeJONG plan will affect community outreach programs run by the Brown community and how the plan will measure its success. The University announced Feb. 24 that it will create a $10 million endowed fund to support local schools, in addition to other initiatives.
The University's recently appointed director of education outreach, Lamont Gordon '93, said much remains to be seen in terms of the plan's impact on community outreach.
"As the specifics and the timeline become clearer, we will know better how to respond," he said.
Professor of Education Kenneth Wong said there must be interim evaluations for the renovation plans.
"I think the terms and the review process, as well as the standards to assess their improvement, needs to be included," he said of the DeJONG plan.
Wong suggested that one way to assess the plan would be to measure its impact on the greater community.
"There are now urban plans in schools that are creating the school as a hub - as a social, parental community hub after school hours - so that schools become a core center of activities for the neighborhood," he said.
Wong added that Cicilline supports the plan and that it is now his responsibility to "make the plan acceptable for the Providence community as a whole."
