Around 15 city residents attended a special session of Providence's Charter Review Commission last night at City Hall. The commission - appointed by the Providence City Council and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras - is charged with recommending revisions to the Providence Home Rule Charter, a document outlining city government procedure. Revisions to the charter are considered every decade.
"You just have to review and see what needs to be revised," Commission Chairman Cliff Wood said. "A lot of it is technical, but some of it is more drastic."
The night overwhelmingly focused on Providence's school board. Speakers expressed interest in revising the city charter to include provisions for an elected school board instead of one appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council.
"It's important to parents to have a vote in their children's education," said Sheila Wilhelm, a parent whose children attend Providence Public Schools. It is time for the school board to be receiving its directions from the city's parents, instead of the mayor, she said.
Providence City Councilman Nicholas Narducci Jr., Ward 4, agreed that the commission should consider recommending an elected school board. The school board needs to assume more responsibility for the decisions it makes, he said.
"We're elected officials. If you don't like the job we're doing, you can get rid of us," Narducci said, adding that the school board should be subject to similar pressures.
Residents also presented a petition with 500 signatures in support of an elected school board.
Jean Link, whose children attend public schools, told a story about her experience with the current school board following last year's school closings. Link said her youngest daughter now attends a Providence school located in an old factory. She said she believes there is a mold problem in the building and approached the school board at the end of last year about the issue. Since then, testing was done, and work was set to begin solving the problem, but the work was recently halted, Link said. Her daughter's medical problems of chronic headaches are due to the mold in the school, Link said.
"I want all of those children to be taken care of," Link said. The current appointed school board does not have students' best interest in mind, she said. "We need an elected school board that is going to represent our children and the constituents," she said.
"It is very important that the people who make decisions for our children and families have a constituency," said Providence City Councilman Kevin Jackson, Ward 3. The current school board is too heavily associated with the Taveras administration, Jackson added. The majority of city residents opposed the establishment of the for-profit Achievement First charter school, which the school board approved because the mayor supported the measure, according to Jackson.
"It got rammed down their throats," Jackson said.
Two other speakers suggested restructuring the redistricting commission.
Suggestions made last night and in the future will be considered by the commission for recommendation to the City Council. Residents may also submit recommendations online. The City Council will determine which of the proposals to submit to the state, and residents will then vote on passage in the upcoming November elections.