Last Friday, the Providence Public School District notified 270 teachers and staff that they may not have their job next year as a part of an annual union notice.
Teachers who received a displacement notice may be moved to different positions within the district or may be forced to find a new job elsewhere.
Multilingual learning coaches are being integrated into the math and reading departments, leading to displacements. This consolidation aims to improve teaching for multilingual learners, who make up 34 percent of students in the district, according to PPSD spokesperson Audrey Lucas. Not all of the displacements were due to consolidations.
Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said that the staffing changes are meant to "realign … with the needs of our school communities” and that they “will allow us to make significant progress in improving teaching and learning in the coming school year," according to the district’s press release on the subject.
Superintendent Harrison Peters added in the press release that the consolidations are part of a plan to create more efficient staffing models for the schools.
According to a March 19 PPSD news release, the district announced more teacher displacements for this year than it had made in the past two years as a result of “more effective class scheduling, projected reductions in middle and high school enrollment and the district’s strategic decision to prioritize positions most critical to overall improvement.”
The district also said the displacements this year are partly a result of teacher failure to meet ESL certification requirements. The district is under orders from the Department of Justice to hire more ESL teachers after a report found poor quality ESL instruction in Providence schools. As a result, displaced teachers may be required to obtain an ESL certificate in order to reapply to their current roles.
President of the Providence Teachers’ Union Maribeth Calabro said the timing of the notice blindsided many teachers. Had there been conversations earlier in the year, she said, the union would have been better prepared and more teachers would have attempted to receive an ESL certificate.
Consolidations happen every year due to program reorganization or decreased enrollment, she added. But, unlike other years when the union was notified prior to the release of the consolidation notices, this year it was unaware that academic coaches would also be displaced, leading it to be unprepared to help staff through the process.
Calabro also voiced concern over many of the consolidations that took place. Seeing elementary school coaches and middle school deans cut was “extremely concerning,” she said, and it “makes little to no sense” to displace people crucial to students’ development.
The sudden ESL requirement creates a financial burden for recently hired teachers who are still paying off student loans, and a practical burden for teachers approaching retirement who would likely be unwilling to participate in a two-year certification process, she said.
The district is in the process of planning to build an on-site ESL certification pathway to better prepare teachers and reduce certification costs, according to a press statement from the district.
Regarding ESL teacher shortages, PPSD plans to create new positions, including instructional coaches to meet the specialized needs of individual students, to provide more support to multilingual learners. Additionally, the district plans to hire 22 guidance counselors for elementary students and 36 community liaisons for secondary students to support student achievement and ensure “equity in all aspects of school life,” according to a district press release.
The Teachers’ Union on Monday took a vote of no confidence on Rhode Island Education Commissioner Infante-Green. Although the vote will not legally change anything, it is the union’s way of “sending (Infante-Green) a clear message that she made an error,” Calabro said.
While she noted that the vote came after the displacement notices were sent out, Calabro said the vote “wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction,” but instead the result of many issues that had occurred throughout the year. The vote of no confidence should not be “dismissed as a negotiation tactic,” she said. “That is absolutely not what it is.”
Lisa Vincent, a reading coach at Webster Elementary, was “quite shocked” when she got the notice. “This is my 35th year teaching in Providence, and I’m being asked to re-apply for the position with a new certification,” she said. “I’ve been a reading coach for 20 years, and suddenly it’s ‘you’re not qualified.’”
Despite her other credentials, Vincent noted that while she could re-apply for the job she currently holds if she were in the process of getting the certification, she does not think it is worth it at this point. Nearing retirement, she said it does not make sense for her to seek a new certification, and resignation or early retirement both cause a significant financial burden. “It’s a rough year anyways with COVID, and now to be thinking about this — I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Amed Torres, a chemistry teacher at Mount Pleasant High School, also received the notice, but he said he is still unsure of why.
“The district says they want people who are homegrown, people of color, people who speak multiple languages — literally everything, I check off,” he said. “And I’m STEM. They couldn’t find anybody to teach STEM,” he added, calling his position’s consolidation “totally hypocritical.”
Torres, who wants to continue working in the district, was told by his principal that his department was overstaffed — but Torres said he was the only one in his department told that they might not have a job next year.
“It makes no sense,” Torres said. “I try to draw arrows in my head, but I can’t come up with a rationale.”
He said the majority of his students are beginner English-language learners, and that his fluency in English and Spanish is necessary for the students’ learning.
“Who is going to teach them? Only one other chemistry teacher speaks Spanish,” he said. But despite being bilingual, a skill that helped him assist other teachers in communicating with parents, Torres does not possess an ESL certification. He is now trying to receive one.
“I wish the district knew the people they are cutting,” Torres said, adding that he felt “thrown away as a number.”
He said that if he has to move to another district he will do so, but being born and raised in Providence, he has a strong connection to the city’s public schools and feels that he can relate to students in a way that is invaluable.
“It’s my home,” he said.
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