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Talan Wins First Debate

On October 11, 2024, 3 of the 4 candidates for Providence School Board, in the south side District, took part in a forum at Alvarez High, moderated by Boston Globe reporter Ed Fitzpatrick, and hosted by the Reservoir Triangle Neighborhood Association. An estimated 60 voters were in the audience.

Based on a scientific random poll of his family, friends and campaign volunteers, Dave Talan has been declared the big winner of the debate.

Dave gave a summary of his long-time volunteer activism, during the 60 years since the last time the School Board was elected. He has worked with thousands of the young people who use our schools, and with their families.

Dave offered several ideas on what he would do, if elected, to improve our schools. These include:

  • A return to neighborhood schools, for those families who would like to choose this option. This would improve parental involvement; reduce chronic absenteeism; get the community behind the schools; and greatly reduce the thousands of hours wasted riding a school bus.
  • Requiring school Principals to involve the community and parents in their schools.
  • Giving those Principals more authority to run their schools.
  • Helping parents deal with the School Department bureaucracy, by having the Mayor’s PVD311 office step in and help them.
  • Ensure that there is no attempt to close the Reservoir Ave. School. (It had been on the short list of schools considered for this.)
  • Re-open the Broad St. School, which was closed last year. (This had been the only school in the entire Washington Park neighborhood.) Recruit a charter school to take over this building; fix it at their own expense; and give preference to Washington Park residents to go to this school.

When asked by the moderator about the Superintendent’s demand for $10,000,000 more from the Mayor, Dave offered a suggestion on how to spend $10 million less. He proposed a return to schools that are walking distance, for those families who would like to choose this (about half of the children now forced to ride a bus). This would reduce the number of children riding a bus from 9,000 to 4,500, and save $10 million.

When asked to name a bright spot for Providence schools, Dave pointed to new Career & Technical Education (CTE) programs in several High Schools. He pointed to Alvarez High, which specializes in the health fields; and in business & computers. Dave is on the School Improvement Team at Alvarez.

The moderator gave a pop quiz on identifying people involved with the Providence schools. Dave was the only candidate who could name all of them.

He was asked what a School Board member could do, with the state takeover of the Providence schools. Dave noted the important ADVISORY role that the Board has, if they choose to use it. Dave pointed out that he has previously worked with the state Education Commissioner, and would not hesitate to call her and offer well thought out suggestions. The other candidates said they had never even talked to her.

Finally, Dave noted that only HALF of the 6,000 students who live in the south side District go to a traditional public school. And the other half go to one of the 8 public charter schools, or 3 private schools, or 1 parochial school on the south side. Dave pledged to represent ALL of the students & families on the south side, and not just half of them. He also pledged to help improve the traditional public schools, so that parents would not feel forced to try to escape from them.

In the near future, Dave will send more E-Mails to you, with additional details on these proposals.

The other 2 candidates who came also offered some ideas. But they were not very interesting, so we will not bore you with them now.

A camera man from one of the school reform groups filmed the debate. If this is posted on-line, we will E-Mail you with information on how to watch it.

There will be at least one more public forum for the south side School Board candidates, hosted by the South Elmwood Neighborhood Association, on Monday October 28. We will send you more details closer to that date.