PROVIDENCE REPUBLICAN
CITY COMMITTEE
NEWS RELEASE
| Release Date | 2020-06-28 |
| Subject | Providence GOP Praises Superintendent's Plan To Bring Back Neighborhood Schools |
| Contacts | DAVID TALAN < DaveTalan@aol.com > |
| WILLIAM RICCI < ProvidenceRepublican@gmail.com > |
The Co-Chairs of the Providence Republican Party, David Talan and William Ricci, have praised School Superintendent Harrison Peters' plan to bring back neighborhood schools, and drastically reduce the number of children forced to ride a school bus for 2 to 3 hours every day. (Peters will announce his plan tonight – Monday – at 7 P.M.). The Providence GOP has been calling for this, for decades, with little interest from city leadership.
Presently, 9,000 children (half of all the children in Elementary or Middle School) ride the bus, at a cost of $16,000,000 per year. The GOP leaders have contended that half of them would choose a neighborhood school, within walking distance, if given that option.
Talan, who is also President of the Reservoir Triangle Neighborhood Association (a group which has called for Triangle children to be able to go to the Reservoir Ave. School), predicted some major benefits that will come from this proposal.
There will be more parental involvement. Parents without a car (half of families in most parts of the city), will be able to be involved with their child's school, when they can walk to it.
And Neighborhood Associations will be able to "adopt" their neighborhood school. They will be able to do things like "walking school buses" (similar to what Mary Fogarty Elementary School has done).
Ricci and Talan noted that under Superintendent Peters' plan, children would still be able to go to a school that provides services not available in the neighborhood school (handicapped or special needs; dual-language; gifted program; special after-school programs; etc.). And parents would be able to appeal an assignment, if needed, to someone responsive. (The new Providence leadership is setting up a process to respond to parents' questions in a transparent manner; which has not been the case in the past).
The GOP leaders also noted that Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green and Superintendent Peters are working to make all schools "equitable", so that neighborhood schools will be just as good as those in other sections. So there would be no need to go to a school further away.
Ricci and Talan predicted that, a year from now, when the Covid-19 crisis is over, parents will choose to keep their child in the neighborhood school. They will be asking, "Why on earth was my child wasting 2 to 3 hours every day, riding a bus to a school that was no better than the one that is nearby?"
Talan, who recently served on Commissioner Infante-Green's Community Design Team for Engaged Communities (that helped plan the state takeover of the Providence schools), said that next year, when school buses will not have to maintain social distancing, we will only spend half of the $16,000,000 per year on busing, than we do now. "That $8,000,000 saving can be put to better use for our children's education."