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Providence City Council leaders will address school funding fight

Online Niel October 30, 2024

PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) — A battle over school funding in Providence is reaching a head as the city and the RI Department of Education square off again in court Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Mayor Brett Smiley called a press conference announcing that he gave Providence Public Schools Superintendent Javier Montañez 24 hours to respond to its request to provide the district with nearly $11 million in city funding beyond what has already been provided in current budget yearwhich started on July 1.

Montañez disputed that his call to Smiley was an “ultimatum.”

“I was actually making a call in the interest of transparency and open communication before the Providence School Board Finance Committee meeting where I planned to speak publicly about the impact of underinvestment in the city,” Montañez wrote in an Oct. 11 letter to Smiley. .

MORE: Smiley slams Providence school leaders over 24-hour ‘ultimatum’ for $10 million

The city is already contributing $135.5 million to public schools this school year. However, the school district believes the city owes them a “minimum total allocation” of $164.8 million under the Crowley Act.

The superintendent said at the time that the state-run district would begin taking “mitigation measures” if the city did not hand over the $10.9 million.

These proposed discounts included eliminating all athletic programs, furloughs for central office staff and administrators, layoffs of non-union staff, withdrawing contributions to the revolving capital fund and making “deeper reductions or freezes of school positions.”

But the 24 hours came and went.

The mayor gave the district another $1 million in unbudgeted funds from recent agreements with Lifespan and the Rhode Island School of Design in exchange for $3 million from the state. Smiley also requested a third-party audit of the school department’s finances.

In a PowerPoint presentation, the district accused the city of investing in areas other than schools “despite funding obligations to the school department.”

On Oct. 16, the city filed a complaint in RI Superior Court in an attempt to block a request that RI Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green made to state Treasurer James Diossa to withhold reimbursement payments of the $8.5 million car tax from the state to the city.

Providence City Council members are set to hold a news conference “related to school funding” after Tuesday’s hearing.

Alexandra Leslie ([email protected]) is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her Twitter and further Facebook.

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