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City outlines 'Plan for Our Schools' to prepare for Providence's return to local control
Summary
City officials presented a multi-department 'Plan for Our Schools' describing a collaborative path toward returning Providence Public Schools to local control, summarizing community engagement, eight priority action areas for city support, and funding commitments tied to a settlement agreement.
City administration officials presented "Plan for Our Schools," a cross-departmental package of actions the Smiley administration says the city must take to support the district's return to local control. The report summarized community engagement with roughly 1,200 participants, laid out eight priority action areas (including procurement, data management, energy and facilities management, and talent/legislation support), and described a $1 billion facilities-improvement commitment the city plans to support.
The city said it had convened a "return to local control" cabinet of city and school leaders to align departmental responsibilities and that the plan is a prework document intended to be co‑developed by the collaborative working group of the board, the city, RIDE and PPSD. The city presenter said the administration is seeking enabling legislation and pledged to respect the district's academic leadership while offering city expertise such as IT, procurement and energy management.
Board members asked whether the plan duplicates or supersedes board-led vision-setting; city officials and board members agreed the next iteration will be jointly drafted by the collaborative working group and informed by the board's listening sessions. On the subject of a proposed ethnic-studies bill, the city said it supports ethnic studies generally but that the specific legislation before the legislature required more work before the administration could endorse it.
The city also cited procurement changes — for example, increasing a procurement threshold from $5,000 to $10,000 — intended to reduce routine delays. Officials said more detailed facilities planning and contractor briefings will follow at future meetings.
