Educators Object to Mayoral Academy

Before Mayor Allan W. Fung attended the monthly meeting of the Cranston Educational Advisory Board (CEAB) Monday night at Cranston High School East, he knew that his proposed mayoral academy would be met with skepticism.

“I knew there would be some resistance,” said Fung. “Change is always difficult.”

“Resistance” might have been an understatement, as the 20 educators, school committee members and CEAB members in attendance expressed their concern, and at times anger, over the proposed public charter school.

The academy will be modeled after Blackstone Valley Prep, which opened in Cumberland in the fall of 2009 as Rhode Island’s first mayoral academy.

Blackstone Valley Prep was spearheaded by Cumberland Mayor Daniel J. McKee, who serves as the chairman of the board that oversees the school, as well as the chairman of the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, which is the umbrella organization that supports the school. Fung also sits on the board of the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies.

McKee accompanied Fung to the CEAB meeting, offering his perspective of how a mayoral academy can benefit a community.

“The goal of the academies is to contain costs, while improving the performance of our public school students,” said McKee. “We’re marrying both of these issues, while working off of a blank sheet of paper.”

Blackstone Valley Prep opened with 76 kindergarteners. This year it has 250 elementary and middle school students from Central Falls, Cumberland, Lincoln and Pawtucket. Roughly 60 percent of the students are on a free or reduced lunch plan.

“The mayoral academies are meant to reflect a diverse population, both economically and culturally,” said McKee.

As is the case in Cumberland, the students for the Cranston charter school will be chosen from a lottery of those interested in attending the school.

Fung mentioned that the school will also start small and eventually include kindergarten through grade 12. The school will admit students from Providence, although Fung didn’t specify how many total students would be accepted or what percentage would come from outside of Cranston.

The mayoral academy model includes a longer school day (8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.), a longer school year (190 days, as opposed to 180), having two teachers per classroom and home visits by teachers when needed.

“This will be another high-performance school option for parents,” stated Fung. “We will fail as a society if we don’t make sure every student has a chance to succeed.”

The biggest objection to the charter school had to do with funding. Several people inquired how and why a new charter school will be funded when the existing public schools have been underfunded, have needed repairs and have had programs (such as music, art and sports) cut over the last several years.

Fung defended his stance on not backing school infrastructure bonds.

“Just because the public approves a bond doesn’t mean we should spend the money,” said Fung. “We don’t have the funds to pay the money back. It would be like racking up credit card debt.”

According to McKee, “the cost of education is relatively consistent, whether the money is going toward a traditional public school or a charter school.”

The Cumberland mayor explained that if you move 20 kindergartners from one school to the charter school, it’s just a matter of shifting the money that would pay for those students from one to the other.

McKee did admit however, that it is much easier to plan ahead financially if the number of students is equivalent to one class size. That way, according to the mayor, the staffing needs would remain the same.

Both mayors emphasized that all public schools are difficult to fund under Rhode Island’s flawed funding formula.

“Our communities can’t afford to keep subsidizing the cost of education at the rate that we have been,” said McKee.

Neither McKee nor Fung addressed the expense of start-up costs or busing when asked. So far, a location for the Cranston school is yet to be determined.

“This is a step-by-step process,” said Fung. “First we’ve applied for accreditation from RIDE (the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education). We’re not going to rush into anything.”

The Cranston charter school will be managed by Achievement First, a non-profit organization which also manages the Cumberland school. Created in Connecticut in 2003, Achievement First manages 19 academies under 10 charters in four cities, which serve 5,500 students in grades K to 12.

“Achievement First is considered the Microsoft of the charter school world,” said McKee. “We’ll make sure that they’re held accountable for operating our schools at the highest level.”

Several educators at the CEAB meeting pointed out to the mayors, that despite a lack of funding, Cranston’s existing public schools are operating at a high level. A school committee member proudly stated that 16 of the city’s 17 elementary schools were labeled “high performing” schools.

Despite the many objections, Fung remained steadfast in his goal of forming a mayoral academy.

“What we’re doing here is resonating on a national level,” said Fung. “Change is always scary, but we have to look at what opportunities can stem from this.”