Brandi Tucker teaches fifth graders on the third floor at Webster Avenue Elementary School in Providence. Sam Wallace works as a librarian at DelSesto Middle School. In the same building, Em Schluter is an ESL teacher.
All three educators are nonbinary. All three belong to a progressive caucus within the Providence Teachers Union that is not always level with the party line. And all three are afraid that they will no longer be teachers in Providence at the end of this school year.
“I am currently ranked ‘highly effective’ with about a 380 score out of 400,” Tucker said of their teacher evaluation numbers during a public comment portion of a March 19 Providence School Board meeting. “How am I not qualified to be a teacher in my district, in my school? It makes no sense. Either it’s because I’m nonbinary, or my principal does not like me and my job and the union.”
Tucker, Wallace and Schluter are among a total of 17 educators who received nonrenewal notices this year — in other words, pink slips. Together, the 17 represent less than 4% of the district’s 465 probationary teachers.
“I have fourth graders and third graders and second graders and kindergarteners that, when they see me in the halls, they run up and ask if they can give me a hug, and they say, ‘I can’t wait to be on the third floor. I can’t wait to be in your class,’” Tucker said in a recent interview. “So I’m really scared of not getting those kids in my class.”
The nonrenewal process is governed by state law and requires school districts to issue nonrenewals by March 1 each year. In Providence, nonrenewals typically number around 20 annually, according to the Providence Public School Department (PPSD). Only teachers who have not completed their probationary periods, which expire after the successful completion of three annual contracts within a period of five years, are subject to the renewal process. Three years is considered a standard probationary period for teachers’ unions.
The performance-based standard is meant to give the district greater control over who gets tenure, which is more legally challenging to reverse in the event a district wants to get rid of a teacher. Nonrenewals are given to newer, untenured teachers, and the renewal process is “a key lever that districts have to retain or exit talent,” according to a PPSD presentation given before the Providence School Board on March 19.
Tucker said all but one of the nonrenewed educators plan to appeal. Hearings had not yet been scheduled as of Monday. In the meantime, the three nonbinary teachers have publicly rallied for Providence Superintendent Javier Montañez and his boss, state education commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, to reverse the nonrenewals.
The Providence School Board passed a resolution at the March 19 meeting asking the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) to rescind the 17 nonrenewals and investigate the overall process more deeply. The board also voted to schedule an executive session on another night in which they personally review and explore the nonrenewals with the 17 teachers themselves, though it would not impact the official appeal process.
The resolution led by board member Night Jean Muhingabo passed with eight affirmative votes. Board vice president Anjel Newmann was absent. Board member Melissa Hughes abstained, citing a desire to understand the resolution’s mechanics better.
Tucker, Wallace and Schluter all testified at the meeting. The board also heard from its legal counsel, Charles Ruggerio, before voting on the resolution.
“Obviously there’s political connotations associated with it, and it might be something that, you know, potentially, I can see scenarios in which it would potentially be utilized against the district,” Ruggerio said. He added he would be “more comfortable” with a discussion in executive session.
Who’s in control here?
Once scheduled, appeal hearings will take place before a Rhode Island Department of Education officer. RIDE took control of PPSD in 2019 after a long history of poor educational outcomes and sometimes dilapidated school buildings. The takeover was empowered by a statute known as the Crowley Act.
“The recent nonrenewals were recommended by the Superintendent to the Commissioner who approved them. The Commissioner has the authority under the Crowley Act,” said Victor Morente, a department spokesperson, in an email Monday. “The teachers who received the nonrenewal notices were also advised that they could pursue an appeal with RIDE in accordance with [Rhode Island General Law].”
But for Schluter, Wallace and Tucker, the process has felt confusing and opaque — so too has the general separation of powers in Providence, the teachers said. They cited administrative turnover as one point of confusion in the nonrenewal process, as a building’s principal might not always be the one evaluating teacher performance for nonrenewal purposes. A change in principal left Schluter with little time to establish rapport with the new leader, they said. And Wallace expressed concern about being evaluated by people with no training as librarians.
“I know for myself it’s been very unclear. Who do we go to, who can help us, who is the person that ultimately has the power?” Wallace said.
“It’s the most disorganized and dysfunctional [system] I’ve ever worked in,” said Tucker, who previously spent a decade living and four years teaching near Santa Cruz, California,
During the takeover, RIDE has made capital and curricular changes in some individual schools, including DelSesto, which recently underwent what RIDE calls the “redesign” process and is now geared toward a STEM curriculum. But even the redesign process has invited pushback, like last spring when PPSD closed 360 High School rather than redesign it, instead merging it with a separate school housed in the same building.
Similar to the 360 closings last year, the teacher nonrenewals may be this year’s flashpoint that illuminates the splintered forms of power in the Providence school system. On Feb. 26, the Providence School Board met to elect its president — the inauguration of a new regime after the school board adopted a half-elected, half-appointed model at the start of this year. Half of the school board won elected seats in November’s general election, while the other half was appointed by Providence Mayor Brett Smiley.
The school board’s typical meeting place on Westminster Street was cramped during the Feb. 26 meeting: Reporter Steve Ahlquist noted around 200 people in attendance, spread across the board’s meeting room and an overflow space in the basement. The masses had come not to see the board’s president elected, but to support the nonrenewed teachers, offering about two hours of supportive testimony.
Under the takeover, however, the school board is a largely advisory body and cannot undo the nonrenewals. The takeover was extended last year, up through 2027, although Infante-Green has stated recently that local control could return as early as next year. That’s not as soon as Mayor Smiley or the Providence City Council would like — the city is now on the hook for $15 million in court-mandated funds to correct multiyear deficits in the district’s budget, with a citywide tax increase looming near on the horizon as an emergency measure.
Tucker, Wallace and Schluter are members of the Providence Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE), an organizing unit within the Providence Teachers Union that has been particularly focused on racial justice and the betterment of schools not just for teachers but students and families as well.
Asked over Zoom if that perspective puts them in conflict with other union members, Tucker laughed. Some union members see CORE as a divisive force, they said, who is a union co-delegate at Webster. They cited an example of filing a grievance last year involving locks on the school’s doors. In its initial hearing, Tucker said the district denied the grievance as school safety was not technically a union concern. When filed for a second year, the grievance was successful, and the lock issue fixed, Tucker said.
“We want to fight for a contract that doesn’t just include us,” Tucker added. “We want to fight for a contract for common good that includes our students and families.”
“I feel like some of our like organizing has been ‘What power do each of these people have?’” Wallace said.
“Is it real, concrete power? Is it influential power?… Providence is a different place…People will name-drop first names and be like, ‘Oh, it’s Zack’s decision. It’s Bill’s decision. You’re like, Who are these people? So it’s a very small town kind of vibe made out on such a big stage.”
“District leadership has been clear with the School Board that Providence Public Schools is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate,”Jay G. Wégimont, a PPSD spokesperson, said via email Monday night. “The District values and supports the diversity of its students and staff.”
Wégimont emphasized the renewal process as a thorough one that “involves multiple reviews by school leaders, Human Resources, and legal staff before a recommendation is made to the Superintendent.”
“As noted previously, the 17 non-renewals represent a small fraction of PPSD’s 465 probationary teachers — less than 3.75%, meaning 96.25% of our teachers were renewed,” Wégimont continued. “This number is consistent with prior years. While these non-renewal recommendations are not easy, we do believe that they are made by building leaders in the best interest of students and with the aim of improving teacher quality.”
Lawmakers back nonbinary educators
The CORE caucus wants a return to local control as soon as possible, Wallace said. And outspoken organizing often comes with the territory for out professionals.
“For those of us who are maybe the only out people in their building, the only out people at their grade level, it takes a certain level of, like, gumption, I guess,” Wallace said. “You are, in some cases, more likely to be that person that’s going to say something in a meeting.”
The educators have a few allies in their corner.
“In light of the current federal administration’s antipathy and antagonism toward both LGBTQ+ protections and labor organizing, seeing queer and transgender union organizers pulled out of their classrooms and delivered notices with seemingly little explanation is sure to raise alarm,” Providence City Council President Rachel Miller wrote in a Feb. 20 letter to Montañez and Infante-Green.
More support came from state Rep. David Morales, a Providence Democrat when he implored the school board to act at a Feb. 26 meeting. “I urge you to work with the bureaucrats within central office and start working towards reversing these letters of nonrenewal,” Morales said then.
At the March 19 meeting, Providence School Board Secretary Miche’le Fontes held up a folio packed with written comments before the vote on the resolution to ask to rescind the nonrenewals.
“My understanding, this resolution was written based off of hours of testimony. This is the second month, and I have a folder full of letters and support,” Fontes said. “The board, at least, is not saying the district is intentionally firing nonbinary, LGBTQ teachers, but we’re saying this process doesn’t feel like it was equitable, or at least we don’t understand the process.”
We want to fight for a contract that doesn’t just include us. We want to fight for a contract for common good that includes our students and families.
Zack Scott, the district’s deputy superintendent of operations, handed PPSD counsel Ruggerio a laptop with a copy of the resolution. As Ruggerio looked it over, Board President Ty’relle Stephens offered that the resolution “doesn’t really accuse anybody” but is rather calling “for a more transparent, robust, conversation among the school board.”
Ruggerio finished reading the resolution and replied that only two parts gave him pause: a line that the current batch of nonrenewals “raises concerns about PPSD’s ability to uphold its commitment to equity and inclusion” and the action item urging the education department to rescind the nonrenewals.
Those items, he said, could potentially be used against the school board or district should litigation ever occur.
Hughes, the lone board member who abstained from voting, acknowledged that there was “strong community outcry for more information about the nonrenewals process,” and that she too was interested to learn more. That knowledge arrived in the meeting’s final act: A presentation by two PPSD employees: Herman James, the district’s chief talent officer, and Scott.
“The ability to dismiss teachers once receiving tenure is incredibly challenging, and so it is something that we are excited to offer teachers that we want to retain with the district, but it’s also something that we hold a very high bar for,” Scott explained.
The nonrenewal process is not technically meant to remove unqualified teachers, but to vacate a job post for a yet-unidentified, more qualified teacher, according to PPSD.
“If we are not comfortable granting a teacher tenure or keeping a teacher with the district long term, if you ask any principal, they would rather go out and try to search for someone new than commit to someone for the next 20 or 30 years that they’re not comfortable with,” Scott said.
“This is really your most flexible opportunity to scrutinize who you’re going to give a constitutionally protected property interest to,” added Ruggerio, the board’s attorney.
As for Wallace, they said it feels like the school board, along with the City Council, seems to have a “broader vision” for the district.
“But in terms of the district itself, and then the mayor, and then RIDE, like, what is their vision? Because I don’t know what their vision is,” Wallace added. “Mine is: Not only do I want these kids to be successful in life, but…I want them to be able to enjoy life, to be able to pick their own path, to think clearly.”
If their appeals fail, the three CORE teachers won’t be around to cultivate that growth.
“I’m teaching siblings of kids I had,” Schluter said. “This is very much my community, and the thought of not being able to stay here (and) keep doing that is just so heartbreaking and upsetting.”
Tucker was thinking of buying a house. Would that make sense without a job in Providence? Maybe they’ll move back to California and renew their teaching license there. Or maybe they’ll try to find a job in an urban district in Massachusetts.
“With everything going on in our country, the three of us being nonbinary, and I have a trans daughter, we’re really not safe,” Tucker said. “Yeah, there’s a lot of fear. But I love my students, and my families.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
