Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera said a comment made by Governor Dan McKee during his 2023 State of the State address prompted her to tackle a thorny issue plaguing the city for decades.
“I would not be a responsible mayor for the city if I wasn’t taking action,” Rivera said.
During his address at the State House last year, McKee said, “The state has intervened in two local school districts. One for far too long and one not quite long enough to get the job done.”
McKee was referring to when the city of Central Falls gave the state control of its schools in 1991 because Central Falls couldn’t afford them.
Property Tax Revenue Is Insufficient
Rivera wants the city to take back control of the schools, but she said the city doesn’t have the property tax revenue to afford them. The city has a $21 million dollar budget and this past school year the state gave the district more than $51 million.
When asked if the mayor wants the best of both worlds – to have the state pay for the city’s schools but have local control – Rivera said, “Or do we continue to fail our kids?
“I know what this is going to come down to, right? The finances of the city. I would love to have more economic development in this community. I would love it to increase the tax revenue. But Central Falls is a small community. It’s very limited. There’s not a lot of space,” she said.
Last year, the Central Falls School District ranked last on state standardized tests among all the districts in the state. It’s a reality Sarah Friedman is determined to change. She’s the chief of education strategy for the city.
Report Outlines Failures in School District
“No teacher is writing off their kids, but I think the system as a whole, we’ve gotten complacent in feeling like, well, these outcomes are the only thing you can expect with the composition of this community,” Friedman said. “And I refuse to believe that. I have been immersed with this community. I know these families. I know these kids, and I know these teachers.”
Friedman wrote the report, “My Heart Is Here: A Community-Centered System Analysis of the Central Falls School District,” after a year spent interviewing more than 700 educators, students, families and community leaders about the district. The report outlines numerous failures in the school district, including, Friedman said, how it’s failing multilingual learners and students with special needs. Friedman said she spoke with some teachers who described feeling pressured not to refer students for special education services.
“I think it’s resources. It doesn’t make it right though,” Friedman said. “And so there may be practices that are in place to try to live within too small of a pie at the expense of family voice and rights. And I think special ed is a really prime example of that where there are a lot of families in this community who don’t speak the language, who have limited educational background, who maybe come from another country and are not as familiar with the laws in the United States, and maybe they’re not as likely to advocate as in a suburban community.”
The Central Falls School District Board of Trustees is appointed by the state Board of Education. In 2019, the Board of Trustees named Stephanie Downey Toledo interim superintendent, a position that later became permanent.
Downey Toledo declined Rhode Island PBS Weekly’s request for an interview. In a statement, she said in part, “My focus will continue to be on the systemic leadership required to keep strengthening our schools and the opportunities they provide our students.”
Urgency to Improve City’s Public Schools
Rivera said there’s an urgency to improve the city’s seven public schools. Central Falls is building a new high school but enrollment is projected to fall 38 to 49 percent by 2035, if all planned, state-approved charter seats are filled.
“If we do things right, we’re getting a new high school, we start addressing these issues, I don’t think parents are going to feel the need to try to figure out where their kids are going to go for high school and they’ll keep them here in Central Falls, and that’s what we have to do,” Rivera said.
Meanwhile, Friedman said she’s exploring viable funding solutions. She said it’s unclear for many in the district who’s making decisions.
“When resources are particularly scarce in the state, you see more involvement from the state and saying, ‘This is the budget we need you to approve’ to the Board of Trustees. When resources are more abundant, they tend to step back and say, ‘You can decide,’” Friedman said. “And it’s really hard to know who holds the accountability and the responsibility for any given decision in a transparent way.”
A community advisory board made up of 26 people recently began meeting to discuss the next steps and come up with a plan to go before the General Assembly early next year. Rivera said she’s hopeful the city can take back control of the schools sometime next year.
When asked why Rivera is confident that student outcomes will improve if the schools are under local control, she said, “Because we understand the needs of this community. Nobody’s really paying attention.
“I need people from this community who understand the needs of this community to be involved in the schools,” Rivera said.
