Whose school is it anyway? Pending 360 High School closure leaves community waiting for answers

An iPhone’s “Summit” ringtone began to chirp through a testimony on the third floor of the Rhode Island State House. 

Angélica Infante-Green silenced her phone and chuckled. “Sorry. That’s my mother,” she said.

The night was March 13, perhaps an inopportune time for a maternal check-in: Infante-Green, commissioner of the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), was presenting to the Senate Committee on Education for the first time since before the pandemic. (The commissioner has visited the State House, specifically the Senate Committee on Oversight and House Committee on Education, about a dozen times since 2020. She also makes an annual visit to discuss the budget.)

The purpose of Infante-Green’s visit was to testify on the state’s curriculum, and the basic education program, which sets regulations and standards for public schooling. The commissioner’s appearance may have been appreciated, or at least noticed, at a simultaneous meeting of the House Committee on Education downstairs, where lawmakers were hearing testimony on Bill H7726 by Rep. David Morales, a Providence Democrat. 

Recess no playtime for Council on Elementary and Secondary Education in tense meeting

Morales’ bill is designed to clarify procedures for closing public schools — an issue most relevant to his constituency. Public schools in the capital city have been under state control since 2019 and a handful have been shuttered while under state leadership. Most recently, in early February, students at 360 High School received letters that the school would cease operations as an individual institution at the end of this academic year and merge with Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex. 

Morales was clear that he and RIDE have both expressed an interest in working on his bill to increase its chances of passage. But was Morales surprised Infante-Green didn’t attend the bill hearing? 

Morales paused to laugh when asked that question in a phone interview.

“They fail to show up to public hearings related to the actual school closures happening,” he replied. “I was not surprised that they did not show up at the bill hearing.”

Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Legislative Relations Andy Andrade did attend the House Committee on Education hearing on Morales’ bill and expressed RIDE’s opposition to the bill, said Victor Morente, RIDE spokesperson.

But some students who came to testify in support of Morales’ bill did show up at the Senate Committee on Education meeting on March 13, sitting silently in the back row.

The public was invited to discuss the 360 closure at a Providence City Council meeting originally scheduled for March 20. But one day before the meeting was supposed to take place, it was rescheduled to Thursday, March 28. The meeting will take place at Providence City Hall at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber. 

 “There were scheduling conflicts on both the council side and with school officials,” Parker Gavigan, a City Council spokesperson, said of the rescheduling. 

In the meantime, the Providence Public School Board passed a resolution on March 20 to reverse the Thurbers Avenue school’s closure, citing “the lack of transparency and the necessity of community inclusion” in making such a decision. That’s also the ethos of Morales’ bill, which addresses not just 360 High School, but a general lack of transparency at RIDE regarding school closures.

Same building, different school

But 360 High School is not closing at all, according to Jay Wegimont, a spokesperson for Providence Public School District (PPSD). 

“It’s important to note that no building will be closed, Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex (JSEC) and 360 are within one building currently,” Wegimont wrote in an email. “The District is moving forward with the decision regarding the restructuring of 360 High School with the JSEC to create the Juanita Sanchez Life Sciences Institute (JSLSI), providing innovative programming to meet the evolving needs of our students and prepare them for success in high-demand fields.”

Wegimont also said that 360 is “a chronically underperforming school” that would have to undergo redesign next year — a process stipulated by Rhode Island’s Every Student Succeeds Act State Plan that requires underperforming schools to be radically restructured. A redesign plan has already been approved for Juanita Sanchez.

“Commissioner Infante-Green wants to ensure that all students have access to high-quality education programs that prepare them for success in college, career, and beyond,” Morente said. “She believes that more students should be able to participate in exceptional school opportunities that help them reach their highest potential. She affirmed the recommendation from the PPSD superintendent to restructure 360 High School and merge it with the Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex to create the new Juanita Sanchez Life Sciences Institute after careful consideration of the school’s chronic underperformance and the many new opportunities students will have.”

‘Positive things in the past’

Morente said in an email that “three decades of chronic underperformance and dysfunction” led to the 2019 takeover of Providence schools, which is enabled by a state law called the Crowley Act. Infante-Green has commented on the takeover at the State House in recent years, and has also visited 360 High School. But she has not offered much public comment on 360’s closure specifically.  

“She expressed positive things in the past,” said Ryan Barker, who teaches social studies at 360 High School. “In this [closure] process, she and her office have mostly passed this off as a PPSD decision. They don’t want to be held responsible for it. It seems like they don’t want to be held responsible for the decision to close the school.”

“We’re hopeful that she might see that as a win for her too. It’s a chance for her to show that she really does support MLL [multiple language learners] and she really does want to listen to the community.”

Was it RIDE or PPSD who made the decision to close 360 High School? 

“We don’t know because they refuse to tell us,” Barker said.

What Barker does know: As of March 25, he didn’t have a direct job offer lined up when 360 closes. There are 36 teachers and 335 students at 360, according to RIDE data. PPSD spokesperson Wegimont explained that 360’s teachers were notified of displacement earlier this month. So far, the district has held two transfer consortiums for displaced teachers, intended to help them find jobs at other Providence schools. An additional 15 teachers from 360 will continue teaching at the post-merger Life Sciences Academy. Wegimont said 14 students from 360 have asked to attend other schools post-merger. 

Two datasets from RIDE employ different styles in their portraits of 360 High School. The school accountability report card shows low proficiency rates in math (1.5%), science (4.7%) and English language arts (8.2%), as well as a 78% four-year graduation rate — roughly the average for the city’s high schools. But data from last year’s SurveyWorks indicates students gave higher scores than the average for all Providence schools. With a 49% positive response regarding school climate, 360 High School was nine points above the state average in that category.   

“360 was designed by the community, in part to provide a smaller, safe, supportive environment,” Barker said. “It feels like a good place to work. And that’s in the context of serving a pretty difficult population of students. We have a very high rate of multiple language learners. We have high rates of poverty.”

Barker humors the possibility of “a deus ex machina situation and the commissioner swoops in and saves everyone.” But for now, he isn’t cheery about the prospect of ending the job he started in 2015 — his first full-time teaching gig. 

“This is depressing,” he said. “It’s really sad. We have built something that we believe in over the course of almost 10 years. And to be told one day that that is being taken away from the community has been really hard to take.”

Wanted: Transparency

Thursday’s City Council meeting will likely be well-attended, if a Feb. 27 rendezvous of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education is any indication. That night, an overflow of public comment was stymied by a RIDE official enforcing a 24-hour advance sign-up rule, eventually leading the ACLU of Rhode Island to get involved — with no shortage of sharp words for the education department’s handling of public comment. Infante-Green did not attend the council meeting because she was away on official business, according to RIDE. 

Jeremy Aaron Sencer, an organizer with Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, echoed a desire for heightened transparency in a recent interview, and criticized RIDE’s approach to public input.

“When the community shows up, it’s not just: ‘This has been a tough decision and some people are going to be upset.’ I would argue if that’s the case, then you need to have an above board transparent process that involves the community,” Sencer said. “If you’re a bureaucrat or politician or decision maker, that comes with the territory. You hear from people, and people will accept unpleasant outcomes if they feel that the process was transparent and that they were heard.” 

Roughly halfway through the Senate Committee on Education meeting on March 13, Sencer was with the students who entered the room and quietly sat in the back row. Unlike the commissioner’s ringtone, they didn’t interrupt the hearing. They didn’t say a word, since this particular meeting had no opportunity for public comment. 

They already said what they wanted to say downstairs.  

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said no RIDE official attended March 13 House Committee on Eduction hearing.