Longer school day in Providence comes with 10% pay raise for teachers, but it’s temporary

Another .75 percent raise will come at the end of the school year.

The contract also includes an additional 27 hours of professional development time.

The longer school days and the nearly 10 percent pay bump are both scheduled to last only one school year, while the other raises are permanent.

Spokesperson Jay Wegimont said last week the extra 30 minutes of school will cost nearly $25 million, all paid through emergency COVID relief funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Wegimont has not answered questions about the total fiscal impact of the new contract to taxpayers.

Until Thursday, neither the district nor the R.I. Department of Education had publicly released the tentative contract agreement, which has been signed by Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green and the president of the union, Maribeth Calabro. Prior to the state takeover, such a contract would have been publicly vetted by the Providence City Council before becoming final, but no city public body currently has any power over the school district.

The deal was ratified by the full union in a vote of 56 percent to 44 percent, Calabro said last week.

The episode is reminiscent of the state’s contract agreement with the union two years ago, the first one to be negotiated by the state under the takeover, which began in 2019. The refusal to make that contract public before it was ratified resulted in a heated dispute in 2021 between then-Mayor Jorge Elorza and Governor Dan McKee, with the mayor confronting the governor in front of cameras at an unrelated news conference about WaterFire.

The transparency concerns from the 2021 collective bargaining agreement recently resulted in a change in state law. Senator Sam Zurier sponsored a bill that would require any future Providence teachers’ contracts to be approved by the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, also known as the K-12 Council.

The new law requires that the contract be released publicly at least seven days prior to a public hearing where the council would take up the matter. It became effective without the governor’s signature this week, meaning McKee neither vetoed nor signed the bill.

“I don’t see any reason not to disclose the ratified tentative agreement at this point in time,” Zurier told the Globe Wednesday.

Spokespeople for the governor’s office, state education department and Providence school district have not answered questions from the Globe about whether or when they intend to bring the contract to the K-12 council for approval. The contract was ratified by the union before the new law took effect.

At a Providence School Board meeting Wednesday night, district officials would only talk about the contract in executive session, not during the public portion of the meeting.

Asked by the Globe for an explanation about the secrecy, the district’s new chief of communications Suzanne Ouellette deferred comment to attorney Charles Ruggerio, a deputy city solicitor who handles school district matters.

Ruggerio declined to comment on why the tentative agreement hasn’t been released to the public, saying he would have to speak to his client.

Zurier, a Providence Democrat, has been one of the critics of the lack of transparency during the state’s intervention into Rhode Island’s largest school district.

During a State House hearing last year, Zurier asked Infante-Green about her decision not to have the 2021 contract publicly vetted before she signed it.

“I would’ve liked to,” Infante-Green said. “I was not told that I could.” (While Infante-Green signed that contract, she had been replaced in negotiations by a McKee staffer near the end of the process.)

“I will do that this time,” Infante-Green said. “Absolutely.”

Spokespeople for Infante-Green, McKee and the school district have not responded to questions about why they did not release the contract. Shortly after publication of this report, a spokesperson sent the Globe a copy of the agreement, but did not explain why it had been withheld.

Ty’Relle Stephens, one of the school board members, said he was not allowed to keep a copy of the new collective bargaining agreement the board reviewed during the closed session Wednesday.

“It should’ve been posted to the public immediately,” Stephens said. “There’s enough information within the contract that would be a plus for the district, but I don’t understand why they are withholding it from the public.”

The school board’s president, Erlin Rogel, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The board’s longest-serving member, Mark Santow, announced Wednesday he is resigning from the board. Santow said he was doing so primarily to spend more time with his family, but also mentioned his opposition to the state takeover, and his frustrations by a “lack of transparency.”

Officials have frequently criticized the state for making decisions about the Providence schools behind closed doors, without getting the public’s input. The move to close two elementary schools last year, which was not discussed in any public setting before the decision was made, is among the most significant.

“The lack of transparency is problematic,” said state Senator Lou DiPalma, who has closely tracked developments during the state takeover. “Why is RIDE hiding this? For what reason are you not sharing it? It’s a public document.”

“It defies all logic,” he added.

According to a copy of the tentative contract, the new collective bargaining agreement says the lowest possible “step 1″ base salary will increase from $45,330 to $50,990 for this upcoming school year, while a “step 12″ salary would increase from $85,443 to $96,113.

School leaders have talked about having a longer school day for years, arguing that more time in the classroom would help make up for learning loss during the pandemic. The district could not increase class time without agreement from the union.

“This major investment in extending learning time and connecting educators to critical resources and training prioritizes the best interests of all our stakeholders and will help improve academic outcomes,” Infante-Green said in a news release last week.

The contract also clarifies language around how much teachers are paid extra when they have to cover a class, a frequent occurrence since the district for years has not been able to find enough educators to fill every vacant classroom position.

The contract additionally contains an agreement to open a new “Newcomer Academy” at Providence Career and Technical Academy for students who are over-aged and under-credited, a term for teens who have not completed enough credits to be in the same grade as their peers.

Newcomer academies are specialized programs for students who are recent immigrants and may have interrupted learning or need to catch up to their peers.

While the contract won majority approval last week, a sizable contingent of teachers voted against it. Multiple teachers told the Globe they were concerned that the longer school days wouldn’t go away, even when the temporary 10 percent pay bump expires.

Teachers have also frequently complained about the quality of the professional development they’ve received during the takeover.

Calabro, the union’s president, confirmed that some teachers are distrustful of state education leaders because of how the takeover has gone so far. But she said she was confident the longer school days would not continue in the future without continued additional pay, which would be negotiated in the next contract.

She said other teachers voted against the deal for personal reasons, such as family commitments and childcare logistics.

“For some, it’s just a half an hour,” Calabro said. “For other folks who are perhaps single moms or have families and young kids at home, a half hour can make a difference.”

Calabro said some schools are expected to add the extra time by starting school 10 minutes earlier and ending 20 minutes later, while early-start schools will add the 30 minutes in the afternoon.

The contract extension only lasts one school year, shorter than the usual three-year deal. The contract will expire around the time the first term of the state takeover is slated to end. State officials have not yet said if they will seek to extend the takeover beyond 2024.

Calabro said she expects to begin negotiations for the next contract this October, long before the expiration date.

This story was updated after the teachers contract was released.

Steph Machado can be reached at steph.machado@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @StephMachado.