Charlestown being sued by Chariho School District over new charter school

School departments of Lincoln, Cranston and Chariho challenge payment system for post-high school training at nursing charter school 

Providence Mayor Angel Tavares posed with students of the charter school

By Will Collette

A new charter school just opened in downtown Providence called the Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College Charter School. 

With enthusiastic support from Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, the school is the first to specialize in training students to go into nursing. But the Chariho, Lincoln and Cranston School Departments have filed suit over the school’s unusual grade set-up that establishes the school as providing education for Grades 10, 11, 12 and 12-plus [emphasis added].

Gist, from RI's Future

The lawsuit names as defendants the charter school itself, Education Commissioner Deborah “Morticia” Gist, and the towns of Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton. The lawsuit does not name the town of Lincoln or the city of Cranston. I don’t know why the three Chariho towns are named as defendants and Lincoln and Cranston are not.

The School Districts argue in their lawsuit that this Grade “12-plus” is “in effect, Grade 13” and that under state law, the school districts are not required to pay student costs for post-high school. 

However, they argue in their lawsuit that this is what is happening because state Education czarina Deborah Gist may “without notice or hearing, …deduct any public school district’s state aid” the money due to be paid to this charter school.

This is all you get on courses and
expected outcomes

The districts are asking the state Superior Court to block Gist and the towns from authorizing or taking payments for that extra year of high school that this charter school offers.

There are no claims made in the lawsuit about the obligation to pay for traditional Grades 10 through 12 education. Nor do the plaintiffs make any claims or complaints about the nature of the educational experience.

I checked out the website for this new school. There isn’t much there except a big photo on the home page of Mayor Taveras posing with some of the students. That photo will no doubt go over real big with the state’s teacher unions (not!).

They also feature links to news pieces where our two Congressmen David Cicilline and James Langevin seem to be encouraging this new school.

Other than that, there is almost no detail about what the school does other than to attempt to recruit and teach students who may eventually want to become nurses. However, you won’t find much more than vague information on the actual classes they will offer or exactly how those courses will prepare students to actually go on to get their nursing degrees. There is no course list. 

This is all you get on the faculty

You won't find a faculty list either, they claim they are “world class.” Again, you get vague generalities.

You won’t find much information on what the students actually get at the end of their extended high school training. Do they get an LPN certification? Advanced placement in a nursing school? If I was a young person thinking about a career in nursing, I’d want to know what exactly that extra year of high school does to get me launched in such a career.

Deborah McCue, RN is the CEO

I don’t understand why none of these questions are addressed on the school’s website.

You won’t find a Board of Directors on their website, even though they are a non-profit. You will only find the two executives who are running the school. To see who is on the board of directors, you have to search through filings with the RI Secretary of State (click here).

I took the board list found in those Secretary of State filings and then looked at each individual listed to see what is was they brought to the board of directors table. What I found was a board loaded with hospital corporate brass:

• David Becker, director of the St. Joseph’s School of Nursing
• Lynne Dunphy from the URI College of Nursing
• Annette Fonteneau, a nurse practitioner for a dermatology practice near Pawtucket Memorial
• Gertrude Jones, Lifespan Vice President for Community Relations
• Nancy McMahon, Vice President for Human Development at Miriam Hospital
• Michael Paruta, Director of Workforce Development for Care New England
• Donna Policastro, Director of the RI Nurses Association
• Manuela Raposo, Director of the Welcome Back Center
• Ruth Ricciarelli, Executive Director of the RI Hospital Association
• Cynthia Scott, Lifespan Workforce Development

These are probably all very good people with credentials in the health care industry, especially in hospitals. Given the high proportion of them who are human resources executives, you would expect them to place a high priority on producing people their hospitals can hire.

However, the actual nursing education side seems to be under-represented with only two people from the kinds of nursing schools that graduates of this charter school would probably want to attend to get their nursing degrees. And no one from the Rhode Island College Nursing School, which I found odd.

The Charter School was initially incorporated on December 31, 2010 but failed to maintain its corporate status and was threatened with loss of its charter on January 31, 2012.

Beyond that, there is little to go on to determine whether Charlestown should be paying to send Charlestown students to this school.

CCA Party patronage appointees to the Chariho School Committee -
Ron Areglado (l) and Donna Chambers (r). Both support charter schools.
Where do they stand on the Chariho suit against Charlestown?

I’d be curious to know what positions were taken by Ron Areglado and Donna Chambers, Charlestown political appointees to the Chariho School Committee. They both received patronage appointments from the Charlestown Citizens Alliance majority that controls Charlestown’s Town Council. 

Both are advocates for charter schools so this lawsuit puts them in an interesting position where the school committee they sit on is suing the town that they represent.

The general idea of the school – to find young people who want to ultimately become nurses and to prepare them to do that – is a great idea. Nursing is a noble calling and as we Baby Boomers age, we’re gonna need a lot of them.

I don’t know why our public schools can’t offer what this Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College Charter School says it will offer without telling us how.

Charter schools come and go all the time and often they suck up a lot of public education money while giving us little to show for it. Maybe this is going to be a nice school and not one of those bad ones – Angel Taveras seems to think so – but at minimum, they owe us a lot more transparency.