Residents fear loss of John Settlement House

PROVIDENCE — South Side residents turned out in force Thursday to protest the opening of a charter school in the troubled John Hope Settlement House.

The Wangari Maathai Community School plans to open a K-8 charter school at John Hope in the 2019-2020 school year, pending final approval from the R.I. Department of Education. The school is named after the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner who launched a movement by planting trees in her Kenyan village. The school's mission calls for educating students through fieldwork, case studies and service learning projects with a focus on the sciences.

The meeting was organized by City Council member Mary Kay Harris.

Although the charter school is committed to serving students of color, many members of the neighborhood say the Wangari school never sought their input before signing an agreement with John Hope's board of trustees.

Several residents of the South Side said the charter school never reached out to enroll children from the neighborhood, adding that they had no idea that a lottery was held to enroll students. The greatest concern was that the charter school would effectively displace John Hope Settlement House and all the social services associated with it.

"We're OK with having a charter school," said Suzette Cook, one of the organizers of Thursday night's meeting. "We're not OK with it being at John Hope. John Hope was established to serve the disadvantaged population. They are not welcome to take it over. They say they are coming in with a five-year lease. That's a joke. This is a power trip, a money trip."

"We are generationally embedded in this agency," said Vanessa Dailey. "My grandparents helped start John Hope. The charter school doesn't fit its mission. No one spending that kind of money to fix it up will walk away in five years."

In a Facebook message, Siobhan Callahan, the sponsor of the charter school, said she was out of town and unavailable for comment.

But the John Hope organization is not the all-purpose social service agency it once was.

In March 2017, it was in such disarray that the Department of Children, Youth & Families tried to suspend the school's day care operation. At the same time, a report released by the legislature concluded that John Hope would need to find a better-financed partner if it wanted to stay open.

The facility, at 7 Whitten Way, once offered an array of childcare, recreation and aid programs, but now the daycare is the only source of revenue. Meanwhile, both the city and the legislature suspended grants to the organization until it got its financial house in order.

Ditra Edwards was one of those who questioned why John Hope was now in a position where it needed a charter school to survive.

"We need to understand why the institution doesn't have the capacity to sustain itself," she said.

Keith Oliveira, executive director of the League of Charter Schools, acknowledged that he was torn. As someone who grew up with the organization, he said he understood the neighborhood's deep emotional attachment.

But he called John Hope "a shell of what it once was," and suggested that it was time to transform this structure into an asset for the community.

"The people who showed up at the charter school fair look like the people in this room," he said. "Yes, this community should have been allowed to give their input. But I hope we have an open mind about how to use this asset."

Harris said afterward that she had set up a meeting with the charter's leaders, but would not go forward unless the community was represented at that gathering.

No members of the organization's board of trustees spoke at the meeting.

—lborg@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7823