Pawtucket could be the next Rhode Island community to shake up the structure of its school committee.
The City Council is meeting tonight to consider adding a question to the November ballot that would move the city from the current seven-member, fully elected committee to a seven-member committee made up of three mayoral appointees, two City Council appointees, and two elected members.
Under the proposal, the mayoral and council appointees would serve three-year terms, and the elected members would serve two-year terms.
If voters approve the ballot question, Pawtucket would join Providence, Central Falls, and Johnston in adopting hybrid appointed-elected school committees in recent years.
The politics: Pawtucket’s proposal is drawing sharp criticism from Democratic mayoral candidate Adam Greenman, who issued a press release this week saying the change “takes power away from the people of Pawtucket, and I don’t believe taking power from voters benefits anyone — including the next mayor.”
The other side: Mayors and city councils, however, often receive the blame for budget struggles in a school district – especially when property taxes rise – even though they have little or no control over many of the decisions school committees make.
Providence used to have a fully appointed school board, but voters approved a charter change in 2022 creating a half-elected, half-appointed board. That board has yet to face many major decisions because Providence schools remained under state control until last week. Now, for the first time, it will begin exercising its full authority.
This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you’d like to receive it via email Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.