State approves 3-year contract for education commissioner

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education has approved a three-year contract renewal with state Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green despite her continuing contentious relationship with the Providence teachers’ union.

“I’m very happy,” Infante-Green told The Providence Journal after Tuesday’s night’s 5-1 vote. “I’m excited to do the work. We’re going to keep pushing ahead.”

Council member Colleen Callahan voted against the contract.

Callahan said she wanted to call attention to issues that Providence teachers have raised about a “toxic” climate in the city’s struggling schools.

Infante-Green started in Rhode Island in April 2019 after working in the New York State Education Department and the state took over Providence schools that summer following a critical report from Johns Hopkins University.

The state and the union were mired in acrimonious contract talks that were settled in July. In March the union issued a vote of no confidence in Infante-Green after she told hundreds of teachers they would have to re-apply for jobs in the system.

In addition, Infante-Green’s handpicked Providence schools superintendent was pressured to resign after one of his top administrative hires was charged with fondling a minor’s foot at a gym.