Elorza vetoes plan to allow voters to elect Providence school board members. What to know

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza vetoed the City Council's proposed changes to the charter, which include a hybrid school board that would be half elected and half appointed.

Elorza's office announced the veto on Friday morning. The mayor previously called the plan a "terrible idea," stating that he doesn't "see how injecting more politics into public schools is a solution."

The veto comes shortly after council members voted to send the question on the school board to the voters. The question asks whether they would approve expanding the board to 10 members, allowing the mayor to appoint five and voters to select five during the November 2024 elections. At present, the board's nine members are all chosen by the mayor.

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The Providence city council's reaction to the veto

In a statement, council President John Igliozzi lambasted the mayor's decision as "reckless," arguing that "residents should not be beholden to one person making unilateral decisions."

"While the mayor focuses on a single ballot question, his veto collectively will destroy seven months of hard work and late nights put in by the Charter Review Commission, including four of his appointees," Iglozzi said. "The Commission meets every 10 years. Why not let the people of Providence decide? The mayor is denying residents the right to vote by circumventing democracy."

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Why Elorza vetoed the plan

Elorza said he had more time to veto the proposal, "but I gave them the heads up last week" to give them time to override it.

"I could have strung this out until Tuesday and made it more difficult, but I told them from the very beginning that I was going to veto it," Elorza said. "There's no playing, no messing around with this. I'm against it. I've been against it from the beginning, and I'll be against it until the end."

Elorza contended that school board elections would "require candidates to run geographically large campaigns that would require significant resources," arguing that they would probably have to raise more funds than those campaigning for council or state house seats.

The mayor also raised concerns over the potential for the pool of candidates to be limited to those who do not reflect communities, and for special interest groups to become involved.

Elorza made the remarks while addressing reporters that afternoon alongside education advocates and Providence school board members who spoke out against the hybrid model.

"I understand the frustration as a PPSD parent and member of the school board that so many people in this city have with trying to find that one kind of single bullet that will make major change in the district, said school board Secretary Mark Santow. "I understand, too, that we are in a time in which our democracy is very much under threat internally [the] last couple of years, and the old saying that the only cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. But in this particular case, I think this is a mistake."

Council rushes to a special meeting

Igliozzi vowed that the council would hold a special meeting next week to consider an override of the mayor's veto, though it is unclear whether all council members will be available. Igliozzi will need 10 votes of support to override Elorza's veto.

A schedule for a 12:30 p.m. council meeting on Wednesday has been placed on the city's open meetings portal. Any charter amendments need to be submitted to the Secretary of State by 4 p.m. that day, making timing tight.

What else the veto includes

As part of the veto, the mayor vetoed nine other proposed charter changes, including amendments regarding the hiring of consultants, construction contractors, department directors and other matters.

As the mayor pointed out, the council could have split up the changes so that in vetoing the hybrid school board, Elorza would not have had to veto everything else.

However, Igliozzi simply said, "that's how it's packaged."

"It's always been packaged since the dawn of time," he added, describing it as "best practices."

With reports from staff writer Linda Borg.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Elorza vetoes plan for partially elected Providence school board