Teachers at the Upper School at Paul Cuffee School on Elmwood Avenue in Providence have voted to join the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals. They will soon begin the process of negotiating their first collective bargaining agreement. (Assessor’s Database for the City of Providence)
Teachers at Providence charter Paul Cuffee Upper School voted to unionize on Monday morning, the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals (RIFTHP) announced.
The vote makes the Elmwood Avenue charter school for grades 9 through 12 the first charter school in Rhode Island to join the labor organization and the second in the state to unionize. Elementary school teachers at Highlander Charter School, also in Providence, voted to unionize in August, according to data from the National Labor Relations Board. Highlander unionized with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2323.
“The educators and staff at Paul Cuffee have demonstrated their dedication to building a school community that prioritizes respect, equity, and high-quality education,” RIFTHP President Frank Flynn said in a statement. “Together, we will work to ensure that their voices are heard, and that students and staff alike thrive in a supportive and inclusive environment.”
Teachers in Paul Cuffee’s elementary and middle schools were not part of the union vote. The upper school’s educators are expected to proceed to negotiations and collective bargaining.
According to the Center on Reinventing Public Education, about 12% of charter schools were unionized in the 2016-2017 school year.
There were 271 students and 35 teachers at Paul Cuffee Upper School in the 2022-2023 academic year, according to state education department data.
A total of 29 Paul Cuffee Upper School teachers responded to the Rhode Island Department of Education’s Spring 2024 SurveyWorks, an annual survey of staff, students and families. About 71% said they would strongly recommend the school if a friend or colleague were looking for a teaching job. When asked how positive the working environment at the school was, 66% responded favorably, up 8 percentage points from a year earlier.
Opened in 2001, the school is named after Captain Paul Cuffee, a wealthy sea captain and Quaker whose Ghana-born father was enslaved in America before earning his freedom and whose mother was a Wampanoag from Martha’s Vineyard. Cuffee founded one of the country’s first racially integrated schools in Westport, Massachusetts, in the late 18th century.
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