The Providence Student Union Leadership Team comprises12 high schoolers. Senior and team co-director Dexter Vincent, senior Yasemin Eksioglu and junior Naima Gnepa, both team members, and all of Classical High School, lead the group’s advocacy on Mount Pleasant High School.
At Classical High School, students have benefitted from school renovations. In 2022, Classical began interior improvements worth $34 million. Today the bubblers work, the stairwells and bathrooms no longer leak, and our classrooms are new and colorful. Renovations have made Classical a more comfortable, productive space for learning while maintaining a sense of continuity for students.
Classical, a disproportionately white, test-in school, is a rare example. Elsewhere, the Providence Public School District (PPSD) is closing and demolishing schools. 2023 was the last year for Broad Street and Carl G. Lauro elementaries. Gilbert Stuart Middle School closes in June. Mount Pleasant High School will be partially or completely destroyed. Why is Classical renovated and these schools are not? PPSD calls it “Newer and Fewer.”