Keep those calendars out...get ready for a busy week.

You just typed in or wrote down the last day of school so your calendars are already at the ready. Keep them out to save the date for meeting after meeting after meeting next week that will have an impact on the future of Providence's schools.

Monday, April 25, 6:30pm-late. Providence School Board Meeting at Providence Career and Technical Academy, 41 Fricker Street. This is the meeting at which the school board will vote on the proposed school closures. This is not the meeting at which the school board will vote on the proposed school closures--more on that here. Agenda here.

Tuesday, April 26, 5:00-8:00pm. Providence City Council Education Subcommittee meeting, Providence City Hall, 3rd Floor. This is one of a series of meetings that the City Council Education Subcommittee has been holding on the Providence Teachers Union contract and related matters. Meeting description: "The Education Subcommittee will review a draft report on the Providence Teachers Union contract. The report will recommend a 'tool kit' of contract improvements to advance public education within the City's difficult financial constraints." RSVP and more info on Facebook here.

Wednesday. April 27, Providence School Board Open Forum on Aligned Instruction, 6:30-8:00pm, Central High School, 70 Fricker Street, Providence. This meeting will be a presentation and question and answer session on the district's aligned instruction approach to curriculum and pedagogy. You can download a PDF flier that describes more about this meeting here. Childcare is available (good move!).

Also - if you are a parent/family member of a student at one of the schools that the RIDE recently named as needing intervention and support, there are meetings this week to discuss the intervention model options. On Tuesday, April 26th, Mary E. Fogarty Elementary and Alvarez High School are each meeting; on Thursday, April 28th, Hope High School (technically Hope Information Technology) and Mount Pleasant High School are each meeting, and the meetings for all of the schools are being repeated on Saturday, April 30. I do not have specific information about times or locations; presumably, PPSD is sharing that information with families, teachers, and students in each school community. These are not meetings intended for the general public.

To which all I can say is: there isn't enough time, patience, or babysitting money in the world to get me to the three of these gatherings that directly affect me, much as I'd like to go, and I imagine other parents feel similarly. I will try. My youngest kid's very first Little League game is Monday night and there is nowhere else I'd rather be on the planet than on the sidelines cheering him on, so I'll head on over to the School Board meeting after that. The rest? We'll see. I'd love to go but just don't see how to swing it with other kids' baseball games every night that week. As usual, if any readers do make it to these meeting and are willing to share notes/thoughts/observations here, I'd love to share those with Providence Schools and Beyond readers.