11 People to Watch in 2011: Tom Brady
01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 2, 2011
Steve Smith, left, president of the Providence Teachers’ Union, and Providence School Superintendent Tom Brady are embarking on a grand experiment to create a labor-management partnership to turn around low-performing schools.
The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy
While teachers and administrators duke it out in Central Falls, a very different relationship has emerged in Providence, where Supt. Tom Brady has forged a partnership with teachers’ union President Steve Smith to revamp four low-performing schools.
Brady, who arrived here 2½ years ago with a mandate to restore the district’s tarnished reputation, had a choice: he could unilaterally impose a new world order on the district’s struggling schools or he could collaborate with the union and jointly develop a plan to transform the schools.
Brady chose to work with the union. The labor-management partnership quickly garnered national attention, winning accolades from none other than Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4-million-