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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Providence Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Angel Taveras was recently given top billing for an education-focused retreat in the Adirondack Mountains.
On the bill were New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other prominent Democratic mayors.
Just one catch: Taveras campaign spokesman Danny Kedem says the mayor no longer plans on going to the May event. When asked to comment Thursday on the invitation, Kedem replied via email: “Mayor Taveras is not attending.”
Kedem did not immediately respond to follow up questions as to why he’s not attending or what Taveras’ role had been at the event.
But, as of Thursday, the event’s website no longer named Taveras and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.
In their place, Hollywood filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is featured, along with Cuomo, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
According to the invite, the others are “special guests” while Cuomo is the “honorary chairman.”
The inaugural “Camp Philos” is a three-day event, May 4-6, at the Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid that is billed as a “philosopher’s camp for education reformers.”
The event is sponsored by Education Reform Now, a group that has ties to Taveras: the New York-based 501(c)3 nonprofit is helping support the national “Mayors for Educational Excellence Tour,” which is meant to highlight new educational efforts in four specific U.S. cities.
That tours stops in Providence on April 25, with Taveras as host.
