Providence Journal photo by Kathy Borchers
Providence Journal video by Kathy Borchers
WARWICK, R.I. -- The state Board of Education has voted to renew the contract of state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist for two more years.
The vote to renew was 7 to 3, with members Collen Callahan, Larry Purtill and Mathies Santos voting against.
The two-year contract will begin with a base salary of $193,800, an increase of 2 percent, with further increases after that.
The decision came after Gist had met for more than 90 minutes behind closed doors with members of the panel.
The board members went into closed session in a room inside the main building on Community College of Rhode Island's Knight campus around 6:25 p.m. Thursday.
Forty-five minutes later, they invited her to join the meeting. Just after 8:45 p.m., the decision to extend her contract was announced.
The board members took a public vote once they emerged from the closed session.
Earlier in the evening about 100 teachers demonstrated outside the building, chanting "Fire Deborah Gist" and "Deborah Gist has to go."
Many of them appeared to become upset when a campus policeman told them that only people who had signed up to speak could enter the hearing room
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the president of the National Education Association in Rhode Island to get a feel for the state of public education here.
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NEA R.I. President Larry Purtill said that Duncan called because "he wanted to have a conversation about what's going on here in Rhode Island."
Purtill, who is a member of the state Board of Education, has been openly critical of Gist's leadership.
Duncan did not try to persuade Purtill to change his opinion of state education.
"We never talked about that," Purtill said. "I gave him my view and that was it."
Earlier versions of this story were published at 4:43, 5:39, 6:47, 8:50 p.m.
With reports from Journal photographer Kathy Borchers
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Updated June 6, 2013 6:27 PM