Approving the Excel Academy lease would put our students first – and prove what's possible
Partnering with Excel Academy allows the Lauro space to be utilized again while reducing the financial burden on the city and creating new opportunities for collaboration that serves all students. Between Excel's rent payments, capital improvements, facility costs, planned annual neighborhood beautification projects, and philanthropic support, the total investment coming into our city will be around $80 million.
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Excel Academy–which is open to any student from Providence, North Providence, and Central Falls, with the majority coming from Providence–is one of the top 10 schools in Rhode Island for student growth in both math and English language arts. Ninety-five percent of students identify as students of color, and many will be the first in their families to go to college.
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Rhode Island Education Collective,
This shared space agreement creates a meaningful opportunity for charter and district schools to collaborate in the way they were always meant to—by exchanging ideas, sharing resources, and learning from each other to better serve all students. Placing two strong schools under one roof creates a culture of partnership rather than competition, setting a powerful precedent for education across Rhode Island. Together, these schools can show how alignment between charter and district models can elevate instruction, enrich school culture, and expand access to high-quality education in Providence. It's the kind of innovative, student-centered cooperation our public education system urgently needs.
This lease agreement also offers clear financial benefits. At a time when the
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It shouldn't be revolutionary for a school district and a charter school to work together to do what's best for our children. I hope what's planned for Lauro becomes the first of many examples of our city's leaders coming together to put our students' needs first and ensure every child has access to the high-quality education they deserve, whether they attend a district, charter, or any other public school.
Victor F. Capellan is the founder and CEO of Rhode Island Education Collective.He was the former superintendent of schools in Central Falls and has been a leader in education for 25 years in various capacities in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York.
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Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Spotify's new HR leader masterminded her company's remote work policy and gives one piece of key advice
Spotify has found a new HR leader: Anna Lundström. The native Swede was appointed as CHRO of the music streaming giant in April of this year. She previously served as VP of HR, and has been with the company since 2016. One of Lundström's most notable contributions to the company so far was the formation of the company's 'work from anywhere' policy, which launched in 2021. A Spotify spokesperson previously told Fortune that the remote work strategy led to a 50% drop in attrition. In her new role, Lundström oversees all aspects of the company's human resources department, including people strategy, and managing a workforce of 7,500 employees across 180 markets. And her appointment comes at an exciting time for Spotify: the company celebrated its first full year of profitability since it was founded in 2008. Lundström sat down with Fortune to discuss her vision for the CHRO role, plans to integrate AI into her department's workflow, focusing on employee mental health, and connecting people strategy with business strategy. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Fortune: What first brought you to Spotify? Anna Lundström: I was with NASDAQ for almost a decade before joining Spotify. I still had about 20 years in HR, but was obviously working in more of a financial services environment. I loved it, but Spotify reached out and was just starting to expand in the U.S. [Spotify] is obviously a product that I love and use, so that was important for me as I took my next step, but also the match with me being a Swede in the U.S. and being part of the Spotify journey and expansion here, was really attractive. You've said that one of the goals is to make AI a key focus across the organization. How are you planning to integrate AI into your HR department? My team partners closely with the product and technology team. A couple weeks ago, Gustav [Söderström], our chief product officer, and I, went out to the full organization with a set of guiding principles around not only the importance of AI, but [how] we are taking the learning approach. A lot of companies are missing out [by] saying, 'Get on the AI train!' But they're not really doing that. They just want to be fast and out there with the world. We launched a set of trainings for our employees—everything from prompt trainings to more advanced ones, based on your role. It's not about rolling out [AI]. It's rolled out, and now everyone is working on learning. Leaning fully into the learning, making our employees future ready, providing them with AI literacy skills—that will position them really well. We don't know what the future will hold, but the bet we're taking is making everyone AI ready. In HR specifically, we have also been early adopters. We've had a couple of people analytics tools for about two years. Disco is one of them, which gives us real time data. So no more Excel spreadsheets. We go into a Disco feature we've built ourselves that gets real time attrition, engagement, and more. We have another platform, Echo, that is built on machine learning and serves as our internal LinkedIn. What are some of your other priorities as CHRO? Another big focus is mental health. We're really leaning into that. We have doubled down on more support for our employees. This year we launched a new mental health platform that provides a more personalized experience, Modern Health. We believe that a sustainable and healthy workforce is a competitive advantage. Retaining our top talent is a massive focus of mine. Culture is always evolving. Product and business have evolved a lot one year into profitability. For me, a genuine people experience is when you really tie people strategy to business strategy, and they are one. One of Spotify's hallmarks is its 'Work from Anywhere' policy. How do you view the RTO debate in 2025? Fun fact: My colleague, Alexander Westerdahl, and I were the architects of that policy. We launched early in 2021. One of our key success factors, as a product but also in our employee offerings, is that we do not look at other companies that much. Of course we set benchmarks. But we have always believed that we have really talented, driven employees with high agency—motivation to work hard, have fun and deliver on the results. Then we don't necessarily care where you work from. What we have found in the years since we started 'Work from Anywhere' is that we need to have those touch points where people come together. We recently implemented what we call 'Core Week,' which is one week per year when your core team comes together and you work from an office of your choosing. The whole purpose is coming together, working, socializing, and planning together. 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All 7,500 people, including executive management—no emails, no slacks, no WhatsApp. People go and spend their time recharging, being with their families. People love that because usually, when you're on vacation, you come back to a full inbox and a long to-do list. But here, everyone's off at the same time. Sometimes CHROs can be left out of conversations around the C-suite. What is your relationship like to the other executive leaders at Spotify? One of the key success factors of being an effective HR professional, at all levels, is obviously your capability to build relationships, to harness the relationships, act with high integrity. But it's also about being able to connect the dots between business, product priorities and people strategy—that's high level. I've been with the company for 10 years. I've supported almost all teams in the organization. I know the business and product inside and out. I've spent a lot of time with our C-suite and executive team. Once a week, the 'E-team,' or executive team, meets for three hours every Tuesday afternoon. We discuss top priorities, how we're tracking progress on these priorities, people and culture items, whatever that may be. That has made us so connected and collaborative and fast as an organization. I feel extremely well positioned for the job based on my tenure here and where I've worked in the organization and the relationships I've had. This story was originally featured on
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Travel + Leisure
36 minutes ago
- Travel + Leisure
A 118-year-old English Manor Hotel on British Columbia's Vancouver Island Just Reopened With 1,500 Antiques and Set Pieces From Your Favorite TV Shows
Rosemead's quiet, forest-like setting gives it an English countryside feel, yet it's only a 10-minute drive from downtown Victoria. The owner collected antiques from movie and TV sets, his favorite London hotels, and at least 50 manor estates. Janevca's dining room is anchored by a huge faux tree 'blooming' with cascading pink cherry blossoms; the leaves will change out seasonally. Modern amenities co-exist with heritage—think clawfoot tubs and classic mantle clocks, but also self-flushing heated toilets with high-tech Kohler bidets. The cushy king beds are topped with $23,000 mattresses from 100-year-old luxury Swedish label Duxiana. The magnetism of Rosemead House begins not inside, but at street level. To reach the hilltop hotel in Esquimalt, British Columbia, guests pass through the actual Buckingham Palace gates used on the London set of Netflix's The Crown and climb the tree-lined driveway to a regal porte-cochère and a large manor door. The Edwardian mansion, originally designed as a private home in 1906 by architect Samuel Maclure, has lived many lives. Most recently it was the Old English Inn: cherished by locals who got married or honeymooned there, chastised by a few as the Fawlty Towers of the area, and universally known to be showing its age. In 2015, Lenny Moy, president and founder of real estate development company Aragon Properties, purchased it and the surrounding land for a master-planned community of heritage-inspired condos called Oakwoods, located behind the manor. Turns out, the hotel restoration would become Moy's decade-long, antique-fueled passion project, and it began while visiting one of his daughters in London who was attending fashion school there. 'I started going to auctions, mostly virtually, and buying furniture slowly,' Moy says. 'At first, it was just a few 18th- and 19th-century accent pieces.' Eventually, he'd purchased from more than 50 manor estates, movie set sales, and legendary London hotels The Dorchester and The Savoy. 'I knew I had to buy 130 percent to get to a solid 100 percent.' Crate by carefully packaged crate, a couple thousand treasures crossed the pond, filling an 8,000-square-foot warehouse at least twice over. Today, around 1,500 of these antiques decorate Rosemead House where Moy and interior designer Karen Wichert followed the phrase 'Heritage Meets Discovery' as their north star, blending past with present everywhere. The result is a decadent, fearless, money-is-no-object historical rebirth painted with a maximalist brush. Interior of the hotel lobby. I'm Rosemead's very first guest, staying in the Lancaster Room, which I reach by climbing two sets of staircases, one thrillingly narrow. With maze-like hallways and no elevator, a guide to one's room is essential at first. ('This way, Miss Nanton…') With peekaboo ocean views, a reading nook, and countless antiques—including a tiny vintage Royal Crown Derby China seal paperweight from England that I desperately want to take home to my toddler—the 433-square-foot room is comfy, not stuffy, despite its heirloom touches and ancient bones. At once I'm wrapped up in the step-back-in-time fantasy of it all. That energy hits deepest in the Crown Mezzanine library, just above the lobby. I sink into a coral-hued chesterfield chair and look up at a gargantuan faux 17th-century Rembrandt, which doesn't look fake at all. The red curtains and podiums adjacent, as well as my seat, are all from the original Queen's bedroom set of The Crown. (As Moy tells me later, the painting was also purchased from a set; Kevin Hart's 2024 heist film, Lift , I learn . ) Quickly at home in my new manor life, I explore the manicured grounds—complete with a small amphitheatre that will likely host future music performances—before pulling up a barstool at in-house restaurant Janevca's busy lounge for a pre-dinner cocktail. Sipping a bright Amalfi Stone Sour mixed with London dry gin and limoncello, a restored stained-glass window to my left catches the golden hour light. It's one of the original manor windows, making it easy to imagine a century's worth of guests sitting right here before me doing just the same. Here, my full review and everything you need to know about Rosemead House. There are 14 rooms in the Manor Collection, located inside the historic building, and another 14 in the Grove Collection, in a new building behind the main house. The latter are slightly more accessibly priced and five are pet-friendly. Long-stay suites with kitchens will open in due course. The most opulent room at Rosemead? The Manor Collection's Dynasty Suite, decorated in a full Chinoiserie theme with a vaulted ceiling, staircase leading up to a second-floor bedroom, and private balcony. 'Each suite is like a real-life museum,' says Moy while touring me through a handful of the 28 rooms, each with its own UK-inspired name. Edwardian writing desks with intricate inlays, gilded-framed mirrors, and reupholstered vintage furnishings live in tandem with patterned William Morris wallpaper on the walls, Ann Sacks basketweave motif tiles on the bathroom floors, and minibars concealed inside sideboards from The Dorchester auction (this way, you don't hear them hum). It's a detailed mash-up of hues, textures, and patterns, but doesn't feel overwhelming. 'We really set out to respect the original design, adding modern elements and layers of color to evolve it,' Moy adds. To that end, each room's unique, sometimes quirky, architecture is taken into account, like the Oxford Loft's sharply slanted ceiling balanced by adjacent bell-shaped chandeliers, or Canterbury Corner's exposed timber trusses complemented by a vintage wooden globe (open it up to find a secret bar inside). The interior of Janevca by Chef Andrea Alridge. Alchemic wood-fired cooking is the culinary core of Janevca Kitchen & Lounge, which opened well before the hotel in fall 2024 (and is a portmanteau of Moy's children's names: Janelle, Evan, Cailee). It's helmed by executive chef Andrea Alridge, who previously cooked at Vancouver's coveted Savio Volpe. Downstairs there are two event spaces as well as a private-dining Granite Room with a rock wall showcasing racks of fine wine in front of it. Moy has plans to grow Rosemead's collection to upward of 6,000 bottles. The bar inside the Janevca lounge. Back at Janevca, chef Alridge's Filipino and Jamaican roots shape the menu and a stainless steel Argentine-style grill burning maple, alder, and applewood is the genesis of most dishes. When I head down to dinner, the fully booked restaurant buzzes while wine director Jacques Lacoste pours me a smooth glass of beaujolais and a gas fireplace 'crackles' nearby. The Hokkaido scallop crudo with calamansi citrus and pops of smoky pyanggang sauce was exceptional, while the signature half-chicken with siu haau sauce and Janevca crisp is one of chef Alridge's personal favorites. For dessert, the Peach Melba is a sweet storytelling triumph, because not only does pastry chef Brian Bradley encase it in a thin layer of marzipan to look just like a peach, complete with leaves and a chocolate-formed pit, he serves it on historic dinnerware purchased from The Savoy, where Peach Melba was invented in the late-1800s. Are they, perhaps, the same plates the first Peach Melbas were eaten off of? The staff cannot confirm nor deny, but as I eat my dessert, I think yes. Rosemead has a two-story Wellness Centre complete with a state-of-the-art gym and Peloton bikes. At Salt & Ivy spa, decorated with Himalayan salt walls and antique mirrors, I opt for an Oceanic Renewal face and body treatment using local Seaflora products. My therapist buffs and moisturizes my tired skin with nutrient-rich seaweed body polish and a firming mask before laying shiver-inducing strands of detoxifying fresh seaweed across my back. It's all harvested in nearby Sooke, known for its high diversity of 500+ seaweed varieties. Rosemead has future plans to offer seaweed-foraging experiences there in its pristine intertidal zone with Seaflora. Off-property, a 10-minute drive away, check into Havn, a WWII-era barge converted into a wellness spa docked in Victoria's Inner Harbour. After checking in, I sip a superfood-based Majik Algae Aloe elixir, turn completely numb from a four-minute cold plunge, then slather myself with a ladle full of exfoliating salt to warm up. For the next three hours I rinse, sauna, hot tub, lounge, and repeat before walking to dinner at Rabbit Rabbit wine bar, where executive chef Billy Nguyen (a good friend of Janevca's chef Alridge) plates excellent French-Asian fare in a room full of vibes and vinyl. If you go, ask for a booth with a Champagne button. Given its more-than-100-year pedigree, the manor house itself is a heritage-designated property, so those suites are only accessible by stairs, but the Mayfair Room in the Grove Collection is ADA-compliant. As for sustainability, the hotel's park-like setting with 100-year-old heritage trees were what first attracted Moy to the land, so it was key to hold on to as many as possible during renovations and the condo development. To that end, Garry Oak meadows were preserved, an on-site nursery was created to transplant trees, and felled heritage trees were repurposed for Janevca's dining room tables, wooden accents in the spa, and more. Reclaimed bricks from the manor's previous retaining walls show up in the driveways and yet more brick was repurposed from a building in Victoria. To get to Rosemead from Vancouver, I recommend the fastest and most scenic route, a 35-minute Helijet flight direct from Vancouver Harbour to Victoria Harbour. It flies you over green Gulf Islands before a stunning, get-your-camera-ready coastal landing near downtown Victoria, from which a car or Uber whisks you to Rosemead in 15 minutes. Alternatively, guests can fly directly into Victoria International Airport or take BC Ferries from Tsawwassen (Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (Victoria). Located in the quiet Saxe Point neighborhood, a stay at Rosemead lends itself to nature walks, not unlike a British country estate. I stroll five minutes to reach the craggy cliffs of Macaulay Point Park where rare maritime meadows grow, found only in a few coastal habitats along southeastern Vancouver Island. Dense-flowered lupin and purple sanicle pop up amongst long-abandoned gun battlements, and I breathe in the salty Salish Sea air as small fishing boats chug by. Back in my room later, I play into my historic fairytale by writing a note longhand on light pink RH-embossed stationery before propping myself up on pillows in my reading nook. Sure, I'm scrolling on my phone, but it feels like I'm scrolling while time-traveling and I'm very into that. Rosemead House will open fully to guests in July 2025, and bookings are now open online. Nightly rates start at $515 for the Manor Collection and $440 for the Grove Collection. The hotel is not yet part of any loyalty or credit card reward programs. Every T+L hotel review is written by an editor or reporter who has stayed at the property, and each hotel selected aligns with our core values.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The ‘Holy Grail of Shipwrecks' Is Still Underwater. So Is Its $17 Billion Fortune.
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Considered the world's richest shipwreck, the San Jose was found off the coast of Colombia in 2015. New research into the gold coins now scattered on the ocean floor offered insights into the decorative pieces minted in Lima. Valued at a modern-day $17 billion, the San Jose's bounty is still untouched. Exploration of the San Jose shipwreck and the precious metal coins it scattered about 1,970 feet below the ocean's surface off the coast of Colombia confirmed it really was the richest shipwreck in the world. Considered the Holy Grail of all shipwrecks, the Spanish galleon San Jose blew up and sank in 1708 at the hands of British cannons, and it took with it what experts have estimated to be $17 billion in modern-day wealth, largely in the form of coins from 10 years of taxes saved up from the Americas. The shipwreck was first located in 2015. A new study published in the journal Antiquity showed how using remotely operated vehicles allowed researchers to get close to the underwater coins and confirm that the wreck found in 2015—which launched a custody battle between Colombia and Spain—really is the long-sought San Jose with an untold number of coins still on the seafloor. 'Among the key finds are hand-struck, irregularly shaped coins—known as cobs in English and macuquinas in Spanish—that served as the primary currency in the Americas for more than two centuries,' the study's lead author, Daniela Vargas Ariza, wrote about the coins often cut from gold or silver ingots. Ariza is a maritime archaeologist at Colombia's Almirante Padilla Naval Cadet School in Cartagena and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History in Bogota. The exact number of coins visible is difficult to determine due to the nature of the underwater site, but the cobs identified in high-resolution photos taken by the ROV show they have an average diameter of 1.3 inches and weigh 27 grams. At an estimated 200 tons of gold, silver, and uncut gemstones, that's a lot of wealth in the water. The photographs did help add some detail to what's known about the shipwreck's treasure. One side of the coins featured a Jerusalem Cross—a large cross with four smaller crosses—along with a shield featuring a castle and lions within a dotted border. On the flip side, the central design features the Pillars of Hercules above waves of the sea. The researchers said the design of the waves offers an identifying element for coins coming from the Lima Mint. Coins also feature marks of an assayer—an expert who tests metal purity—hammered on the edges. The researchers believe the evidence gleaned from the cobs help substantiate the long-held hypothesis that this wreck truly is the San Jose. 'This case study highlights the value of coins as key chronological markers in the identification of shipwrecks, particularly those from the Tierra Firme Fleet,' Ariza wrote. The sinking of the ship at this site must have occurred after 1707, the year the coins were minted. This, along with the presence of Chinese porcelain from the Kangzi period of 1662-1722 A.D. and the inscriptions on the cannon dating to 1665, suggest the ship sank in the early 18th century. The features on the coins also helped determine the route taken by the sunken vessel, including how the cobs were likely sourced from Peruvian mines (minting of gold coins began at the Lima Mint in 1696). There's also historical context important in identifying the wreck. In 1706, the Viceroy Marques de Castelldosrius arrived in Peru to reactivate the Portobello fair and send accumulated taxes of a decade to the Iberian Peninsula. In late 1707, Peruvian merchants and officials traveled to Puerto Perico on the Pacific coast of Panama, according to the study. There, they met the Tierra Firme Fleet, commanded by the galleon San Jose, which held the monopoly on transporting royal treasures between South America and the Iberian Peninsula. After the Portobello fair, the San Jose departed for Cartagena carrying goods and metals, including the cobs. 'The San Jose Galleon,' the authors wrote, 'is the only ship that matches these characteristics.' Cobs were the primary way the Spanish transported large volumes of wealth from the Americas to Europe, so these coin hoards likely formed part of the royal treasure dispatched from Peru by Castelldosrius. But when the fleet of 18 ships left Cartagena bound for Spain on June 8, 1708, it was attacked by five British warships during the War of the Spanish Succession. The cannon battle resulted in the exploding of San Jose's gunpowder stores, sinking the 150-foot-long ship. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
