In this opinion piece by Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville he explains that the manifesto titled “Every Child A Winner!” inspired the 1993 Ed Reform: “We meant that all students — each and every one — should be able to succeed at high levels.  By adopting the Common Core, we’ve set a clearer, higher target for educational success.“  His opinion seems to revolve around achieving said success by repeating such non specific ideals as:

We should accelerate the implementation of our new “Innovation Schools” model, which has already resulted in the creation of two cutting-edge schools just six months after the passage of the governor’s legislation. We need to continue implementing our six regional “Readiness Centers,” which bring educators, school districts, colleges, and other partners together to address core educational priorities. In short, it’s time to move beyond setting standards to implementing educational strategies which will help our students achieve our high expectations.

Just reading that gives me a headache.  We can implement and innovate on the cutting edge all we want but without textbooks, teachers, supplies and facilities all the innovation on the planet can’t implement learning.

Looking at the results of almost 20 years of reform I can’t say any child has come out of this a clear winner.  Now the Massachusetts Department of Education is backpedaling and attempting to spin its adoption of Common Core Standards as  raising the Ed Reform bar to the next level.  According to the Mass DOE press release last month: Launched in June 2009, the Common Core State Standards Initiative is designed to develop and implement a single set of national standards in ELA and math to define what every student should know and be able to do in order to be fully ready for post-secondary education or a successful career. Massachusetts played a leading role in the development and review of the standards over the past 13 months. Curriculum experts and educators from across the Commonwealth reviewed and submitted comments on drafts that were incorporated throughout the development process to ensure that the expectations set in the final versions met or exceeded the state’s strong standards for students.

Here we are taking our broken system (much like the health care debacle) and inflicting it on the rest of the country.  Then we adopt this new version of what we already do and call it innovation and reform.

The real motivation behind adopting these standards is monetary.  Just six days after announcing the adoption of Common Core Standards the Governor also announced Massachusetts earned a finalist position in the second round competition for Race to the Top funding.

What will Massachusetts do with this money?  The last time I read their RTTT application their primary focus seemed to be data warehousing.  The link t0 the most current application at the bottom of Governor Patrick’s press release is broken.  Of course receipt of this money is set to be revealed in time for the new school year in September – just in time for the government to use it to supplant existing funding as they did with the previous stimulus monies.

Data warehousing would be a great tool if we were giving our students every opportunity and yet they still weren’t successful.  Until we no longer have classrooms without textbooks, sports teams without equipment, schools sharing nurses and class sizes in the mid 30′s it doesn’t take someone with a PHD in education to tell you why students aren’t achieving.  So while our Ed Secretary wants us to believe every child is a winner… I believe the real winners are sitting on Beacon Hill hoping for more money to waste in the name of education and innovation.

Budget Review is again on the table for tonight’s School Committee Meeting but there’s no agenda to post yet.  I’m sure there will be cheers about the Meals Tax vote but considering how much of the School Department Budget is based on wishes I don’t see the funds from the meals tax as a bonus – I see it as a band-aid.

I’m not sure I will be able to attend tonight’s meeting but I will certainly be recording it so I can relax and enjoy the long weekend with an iced coffee and hours of scintillating debate over the budget.  Where might I be this fine evening instead of City Hall?  Why I will be at Chuck E Cheese crocheting a blanket while my children spend time with their friends for Golden Hill’s Family Fun Night.  I looked at both events and decided taking the children to enjoy a night out trumped heading to City Hall – especially since we took the children to City Hall on Tuesday.

The School Committee finally posted their goals on the Haverhill Public Schools Website.  I’m not going to comment on all of them and there are some wonderful ideas in this document but a few things stood out:

5. Ensure a stable financial environment with a multi-year budget as presented by the administration.

I don’t know of any administration who can ensure financial stability considering the way schools are currently funded.  Every year the State provides less local aid, reduces the reimbursement for Circuit Breaker funding and debates the matter later and later into the year.  Federal funding is all in the form of grants and stimulus which have strict rules for how the money can be used.  The only guarantee currently out there that I can see is that each year will be worse than the one before it.

6. Create a school system and not a system of schools to ensure that all Haverhill schools operate as one concise, comprehensive system. This goal will result in better coordination, effective expenditure and utilization of human and financial resources.

Whomever wrote that rhetorical little gem about Haverhill being a system of schools and not a school system deserves to stand in the center of town and allow us to throw tomatoes at them.  This is dragged out every time someone talks about our schools and has become meaningless through overuse.  If the School Committee wants Haverhill Public Schools to become a school system then they must foster community and cooperation instead of pitting schools and families against each other for resources in each budget debate.  We need to have more city wide events to bring people together.  We need to stop thinking of ourselves in terms of what separates us and focus instead on the goals we’re all trying to accomplish – bring the best education possible to all of the students in Haverhill Public Schools.

9. Continue efforts to make Haverhill High School, our “Flagship” school, a school of Academic Excellence, with attention to updating Textbooks and educational resources, class size, communication, and discipline issues.

Having seen the budget this goal is unreachable.  With the limited number of classes for each section a greater number of students will be unable to participate at the level of Academic Excellence.  With the decimation of the “encore” programs our Classical Academy is in jeopardy.  With no money for textbooks or resources there will be no updating any time soon.  With the loss of our Resource Officers discipline issues will not improve.  With the class size projections approaching 40 especially at the higher grades I don’t see how that will foster Academic Excellence either.  The only flag on our High School Ship is the white one signaling surrender.

I went to the meetings Monday and Tuesday to hear the discussions on the proposed budget.  I even came home with my own souvenir copy of 80 pages of agony to pour through over the last week.  I then took the time to talk to as many people in the school department as I could fit into my week despite having some heavy commitments at the Crowell School.

Monday the Principals presented their class size projections, the plan regarding the switch to a 5 day schedule and the cuts in teachers from k-12.  The School Committee led applause for the Principals for doing so much with so little.  Unfortunately the applause was short lived.  As soon as the committee was presented Tuesday night with the line item cut sheet they learned it included the closing of the Crowell School.  They immediately rescinded their support by making a motion that the budget would not be considered as long as closing the Crowell School was included.

Everyone from the schools walked out of the room at that moment.  I cannot blame them for their frustration.  This was not an easy budget to prepare and none of them are happy with any of the cuts made; they likened the experience to Sophie’s Choice.  And I’m going to post here what I said at public comment Thursday night regarding the Crowell controversy for those who missed it:

I question the decision made at Tuesday night’s budget meeting at Haverhill High School to remove the closing of the Crowell School as a cost savings.  I am a Crowell Parent and I am now ashamed of this fact.  Should Crowell remain open in September I will not allow my son to begin first grade there.  The decision is an insult to the principals who struggled with many hard decisions and is the committee’s way of saying the 1% of students who attend Crowell School are more important than the 99% of students who attend the other schools across the city.

Furthermore, with 7 classrooms available in the Golden Hill and Walnut square schools I can no longer support the argument that we need Crowell for overflow space.

I’ve also heard that there is no plan for the buildings.  Unfortunately I do not believe that to be true either.  While I do not condone all of the ways the issues have been presented on both sides of this issue over the years I have come to understand that the plan since Golden Hill was built in 1993 was to slowly move all of the children and close the Crowell School.  Since this is not palatable to the members of the school committee they have instead insinuated there is no plan and insisted the funding be found to maintain their pet neighborhood school.  If the will of the committee and the public truly were to maintain neighborhood schools Golden Hill would never have been built and Fox, Smiley, Burnham, Cogswell and Bartlett would all still be open.

In the directive given to the administration when preparing this budget the top two items were student achievement and class size.  By keeping the Crowell School open the class sizes will increase more than they already have because we will have to add to the 30 teachers already eliminated and student achievement will not respond well under greater class sizes.

If it truly is the will of the committee to save THIS small neighborhood school then perhaps the School Committee is willing to back up the power of their convictions and lead the charge regarding health care concessions by reducing the line item on page 30 where the Haverhill Public Schools has budgeted $80,000 for the health insurance premiums of school committee members.

A former city-councilwoman spoke after I did to clarify that it was 1991 when the parents lobbied hard for the new schools to be built with the understanding that the smaller schools would be sold to become condominiums and contribute to our tax base.  While 5 of the schools were indeed closed thus far none have been added to our tax rolls.

During the meeting Ms Kosmes clarified the budget line changes they made to get to a balanced budget.  I will be picking up a copy of that paper as soon as possible so that I can see if those changes will truly benefit our students.  I also have some questions I’m hoping to get answered by my next post.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Dr O’Brien, our Superintendent of Curriculum announced he would be leaving his position in Haverhill.

This past week, Dr Buchanan, our Superintendent, announced he was a finalist for the position of Superintendent in Wenham.  Many of the people I’ve spoken to are surprised and disappointed.  I merely wonder why its taken him this long to ponder moving!

The School Committee is considering whether or not to offer him a contract extension to entice him to stay.  Unfortunately I doubt they can write a contract giving Dr Buchanan the things that would truly make the difference.

Our public meetings are shameful – If this is how grownups act on camera then I cannot imagine the day to day interaction of these people with our Superintendent.

The budget is a mess.  This isn’t any one person’s fault and is totally beyond the purview of anyone in the City of Haverhill but that doesn’t mean the stresses placed on the city and its people aren’t real.  The state needs to change the way schools are funded – or the federal government needs to make sweeping education reform that is productive and helpful before this issue improves.  That being said – I’ve sat through many budget meetings and I know we could handle things better!

Our MCAS results have essentially topped out.  With the severity of the cuts we’re facing there’s no way we’re going to improve much beyond where we are now.  The state has come in for their evaluation – since we’re a level 3 school in a sea of higher performing schools for our geographic area – and asked what, besides money, can the district benefit from.  What else is there besides money?  Sure we can use textbooks but that costs money!  We’d love to give our teachers the professional development they deserve but that costs money.  Many of the schools need repairs but there’s that money issue again.  Class sizes are higher than we’d like but teachers cost money.  It would be fantastic to expand the offerings at HHS, give foreign language classes at the middle schools and have a full marching band but these items cost money.

I have a list of 101 things that Dr Buchanan would provide for our schools if only he could.  None of the items are particularly extravagant.  None of the items are remotely in our grasp either.  Sadly, until society places the value on education that we need to and stop treating the school day as glorified free babysitting we will never have the means to attain those 101 goals.

I went to the School Committee Meeting cautiously optimistic.  The meeting started wonderfully; Tilton School Principal, Mary Beth Maranto, announced a grant from Cabot Corporation for $10,000 in science materials for the school.  The Employees of Cabot also held a crayon drive and donated boxes of crayons, markers and pencils to the children.  Thank you people of Cabot Corporation – I had to Google the company when I returned home as I always equate the brand name of Cabot with cheese!

The donation was met with applause and the usual pandering by the members of the committee to the organization.  I realize everyone is appreciative of these gifts to our children but perhaps the School Committee President can speak on behalf of all of the members of the committee and say thank you instead of each individual member speaking for 5 minutes and making the meetings unnecessarily long.

Moving forward with the agenda, School Committee President Scott Wood stepped down as president and the committee elected Shaun Toohey to replace him.  Mr. Toohey’s first act as president was to preside over the election of his Vice President, Joeseph Bevilacqua.  I must admit to cringing every time Mr. Magliocchetti referred to Mr. Bevilacqua as “Joey.”

Right about here the meeting turned less into a School Committee Meeting and more into the Paul Magliocchetti Show.  The paper has lauded him as an instrument of reason and change within the School Committee but I do not believe this to be true.  Let us look at the six items he placed on the agenda for this meeting:

1)      Budget Breakdown. Mr. Magliocchetti requested a “brief” breakdown of funding from the City, State, Federal and Private sources by percentage.  Nothing about the funding of schools is brief which he could have learned at the Parent Academy Presentation: How Schools are Funded.  He could also have met with Dr Buchanan and Kara Kosmes to receive an in depth education on this matter.  Having it as an agenda item served only to make him look busier.

2)      Improvement of District Student Achievement. Again this is not something that can be briefly summarized.  Perhaps in his research he could have attended some of the meetings where this issue has been beaten to death?  The Superintendant had a meeting with his Principals to discuss this issue at Mr. Magliocchetti’s request – perhaps he could have attended that meeting instead of asking all of the Principals to come out yet again to rehash the discussion.

3)      Status Report on Athletic Program at HHS by Garin Veris. I could have given Ms Danehy’s report about the goals Mr. Veris has for our Athletics Department.  Indeed I mentioned many of the items in my Meet the Administrator: Garin Veris post just days ago! Perhaps in his zeal to become as up to date as possible on issues facing the School Committee, Mr. Magliocchetti could have attended the sub committee meeting himself?  These meetings are posted and open to the public!

4)      Superintendant’s Plan for Coordination of District-wide Middle and High School Athletic Program. I don’t see why number 4 is separated out from number three.  I have to assume that Dr Buchanan is working with Garin Veris on a regular basis to ensure that both men are on the same page going forward with the plan to involve the HHS athletes and coaches at our Middle Schools to spur interest in our many athletic offerings.

5)      Superintendant’s Plan for Viable District Band Program. Yes, we need a marching band.  Many people equate our lack of a marching band with a lack of a music program in general.  We have a Jazz Band.  Unfortunately the children in Haverhill don’t want to play the clarinet or the flute – they want to play the drums and the guitar.  They also prefer Jazz over standard marching band fare.  We need someone to get these kids excited and interested in playing for the marching band.  I understand this is an important issue and an embarrassing one.  I too want to see it rectified.  Who will the charismatic leader who resurrects the band be?

6)    Report from the Superintendant on District Class Sizes. Why again is this a separate line item?  Could we not have batched this up with number 2 earlier than mid meeting?  I know the class size data is readily available from the administration and has been provided at many prior meetings.  For someone looking to “hit the ground running” maybe he should have run over to City Hall and picked up a copy.  The class size debate held much of the 2009-2010 budgeting discussion as we listened to the impact of cuts on class sizes and many trade offs were made with programs on one side of the seesaw and class size on the other.  I am concerned with some comments about if we did lower class size we would not have physical classroom space for the extra classes.  Many of our schools are full!

Now that we have the tutorial portion of the meeting out of the way I would like to address a couple of other issues.  The School Department is looking to have the SPED portion of the budget audited by an independent company.  According to the company: If we do not save you money you do not have to pay!  I look forward to the results of this but fear we won’t save as much as is expected due to the increasing number of unfunded mandates and decreasing reimbursement funding.

The Textbook Project is a wonderful resource for our students.  I am thankful to the gentleman who donated $20,000 in memory of his late wife.  I am thankful to everyone who donates even $1 to this worthy cause.  I doubt any of them want their money to pay interest fees.  Mr. Bevilacqua likes to expound about how his idea to bond textbooks was fiscally responsible for the taxpayers here in Haverhill.  I need to question how incurring unnecessary finance charges is fiscally responsible for the taxpayers.  I also need to question how for textbooks Mr. Bevilacqua feels bonds are appropriate and yet later in the budget portion of the meeting he demands stricter budgeting and “living within our means.”  Can we please support Dr Buchanan’s plan to use this money for the $135k in math textbooks the department needs to purchase next year?  Can we also appreciate that the donations recently received have placed the value of the Textbook Project account significantly higher than it usually is and that no one is hiding funding in the Textbook Project Account?  May we also please note that $75,000 is approximately $10 per child currently in the HPS and that $10 will not buy a book for anyone?  I was saddened to hear that the $20,000 donation would only purchase approximately 300 books!

The next item up for discussion is that items do get sent to Sub Committee to die.  And the School Committee did indeed drop the ball on having sent the Janitorial issue to subcommittee and then having nothing happen.  Considering one of the members of the sub committee never learned he was on the committee I am not surprised.  Of course if the minutes of the meeting had been properly reviewed by the member in question perhaps he could have seen he was elected to a sub committee and followed up properly.  Much like students missing a day of school have to make up missed work – members missing a meeting must also catch up!  This resulted in a long talk about policy which I will not rehash here.  You can thank me later.

Dr Buchanan announced Haverhill’s submission to be considered for the Race to the Top initiative and everyone thanked the Union for its support of this program.  Apparently other cities are unable to participate because their Teacher’s Union would not sign the paperwork.  This is an opportunity for a large influx of money and resources to come to our district for our students.  We are currently a level 3 district and I am ashamed that Mr. Toohey needed to ask this question of Dr Buchanan at the meeting.  I mentioned this lack in knowledge to Mr. Toohey as we were leaving and he cited a lack of communication.  Communication is a two way street and I have a difficult time believing that as a parent I have greater access to information about our school district than a member of our School Committee.

In closing, I would like to thank Mayor Fiorentini for reminding us that while we do focus a lot on the cuts and on the programs we wish we could have – we need to spend more time on the great programs and achievements we do have.  To that end I encourage everyone to attend the upcoming Parent Academy: Enrichment Activities for Students and see for yourselves some of the great programs available in our schools today.

Have a great weekend!

Time and again I have asked the same question regarding the School Committee and the public’s desire to close the Crowell Elementary and Walnut Square Elementary Schools.  “Do we have enough space to accommodate the children in light of all of the building happening around Haverhill?”

I was told that the loft apartments downtown are not targeted to families but to the young and hip 20somethings.  My counter to that is “I was young and hip at 20something… then I became a parent!”  We cannot ban the people who move in downtown from having children.  Even if only a small percentage of those people become parents it will make a large impact on our classroom sizes.

Looking around the city I am seeing single family homes bulldozed and duplexes erected in their place.  Some of these duplexes have four bedrooms and when the people move in I see toys and bikes in their yards.  In one extreme example there was a small brown dilapidated single family home on the corner as you go along Boardman Street towards the cemetery.  That home was torn down and two duplexes are currently being erected in its stead.  Where one family once lived there will now be four.

The development on Seven Sisters has the potential to add many large homes to Haverhill.  I cannot imagine that none of these homes will have children in them.  And that none of these children will go to the Haverhill Public Schools.

I have been told that studies were done 10 years ago that showed the trending of populations downward and that closing schools was recommended.  Many schools have been closed – there are only two left to close: Crowell and Walnut Square.  However I believe that study needs to be redone to take into account all of the building and development in Haverhill.  As we move new businesses into the area some people might follow their work, as we create loft apartments with easy train access we will attract more people to our town, as we create 4 bedroom duplexes we will encourage more families to call Haverhill home.

This morning I read an article in the Eagle Tribune about the water supply.  Will we have enough water to accommodate the growth in Haverhill?  And the first paragraph in the article is:

HAVERHILL — As the city continues to grow — with estimates of close to 75,000 people in the next two decades — leaders are trying to figure out how to provide enough classroom space, police protection and water.

You can read the rest of the article here.

The leaders don’t know how they will provide classroom space?  The same classroom space I keep being told is not an issue?  Our growth is catching up with us despite our attempts to ignore it.