As usual the Haverhill School Committee would have you believe the previous administration has left them in the dark about this important issue.  Feigning shock and dismay were the usual suspects, Wood and Bevilacqua, with Ms Danehy attempting to be the voice of reason.  Unfortunately, while I do recall sitting in a school committee meeting where Dr Buchanan addressed our lack of Highly Qualified Teachers and the plan to change this – I have been unable to pinpoint the date of that meeting to provide video proof.

As a district we are behind in the percentage of Highly Qualified Teachers allowed by the state.  They posted their numbers here.

What everyone’s forgotten in this fiasco is highlighted in this question by the Eagle Tribune:

Asked how many teachers are not considered qualified by the state to teach the subjects to which they are assigned, Scully told The Eagle-Tribune he did not have an exact number but said it’s “a small minority.”

There is a difference between “Highly Qualified Teachers” as laid out in the NCLB requirements and teachers qualified by the state to teach the subjects to which they are assigned.

Mr Sierpina outlines some of the challenges Haverhill faces in meeting this requirement:

School Committee member Ray Sierpina, who headed Tilton School before retiring two years ago, said yesterday that Haverhill is actually doing quite well to post a 91 percent compliance rate regarding highly qualified teachers. Typically, there’s a hold on hiring in June, so by the time Haverhill is ready to hire teachers, those who have all the credentials to be considered “highly qualified” have taken jobs elsewhere.

Further exacerbating the issue is the complex hierarchy of teachers based on tenure and dual certification where teachers are shuffled around to teach subjects they haven’t taught in a while because their current position is being eliminated.  Therefore a “highly qualified art teacher” who suddenly finds themselves teaching math for the first time in a decade would lose their highly qualified status until they demonstrate competence in mathematics.   This teacher would be covered by a temporary waiver.

Out-of-Field Teaching
Though the Department allows teachers to spend 20% of their time teaching out-of-field, NCLB requires a teacher to demonstrate “a high level of competency in each of the [core] academic subjects” in which he or she teaches. Hence, a teacher who is certified but teaching out-of-field will not be considered highly qualified in the out-of-field subject area until he or she has demonstrated subject matter competency in that area.

So while the newspaper and parts of the school committee would have us believe our students are in the hands of completely incompetent instructors and no one knew.  In reality the students are being taught by qualified teachers – and 91% highly qualified teachers!  The 41 Haverhill teachers who are not currently considered highly qualified undoubtedly have waivers for the year in which they are completing Master’s Degree programs, taking certification courses or otherwise proving their competence in a subject they haven’t taught in some time.

Perhaps if we want 100% of our teachers to be Highly Qualified Teachers 100% of the time we need to restructure how education works in our state.  Giving pink slips to a significant portion of teachers every year, constantly changing who teaches which subjects, cutting more and more programs and shifting responsibilities isn’t working.

Such is the strategy behind the elimination of “encore” teacher Arthur Bakopolus.  After searching far and wide for a teacher capable of teaching a wide variety of instruments who was willing to work part time (read: without benefits) for the Haverhill Public Schools in order to cobble together the barest of feeder programs in the middle schools – the position doesn’t last past its pilot year.

I learned of this cut and others from this article in the Haverhill Gazette.  I hope the School Committee and the administration and our citizens remember this cut when no new children are looking to join the Haverhill High School Marching Band.  Of course, we haven’t had a band in years – so what’s one more year?  Haverhill’s lack of a band is just one more mark against an already struggling system.

I hope the parents who purchased instruments for their children to take lessons with Mr Bakopulos saved their receipts or can find another place for their children to take lessons.

Other cuts and fee changes listed in the article were:

“eight special education aides and four high school teachers in the areas of art, science, foreign language and language arts.

An adjustment counselor’s position was left unfilled.

Another 109 teachers who received layoff notices in the spring have been called back to work this fall, said interim Superintendent James Scully.

At Haverhill High School, students are going to be asked to pay a fee to participate in school clubs, including yearbook, drama and band. The fees will cover the stipends for teachers to act as advisers to the programs. Stipends range from $1,500 to $4,000, said Kara Kosmes, assistant superintendent for finance and operations.”

I do fear that by the time my children reach Haverhill High School there will be nothing left.

I figured with the August meeting coming tomorrow I had best put my feelings from the July meeting to print.

I wonder how much of the good feelings toward Mr Scully are part of the honeymoon phase and will still be around in October.  The not so subtle digs at the former superintendent were not lost on anyone.  That position doesn’t turnover so quickly by accident.  I can just hear the committee’s praises for our “permanent” Superintendent now:  we love the communication, that interim guy didn’t do things like you do!  so nice to have a “permanent” replacement that we can count on.

I feel for Garin Veris.  I don’t know how much more clearly he can possibly explain the sports fee issue before people comprehend there is a fee and that it needs to be paid to participate in sports.  His position is unenviable in this manner.  No one likes the fees but they do need to be paid.  Students who pay the fee on time and in full are the ones most hurt by the nonpayment of others.  Opportunities for waivers do exist for families who cannot pay – all they ask is that you apply for the waiver before the fee collection becomes an issue.

Apparently privatization is only a dirty word when applied to the Special Education department and the Custodial department!  Imagine my surprise in hearing Mr Wood’s suggestion to privatize HHS security after the fights regarding food service, Futures, and the night custodians at HHS!  Mr Wood investigated other high school security forces and discovered most other places “Don’t do it like we do here in Haverhill.”  There are lots of things we do here differently.  Just because its different doesn’t make it wrong – bring a stronger and more detailed argument.

Lastly, I noticed that our Interim Superintendent made some pivotal appointments.  Somehow no one felt the need to question his decisions by stating that he’s only the interim and won’t be around to truly experience the impact of his decisions.  Funny that!

As Haverhill prepares to spend $2 million from the State to put artificial turf in Haverhill Stadium they still haven’t solved the budget issue surrounding the caretaker’s salary.  In this article from the Eagle Tribune, questions are raised about the penny wise and pound foolish attitude of laying off the only person responsible for maintenance of the field at Haverhill Stadium.

I remember this discussion from the budget debates in June.  Haverhill Stadium is an oddly funded and maintained property.  There’s an independent commission to oversee the Stadium but the funding is supposed to be split between the City and the School Department because they are the chief users of the property but the School Department has a lot of weight in decisions regarding the property.  Somewhere along the way the City stopped paying its share of costs associated with the Stadium and because they use it for so many sporting events and for graduation, the School Department has picked up all the bills.

Now that budgeting is so painful there’s no more money to keep handling the City’s share.  Since the article doesn’t mention it – I’m guessing the State’s not going to pull the funding because of a missing caretaker.  This was the biggest issue raised by the School Committee during talks: will the lack of maintenance cause the State to revoke the monies?  Now that the answer seems to be “No.” or perhaps now that the funding is already in City coffers the maintenance staff can be safely eliminated.

The stadium will be lovely when the grand opening happens but like so many local attractions will decay rapidly.  I hope they manage to fix this issue but there are dozens of these little problems all over the City that no one is addressing.  We shall see if Tuesday’s City Council meeting results in anything more than a strongly worded letter and if this issue remains unresolved after the August 19 School Committee Meeting.

The three school committee members who partake of the health insurance benefit available to them have agreed to switch to the Value Option Plan.  Finally.

Although I need to wonder how much this (from the linked article above) factored into their decision:

Prior to the School Committee meeting, Fiorentini produced a legal opinion from City Solicitor William Cox that the mayor could switch the School Committee members into the new plan without their consent. In summary, the legal opinion says the city must make health insurance available to members of the City Council and School Committee that want it, but that the mayor has the authority to decide which health care plan is offered.

Nothing like making the change voluntarily now that they know their existing plan won’t be available forever.  And I really love how conscientious everyone is about making sure the details are available and that everyone is happy with the plan.  Do these folks realize the rest of the working world simply gets a notice that their insurance has been changed and to change doctors and plan accordingly.  The notice generally also outlines the increases in premiums, co-pays and prescription costs as well.

The whole health insurance situation is untenable and I wish as a society we had a better method of dealing with it but the reality of health insurance is that it is the most expensive benefit employers offer.  Companies across the country have made cuts to health care and people across the country have had to make adjustments to their lives because of those cuts.  As much as I sympathize with individuals who will face rising costs because of this – as a tax payer I am also a shareholder in the business of the City of Haverhill.

As we go through the summer, negotiations continue with principals and teachers over contracts and the ever present issue of health care. We’ve listened to budget talks for weeks about how the health care costs are crippling the school budget and have resulted in layoffs, increased class sizes and decreased offerings for our students.

We are now 13 days past this post and this article and still Mr Wood and Mr Toohey haven’t bothered to return the Eagle Tribune’s calls regarding their unwillingness to change to the Mayor’s health care plan. This bothers me especially because Mr Wood and Mr Toohey are 2/3 of the negotiating team that is working with the teacher’s union to finally sign a contract that hopefully switches the teachers to the Mayor’s Value Option Plan.

This strikes me as very poor leadership by these high profile members of the School Committee; Mr Toohey is the current president and Mr Wood is the former president. Both seem to feel it is appropriate to negotiate from the position of “take what we tell you is the best health care plan available – despite it not being good enough for us.” This is one of the largest problems I have with national health care reform; the plan forced by law on all of the citizens does not apply to members of Congress. I like this even less when it happens locally and is perpetuated by people in my own neighborhood!

I’m not sure what really happened in this meeting with the principals but I’m betting the truth lies someplace in the middle. The School Committee found quite a bit of cash to reward the interim superintendent and to hopefully entice a new superintendent to our city and every other union who has switched health care has gotten something in return so I can understand the principals looking for a carrot in this negotiation. This is how negotiations work – each side pushes and pulls to work out something in the middle of what one side wants and what the other side offers.

Of course the principals are just a few individuals and the real budget impact will only be seen when the Teacher’s Union adopts the Value Option Plan. I’m betting with this article that a health care concession won’t be reached any time soon with the 600 members of the teacher’s union. I am a little leery of his quote about doubling premiums last contract – one of the sticking points in one of the last union contracts negotiated while I still worked at Shaw’s Supermarkets was health care. The union balked at the unreasonable concept of union workers paying any amount for health care. The union actually went on strike that year because $2 per week per employee for health insurance premiums was unfair. So until I know what that doubling is in actual dollars I’m not going to give it too much weight.

While I don’t usually give much weight to the comments because they are generally the same dozen trolls all feeding each other I noted a few who echoed rumors I’ve heard around town that Mr Harvey doesn’t act on the will of the entire body of teachers but listens closely to a few more vocal groups. If this is true I think perhaps the teachers need to vote in a new spokesperson and negotiator.

What’s the plan for the permanent replacement?

Certainly, Haverhill is going to need to dangle a mighty large carrot to find someone to replace Dr Buchanan.  But did we have to set the bar quite so high by handing the interim, James Scully, $150k per year with 26 vacation days and 17 sick days?  Apparently there was more money available in next years budget than we thought!

I do hope we find a quality individual but I have to wonder what we will cut to accommodate the extra $50k per year (the difference between Scully’s salary and the $200k quoted in the article.)  Will we lose another teacher at HHS?  Kill one of the few remaining after school programs?  Raise sports fees?  Also, what a slap in the face to our outgoing superintendent that we were never able to cough up cash to pay him despite the many hats he wore but suddenly there’s an extra $60k (the difference between Dr Buchanan’s salary and the $200k quoted in the article) hanging around to up the ante for the incoming superintendent.

I’m not getting a good feeling about the upcoming search and appointment.  Ultimately much hinges upon this next year for our students.

As you head for your new post in Hamilton Wenham I just wanted to say good luck and thanks for your time here in Haverhill.

I would like it duly noted that as he leaves Dr Buchanan has been far more gracious about this process than our illustrious School Committee has been.  At almost every opportunity we have heard about how “Dr Buchanan is leaving Haverhill – Haverhill hasn’t left Dr Buchanan” and that he shouldn’t be making decisions because he “won’t be around to deal with the aftermath.”  I was especially disappointed in how Mr Bevilacqua tried to twist the Futures audit into something that happened solely at the whim of the superintendent – I listened to the debate on this matter and the committee was both informed and involved in the process.

Go forth, Dr B, and enjoy your time in Hamilton Wenham.  I’m amazed you stayed as long as you did and  I hope your new district appreciates your efforts.  I fear for the process of replacing you – any candidates following your departure will surely think twice if they know the School Committee will turn on them as soon as it is politically prudent to do so.

The next piece of the meeting I’d like to examine further is the privatization of the night custodians at HHS.  To cut through the deliberate obtuseness of Mr Bevilacqua in his attempts to derail the issue let me state the following:

• We have too few custodial staff at HHS.
• We have too little equipment at HHS.
• We have no money to bolster either staff or equipment at HHS.
• Due to different purchasing powers the private company can purchase equipment and supplies cheaper than Haverhill’s maintenance department.
• Due to different benefit and health care structures the private company can provide more employees to our district than we can for less money.
• None of the custodians currently employed will lose their jobs – I wish we could say as much about our teachers!

From my understanding of the issue we have a choice between limping along at HHS with the custodial staff the way it currently is or trying this company since we simply cannot afford to add machinery and staff and the upkeep of the machinery and the benefits packages for the staff.

Now, I hear Mr Simmons speak about how the HHS night custodians are the hardest working employees in Haverhill.  I have to wonder why so many of the people I run into around town think this is a joke.  I’ve been told time and again that the staff watches entire movies mid-shift or they leave early or just don’t care about their jobs.  Perception doesn’t always equal reality but I’m not willing to completely dismiss the idea that more is lacking at HHS than just floor scrubbers!

The last part I want to mention about the custodial issue is that some of the committee members stated they can finally support this because it doesn’t cut the jobs of any of our fine staff.  This notion is ridiculous to me.  If privatizing the staff allows us to run more efficiently then that is what we need to do as a district.  We lose staff every budget season and no one says they will not allow those layoffs to happen.  We’ve sent pink slips to 136 teachers and expect to permanently lose about 28 of them.  We’ve allowed positions to sit unfilled due to attrition throughout the whole school department – our custodial staff aren’t the only ones overworked and under provisioned.

Where do I begin?  The agenda looked pretty tame but the contentiousness of some of the sub committee reports and the everlasting ill will between Haverhill and Whittier Vocational Technical High School kept the meeting long and acrimonious.

Before I address the meeting I wonder if we could set a rule with members of the School Committee.  Can we please stop with the “I went to Tilton School” references?  I’m thrilled that the apex of your educational career was elementary school but we have business to conduct and this subject has been flogged to within inches of its life.  Please let it rest.

I’d also like to note that there have been a few meetings recently which had a lot of public comment solely to preserve the job of one person.  What we tend to forget is that there are often far more people being let go than the one person whom you are supporting.  These layoffs are certainly detrimental to the district and the students but remember that you are essentially saying “My teacher is more important – keep them and lay someone else off.”  I’m willing to bet that almost all of the teachers getting a pink slip have made a difference in many student’s lives and I wish they were all so earnestly represented.  What is broken is the system by which we educate our children.  The budgetary constraints force us to consider teachers as disposable commodities.

I remember most vividly being in fourth grade and being in class on the day the pink slips went out.  I didn’t truly comprehend the situation but we all knew that our favorite teacher was not going to be back at school the following year.  There were a lot of tears and angst from the students going into our summer vacations but the teachers were oddly used to receiving these notices and the uncertainty that comes with them.  This was almost 30 years ago and in that time we have come up with no better plan for our teachers than to pink slip more than you need just in case we can’t afford them in the fall.  Sigh.

When making public comment on behalf of your favorite people please refrain from naming names.  I understand you’re frustrated and that you want the people to understand and know this person but there are problems inherent in calling people on the carpet by name at a public forum.

I’m going to watch the meeting again over the weekend.  So much was wrong at last night’s meeting that I want to make sure I get it straight.  Until then have a wonderful weekend and a great start to summer vacation.