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Due to a scheduling conflict The Annual Mary Bacigalupo Educational Forum has now been scheduled for  Saturday November 15, 2008. The keynote speaker is Dr. Henry Levin of Columbia University. The Forum theme is based on Dr. Levin’s book - The Price We Pay: The Economic  and Social Cost of Inadequate Education.  The Forum will take place at the Kathryn P. Stoklosa Middle School on Broadway in Lowell from 8:30am -12:00pm. More information will be posted as confirmed.

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Today’s Lowell Sun political column (a kinder, gentler version than appeared last week) portrays Mayor Bud Caulfield as the driving force behind a move to replace Lowell’s elected school committee with an appointed board.  From today’s Column:

SO WHAT do two mayors chat about while watching a ball game?  “I asked [Mayor Menino] how he was able to get an appointed School Committee in Boston,” Caulfield admitted. . . . Menino told Caulfield that it was Boston’s business community that took the initiative to make the change from the 13-member elected committee to a 7-member body appointed by the mayor, a change heavily supported by Menino’s predecessor, Mayor Ray Flynn.  In 1989, Boston residents supported the change in a nonbinding referendum. In 1991, the state Legislature approved the city’s home-rule petition, backed by the business community, to make the change. It went into effect in January 1992. In 1996, Bostonians overwhelmingly supported the continuation of an appointed School Committee in another ballot question.  It’s too late to put a referendum on the Lowell ballot for November’s election, but some are already gearing up for the municipal election in 2009.

As Jackie Doherty recalls, when she first ran for school committee back in 2003, there was talk of changing to an appointed committee and as The Column points out, the late Grady Mulligan had advanced a proposal to alter the makeup of the Lowell School Committee.  That happened back in August of 1999.  Mulligan’s proposal called for expanding the school board from seven to nine members, with four (as opposed to the current six) being elected at large and four being appointed by a “Board of Overseers” with the mayor serving as the ninth member. The appointing authority (the Board of Overseers) would consist of nine individuals appointed by the School Committee, the City Council, the city manager, the school superintendent, the teachers union, the Citywide Parent Council (2 appointees) and the Lowell Plan (2 appointees).  

According to an August 22, 1999 Lowell Sun article, most of the city council then in office supported the proposal.  Mayor Eileen Donoghue said “Given the distinct lack of interest in the School Committee this election season (there were only nine candidates in that fall’s school committee election) and the importance of having educational experts on the committee given the nature of public education today, I think Councilor Mulligan’s plan has merit.”  Councilors Peter Richard, Larry Martin, Rodney Elliott and Bud Caulfield all said they favored some form of appointed School Committee.  Councilor Richard Howe Sr. said “I have serious reservations about creating a board that is not based on the public electoral process.”  Armand Mercier said he hadn’t decided whether to support the motion and Councilor Rita Mercier “couldn’t be reached for comment.”  

For those of you keeping score, four members of the 1999 council are still in office.  According to the Sun article, Bud Caulfield and Rodney Elliott supported a change in the makeup of the school committee while the positions of Armand Mercier and Rita Mercier couldn’t be determined.  No one on the present council has spoken publicly on this issue but my guess is that it won’t get beyond the talking stages.  While it would seem to be a safe move for a councilor to vote to put such a proposal on the ballot in the form of a referendum to “let the people decide,” that’s all Grady Mulligan wanted to do and he was thrown out of office in the next election.  Other things may have contributed to his defeat, but he only lost by 88 votes.  

For a councilor to support such a proposal today would be unwise politically.  In the 2007 council race, only 456 votes separated fourth place from ninth place and I would guess that between school committee supporters, school department employees and others who perhaps resented the attempt to curtail the individual voter’s voice in government, there’d be at least that many people with a reason to vote against councilors who supported the proposal.  And besides, if a Boston-style plan did pass, what would become of the incumbent school committee members?  They’d undoubtedly run for city council and, since they all would have good name recognition, pre-existing political networks, the confidence of having won city-wide already and a solid base of motivated supporters (i.e., those angry about the council’s support of the proposal), they’d be formidable candidates.  

But as interesting as it might be to speculate about the political fallout of an appointed school committee proposal, the reason it won’t go anywhere is that it wouldn’t make any difference.  Last I checked, no one was holding up the Boston public schools as an icon of excellence in public education.  The reality is that school committees, whether elected or appointed, have little influence on what goes on in a community’s schools.  The only hope for real reform lies with the state legislature.  Back in 1993, that body enacted historic legislation (Ed Reform) that tremendously improved public education in Massachusetts.  Perhaps it’s time for Ed Reform II.

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Not content to have driven her out of Lowell, the local newspaper continues its irrational pursuit of Karla Baehr with a classic “are you still beating your wife?” series of stories.  Earlier this month, the state Republican Party issued a generic press release of the type that clog up in-boxes every day, claiming that the hiring of Dr. Baehr to her new post at the Department of Ed was purely political.  Rather than hit the delete key like every other journalist in the state did, the Baehr-obsessed decision makers at the Sun churned the GOP propaganda into a story that received prominent play in the July 11 edition of the paper, a story that had no source other than the executive director of the state’s Rupublican Party.  They couldn’t find a single legitimate critic of the state’s educational system (and there are plenty of those) to corroborate these charges.  But rather than let the issue die with that one ill-advised, bankrupt-of-any-evidence story, the paper today ran a front-page story reporting that the Commissioner of Education denied that Baehr’s hiring was in any way political.  How is this news?  Who, besides the executive director of the state’s Republican Party, even considered that this was a political hire?  What will next week bring?  “Ed Chief claims Baehr not responsible for global warming” or maybe this “Ed Chief contends Baehr had little to do with the foreclosure crisis.”  

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The Annual Mary Bacigalupo Educational Forum has now been scheduled for  Saturday November 8, 2008. The keynote speaker is Dr. Henry Levin of Columbia University. The Forum theme is based on Dr. Levin’s book - The Price We Pay: The Economic  and Social Cost of Inadequate Education.  Specific details about place and time are yet to be determined. Stay tuned.

The Mary Bacigalupo Education Endowment which supports and sponsors this event was formed by Mary’s family, friends and colleagues in order to carry on her work as a “catalyst for community involvement in support of educational excellence in Lowell.” Mary was a mentor, communicator, coalition-maker, role model, advocate for children, partnerships guru and outstanding citizen of Lowell who died before her time in 2001. Her memory is well-served by these annual forums and the action agenda, community participation and results that follow. Forum partners include: the University of Massachusetts Lowell/Graduate School of Education, the Lowell School Department, Middlesex Community College, the Citywide Parent Council and many representatives from business and the community.

Please consider joining us at the 2008 forum. Save the date!

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The Massachusetts Department of Education announced in a press release this afternoon that Karla Baehr, the former Superintendent of the Lowell public schools, has been hired as a Deputy Commissioner to oversee the department’s “partnerships with and support of schools and districts across the Commonwealth.” 

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Governor Patrick unveiled his Readiness Project plan for school reform last week.  The proposal was filled with a number of far-reaching proposals that would shake up the status quo in public education in the Commonwealth including

• A statewide teachers contract
• Consolidation of school districts with less than 4000 students
• Full-day kindergarten and universal pre-K
• Stronger academic requirements for all students
• More effective drop-out prevention programs
• Differentiated pay for teachers in different subject areas and in urban schools
• Dual enrollment in high school and community college
• Free tuition at community college

Any one of those items is worthy of a lengthy debate.  Taken together, they represent a proposal to radically overhaul the state’s system of public education.  In the coming weeks, we’ll return to this topic several times.  For instance, why stop at consolidating only districts of less than 4000 students – why not consolidate them all and give the state full authority over public education?  Maybe it’s time to return to neighborhood schools and eliminate much of the current busing of students.  There’s much to debate.

Unfortunately, our own local newspaper has pretty much ignored all of these portions of the governor’s proposal, choosing to focus almost exclusively on a single item – the Governor’s attempt to revive in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants.  “Ed Reform Plan: Patrick backs tuition break for children of illegals” may have sold more copies of the paper, but it didn’t add anything to the debate on ed reform.

UPDATE: Education Secretary Paul Reville visited the Sun yesterday to present the Readiness Project to the paper’s editorial board.  That has resulted in a front-page story and an editorial in today’s paper that present a more balanced and comprehensive account of the school reform proposal than appeared last week.  We’ll add links later today after the stories become available online.

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Over on the Lowell SUN Forum there has been a thread running since June 9^th entitled “Do you Remember?” To date there have been 1099 comments – nostalgic memories of places, businesses, some people and aahh those youthful experiences. Granted some are off-the-wall, nutty and even weird. But it did get me thinking about how much people like to reminisce even when their recall might be somewhat imperfect. So I decided to use a “reliable source” – the Lowell Sunday SUN of October 1, 1972 – to remember “what was what” 36 years ago. Why 1972? Well, it was a hot political year at the national and local level – a time of turmoil, an unpopular war, calls for change, stock market unrest, unemployment woes, a presidential election and yet somethings were “business as usual.” Sound familiar?

• The SUN editorial “Why McGovern trails…” listed many reasons all laid to George McGovern’s “continual nonsense statements.” Statements on bugging, bombing, barbarism aimed at President Nixon and accusations that the Senate “chamber reeks of blood” or any “young person or worker that votes for Nixon is too confused to know which end is up” are some examples.

• The Congress was discussing reducing the SS retirement age to 60; welfare reform; guaranteeing a minimum annual income for a poor family.

• Lowell City Manager Jim Sullivan and the City Council differed strongly on longevity pay for police and firefighters.

• SUN schools reporter Carolyn Miegel reported her personal experience eating the cold but nutritionally acceptable lunch at AVCO – bologna & cheese sandwich with butter, a fresh peach, orange juice and milk. Lowell High School freshmen were housed at AVCO under the watchful administrative eye of Jimmy Finn. By the way most students were bussed there for free.

• School Superintendent Hugh McDougall convened a meeting to explain the mandated bi-lingual programs.

• Dr. Everett Olsen became the President of Lowell Tech (LTI).

• The Lowell Central Labor Council met to endorse John Kerry for Congress in the 5^th District while Roger Durkin supporters placed a nearly full page ad touting him as the Lowell candidate for the 5^th Congressional District. George Jessel was booked for a Durkin fundraiser at the Speare House.

• The SUNday Magazine’s feature story was “Recycling Lowell incinerator trash can produce valuable material.”

• Human Services Corporation (HSC) arranged a Lowell-canals boat trip led by planner Gordon Marker that included a Congressional aide and Lowell SUN reporter Toni Parsons. “Can you envision the frame of the mills used for apartments, can you visualize boutiques, condominiums overlooking the canals and the Merrimack? Can you? Can you? Can you, Lowellian?” Marker barked during the tour.

• A Belvidere Open House at a Trull Lane West home advertised a three-bedroom ranch at $36,900.

• The Patriots versus the Redskins was a sell-out game at Foxboro.

• Jobs were listed in the classified ads at Symphonics, Mammoth Mart, Sanders Associates, the Banqueteer and Lawrence Manufacturing.

• There were ads throughout the paper for JM Fields, Grants, Bigelow Home Furnishings, Bon Marche, Cherry & Webb, Sears, Purity Supreme, Capital Warehouse, Larkin’s Dinette, Giant Bargain Outlet, Jim Pierce Ford, Lallas Buick, Hallissy Chevolet, The Haven and the Princeton Lounge.

• Woulk’s Winds of War was on the best seller list.

• Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were celebrating their 25^th Anniversary.

• Fall foliage was near peak.

• The Lowell high School Class of 1947 gathered for their 25^th Reunion.

   

What do you remember? I remember a bruising Democratic Primary in the 5^th District. I remember trouble in Northern Ireland… voting for George McGovern… that Independent voters were important in the 5^th District election… that even in 1972 women who were mentioned in SUN stories - especially in the Lifestyle section - were usually identified by their husbands names… that Frank Phillips wrote for the SUN… that Paul Cronin was the Republican in the 5^th district race… Hale Howard… the Middlesex Training School issue… and so much more.

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As my co-author Marie referred to in an earlier post, tomorrow night Tewksbury residents go to town meeting hoping to agree on a budget. The situation truly is at a crisis point. It is expected that Tewksbury School Committee member Keith Rauseo will bring forward his own budget. Yesterday on Tewksbury Issues, Rauseo posted a summary of the “reductions and additions” he plans to present to town meeting. Keep in mind these are modifications to the town manager/finance committee’s agreed budget. Below I have listed Rauseo’s “gives and takes”. This information comes directly from Tewksbury Issues.

Reductions:
Town Manager-eliminate Executive Assistant position-$63,906
Administrative Services- eliminate Administrative Assistant position-$50,651
Town Clerk- eliminate permanent part-time clerical position-$28,155
Accounting- eliminate Senior Account Clerk position-$33,842
Assessor- eliminate Office manager position-$53,614
Treasurer/Collector-eliminate Senior Account Clerk position- $32,279
Recreation-eliminate all salary and operating expenses- $226,245 (see below)
Council on Aging-eliminate Director position-$77,260
Town Hall- move town operations elsewhere-$27,403 (see below)
Planning- eliminate Executive Secretary position-$54,657
Building- eliminate Administrative Assistant/Permit Technician position-$45,440
Board of Health- eliminate Operations Assistant position-$58,185
Solid Waste- level fund Legal Expenses and eliminate payment to Rubbish Stabilization Fund-$80,000 (see below)
Total-$831,637

Additions:
Police-restore 911 dispatcher on Midnight to 8AM shift; increase overtime to allow department to cover shifts from officers on payroll but attending academy-$72,195
Fire- restore overtime needed to keep South Street Fire Station open all year-$202,558
School- restore funding for at least seven teaching positions-$293,761
DPW- provide funding formerly under Recreation to maintain town grounds and park buildings on Livingston Street, and restore funding for catch basin cleaning needed to comply with EPA requirements-$53,000
Unemployment- necessary due to eliminated positions-$109,249
Group Insurance-necessary because some health care cost for Recreation Department employees was being moved to a revolving account-eliminating employees eliminates that savings-$19,874
Total-$831,637

You can find links to Rauseo’s complete summary here including his (see below) explanations. It sounds like the fireworks are going to be early in Tewksbury this year.

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