The Springfield Finance Control Board‘s meeting this morning once again includes a scintillating 30-minute public speakout period. Watch this space for live updates of the proceedings.
In the meantime, stay abreast of the continuing lack of new appointments to the board, as reported in today’s Republican. Governor Deval Patrick’s press contact, Cynthia Roy, told reporter Peter Goonan, "The current members will remain in place until mid- to late-June to finish any fiscal 2007 matters, to approve the budget for fiscal 2008, and to allow the new members to have an orderly transition."
The first person to speak is Lois Smith.
Lois Smith: The subject: contracts. Springfield’s Superintendent of Schools [Joseph Burke]. There are those who have reason for rushing the process and changing the rules. Obviously, the control board has to approve all monetary and contractual issues. The soon-to-be-appointed board, the new board, will have to work with this individual and should make the choice. An interim superintendent is the answer. No rush to judgement is to have no judgement. Several notable industry leaders have expressed an interest in serving on an impartial and non-conflicted citizen selection committee with a public format. An impartial committee would review the candidate’s background, ask key questions, and the committee would do an in-depth study to check the veracity of the candidate’s statements. Foremost in any relationship is trust, truth, and character.
The decision determines the most important appointment this city will make. There’s an unrest in this city. A major television network survey noted 80 percent of the respondents wanting Dr. Burke to leave, and a sparse 13 percent wanting him to stay. These are your stakeholders. The impartial SQI/Jarvis Jordan [sic] study, for which we paid $25,000, gives a scathing review of this administration. Will you ignore or disregard it?
The School Committee voted eight out of ten points for Dr. Burke, with Ms. [Antonette] Pepe abstaining. Independent study with 185 in-depth interviews gave him a sparse two out of ten points. Does that wave a red flag?
I want to thank the City Council at the past Council meeting for informing me that I could not present a file submitted by Dr. Burke in Florida. They were correct. An independent selection committee could ask, and verify for accuracy, answers given to some key questions. Too often, school districts take the word of candidates who aren’t truthful on their application questionnaires. This could be an example question that that committee could ask: Have you ever been convicted, or admitted committing, pleaded no contest, or are you awaiting trial, for any crime, excluding minor traffic violations, that do not involve allegations of alcohol, drugs, or reckless driving? Have any civil charges, previously or pending, involving allegations of child abuse or spousal abuse? You must answer yes if true, even if the matter was later dismissed, deferred, reversed or vacated. If you answer yes, you must provide dates of the proceedings, the name and address of the court where the proceedings occurred, and the statements of the accusation against you, and the final disposition of the case.
We all know that our dropout rate is horrendous; our proficiency rate two out of ten by tenth grade, not including the 50 percent who dropped out; this administration has an abysmal record. We all know that there is no plan for the things that enrich children’s lives, and make them want to go to school. We all know that other school districts as diverse as ours, and as limited in household finances, are turning out college-bound students in droves. I have proven it [to] this district. In the last decade, every ch—[Clerk Wayman Lee calls the time limit]—thank you.
I want to conclude with one statement. In the last decade, every child murder in every school across this nation, autopsy indicates positive for the very drugs we give children in school. The FDA makes them label them that these drugs can produce suicide, violence and psychoses. If only one percent of these kids getting these drugs react with suicidal, violent and psychotic tendencies, we will continue to have a plethora of child murders in our schools and on our streets. Yesterday, another 14-year-old girl was murdered. How in any conscience can a man who has ignored the well-being of our children be considered as an icon leader for our 26,000 school children?
Please, today, vote with a conscience. This administration clearly has to go. Thank you so much.
Wayman Lee: [Inaudible] Antonette Pepe.
School Committee member Antonette Pepe: Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. I, along with two other members of the School Committee, voted no to extending the superintendent’s contract. Before you make any more decisions or discussions, and if you decide to meet with our Vice-Chair, I am the Chairperson of Legislative and Contract Committee, and I have not been included at all in any discussions prior to meeting with the committee the other night. First and foremost, you have a contract here that I find is ridiculous. Secondly, if there was any rank and file member of the Springfield School Department, or anywhere else, who could use their contract to get 21 vacation days, then go to another contract, and use their fringe benefits to allow himself another ten vacation days—fringe benefits, when I’ve negotiated contracts, are not part of vacation time. Fringe benefits means something altogether different.
I really encourage, and am asking you all, to take a look at this. There was a comment that I had Attorney Pat Markey look at this, and a good contract—and this is the response from Pat Markey—is one whose terms are clear on its face. The vacation terms in these contracts are not at all clear. You have your assistant superintendents, and the superintendent—and I feel that it’s almost bordering on thievery; that’s the way I look at this, because they’re getting an extra $18,000 a year. So, not only to mention that we have the largest dropout rate—and if you think that we are any better off than we were six years ago, then you better give him a contract. If not, then you shouldn’t be giving him a contract. Because we are no better off, six years ago, education-wise, than we were. So I do hope that you do include the chairperson, and that we get this overwith. Thank you very much for your time. [Scattered applause]
Lee: The next speaker is Timothy J. Rooke, City Councilor.
City Councilor Timothy Rooke: Good morning gentlemen; madame [City Council] president. I’ll be brief. I came here today just to thank each one of you for serving the city of Springfield. Although I’m alone today, I can assure you my voice is shared with the business community and the citizens of Springfield that truly care about turning the city around. I wanted to thank each and every one of you, and Councilor Kateri Walsh, and every other member who served previously, to get exposed to the type of government that the city really needs. I think what each of you have demonstrated is that if people truly care enough about the city, they’ll make the right decisions, and we can turn it around. I know Tom Trimarco is not here, but he was another great member, and he’s done some terrific things for the city, as each and every one of you have done, and many people don’t realize. So I just want to say thank you very much, appreciate having served with you, and receiving an education, and wish you all the best and it was great working with you. Thanks, guys.
Lee: The next speaker is Sheila McElwaine.
Library Commissioner Sheila McElwaine: I’d like to second Tim’s remarks and thank all of you for the focus and the rationality and the responsibility you’ve brought to government in Springfield. It was really a wonderful, wonderful change for us, and you’ve set a high standard for our elected officials and all those who come after you.
I’m here today also to make a plea for high standards of service for exterior maintenance of the grounds of our public buildings. That includes fire stations, schools, libraries, and properties owned by the SHA [Springfield Housing Authority]. The churches know how to do it; the funeral homes know how to do it. Surely, the city can keep the same standard: keep the trash out of the gutters, keep the lawns trimmed without reminders, and keep the crabgrass from growing in the gutters, and the trash from accumulating in the landscaping. Think you can do that, even on a restricted budget? Thank you.
Lee: Our next speaker is Mr. Leon Moultrie.
Leon Moultrie: Good morning, my name’s Leon Moultrie; I live in the city of Springfield. My concern is plain and simple: I’m a parent. I don’t know what came over Attorney Shea in trying to offer Superintendent Burke a contract. Superintendent Burke has failed as poorly as did Dr. Negroni, who stayed here for eleven years. We couldn’t afford him for eleven years, and we can’t afford Dr. Burke one more year. If you look at the way he played musical chairs with principals, I’ve yet to see someone—if I was running a professional football team, I wouldn’t move a coach who couldn’t coach my worst team, and then put him to run my organization. That’s what he’s done. I would not work with your director on negotiating a contract with teachers, which reduce parental power in terms of what they could do in terms of Chapter 70 on 59C, which talks about school council, which we have SCDM teams.
We are going backwards in this city in terms of education. My children—I have four of them—we go through the Springfield school system. I remain in the Springfield system not because I have to. It’s because I want to. My children, I can tell you right now, with the help of God and a hard-working mother, and constantly being involved a lot more than I think I should be, because I’m rehearsing this same tune over and over again, and getting very little results. And that’s the kind of feedback you get from parents. Parents are very frustrated with this system. Believe me when I tell you that people want better, but we have poor direction, poor leadership, and poor follow-through. And if you look at the performance of our test scores, of our dropout rates, of any number of issues, there’s no way in God’s name would you give somebody another contract under those conditions. We should have fired him already.
So, I’m very adamant about that. We should have figured out a way to get rid of those people who thought they should support him. I’m not necessarily in support of the control board, but I’m hoping that you will use a higher educational standard for determining qualification than the standard that the School Committee used the other night. Thank you very much. [Scattered applause]
Lee: Our next speaker is Allen Agnitti.
Allen Agnitti: Good morning, my name’s Allen Agnitti. I live at 161 Longhill Street here in Springfield. I have two children in the public school system. They started several years ago. As a result of that, I was on the SCDM team at Sumner Ave. Elementary School. I’m here to report to this board that Superintendent Burke, as far as my opinion, has not been doing his job. I will just give you a few examples of the work we were trying to do at Sumner Ave. Elementary School, and for which we received no support from the school superintendent’s office.
We did have a couple of assistant superintendents visit the school, and basically, their role was creating obstacles for the work that we were trying to get done. There was never any assistance. What were we trying to get to? We were trying to get a healthy building. We had the Mass Board of Health do a study on our building. It’s one of these newer buildings. There’s a lot of ventilation problems there, mold build-up, a lot of severe problems. We notified the superintendent’s office; we worked with then-mayors, or tried to work with Mayor [Michael] Albano’s office at the time, and it wasn’t until Patrick Sullivan came in that we finally had these problems addressed—several years after we started the efforts.
We’ve had a problem with the safety evacuation plan from Sumner Avenue School, in terms of an intersection with Sumner and Longhill Street. We contacted the superintendent’s office; we never received any support from him.
Let me just clarify that I’m no longer on the SCDM team at Sumner Ave. My older son started there when he was in kindergarten; he’s now in sixth grade. In that period of time, I worked for four years on the SCDM team at Sumner Ave., so I’m very familiar with this.
We also had a problem in terms of—there’s a lack of land at Sumner Avenue School. There’s an unused parking lot at Friendly’s, the establishment right next to the school. We have approached the superintendent’s office; we’ve also approached the various mayor’s offices, and finally, again, with Mayor Ryan in the last year, we have some possibility of movement there. But again, we’ve done all this without any help from the superintendent’s office.
As a parent, I would just like to say I do not think this man should be in any way kept on here, because there is no accountability in this system, having dealt with members in central office, these people are not doing their job. They’re not doing their job, because he’s not doing his job. His job is to make sure these people are supposed to do what they’re supposed to do. They should be accountable. They haven’t been. The system has been allowed to go on with no supervision from the top. It really is shameful that our children are being treated to a second-class system, when there are ideas out there—which Superintendent Burke has played some role bringing in, with the Expeditionary Learning School—but there are models of schools that work in this country. How come we haven’t had more of them introduced to our system, other than through this Expeditionary Learning system?
There’s so much to be done, and he hasn’t been doing the job. The School Committee, even, voting two to three [sic] to renew his contract, is an insult to the people of this city. They should be held accountable by the voters; unfortunately, they’re not. I would ask that you seriously consider, with whatever power you have, to make sure that we get a new superintendent, somebody that does a good job. [Applause]
Lee: That’s going to conclude the public comment portion of the meeting. We will reconvene at 11:00 for the business meeting.
