One of Springfield's most sought-after high schools is in danger of losing accreditation because its class sizes are too large, it lacks a sufficient number of guidance counselors and its technology is outdated. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Public Secondary Schools, the entity charged with reviewing public schools, has recommended putting Central High School on probation.
For a district with 26,000 students of which half are Latino, this latest news is another sign that its leadership merits an F.
Springfield Schools Superintendent Joseph P. Burke told the Republican last week that he wasn't aware that the problems plaguing Central High School had placed its accreditation in jeopardy. "We are going to take care of this," he pledged, according the paper. "I was shocked to not have a heads up on this."
Shocked? The alarm bell Burke may have been waiting for has been sounding loudly from the day of his first interview for the job six years ago. He was hired expressly to address the myriad problems that contribute to horrendous statistics: drop-out rates that hover at 50 percent in the Latino community alone, and at 30 percent in the black community in Springfield.
While the issues that led to the near-catastrophic collapse of the schools didn't occur overnight, what Burke has accomplished in six years is remarkably below what could have been achieved under the leadership of strong-willed visionaries in the school committee and in the top education post.
It's not fair, though, to blame Burke alone for the dismal school system he inherited. He was hired by a school committee that was elected by the city's increasingly uninformed and indifferent voters, many of whom are Puerto Rican. This summer he was granted a one-year contract extension worth $180,000 to continue to create opportunities for the district's 26,000 students.
Here's the math: students who get low grades have to repeat the grade; Burke's low grades net him the same job with a raise. In 2001, he made $162,000 a year.
When City Councilor Domenic Sarno, who is running for mayor this fall, last month pushed for a search for a new superintendent to begin, he was criticized by Burke backers. They claimed that looking for a new school chief would undermine Burke. Yet almost every year since he arrived, Burke has been looking for work back in his native Florida.
Springfield schools need a visionary, passionate, committed leader. Whether Burke's annual quest to head south undermines students, teachers and staff apparently isn't worthy of his apologists' consideration. People who support students, on the other hand, agree with Sarno.
Western Massachusetts needs Springfield to recover and become a strong city. The city needs to increase the literacy rate and lower the high school dropout rate, which, for Latinos, is at an astounding 50 percent. People must learn skills to attract businesses to the area, which will help fire up the economy. Latinos are the fastest-growing population, so good schools are critical for economic development to take off.
At Central High four years ago, the first-year class size was 900, but this year only 300 seniors graduated. Where did those 600 other students go? According to statistics, about half of them were Latino. Burke alone can't answer this question. Parents need to be held accountable as well. A school chief can claim not to know one of his own schools teeters on losing accreditation, but parents shouldn't believe for a moment that they can afford the luxury of claiming ignorance.
Natalia Muñoz is the editor of La Prensa of Western Massachusetts (www.LaPrensaMa.com).
