Worcester Public Schools

By Rosalie Tirella

A few weeks ago I was back at my old high school – Burncoat Senior High on Burncoat Street. I was there for a few hours sorta on business but the rush of memories (once on the grounds) overwhelmed me. I hadn’t stepped foot in my alma mater since graduating in 1979. The old Burnocat High (recenlty built when I attended classes there) made me feel great about the Worcester I grew up in. The Burncoat High of 2012 wasn’t so reassuring.

Where to begin? The Burncoat Senior High of the late 1970s – the one in which I was an all honors and AP student, along with ton of other Worcester kids – was a place to be proud of. It was (still is!) on the wealthier side of town. When I attended, I was a poor kid living in Green Island. I wasn’t zoned to attend Burncoat, but my mom got special permission from the city to have me attend there (I think I was supposed to go to Doherty) because my Aunt “Mary” (and her family) lived a few streets away from my new high school. My Aunt Mary, whose husband my Uncle Mark was an elementary school principal in a nearby town, was a stay at home mom who would always be there in case of emergency. During the day my mom was stuck across town on Millbury Street working at a local dry cleaners. She worked from sun up to sun down it seemed, and though she was always home for us kids and did the cooking and all the other great mom stuff, during school days she couldn’t really get away from her job (no beneefits, sick days, etc).

Aunt Mary’s two boys – my cousins – atttended Burncoat and loved it. They wanted me – a smart kid – to make BHS my high school too. I would even have some of the teachers my cousins had had. My Uncle Mark had complete faith in Burncoat – he planned on having his two boys become doctors. He felt they would get the education they needed to get into the great pre-med program at Holy Cross. Well, all went according to plan: my cousins graduated from Burnocoat, got into Holy Cross, then med school and today … . Well, today, they are very wealthy doctors! Second generation Polish Americans who achieved the American dream, thanks to the WPS and Burncoat High.

In the 1960s and 1970s Burncoat was home base for the Irish Catholic middle class of the city. The school embodied honor, hard work, friendship and caring. The teachers were good to great. I had lovely (for th emost part Irish-American) gal pals (though my best friend was of French descent)! To this day I think back and marvel: In all the three years that I hung out with my smart, over achieving girlfriends, they never ever mentioned the fact or alluded to the fact that I was from Green Island (poor) and they were from places like Mary Ann Drive or King Phillips Road (middle class). They never made me feel less of a person because I lived in a three decker flat and they lived in comfy homes. In fact, I think, they were extra nice to me. They called me smart. they wanted to see my achieve. I visited their homes – got to know their parents and their si blings. And guess what? I loved them so much (and my mom was such a great mom) that they would hang out at my house, chat with my mom on a Saturday, drive across town in their used cars to pick me up on old lafayette Street so we could go to “Spider gates” cemetary, the movies or even Nantasket Beach together. Their parents were doing something right.

In a way, we were raised the same way: by strict but loving Catholic parents. Parehnts who took no crap. Parents who did not indulge their kids and let them run the household – the way tons of parents do today. We knew: We were kids and that made us second class adults compared to our parents and teachers and other adults in the community. These adults had wisdom, experience – jobs. They were running things – we needed to get out of their way. Study hard, have fun with each other – be kids. NO BS allowed.

Burncoat High back then was a gorgeous school. It is/was what is known as a “campus” high school – a string of buildings – all one level. You would walk outside to get to another building. I loved going out and in all kinds of weather to get to class! The teachers? Well, they were serious and capable. We were in honors classes – Worcester’s future, Worcester’s college applicants. We used text books (boring), we took a ton of tests, we had a ton of homework. We had a few clubs, we had great field trips to Washington DC curtesy of the great Virginia Ryan, everyone’s favorite bio teacher (except me – I was a Mr. LaBelle fan)

I was part of that world wonderful world. I graduated feeling like the world was mine … .

A few days ago, i went back to BHS on business. What I saw depressed me: cracked driveway, busted up walk ways, unpainted speed bumps, ugly side netrances where the brown paint was peeling. The building looked faded. I felt like I was walking into a ghetto school!

What happened, i asked the secretary?

Age, she said.

I will get folks to do the painting of the speed bumps I said.

She said, no! We tried that several times and the union always put the kibosh on our volunteer efforts. And never ever did the work.

Everything looked so dingy (outdoors). In doors it was a bit better. The lockers were new and I was told new bathrooms for the students were installed.

Still, things had changed.

The secretary told me: 50 percent of BHS students are poor – eligible for the federal governtment’s free lunch program. Thirty percent of the BHS students were labeled “special needs.”

I said: This wasn’t the way it was when I was 16 and a student here.

She said: Most of the kids in the neighborhood go to charter, catholic or other private schools. BHS is now filled with poorer kids … .

I felt sad. I wanted the best for these new students. I hope we as a city can nurture the new future. I so want the Burncoat Senior High School of 2012 to be the high school I so loved years ago – and still do!

Good news!    Click below. – R. T.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/pink-slime-beef-plants_n_1380111.html

By Paula Harrity, coordinator of volunteers, Worcester Public Schools

Every day school is in session, more than 23,000 students converge on the Worcester Public Schools. More than two thirds of these children are poor, many do not speak English as a first language in their home, and increasingly, the Worcester Public Schools welcomes refugees who have come here from war torn nations, and they have witnessed first-hand the horrors of mass destruction and hunger.

The Coats for Kids program provides new winter outerwear to needy children who attend the Worcester Public Schools, Worcester Head Start, Community Partnerships and for Children, and several area homeless shelters. This service began 25 year ago and serviced 400 children. Last year (2010-2011) 2,200+ children were given new winter jackets, hats & mittens. This past year the program was expanded to secondary students. In addition, a quantity of winter jackets, hats & mittens were provided to the Parent Information Center to have on hand for needy families arriving from other countries. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Re: Worcester Public Schools Committe “Vice Chair” Tracy O’Connell Novick: we’ve heard this from John Monfredo, fellow Worcester School Committee member: This will be the last time Novick is VICE CHAIRMAN of the Worcester Public Schools Committee.

Monfredo is head of the Worcester Public Schools Committee rules subcommittee, and he is working to make it a committee rule that after each municipal election, second-place vote getters get the vice chair of the Worcester School Committee – not people who do backroom deals with folks like Novick did. Monfredo told me he was not planning to vote for Novick getting the vice chair slot, but Mayor Joe Petty (the Chairman of the Worcester School Committee – like all Worcester mayors Petty heads the school committee) went to him and told him to do so, to make the WPSC seem cohesive and positive.

Monfredo told Petty he was againt Novick as Vice Chair because she had alientated so many minority parents of Worcester Public School students with her Dr. Boone witch-hunt. Novick tried to destroy Dr. Boone, Worcester’s first black female school superintendent. The minority community had had it with Novick. Monfredo told Petty if Novick became Vice Chair of the school committee, it would send the wrong message to so many city parents and kids.

Petty didn’t listen – and Novick doesn’t care who she offends as long as she gets all the free publicity that comes with comes with the Vice Chair slot. She gets to “speak for” the Worcester School Committee via the papers, TV, etc.

So now the City of Worcester must live with this mistake – a slap in the face to minority WPSchools students and their families. Remember, Worcester is a majority minority school district, meaning there are more minority kids than white kids in our public schools.

But, thanks to John Monfredo, the WPSC rules will soon be changed – he is having a meeting of his subcommittee soon – to make this Novick’s first and last stint as Vice Chair. The process will be fair – the vice chair slot will be awarded to the second highest vote getter – just like the way it’s done with the Worcester City Council. Top vote getter mayor, second top vote getter City Council vice-chair.

By John Monfredo, Worcester Public School Committee member

“I just can’t concentrate, and I worry about what the next day will bring, for living with two other families is very difficult.” … “I’m scared and afraid to tell anyone about my situation.”

These are statements from children who are homeless in Worcester and they are among the 2,400 students who worry about what is going to happen to them. These students represent 10 percent of the Worcester Public School population. The public only sees the buses rolling and sees the 44 schools in our public school system operating, but few can understand the changes that have taken place in our schools. Like all urban cities in this nation, we in Worcester have homeless children in our schools and it impacts their education!

One counselor told me about a student who received A’s and then unexpectedly his marks dropped. She finally was able to find out that this high school student was now living in a homeless shelter.

People living in poverty are most at risk of becoming homeless. In our city 71.8% of our students live under the poverty line.

Children experiencing homelessness face many barriers to education. Looking at the data, one sees a high absence rate, lots of moving from place to place, and poor health and nutrition. Again, according to the data, homeless children are likely to be ill four times more often than other children, with four times as many respiratory infections, and they are four times more likely to have asthma attacks. Unfortunately, homeless children go hungry twice as often as other children. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

We know this: Wondershit (from Wonderland) has no idea how hard I work to put my paper out. He’d last 2 secs w/ ICTimes – not 10 and a half years (as I have) – earning and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to publish my paper. Don’t worry Wondershit, I have just told tough guy # 2 about you – he’s told me he could hire someone to kill you/slash you up! Hey! What fun! When you come from places like Green Island, Wonderhsit, you are only a person or two away from someone who can do extreme damage to your enemies. I told my pal: NO! NO! It’s illegal! Wondershit will have to be slayed by words! The laptop is mightier than the sword!

But back to Wondeshit! He (along with his loser wife and two or so loser progeny) has done nothing for Worcester except bitch (via his hateful website) about its people and landmarks! We know he hates:

* Barbara Haller, former Worcester District 4 city councilor. Saying she didn’t do any work, poking fun at her at all times. – plain wrong, Wondershit, plain wrong.

* Worcester City Councilor and former Worcester Mayor Joe O’Brien – Click to continue »

Secretary Galvin delivers teacher effectiveness initiative petition to lawmakers today

Boston – Stand for Children yesterday called on Massachusetts lawmakers to change state law to give teacher effectiveness a more prominent role in decisions regarding teacher assignments and layoffs as Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin is expected to transmit the state legislature An Act to Promote Excellence in Public Schools.

The proposed initiative is supported by 85% of Massachusetts voters, according to a recent UMASS Amherst poll.

“Every child in Massachusetts deserves a great education, regardless of their background or zip code,” said Jason Williams, executive director of Stand for Children in Massachusetts. “As a former classroom teacher in one of our nation’s toughest school districts, I’ve seen firsthand the impact the achievement gap is having on so many of our children.

“Having been born and raised in Fall River, I find it alarming that the achievement gap remains wide in Massachusetts. One of the best things we can do to make sure no child is short-changed is to ensure there is a teacher who gets results in every classroom. This initiative does precisely that by putting performance first when deciding which teachers to retain.

“Lawmakers now have an opportunity to do what an overwhelming majority of Massachusetts voters support – ensure our schools promote and recognize teachers based on performance, not just seniority. Massachusetts is a state that values education; we encourage our elected officials to answer the call of the voters and live up to that value for all of our students so no child spends another minute in a classroom where they are not learning.”

The proposed initiative is the centerpiece of Stand for Children’s Great Teachers Great Schools campaign, a statewide effort to ensure every child in Massachusetts has access to an effective teacher.

If enacted, the initiative would ensure public schools put performance first when deciding which teachers to retain during layoffs and create clear, consistent and fair guidelines for public schools across the Commonwealth for assigning and retaining teachers.

Galvin’s office recently verified that 81,117 valid signatures were collected from voters, qualifying the initiative to advance to the legislature for consideration.

Lawmakers have until May to act on the proposed initiative, which must first be heard in committee in March. If the legislature and governor fail to act, voters will have an opportunity to approve the initiative on the November 2012 ballot after supporters gather an additional set of signatures from voters.

By Rosalie Tirella

Seems like the city can’t catch a break. Just when you think WPSCommitteewoman Tracy O’Connell Novick is putting an end to her malicious scapegoating of WPSchools Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone, we see this: She and fellow Boone harasssers – Brian O’Connell and Dianna Biancheria – have put themselves on/made themselves the “Accountablity (Administration)” subcommittee of the Worcester School Committee. As chair of the WPS Committee, Mayor Joe Petty let them do this; he did not suggest another person be added to the subcommittee to counterbalance what will most surely be a group of hyper-vigilant nut jobs ready to see scandal whenever Dr. Boone does anything they disagree with.

Novick was the one who wanted to delay the school committee’s vote on renewing Dr. Boone’s contract until after election, hoping that an anti-Boone person would win and somehow help Novick and crew oust Dr. Boone.

Well, Novick never got her way and she got re-elected, but at a low #5. Voters thought she was vindictive and racist – her numbers went down.

SO: Just when she hits a nadir, Novick has the nerve to lobby for and will most likely get the VICE CHAIRMANSHIP of the Worcester school committee. Novick is seeing her numbers slipping – especially amongst minorities. One person of color I know said she would love to slap Novick around – another person says he hates her snotty attitude. So with her support in the African American/minority community hitting a new low, it is incredibly ballsy/creepy but politically astute of her to get herself the Vice Chair slot.

This Vice Chairmanship is extra FREE exposure/p.r. – especially when chairman Petty (Worcester mayor is always the Chairperson of the Worc. School committee) is away, which he may well be seeing he has a full time job in Boston. Can you imagine! All that free press for Novick! All her quotes in the T & G! Everyone in town can see her “lead” something – even if it is another witchhunt. Novick, the smarty pants, can burnish her image, which is in the crapper at this point, as Vice Chair of the WSC. And it won’t cost her a dime.

This is a cynical move by Novick who doesn’t want to lose her WPSC seat and might just run for City Council in a few years. Usually, the second highest vote getter gets the Vice Chair slot – not someone who goes behind folks’ backs to maneuver and BS and get the slot.

Mayor Petty has done nothing to stop this little creep, who beneath the veneer of super-giving West Side stay-at-home mom, is really just a competitive, nasty, conniving little worm, who will once again make Dr. Boone’s life miserable.

God help Dr. Boone. God help the minority kids of the Worcester Public Schools.

Again.

By Rosalie Tirella

It’s interesting: Years and years ago when Mary Mullaney was first elected to the Worcester School Committee there was talk that she was a Religious Right “stealth candidate.” Back then that was the term for Catholic/Culturally Conservative political candiates who, through the local Catholic churches and the Ralph Reed brigade, got their names in voter guides that were distrubuted to local Catholic churches. You got an “endorsement” if you were Pro Life, which Mullaney was/is.

It was a national movement. Mullany was the local example of the movement.

When Mullaney won election to the Worcester Public School Committee – a non-Worcesterite with no Worcester ties whatsoever (utterly important in a place like Wormtown), local political observers were nonplussed. They said to themselves: How did this woman – a gal with the personality of a speed bump – win a seat on the Worcester School Committee? What were her issues? Where was her appeal? Hell, where were her campaign signs? No one knew.

Sure, Mullaney’s Irish surname helped, and it was also the same surname as one of Worcester’s most beloved Irish mayors – Mayor Mulaney, dad to Elizabeth Mullaney (maybe some older folks thought they were voting for Liz when they were casting their ballots for Mary?). But Mary Mullaney’s win seemed too BIG. She came out of nowhere.

In the end, political observers credited the Pro Life/Catholic churches in Worcester County (as well as the Irish stuff).

Now Donna Colorio is on the Worcester Public School Committee – winning her seat by ousting Mullaney. She beat out Mullaney by a few votes. But she won a lot of votes and it was only her first time running for office. She had no Irish surname, no connections … but …

Could this be the equation? Donna Colorio = Religious Right Wing Nut Stealth Candidate #2? The new Mary Mullaney?

Maybe.

After all, Colorio was backed by the Tea Party of Worcester – a brigade loaded with cultural conservatives – people who were passionate about Colorio and VOTED FOR HER. Why? Maybe because she was as dangerously culturally conservative as a lot of the Tea Baggers are. After Colorio’s win, I bumped into a Christian conservative Pro Life pal of mine. He thanked me for not going after Colorio – she was his candidate, he told me! He said the local Tea Partiers loved Colorio! She was their candidate, too.

During the campaign, Colorio seemed racist when she said she would NOT renew WPSchools Superintendent Melinda Boone’s contract – even though she never worked with Boone – an African American from Norfolk, VA, and knew little about her. Most likely that got Colorio a ton of votes from the many racist/old boys network Worcster voters who can’t handle the idea of Dr. Boone – a black, woman from outside Worcester – leading the Worcester Public Schools. AND I am sure the Tea Party brigade liked the move. (After she was elected, Colorio did meet with Dr. Boone – hopefully to apologize to her/kiss up.)

Now recently (a few weeks ago) Colorio was outed at a local seafood restaurant for being at a fund-raiser held by the Woburn-based Coalition for Marriage and Family. These folks are against gay marriage/civil unions – believing marriage can only be between a guy and a gal. They have made it there mission to get a state-wide vote on the definition of marriage. It was intimated that Colorio was a member of the group – had a long history with it – “a long-time pro-marriage activist,” according to a CMF congratulatory Tweet after Colorio won a seat on the WPschool committee. So Colorio is also a homophobe. This would draw voters from the same Religious Right Cultural Conservative pool from which Mary Mullaney drew years ago.

Yup. A racist, homophobic woman now sits on a school committee that oversees policy for a majority-minority public school system, where there are gay/transgender kids just beginning to come out to parents/friends/society. Scary stuff.

By Parlee Jones

I am not a political person by nature, but that has been changing over the last couple of years. I have come to see that attention to Worcester’s elected officials is needed if I hope to offer the best opportunities for my children. Most would consider me to be a very active parent. You can find me at parent’s night and PTO’s.

I can sit with my children every day after school and help them with their homework, meet with the teachers to discuss teaching strategy and plans for next year, but I continue to find road blocks along the way.

I joined a community organizing group called Black Legacy almost two years ago. The group was just starting. We came together to talk about the health of the community, and the disparities that exist. We wondered why members of Worcester’s Black community were becoming sicker, more often, and more severely than our White counter parts in so many areas including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, various cancers, and infant mortality. What was going on? What we realized is that all of these health issues are related to socio-economic income, which is largely dependent on the quality of education someone has. When we looked at the data, we found that there was a major income gap in the city of Worcester by race and ethnicity, and indeed this gap is found in our public education. So, as folks committed to making as big an impact as possible, we decided to focus on closing the academic achievement gap knowing this will help close the gaps in income and finally overall health. Click to continue »