Tag Archives: Worcester School Committee member

Wonderland Wonder-shit, Tracy Novick and more …

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 – calling him a “socialist,” calling him a do nothing, just like every other right wing nut in town. Wrong again, Wondershit.

* Paulie C., the guy behind Worcester’s only Jazz festival – really the only guy who has made something cool happen on Chandler Street. Seems like Wondershit was especially vitriolic – especially brutal with Paulie after Paulie’s SUCESSFUL event. Two days after NOLA, Wondershit had to go on his shit-kicker website and claim that there were no attendees at the jazz fest! He wrote that everything NOLA sucked and Paulie should pack it up! Even though it was hosted by Carter Allen of Boston’s WZLX fame (cool!) etc. and people attended. Wondershit just knocked Paulie to death. Later he made it a point to intimate that the guy is an alcoholic and of course Wondershit is pushing a non-local (Paulie is from Somerville) out the door the way all stupid Worcesterites do so often – to the city’s detriment. Provincial is just another name for Wonderhit.

Wondershit hates everyone and everything in this city! He can’t get on board for anything. More stuff/folks he hates and libels in his blog:

* Bill R. – calling Bill a slumlord and distibutor of booze to minors, via his inner-city liquor store. I may disagree with Bill over CDCs, but he runs an OK store – most likely a piece of sanity in an otherwise INSANE innercity neighborhood. I am there … I drive by .. I know the folks who work there. All pretty nice folks – a nice clean space.

* Tony Economou – Worc. Biz group. Why does Wondershit say horrible things about this group/attempt to do fancy investigative pieces when he is just publishing pulbic info on uppermiddle class Worc. folks? Because Wondershit, like most middle-class Worc. homeowners, will most likely see his property taxes go up, via the new Worc. city council. Tony and his group had a little to do with this. Get over it Wondershit-head – you will have to shell out some bucks. You can afford it – like most Worc. cheapskate whiners.

* Wondershit also hates: All things Worcester Mag, all things ICTimes, all the local radio stations. And the TV stations, too! He hates everybody!!

NO WONDER HE STAYS BEHIND HIS FILTHY LAPTOP AND HIDES HIS IDENTITY. HE FEARS FOR HIS LIFE – AND HIS WIFE’S AND KIDS’.

BUT WE’LL TRACK HIM DOWN – THIS MONTH, NEXT YEAR, I CAN WAIT.

One thing: Wondershit doesn’t diss the T & G (or the city of Worc. bureacrats for that matter), so maybe he works for either entity. Forget about the fact that Wondershit breaks copyright law every day – not providing links to the papers etc he takes his graphs from. He just copies and pastes their stuff right onto his website – the T & G seems to be OK with this. Which makes me think he works for them.

* Does Wondershit attend blogger coffee events? Sit in the back and make notes about all the people he hates, the city he loathes? We do know Tracy O’Connel Novick, Worcester Public School Committee person, knows this blogger. He said Novick once encouraged him (over blogger coffee?) to run for public office! Puh-lease, Tracy Novick! That’s the last thing we need – Wonder-shit shitting on everything in town.

* OH and as far as Tracy Novick goes, we have heard this from John Monfredo, fellow Worcester School Committee member: This will be the last time Novick is VICE CHAIRMAN of the WPSchool Committee. Monfredo is head of the WPSC rules subcommittee and he is working to make it a rule that second place vote getters get the vice chair of the Worc. School Committee – not people who do backroom deals like Novick did. Monfredo told me he was not going to vote for Novick getitng the vice chair slot, but Mayor Joe Petty (the Chairman – like all Worc. mayors – of 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 WPS students with her Dr. Boone witch-hunt. Monfredo told Petty it would send the wrong message to so many Worc. Public School parents and kids if Novick were to be vice chair.

Petty didn’t listen – and Novick doesn’t care who she offends. So now the city must live with this mistake. But, thanks to John Monfredo, the WPSC rules will soon be changed to make this Novick’s first and last stint as Vice Chair. The process will be fair – just like the way it’s done with the Worcester City Council.

Parents: ways you can help your child flourish in school

By Worcester School Committee member John Monfredo

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” – Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Study after study shows that parental involvement is the key to how well all children, regardless of their financial background, succeed in all areas of life, especially school. But it takes work on many fronts: physical, emotional, social and more. Let’s start off with some high-quality health ideas:

• Get in good shape: It’s no secret that we are an overweight society and obesity is a problem. Encourage your child to exercise for about 30 to 60 minutes each day. These activities can be as simple as taking walks to putting on some music and having your children dance.
• Make Healthy Choices: As parents you control the environment at home so start by insisting that the family eat together at least four times a week or more. Eating together leads to good conversation and makes family togetherness a part of the daily routine. Continue reading Parents: ways you can help your child flourish in school

Charting a dangerous course: the fallacy of Charter School superiority

By Worcester School Committee member John Monfredo

Throughout our city much has been said recently about the Charter School movement and its impact on our kids. Worcester will have its third Charter School: the Massachusetts Department of Education has approved the “Spirit of Knowledge Charter School.” The school will house students in grades 7 to 12 and classes will begin this September with 156 students in grades 7 and 8. While charter schools provide an alternative to other public schools, they are part of the public education system and are not allowed to charge tuition.

The general purpose of the Charter School program is to establish an alternative means within the existing public school system in order to provide innovative learning opportunities to improve the education of students.

There has been a great deal of controversy regarding the effectiveness of charter schools and whether they give additional benefits to students. A study performed by the American Federation of Teachers, which strongly supports charter schools, found that students attending charter schools do not fare any better or worse statistically in reading and math scores than students attending public schools. If one looks at the number of Charter Schools state-wide and looks at the research, you will find that Charter Schools are more expensive, more segregated and do not offer a better education to children. Continue reading Charting a dangerous course: the fallacy of Charter School superiority

Successful Strategies in Schools

By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee member

InCity Times has been a strong advocate for our children in Worcester and has especially attempted to support educational efforts on behalf of those families who have no voice in the decision-making process. One of the questions facing education across the nation is what can be done to help our children learn at high levels. Can poor children and children of color achieve success? Is it possible for schools to help children who face the substantial obstacles of poverty and discrimination learn to read, write and become educated citizens?
As a former Worcester Public Schools principal and a long-time educator, I believe the answer is “yes.” The question is how to do it and is it being done? Robert Gordon, education advisor to U. S. Senator John Kerry, pleads passionately for us to recognize that if we rectify our most glaring and manifest shortcomings, then we can achieve a social miracle. We can have an America where birth doesn’t dictate destiny. Nothing offends democratic ideals more than the fact that a typical African American 12th grader reads at the same level as a typical middle-class or white 8th grader. Nothing is a greater threat to middle-class prosperity than mediocre schools. Continue reading Successful Strategies in Schools

Make the summer “daze” learning days!

By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee member

If I could give every student just three educational gifts, the first one would be a love of reading. The second would be a LIBRARY CARD with a commitment from a parent to take that child to the library as often as possible. The third one would be the gift of reading aloud to that child every single day. Children who are interested readers and interested learners tend to lead successful lives.
If you read my last story on the “SUMMER SLIDE” [ICT, volume 8 issue 23] you will know what research said on this topic. What is the “summer slide?” The summer slide is the decline in reading achievement that children suffer just from being away from school. Parents, remember reading like playing a musical instrument, is not something that is mastered once and for all at a certain age. It is a skill that continues to improve through practice.

Thus, my resolve is to get everyone involved in summer reading. With access to books and reading encouragement, kids can avoid the summer slide. Continue reading Make the summer “daze” learning days!