Madame Chair and members of the committee,
My name is Tracy O’Connell Novick and I live at 135 Olean
Street. I need to preface my remarks with the disclaimer that I speak only in
my capacity as a community member and a parent, not in any other position I
hold. I am a parent of three children in the Worcester Public Schools. The
youngest is ten, and we are not going anywhere.
You have required that we limit our comments only to the
characteristics and skills we’d like to see in a superintendent, rather, say,
than that which has brought us to this point.
Very well, then:
A superintendent of the Worcester Public Schools would note,
with a quick glance at this room, and at the room last night, those missing. Bluntly,
those with true leadership and investment in this community would note that this
room doesn’t look like the Worcester Public Schools. Appropriate leadership
would be clear that two back-to-back weeknight meetings, both in locations with
limited bus service, offering no childcare and no translations naturally limits
participation quite significantly. Further, a superintendent of all of the
Worcester Public Schools would be clear on the consequences of allowing only
testimony that is spoken publicly on television and before the press. Those who—quite
rightfully—fear retribution won’t speak, and those in leadership need to
encourage the full participation of all.
I referred to the job description your colleagues will
consider later tonight in z From that description, it sounds to me as though
what the School Committee feels it needs is an expanded communications
department and possibly an ombudsman. Both of those may well be the case.
Neither, however, is the position you currently have open.
The job description you’re considering lists certification
or the ability to be certified as “desired” rather than “required,” which is
contrary to state regulation. The job description further doesn’t get to
managing the day-to-day operations of the Worcester Public Schools until item
13, which is the central responsibility of the superintendent.
Madame Chair, the superintendent of the Worcester Public
Schools is the chief executive of an organization that employees nearly 4000
people. The superintendent oversees an annual budget in excess of $370 million
dollars and assets far in excess of that. The superintendent is the ultimate
abitur with the state regarding the district’s adherence to state and federal
education policy and regulations; those regulations run for pages on the
state’s website. The education of 25,000 students is utterly dependent on the
leadership of this individual, as ultimately is the future of this city.
Thus, more than anything else—and, yes, I will use the
word--you need a competent administrator.
Madame Chair, the incoming superintendent must be acutely aware
that:
·
the Worcester Public Schools have, by some reports, seen the
largest growth in the graduation rate of any district in the state.
·
Worcester is beating the state rate in its dropout rate.
·
Worcester hosted the New England conference on dual language
education last year, due to our leadership in that program.
·
How the Worcester Public Schools integrate professional development
was held up as a national model at the Title IIA conference this year.
·
We have students go on to nationally and internationally acclaimed
arts programs from our arts magnet program, top engineering schools from our
engineering program, and become doctors right here in the city through our
health program.
·
The in-district turnaround of Union Hill, Chandler Elementary, and
Burncoat Prep made the front page of Education
Week last month as a national model, not of privatizing, not of state
takeover, but of local educators and the local community stepping up for their
schools.
Any incoming superintendent must be ready, willing, and able to
acknowledge, celebrate, and build on these successes.
Madame Chair, I was in Southbridge last week for the public hearing
regarding the state takeover of that district. I listened to parents question
their own ability to look out for their children by sending them to a district
that cannot meet their needs. I heard teachers acknowledge that without the
support staff, that they knew that they were not meeting kids’ needs. And I
heard person after person acknowledge that it was lack of leadership—lack of
organization—lack of proper administration that got them to that place.
I do not want to sit in a similar hearing in Worcester in the next
few years.
This is not a popularity contest, Madame Chair. This is
about absolutely, unquestioningly competent central administration leadership
that can go toe-to-toe with the Commissioner and Secretary of Education and not
blink.
We currently face an administration in Boston that has no
love of public urban education. They will drive us out of a democratically and
locally managed system if they can. You owe it to us and to our students to
bring leadership to the district that will continue—and I do mean continue—the
good work that Worcester is doing.
You owe us and you owe our kids no less.
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