O'Brien on Boone

"may you live in interesting times"
"fairly difficult challenges ahead that are going require strong leadership"
"really want to make this a great urban school system"
"appreciate her intelligence, her passion for public education"
"no one is perfect...'though somehow the City Manager got nearly perfect grades..."
being new and making changes, "some of those changes are good"
"very responsive to myself"
Allen cited for experience, good changes
Mulqueen "enjoyed working with him"
concerns around accountability position
"we need to be careful when we use all of our data from MCAS...we aren't turning out widgets...don't become overreliant on data"
budget breakdown "incredibly helpful...impressive and important step"
focus on teaching
appreciate the high expectation for all students
"we are going to make these schools better and we are going to do this for all our students" (Level 4)
improving public trust "most important work the superintendent does"
"our job to grow that"
positive reflection from businesses
reach out to communities that haven't been at the table: "communities that reflect our student body"
hearings done "with the best of intentions...too ambitious of a goal...led to confusion...better job around messenging...focusing in on how we address our two Level 4 schools"
"great challenges around the morale of the staffs in our schools"
some are outside of the control of superintendent
relationship between School Committee and superintendent a priority
"would like to take some of the responsibility...haven't been as proactive as perhaps I should be" on relationship with state delegation
"it's been a difficult year"
"going to come out a stronger school system"
"you're almost always talking to kids" at events