Two follow-ups on February's Board of Ed meeting

I tweeted these out this morning, but I thought they needed a more permanent place.

You'll remember that the Board voted in favor of the contract Chair Sagan had negotiated with Jeff Riley for Commissioner of Education. Part of the discussion was start date: while everyone was looking for sooner rather than later, there was recognition that Lawrence, too, needs a smooth transition as it moves from single receiver to a board receiver appointing a (still being searched for) superintendent. "By July 1" was the date set. Today's Eagle Tribune, however, has an article in today's paper which says he'll leave within weeks. The receiver board has just started meeting, and they've just posted the position of superintendent; they are not going to have a superintendent in place any time soon. The article speaks of Riley leaving his assistant superintendent in charge, but can he even do that under a receivership?


There was much fervor over the Boston Globe actually publishing--can it be?--a less-than-rosy charter school piece today. In the rundown of the recent setbacks, Jamie Vanzis most notably puts together last year's Mystic Valley's violation of their students' rights over hairstyles and the unquestioning and non-public renewal of their charter this year. I had mentioned this in passing at the time of the meeting, but I'll note this again here: under the Mass General Laws, charters are granted and renewed by the Board of Education, not by the Commissioner. That is not what has been happening, however, as the Board has voted their authority to the Commissioner. Note this memo from the February agenda: Any Board member may call for the renewal to be discussed at a public meeting, but there is no allowance for the public to have input, to hear deliberation, or to otherwise be part of the process. And in this case, DESE has even refused the Globe documents about their decision. That isn't what was laid out by the Legislature as a process. Charter schools are much more complicated than a nice, neat little process with an office in Malden, and the public is owed more than that.