on the OSV boycott

 

"It wasn't being vindictive, it was being consistent" says Mayor Petty about the unanimous WPS OSV boycott vote from the Worcester School Committee

— Talk of the Commonwealth (@CommonTalkPod) April 19, 2023

Since last Thursday's vote of the Worcester School Committee to no longer send our students on field trips to Old Sturbridge has caught some attention, I thought it might be wise to refocus our attention on why this was both proposed and passed. 

I've set the below video to my comments--for the item was mine--last week:

The Worcester School Committee has very carefully laid our our concerns with the relationship between Old Sturbridge Village, Inc, and its charter schools in this letter dated March 10 to the State Auditor, the Attorney General, the Office of the Inspector General, and the Ethics Commission. If this is of interest, I recommend reading the letter itself, but in sum: 

• OSV Executive Director Jim Donahue has, both in public letters to membership and in employee meetings at the Village, made it clear that the schools are a source of revenue for the Village. As we have cited several times, in the FY22 Annual Report of the Village, Donahue wrote: 
  
  The Academies will provide reliable, contractual revenue to the museum, safeguarding us against fluctuations in uncontrollable factors that impact admission revenue such as weather and public health. 
  
  Providing reliable revenue to a private organization is not the purpose of public education funds. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue clearly states: 
  
  Public funds cannot be used for private purposes.  
  
  If there is both a private and a public purpose, the private purpose cannot be the primary one; that would invalidate the spending. Donahue's own words would appear to indicate that this is intended as a revenue stream primarily. 
  
  
  
• The Department very carefully guides charter school boards in their selection of a management organization, should they choose to have one. They are directed to follow the same public bid process they would for any major purpose. They also are directed not to have overlap between the charter board and the management organization, as that would clearly constitute a conflict of interest. 
  Of the 17 founding members of the new Worcester charter school, 11 have ties to OSV itself or the OSV charter school, and one more to the company that will provide the charter school's curriculum.
  The Board is not independent, and the ethical conflict is clear.
  Since the letter, the Board has had its first meeting, and it did not spend any time deliberating, let alone follow the public bid process, before appointing OSV as the management organization.
  
  
  
•  OSV currently holds a lease with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester for the former St. Joseph's School on Hamilton Street. The lease has the following clause: 
  
  Neither Lessee nor any of its employees, servants, agents or invitees shall make any use of the [building] which would be inconsistent with the doctrines or teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as determined by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester in his ecclesiastical capacity of Ordinary of the Diocese of Worcester in his sole discretion
  
  There are of course significant conflicts, not only in what may or should taught in the building with what the Bishop of Worcester may feel appropriate, but even the basic civil rights protections a public entity like a public charter school must hold for staff and students are brought into question with such an agreement. As noted in the letter, this is not simply about Catholic teaching, but the particular bishop, who has a history locally regarding his perspective on these issues. 
  As yet, we have no evidence any successor lease has been negotiated. 
  
  
  

As of us who direct money, whether publicly or privately, must do so according to our best judgment. Massachusetts elected officials also much follow the state public finance laws and guidance; the state ethics laws; and both state and federal civil rights laws. If, in our estimation, those are not being followed by an organization to which we would direct funds, we are, as Mayor Petty notes above, being consistent to discontinue such spending.