And then a discussion about school committee authority broke out

 Something happened at last Tuesday's Board of Ed which doesn't happen at 99.9% of Massachusetts Board of Education meetings¹: someone not only mentioned school committees, but there was even a smidge of a discussion about them.

This came in response to a (properly posted) update from the Commissioner on Fall River. You may have seen that the Fall River School Committee recently moved to fire their superintendent without cause; she resigned. At the request of the Mayor, the Department is completing a targeted review of district governance.

Fall River Public Schools had their last comprehensive district review in 2025, as required by MGL Ch. 15, sec. 55A, under state regulations 603 CMR 2.03. Those regulations, passed by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, require that the review include: Leadership and Governance, alongside Curriculum and Instruction; Assessment; Human Resources and Professional Development; Student Support; and Financial and Asset Management. Those are always the areas reviewed for every district.²

Within that last report for Fall River, released in November 2024, within the Governance analysis, DESE reported the following: 

According to focus groups, working relationships between district leaders and school committee members are still in early stages and are sometimes tense. As mentioned above, the superintendent is new to her role and began leading the district in July 2024 and, as such, a formal evaluation has not yet been completed. According to interviews, the superintendent is still working through her formal entry plan into the district and trying to “build a little bit more of a network and relationships with the school committee.” However, district leaders also reported that the current superintendent faced opposition from several members of the school committee upon her promotion to superintendent from her previous role as assistant superintendent and chief academic officer. Currently, there are still reported tensions between the school committee and the district superintendent, and both agreed that there was occasionally “strain” in the relationship regarding the best way to collaboratively fulfill their responsibilities and benefit the district. Despite this, in interviews and focus groups, both parties reiterated their commitment to Fall River and their desire to collaborate effectively to improve the district and outcomes for all students. Building rapport between both parties is an area for growth in Fall River.

As they were doing a report early on in a new superintendent administration, this is a measured, but early warning, view of what the Department saw then. Then the Fall River School Committee underwent an election last fall in which three of the six seats changed (the seventh member, the mayor, stayed the same), with the above being the outfall.

What I found most odd about the above bit of discussion in the meeting, beyond it happening at all, was the common concern of Chair Katherine Craven and Vice-chair Matt Hills: they were very concerned about the Department's relationship with the "democratically-elected school committee."

While I agree that the lines of authority are always³worth keeping an eye on, it's very odd to hear this from the Board leadership, which in its tenure, has not expressed all that much concern about the very removal of school committee authority that state receivership is. The school committees in receivership districts are also democratically-elected, and yet it has been from the successor of Commissioners after Jeff Riley that the impetus has come to return them to local authority. That could have come from this chair and vice chair at any time in their tenure. Instead, it took Russell Johnston as acting receiver to finally move. That, mercifully, has continued forward. 

The Commissioner is appointed by and evaluated by the Board. If "democratically-elected" school committees having authority was this much of a concern, Craven and Hills had ample opportunity and reason to speak earlier. They did not. 

Interesting time to speak up. 

¹I have been to almost every one for fifteen years. Take it from me.
²You can find the list of district review reports on the Department's website here. They are not always right (in my view) but they are always worth reviewing.
³not just in the 0.1% of the time they deign to remember that school committees exist, let's say.  

On the next Commissioner (and the elephant that is still in the room)

 Okay, people, this is officially too many succession plans for me to keep track of.
Anyway, I will remind you as always that this is from only me, no one else. 

One of the things that those who govern organizations, including educational ones, should have an awareness of is the bench; that is, who is being prepared for leadership. Educational organizations vary in size, of course, so not every organization has one (or much of one). There are also educational leaders that don't spend time and energy on preparing others for leadership. Nonetheless, who's on the bench, who isn't, who is prepared, who isn't--these are questions that boards should have an awareness of.

Thus when an educational leader steps down, a reasonable board at least asks the question of who in the organization is prepared to lead it. That isn't always going to be the right answer--there are, for example, times when a break with the previous leadership is very necessary--but it should at least be asked. 

A bench (this one overlooks Curtis Pond in Worcester)

It's not clear that the Board of Ed ever really did this. It essentially only came up as Russell Johnston was leaving. 

Board of Ed in March: educational vision and time out rooms

Johnston: hope that future commissioner is watching to carry forward
planning teams aligning with strategic objectives
how will we know that a project will change outcomes for students?
goal to have catalog of aligned supports in May for school districts

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for March: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here.
I'm covering this one remotely because seven hours of the public hearing yesterday WORE ME OUT!

I would assume today will include many nice words about Russell Johnston, as this is his last meeting. He has borne out my experience with MA Commissioners: our interim commissioners are our best ones.

Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing on education and local aid

 

sign from Amherst Regional

Coming to you live today from the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing at UMass Amherst. A number of the surrounding districts are here--Quabbin Regional brought a bus; Amherst Regional walked over--and I just hope someone told all these people that they don't take public testimony. If you're here and need power, by the way, I have a power strip at one of the outlets, so come over if you need it.

I'll post as we go. Note that they have us in what is the airplane hanger of an auditorium on the first floor of the Campus Center, so I can barely see the committee members; I'm making no promises on being able to identify speakers.

They'll start with intros then have the Secretary with the three Commissioners.

New acting commissioner being appointed Monday evening

Note that added to the special Board of Ed meeting for Monday night--set to take further public comment on the proposed changes to the regulations on CTE admission--is appointment of an acting commissioner.

I don't know that it's been generally circulated as yet, but current Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston is leaving at the end of March. As the Board's next regular meeting is March 25, it's more timely to make that appointment now.

No clue from the posting as to who is being tapped on that one. 

February Board of Ed: charter schools

 and on to charter school expansion

• Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School
• Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers: A Horace Mann Charter Public School
• KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School
• Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School
• Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School
• South Shore Charter Public School

And in Commissioner news

 This seems to be running rather below the radar¹ but, the Wallingford-Swathmore School Board of Directors, outside of Pennsylvania, will vote Monday night to name Russell Johnston, currently Massachusetts Acting Commissioner of Education, as their next superintendent. As the local Daily Times reports:

The district said it conducted an extensive search process and expects to appoint Johnston on Monday night and give him a five-year contract. The terms were not yet provided...
Johnston was selected from an extensive candidate pool, during a rigorous six-month search² led by a national educational search firm. Information gathered from focus groups and surveys across the school community was used to develop a candidate profile, the district said.

“It is my great honor to join the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, and I am energized to join a school community that is so committed to excellent and equitable learning opportunities for all students,” Johnston said. “I am particularly drawn to the District’s strong focus on academic excellence, as well as an emphasis on fine arts and co-curricular activities. I am also eager to support the District’s work in ensuring every student, without exception, is provided the opportunities and support needed to succeed.“I lead by listening, and I am very much looking forward to listening to and learning from the students, staff, parents, and school community in Wallingford-Swarthmore.”

As the district currently has an interim superintendent³after having reached a separation agreement with their prior superintendent⁴ last Augus,⁵ the transition will be this spring: 

After May 1, Wallingford-Swarthmore interim Superintendent Dr. Jim Scanlon is expected to transition into a revised interim role with the district for the duration of the school year, to support Johnston through a smooth transition and to provide continuity in leadership, the district said.

That reads to me like Johnston is starting in May? Or is that just when the transition is starting?

Either way, it would appear that Johnston isn't staying on as Acting until we get the next Commissioner in place (unless the Board really starts picking up their pace). 

One hopes this means that they'll spend more than five minutes on the "update" that they get at their meeting--this is part of the Monday night agenda--as they have been for the past few months. 

In particular, this adds to the elephant in the room that Vice Chair Hills raised which has gone not only unanswered, but unaddressed entirely: if the current incumbent of longstanding service does not want the position, and now plans neither to be there for the transition but not even to be in the state, what does that say about the job? 

It is the Board, as the body that hires and evaluates the Commissioner, to pursue and answer that question. Something is not good about the working conditions of that office. I do not know what it is; I'm not in a position to. But if they don't answer that, they're setting the next person up.  

_______________________________
¹Update your Google alerts!
²In Pennsylvania, as in some other states, it is possible to conduct an entire superintendent search in executive session, which Wallingford-Swathmore did.
³making a per diem fee of $1,540
⁴for a lump sum of $300k and an additional $30k contribution to his retirement account
⁵You could say that it hasn't been dull. Though the Acting Commissioner's big push on there being "right" reading curriculum will apparently have parental support. 

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for January: opening comments

 The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education holds their regular monthly meeting today in Everett. The agenda can be found here. There will be a livestream here.

We're awaiting a quorum in a Board meeting room that is overcapacity (they just started sending DESE folks to their desks to watch), and the press thinks the news today is cell phones. It is enough to make one despair. 

Updating as we go

Board of Ed for December: vision and mission

 Johnston: in 2023, planned for 2023-24 year
finalized educational vision "to better align our projects"
catalog of aligned supports 
"this is ongoing work...turning a shift together"

Board of Ed for December: update on search

Ariana Williams, Issacson Miller
position profile has been finalized and is posted
applications and nominations are coming in
screening committee will meet several times before March to review materials
spending day at DESE for those

Craven: "it's a very transparent process"
"the website is the best way to get information to Issacson Miller"
Craven: "basically this process is an open book"
Moriarty asks if seeing applications coming in
yes
application does not necessarily close
Craven: goal is to have finalists "following the season"
(I have no idea what this means)

Johnston: not applying
"sincerely an effort to get the very best person TO apply"

Hills: "in my experience, this is very unusual"
"think of how you're going to answer how some number of candidates are going to ask" about Johnston not applying
YES INDEED
"you figure out how you're going to handle this"
"not hearing a bunch of people ask the question doesn't mean there aren't a lot of people asking this"

On the Commissioner's search

 I do not know more than this, but Acting Commissioner Johnston has made it known that he does not plan to apply.

This is a change from what was understood earlier on in the process.

October Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting: opening comments

 The agenda is here; livestream is here

My notes from last night are here

and the meeting has started, but there is no sound on the broadcast...

Special meeting of the Board of Ed: voke admissions (part I)

 The agenda is here; the livestream is going to go up here.

Meeting opened by Vice Chair Hills (with an amazing amount of noise behind him)
Johnston opens by saying it will be looking at the impact of the last engineering change
quotes “Every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does.” (W. Edwards Deming)

Tonight's agenda:

On Southbridge

 The T&G  has a lengthy piece on Southbridge today; Southbridge is the district most recently put into receivership, a vote taken in 2016, meaning 'recent' here is quite relative. I think it's fair to say that the major hole in the section of the law on receivership--that there's no path OUT--is as true there as anywhere. Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston is quoted here, as he has been on Holyoke, talking about governance: 

"The extent of which a school committee is ready to resume its authority, its responsibilities for the governance it can provide for a district, that is a key thing we are looking for," Johnston said.

I think it is also fair to say that this wasn't how prior leadership framed the question.  

May Board of Ed: Commissioner goals

 ...which are done with regard to his acting status; you can find this here

Hills:

a lot about learning loss and literacy

Governance: working with Tutwiler, EOE, Board

community: relationships with school districts and community and parent organizations

expecting progress over months

those pass

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: vision and mission

 There's a backup on this here
Johnston: "you are our audience right now" 
as we go into this transition, want to be make sure we're grounding this work in the vision we have of change for our schools
when he was a superintendent, "I was on the receiving side" of DESE work
"while the creativity was always clear" was not always clarity in how those spoke to each other? were they timed well? 
for students who have been historically marginalized, there is no time for DESE to lose its footing

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: proposed virtual school

 Johnston notes it has been ten years since a new virtual school was considered
Felix Commonwealth Virtual School
Board is sole authorizer of virtual schools 
proposed to partner with Arizona State University
proposal is for 4000 students statewide, opening September 2025
recommended conditions for the applicant group 

memo allows $14K which is maximum allowed at this time; virtual school can then seek higher amount once authorized
both other virtuals have recently requested such increases
Hills and Gardiner held public hearing on proposed school

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for March: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The livestream is here. 

This is of course the first meeting at which Jeff Riley is not Commissioner; Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston is here.

please enjoy these cold pigeons over the Malden River

Craven opens the meeting; Matt Hills is participating remotely

The Board of Ed meets Tuesday

 A short agenda, but some important stuff: 

To comment briefly, from the bottom up:

• I genuinely do not understand what is going on with the mission and vision things, because from what I can tell, they're using stuff from 2019, and then aligning things they're already doing with that. At least, that was what was going on at the last round of this I saw.
  (Some day, someone is going to shock me, by grounding this is the constitutional reason for public education for Massachusetts, but let's say that I'm not holding my breath!)
  
  
• I'm annoyed that they didn't share the virtual school information until well after they posted the agenda; no one had any more information, so good luck if you wished to speak. Reviewing the now posted backup, we can see that we're going for another round of "we're going to say yes with a lot of conditions" which a) is not a good plan for an educational institution, and b) should sound hauntingly familiar to any who followed DESE's last charter approval. 
  Also, I completely don't understand how the state that couldn't insist hard enough that no child should be learning via a screen, that won't allow districts the option of virtual school on snow days, wants to add another virtual school. 
  
  
• Commissioner's search: hey! Let's not make it a whole bunch of "education is only about business, and the last time we were near a school, we were students!" people like last time, please! 

Tuesday, 9 am. I'll be blogging from Everett