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There has been quite a hullabaloo about my motion last Wednesday to review the policy regarding committee interaction with school staff. (For context, check LiL and a video of the meeting, yesterday’s Column, and an earlier article by Jenn Myers.) Whether I am “on a mission” as one colleague muses, I admit it freely: Yes! I am on a mission to improve our schools. I do that by getting information from all levels of the system, from pre-k to the high school, from administrators, parents, students, teachers, custodians, security officers, community partners—you name it; if they’re involved with our students, I want to learn their perspective and use it to improve our schools. I am always respectful, professional, and mindful of the boundaries. What’s not clear is the protocol, especially when my understanding turns out to be different from an administrator’s, and my colleagues have varying approaches. Access to good information is critical. It becomes even more serious when it is curtailed, as indicated by one administrator insisting all questions to his staff be made in his presence—regardless of chain-of-command approval in his absence or the nature of the questions. (In this case, the question was what the recycling club needed from the city, and the visit included, at the invitation of a teacher, watching a science experiment for five minutes.)

One colleague suggested that staff may feel “threatened” and not “want to speak” with us, and that may happen to certain members. In my experience, people welcome the opportunity to share their ideas and concerns when it is for informational purposes and is asked in a non-threatening way. Far more alarming, however, is the idea that staff may be discouraged, even forbidden, from sharing insights with us. That is not a model for good management, nor does it help move the schools forward. Fortunately, we’re not talking about a private business, we’re talking about our public schools, funded by taxpayers to educate our children under the leadership (and scrutiny) of an elected school committee. As the motion requests, we will clarify the policy so we may continue to be effective at improving our schools. For some questions that have helped me in the past, see: more »

At the Lowell School Committee meeting last week, more than 18 travel requests were unanimously approved, including several involving students travelling out of the country (one during school vacation in 2011). While the committee voted to approve these future trips, a group of students from the LHS Crew Team and their coaches were traveling in Europe. The group kept a daily log of their experiences online, which you can access here.

As mentioned in an earlier post, more information on the updated policy regarding student travel follows: The new policy requires that trips be approved BEFORE any money is collected from students and families. In addition, field trips—that is, travel that does not include students representing Lowell Schools in a formal event, such as a sporting or band competition, requires written justification of learning standards if students will miss time from school.  The new policy does not minimize the importance of student travel or the educational and cultural learning involved in such experiences, but is more in line with the district’s policy regarding attendance. Since parents are expected to plan trips during school vacation and not impose on the 180 days of instructional time allotted each year, field trips are also encouraged to occur during vacation periods. If there is to be time lost from school, the approval process calls for discussion and voting on a case-by-case basis with consideration given to the justification for days missed. For the full policy, see: more »

With a forecast of 8-12 inches of snow predicted to start tonight, Lowell High School Jr. ROTC students are ready to launch Project Rosebud, a new community service program to help the elderly that partners the high school, city hall, and the business community. Project Rosebud provided 200 volunteer students with shovels, hats and mittens funded by local businesses so the students could shovel for seniors and disabled residents needing help with snow removal. A growing database of residents—at last count it was up to 50 names—will receive ongoing snow removal this winter by groups of students assigned to shovel in their own neighborhoods. The organized effort divides the city and students into sectors, with an adult responsible for each sector’s activities. Those who follow Lowell’s ROTC program, one of the largest and most respected in the country, know the group typically provides more than 15,000 hours of community service annually—from painting benches downtown to park cleanups and garden plantings. Given the heavy snowfall already, Project Rosebud will help make the city more pedestrian friendly during these difficult winter months, and special thanks to all those involved in this worthy effort. To get your name on the list, contact Lowell’s Neighborhood Services Hotline at 978-970-4035.

I attended Veteran’s Day celebrations at Lowell High School, as well as the Butler and Daley middle schools yesterday. Each event featured patriotic music and speeches, special guests of honor who included veterans, along with salutes to our flag.  As they were meant to do, these celebrations cause us to pause and remember the great gift we have in being members of a free, democratic society and to be grateful for those men and women who have sacrificed to protect those freedoms.  I couldn’t help but be moved by our children singing “home of the free and the brave” and “America, America, God shed his grace on thee,” or to remember the sacrifices of my own loved ones and the many I don’t know, who have fought and died for us, or returned from battle changed forever. The celebrations, moments of silence, and prayers for our soldiers are important, but the real way we honor our veterans is to teach our children about their sacrifice. What I saw in our schools yesterday were the diverse young people who make up our city and who are the faces of our nation’s future respectfully listening to the stories of our veterans and enthusiastically participating in the programs. We teach our children about our soldiers and the awful sacrifices of war, and by doing so, we honor our veterans in a way that is lasting and holds promise for a brighter, hopefully more peaceful, future.

Last night’s Distinguished Alumni event at Lowell High School, like the previous four, exceeded expectations in impressing me with the range of talent, philanthropic spirit, and innovation of our graduates. Current students were also exceptional as food preparers and servers from the culinary arts program, musicians, singers, ROTC students, and speakers introducing the honorees. (For a complete list of current and previous notable alumni chosen for the honor, check Dick’s blog.) All the speeches since the program began in 2004 have resonated with me because they articulate aspects of what makes Lowell schools unique—the diversity and creativity of our students, the spirit of cooperation and giving back to our communities, and the very basic and important belief that we are masters of our own destinies. Last night was no exception.  I was touched, in particular, by William Sullivan, who founded the Patriots and co-founded the Jimmy Fund, because my own son, a sophomore at LHS, is a rabid New England football fan (along with his dad) as well as a current patient at the clinic. Both my kids already think LHS is the coolest high school ever and can’t wait to count themselves alumni. But when I got home last night and relayed the latest accomplishments in a long list of notables from LHS, they were, like me, awed to think they will be part of that legacy. Recognizing the accomplishments of our alumni is important, not only as a means to raise vital scholarships for future graduates, but as a way to inspire current students, and reinforce to teachers, staff, and the community what a vital role a good education plays in our collective future.

To show support for a teammate battling cancer, the Lowell High School football team and friends will participate in Saints Medical Center’s cancer walk this Saturday, Sept. 20.  The one- or three-mile walk starts at Two Hospital Drive in Lowell and returns to the center for music, fun and refreshments. For more information on the walk, check here. Also, tomorrow night you can show your support for the Red Raiders as they face Nashua in their first varsity home game of the 2008 season (7 p.m. Cawley Stadium). In true LHS tradition, these boys not only know how to play football, they know what it means to be good sportsmen with big hearts. Go Red Raiders!

This morning dawned bright and crisp, similar in many ways to Sept. 11, 2001, a day forever etched in our hearts as a national tragedy. This morning, we remembered 9-11 together in a moving ceremony in the courtyard at Lowell High School led by the Jr. ROTC Honor Guard with accompaniment from the high school’s show choir, students, staff and school administrators. As the superintendent noted in her remarks, most high school students were in elementary school when those jets slammed into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, but the adults remember exactly where we were when we learned of the attacks. We remember this day as we do other days that have marked our national consciousness—from the assassinations of beloved leaders to the bombing of Pearl Harbor—because it is important to recognize the sacrifice of others as a way to appreciate the gifts we live today. Yesterday, the Boston Globe ran an op ed that noted a different kind of remembering—one that also resonated with me because it spoke of hope and moving forward: “On Sept. 12, 2001, America’s tragedy elicited sympathy from all over the world, including places as unlikely as Tehran. Thousands of Iranians spontaneously lit candles in solidarity with the families of victims and the American people.”

Perhaps we have squandered that goodwill as the authors claim. Perhaps our current administration’s tendency to rattle the sword rather than sit at the table of diplomacy has not made us safer, instead fueling those who hate and would destroy us, and leading us down a slippery slope of ongoing battles. As we look toward new leadership this fall, I hope voters will remember the attacks of 9-11, not as an impetus for revenge or fear, but as a tool to bring reasonable people together worldwide to create a new kind of international community—one that recognizes the mutual benefits of peace.

As students head off to college, parents should be aware of the need for them to have some degree of financial literacy. As a parent of a college student, I’ve seen the lure of easy credit dangled in front of my teen’s eyes as he routinely gets offered credit cards and tuition loans. A friend tells of freshman orientation at an out-of-state institution last year where the local banks were in the lobby, offering student checking accounts with debit cards – the fine print was certainly buried and they had no idea that automatic overdraft protection was bundled into the account. This specious “service” basically allows students to overdraw their accounts and then hits them with penalties and shockingly high interest rates. The student was home on vacation and carefully checked his balance at the ATM machine before using his debit card, little realizing that he was being charged a few dollars each time he checked, further whittling away at his available funds. Within a few weeks, he got a phone call from the bank about the $120 in fees and penalties owed to them! So, is your college student prepared for financial independence? Is he or she ready to handle a credit card, budget expenses and live within available means? While researching this issue, I discovered that Massachusetts has launched a financial literacy program called HiFi which trains teachers, financial professionals and community members to offer financial literacy classes to teens. The one-day training workshops are free, include lunch and are eligible for Professional Development Points. I’m not sure if any Lowell teachers have taken this on, so in the meantime, here is a good guide for discussing financial habits with your children. As a conversation starter, have them take JumpStart’s Financial Literacy test and then try the Reality Check.

This morning I happened to hear the tail end of an interview with Supt. Chris Scott on WCAP Radio as she welcomed teachers, students and parents to a new school year. Since today was the first day of school for Lowell children in grades 1-9, the timing was perfect.  Dr. Scott briefly mentioned the enrollment concerns for kindergarten, first, third and seventh grades where some classes have an average of 25 students rather than the preferred size of 22. (The school committee will be discussing this topic at a special meeting tomorrow at 7 p.m., second floor conference room at 155 Merrimack Street—more on that issue in a later post.) What stuck out for me about this morning’s conversation was Dr. Scott’s assessment of Lowell as a “family-friendly city,” not only because we have been able to maintain our lunch costs at $1.75, but also because we do not charge fees for students to participate in sports, nor do we charge to bus students in grades K-8. Many neighboring communities have not been able to do the same, with parents in some districts paying $500 per student for sports and $300 for busing. Over the last few years in Lowell, the district has been able to save $700,000 in transportation costs while also increasing the number of student riders—even reducing eligibility requirements to pre-2003 distances of 1½  miles for middle-school students and ¾ mile for elementary students. Also, Dick has a post regarding LHS recently being named as one of the top 50 high schools in the state. In Lowell, we still have a way to go to excellence, but I’m thinking there’s a lot to like about Lowell schools. Welcome back!

It was a morning to celebrate giving and thank key volunteers who provide services to our community. It was also an opportunity to welcome Joshua Kraft, president of the New England Patriots Foundation, and learn about his family’s twin priorities: winning football games and supporting community work. Kraft was a speaker at today’s Greater Lowell Community Foundation Philanthropy Day Conference, which was the best I’ve attended. The speeches were short, the anecdotes poignant, and perhaps best of all for me, the connections to Lowell High School were palpable. Many of the speakers, award founders and recipients, and major players in local philanthropy are former LHS students and faculty—a tribute to our public schools and our future. In fact, the Youth Service Group Award went to Lowell High’s National Honor Society, one of the oldest, largest, and most diverse in the country. The LHS Honor Society started in 1927 with a Jewish student president under the guidance of a female faculty advisor—just seven years after women got the right to vote. (The second student president was an African American.) The current Honor Society president is senior Tim Bergeron, who also received the Coach’s Award for Track last night and was named LHS Idol a few months ago—a talented athlete, performer, honor student, community volunteer, and genuinely nice boy. Eddie Mercado, another youth leader honored at the breakfast, received the Rising Star Volunteer Award for his work at UTEC and his role in the creation of the Governor’s Statewide Youth Council. Mercado’s $1,000 award will go toward UTEC’s continued work with youth in the city. Although not quite as young but certainly as inspiring, Stephen Conant received the Banker’s Volunteer Award for Lifetime Achievement. Conant, a 1972 LHS graduate and successful businessman, has been committed to protecting Lowell’s natural resources for more than a decade. The annual event provided a glimpse of key people making a positive difference, and it offered an update on the foundation’s $128,000 in awards to 50 different groups this year—both significant in their impact on our communities.