jackiedoherty.org

Special kudos to Gregg Croteau, executive director of the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) and a member of the City Manager’s Gang Advisory Board. Gregg travelled to Washington this month to speak before Congress as part of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Gang Abatement and Prevention Act 2007.  To view the  hearing and his testimony on C-span, click here. (Gregg is about two-thirds in.)  

Healthy Summer 2007 is a “private-public partnership providing educational programs, healthy meals and fun activities each summer for Lowell’s Youth.”  They’ve been around since 1996, but this year they have an excellent brochure that was mailed out listing everything there is to do in Lowell in the summer, from pool schedules to free lunches to concerts. They also had a fun kick-off party on Tuesday at the JFK Civic Center with food, face painting, crafts and a D.J.   We all know that private-public partnerships are one of Lowell’s strengths, but there is always the fear that services are overlapping, that groups aren’t talking to one another. The Healthy Summer brochure puts those fears to rest. You can see that the Lowell School Department, the Pollard Library, Community Teamwork (CTI), Lowell Parks & Rec, Girls Inc., the YMCA, the YWCA, the Boys & Girls Club, the Girl Scouts, and many of Lowell’s museums are on the same page, literally.   Budget cuts have forced the school department to continually whittle away at its after-school and summer programs, with a bare minimum remaining.  But this brochure shows us that some of our non-profits are taking up the slack and providing meaningful and fun experiences for Lowell’s youth population this summer.  In addition, free breakfasts and lunches for young people are being provided at many different locations across the city through CTI and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.  For more information, contact Allison Carroll, Coordinator of Youth Services at 978-970-3342.

I was walking down Merrimack Street the other day and spotted this Chinese proverb in the window of the United Teachers of Lowell office. I just had to share it here because the words are so true:

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice. If you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime,  educate people.” 

I got a letter today from Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino of Revere, Chairman of the Metropolitan Mayors’ Coalition, urging support for Deval Patrick’s Municipal Partnership legislation.  I already support it, as I think we need something to help cities and towns now and also to start to break our dependence on the property tax to fund local programs, especially schools. The Mayors are calling for supporters to be vocal and proactive by calling legislators, radio talk shows, talking to neighbors, etc. Supporters can also rally at the State House with the Governor, legislators and municipal leaders on Thursday, June 21,  at 1:00 pm. 

I am impressed by the effort of the Mayors’ Coalition to rally supporters around this initiative; but the letter was obviously geared toward supporters. Convincing others, including some of our lawmakers, of the importance of passing this legislation as well as working to reform our tax system altogether is more difficult.  For that, I refer you to a recent editorial in the Lowell Sun by Bentley Adjunct Professor of Economics John Edward of Chelmsford.  Edward is reframing the more »

Tune into LTC Channel 8 tomorrow night at 5:00 pm or Wednesday at 4:00 pm to see the video from the April 25 Stand for Children Rally at the State House. There is excellent footage of Stand Lowell activists having in-depth conversations with Representatives Kevin Murphy and Dave Nangle, as well as Governor Deval Patrick addressing the crowd on Boston Common. Interestingly, both reps admit on camera to supporting the Governor’s Municipal Partnership Act as a way to bring needed revenue to Lowell without further burdening property owners, although both also question whether the added revenue will go to the schools. As you may recall, since the interviews on April 25, the City Manager restored $800k in funding for the schools (from his original plan to cut $1.6 million) in the hope that the state would be able to deliver more revenue through the governor’s plan. Now if only our representatives can use their influence with House leadership… (Speaker Sal DeMasi does not support the plan.)

At the rally, Governor Patrick sums it up when he talks about his personal understanding of how education can transform a life and how even with his increase funding for education, “it’s not enough.” I also thought there was an interesting exchange between Rep. Kevin Murphy, who was praising the Lowell Schools and his own son’s very positive experiences, and Stand speaker Gabrielle, who made the point that she wasn’t really worried about her own children, that they were at the top of their elementary class. “But what about the others who are failing?” she asked, “What about the dropout rate at the high school; that doesn’t come from nowhere.” more »

An event whose time has come burst on the local scene last night at the Doubletree Hotel. Around 100 people attended the first annual Celebration of New Americans Dinner, and the indications seem to be that next year’s dinner will be even bigger and better.   As a member of the planning committee, I was relieved by the turnout, but was most gratified that we were able to achieve our goal of celebrating, honoring and welcoming our newest immigrant group, the Africans (now numbering 7,000 in Greater Lowell).  The speakers were immigrants themselves, Cambodian, Portuguese, and of course African.  One speaker from Puerto Rico is not technically an immigrant, but her experiences with language and cultural barriers were similar. more »

Last night we held our kick-off party for the Campaign to Re-Elect Jackie Doherty to the Lowell School Committee.  The day was spent anxiously surveying the skies, rigging tarps in the backyard, and finding a portable heater for the deck.  By early evening, the rain had stopped and it turned out to be a cool, but perfect night for a Garden Party.  Guests mingled on the deck amidst blooming flowers and twinkling white lights while trays of homemade appetizers circulated.  (Some of the favorites were the mini-antipasto pastries, plum-walnut brie, spinach pie, and smoked salmon rice squares).  Everyone wanted the recipe for the fudge (even those, like me, who don’t like fudge). But, best of all was the music of the “Fun Razrs” who had the crowd dancing and singing along to old favorites like Brown-Eyed Girl and Mustang Sally.  This was the band’s third free performance this week (see Rockin’ at the Reilly and Dancing with Terror posts below) in support of local groups; and we all agreed they should get an award for service to the community.  Some folks there to support Jackie’s campaign included State Senator Steve Panagiotakos, Mayor Bill Martin, fellow school committee members Connie Martin and Jim Leary, and fellow bloggers Dick Howe, Jr. and Lynne Lupien.  City council candidates in attendance were Joe Mendonca, Mehmed Ali, JoAnn Keegan, Curtis LeMay, and Kristin Ross-Sitcawich.  Congressional candidate Patrick Murphy and his twin brother Dan also attended.  As always, it was our core supporters, family, friends and neighbors—the ones who know firsthand how hard Jackie is working and how much she cares about the schools — who made the party such a success. Special thanks also to Wood Brothers Florist on Bridge Street who donated an exquisite arrangement of flowers for the event.

Every now and then, Kendall Wallace renews his personal campaign to replace the elected school committee with an appointed board, as he did in his Saturday Chat on June 8th.  I have never heard a compelling argument from Mr. Wallace in favor of this change and remain unconvinced by his latest concern, which seems to be that there may not be enough candidates for the job in the upcoming election.  So far, none of the incumbents have bowed out and there are two challengers, so his fears seem unfounded.  If a seat opens up, it is likely that other contenders might join the race.   However, my reasons for being against this idea are as follows:

•  This has been tried in very few places and the results are inconclusive.
•  The cities who have gone to an appointed school committee (Boston is one) all have ’strong mayor’ governments; thus the mayor is responsible to the voters.  Since Lowell does not have this system, who would do the appointing and to whom would they be accountable?
• Given the perception in Lowell up until recently that board appointments are all about who you know and to whom you are related, it seems wrong to put the schools in the position where patronage could take precedence over student needs.
• Who will speak out for the schools if the board members all owe their positions to someone at city hall? The elected school committee puts the interests of the schools first, which is their job. 
• School committee members are visible in the community and accessible to parents, because they are elected officials; an appointed board would have less incentive to be connected and available to the people they serve.
• Finally, democracy seems to be an acceptable way to appoint our city council, why not the school committee which has responsibility for 15,000 school children, 23 schools and $136 million dollars?

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself surrounded by hundreds of smiling, sweaty elementary students and their teachers dancing at the Reilly School. Despite what had to be 100-degree temperatures in the cafeteria, we were having a great time rockin’ to the sounds of custodian Rich Sarmento and his band, the Fun Razrs, which includes members Leo Sheridan, John McQuaid, and Don Belley. No surprise that the youngsters had to get up and moving to songs like Hard Days Night, Can’t Buy Me Love, We Will Rock You, and Taking Care of Business, and it was definitely the largest under-age-10 dance party I’ve ever attended. The band, known for playing to support local fund raisers, was featured at the Shedd Park Dancing with Lowell Stars last Saturday night. They will also be playing for my kick-off garden party tomorrow, and what a great way to end the school year on an up beat!

Two weeks ago, several of us from the CPC, Stand for Children and the School Committee went before the city council at the budget hearing to make a case for the schools.  Naturally, we had been blogging freely on the topic for over a week, ever since we realized that the schools were going to take a big hit under the Manager’s plan.  As we listened to the Manager’s budget presentation, I realized that many of our arguments were being preempted, and it occurred to me that by blogging we had alerted others to our line of attack, giving them a chance to form counter-arguments.  As I sat there, rewriting my speech in response to what I was hearing, I wondered if in these situations blogging was such a good idea. more »