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Warren Shaw’s op-ed for an appointed school board in yesterday’s Sun claims a failure in our “system of governance” because of the “current crisis on the Lowell School Committee.” That argument is not only flawed and unfair, it’s undemocratic. The radio host, farmer, and former Dracut selectman argues against elected school committees because he claims Lowell’s board is ineffective:  According to Shaw, one member’s alleged criminal actions puts a whole board in crisis. Shaw also claims elected members can’t negotiate well because they may live near their employees, and centralized control is better because it is less adversarial. Perhaps Mr. Shaw would support appointed legislators next? Many state and federal legislators face judicial scrutiny, get elected by their neighbors, and are adversarial. Yes, our system of governance is at times messy, inefficient, contentious and flawed. (How else to explain eight years of Bush?) But to suggest the solution is cutting voters out of the process is wrongheaded and goes against the democratic foundation on which this nation was built. The remedy for good governance is what it has always been: informed, attentive and active citizenry who hold their elected leaders accountable. 

OK, I admit to being easily aggravated on the issue of appointed school boards. Search this blog for “appointed school committee” and you’ll see several posts on the topic. (This one is dated, but still relevant since the state has yet to enact election-day registration; and I like this one too.)  As for Mr. Shaw, he doesn’t even consider the district’s progress around instruction, professional development, curriculum, and safety when discussing board efficacy, and I doubt his children attended the Lowell Public Schools in the last 10 years (or ever). He also seems unaware that the City Manager is a voting member of the school’s negotiating team or that the state determines Lowell’s minimal share of the costs for educating its students. With all due respect, perhaps Mr. Shaw should stick to Dracut issues which one can assume he knows more about.

In an unprecedented show of collaboration, nearly 250 teachers and administrators gave two hours on a beautiful Saturday morning to meet at the Stoklosa School today. The meeting was to talk about how the groups could work better together to improve student achievement. In these tough fiscal times, it was a welcome ray of hope to see so many staff—central office folks, teachers, social workers, instructional specialists, principals, and assistant principals—interested in learning about a new labor-management partnership in the Lowell Public Schools.  Joan Devlin, senior associate director from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), spoke briefly about the many courses and professional development programs they offer, but the speakers from ABC School District, 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles, were the highlight as they demonstrated what this partnership can mean to a district. ABC Union President Laura Rico explained that after a teachers’ strike in 1993, she decided there had to be a better way and that it made no sense to “demonize” the administration. “I realized principals don’t want students to fail, and that we must keep our eye on the prize—student achievement.” ABC Superintendent Gary Smuts affirmed how useful the collaboration has been for the district: “Imagine how liberating it is to be able to say, ‘I don’t know. What do you think we should do?’” Some examples of the collaboration include teachers participating in the principal hiring process, using AFT programs to expand teacher-trainer models, holding union reps accountable for school improvement, empowering and consulting with teachers about curriculum, etc. (More information on ABC district’s partnership can be found in this article published in American Educator.)

For Lowell, today’s kick off collaboration will continue with four days of training in August. And in the great New England tradition, there was a compact to sign that states: “In the best interest of our students, we will build a mutually respectful and authentically collaborative culture, rooted in open, inclusive decision making and shared leadership.” With the Lowellian penchant for partnership, this collaboration just may shine a beacon of light on otherwise dark and difficult times.

On Easter evening, we sat in horrible traffic on 128 heading home from Peabody. We were probably 20 miles north of the Mass Turnpike, yet we suffered from the state’s attempt to save money by limiting holiday toll workers. I also mourned the loss of lights on the Zakim Bridge to save money—albeit a cosmetic rather than critical expense. And last week, I listened to cafeteria workers and their supporters tell the Lowell School Committee about the “unfairness” of possibly losing their jobs. Believe me, I felt their pain. It’s unfair that the schools must cut between $5 and $10 million, and it’s unfair that the city may face even deeper cuts. It’s unfair that people are losing their homes and jobs. And it is unfair that the Senate’s proposed budget cuts even further than the House or Governor into human service programs that impact the neediest in our state. Yet, no one wants more taxes, and who can blame them? The reality is we are in a global economic crisis, and budgets must be tightened at all levels. Yet, there are some cuts that are simply too shortsighted and too deep to make sense, and that’s where the case for additional revenue must be made. No matter how you look at it, increasing taxes is nasty business, especially these days. But whether it’s the Governor’s gas and candy tax, the House sales tax, or another revenue-building scheme (such as closing corporate communication loopholes and municipal relief options), something must be done. We cannot sustain the level of cuts the Senate is currently proposing without severe impacts to our collective quality of life in the Commonwealth—not only because it will harm those most vulnerable, but because the losses will be far-reaching, long-lasting and in the end, more costly to recover. (The impact on youth program cuts alone—from gutting the Shannon Grant, DPH, and jobs for kids—will be felt for years in terms of increased crime and gang violence, more dropouts, drug abuse, and other related, costly ills.) As unpopular as it is, I stand for increased revenues along with smart belt tightening and sensible, much-needed reforms. Without it, there will be a lot more outrage and pain, and the road to recovery that much harder to find.

My father recently came back from New York City where he visited the Tenement Museum (Teachers: the website is filled with excellent materials for a unit on immigration, including “the Immigrant Game.”) He liked it so much he went back a second time and brought back a book from the gift shop – Out of the Shadow by Rose Cohen. It’s a first hand account of a Russian Jewish girl who came to this country in 1892 (according to the Museum website, 23 million people immigrated to America between 1890 and 1924). Her story starts in a sleepy Russian village, where life falls in with the rhythm of the seasons. At the age of 12, she and her Aunt follow her Father to America, after being smuggled out of Russia in a hay wagon. She works 14-hour days in numerous sweatshops or as a servant until her health deteriorates, but she and her father save enough money to bring her mother and four siblings over from Russia. If you ever saw the musical Fiddler on the Roof, you get a sense of the family and culture into which she was born, including people whose profession is “matchmaking” and the constant fear of persecution for being Jewish (both in Russia and America). Her story, written at times almost haltingly, in a language that she struggled to learn in night classes or from her younger siblings, is one of a search for herself as well as a larger tale of the immigrant experience. There is a sense of wonder and amazement about the fact that public education is free to all. She discovers books, and I, who stumbled upon Dickens as a child, felt the same thrill as she did when she picks up David Copperfield and reads it aloud to her family. There’s also a Lowell connection: the book was edited with an introduction by Thomas Dublin, who wrote Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and community in Lowell, Masachusetts, 1826-1860.

I get a lot of emails, most of which I delete without reading. But I always take time to read The Writer’s Almanac produced and read by Garrison Keillor. It is just the right size for a quick read, usually includes a poem and interesting trivia and biographical details about literary figures. Yesterday featured a beautiful poem entitled “To My Mother” by one of my favorite poets, Wendell Berry. It describes a mother’s love and unqualified forgiveness of her son’s rebellious acts, forgiveness so complete that it seems to be granted even before the misdeed occurs. As always with Berry, he takes the original idea to another level, comparing his mother’s love to “the vision of Heaven of which we have heard, where those who love each other have forgiven each other, where, for that, the leaves are green, the light a music in the air, and all is unentangled, and all is undismayed.”

Check out the full poem here, and enjoy your day, you Mothers!

Warning: Don’t plan any spring-cleaning projects in Lowell without securing your trash disposal first. As a multiple-recycling-container family, it’s no trouble fitting our trash in the large magenta barrel the city provided as part of its new trash collection system. In fact, we’re big supporters of the movement and have happily added our filled recycling bins to the many dotting our Highlands neighborhood as the new program appears to be working to increase recycling. That is, however, until we did some much-needed sorting and cleaning last weekend, and ended up with more trash than could fit in the one assigned container (along with half a garage full of giveaways, which we’ll deal with later). Since we are a family of procrastinators as well as recyclers and pack rats, the search for the infamous purple bags did not begin until last night—just hours before trash pickup was scheduled.  The five stores visited included Shop ‘n Save and Walmart at Drum Hill (who were both out), two convenience stores on Westford Street—Windsor Shop and Country Farms—who said they had not been able to participate(?),  and Walgreens on Chelmsford Street who has been out of them for weeks. We didn’t try Market Basket because by then we were out of time and patience. (And me, lover of all things purple: It’s ironic!) Alas, a quick check on the city’s recycling website didn’t yield any clues about where we might find the illusive bags, so I guess we’re left holding the trash, literally, for another week.

The Lowell School Committee meeting tonight begins at 7 pm from City Hall and can be watched live on LTC channel 10 if you can’t make it downtown. (You can also get information on replays or on-demand streaming video at LTC’s website.) There are only two motions on for tonight’s meeting and since one is a request for a letter of thanks to DPW, I’m only going to include the other, which is from Mayor Caulfield and reads: “Request a legal opinion from the City Solicitor on the recent RFP approved by the Finance Subcommittee regarding Food Service in Lowell Public Schools.”  If you’ve read the local paper in the last few weeks, you know there’s been some backlash regarding getting this information, and that providing student lunches currently costs about $775,000. Expect to hear from folks on this issue during the public participation portion of the meeting. There will also be a number of reports from subcommittees including Finance, Personnel and Special Education as well as reports from the Superintendent regarding the city’s net school spending compliance, the budget calendar, Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education School reviews, and other initiatives. Lots of change in the air as the school committee and administration attempt to develop a budget that allows continued progress in the quality of education provided to our children within tight revenue guidelines. Also, check out LiL for their take on tonight’s meeting.

Despite the chilly rain, hundreds of educators attended tonight’s ninth annual Celebration of Teaching Awards at the Doubletree Hotel. Sponsored by the Lowell Rotary Club, the dinner has become an annual way to celebrate the many caring teachers in the Lowell Public Schools, as well as provide them with the opportunity to nominate their own favorites for “best teacher of the year.” Each school nominates a teacher, providing background information about their accomplishments, which often includes funny, heartwarming notes of endorsement from students. Based on the nominations, the Rotary then selects one winner for each of three categories: elementary, middle, and high school. The winners receive a $500 cash award, a trophy, and the priceless honor of being selected by their peers for excellent teaching. All nominated teachers are winners, but the Rotary’s pick for top three this year were: Ruth Buckley, Pawtucketville Memorial Elementary School; Frances Sacco, Stoklosa Middle School; and Martha Lappin Iarrapino, LHS.

Since its inception under the leadership of former Supt. Karla Brooks Baehr nine years ago, I have not missed the awards celebration. It always moves me to experience each school excitedly cheering for their nominee and to hear the ways our teachers touch the lives of children every day—just one more affirmation of what a great school system we have. I don’t know of any district statewide with this type of celebration of teaching excellence. The other 2009 award nominees are: Diane Antonelli, Maureen Welch, Christine Topjian, MaryAnn Nochnuk, Catherine Klingman, Patricia Colgan, Manuela Flynn, Ana Irwin, Leona Giovannini, Dawn Boehn, Charles Boliantes, Ernie Descheneaux, Jill Laganas, Ellen Melina Notishen, Mary Theres Linehan, Janeann Kay, Donna Reis, Steven Rose, Carol Anne Chipman, Rosemary Janco, Hilde Gilman, and Sue Wilson. Congratulations and thank you to each of them!