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I received the following email from Tom: “I will soon be relocating my family to MA to take a new job in Cambridge (I am a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry). My wife and I are parents of children ages 12 and 8. They are both outstanding students with high marks and no discipline problems. We are interested in the Lowell area as the homes are affordable and the town looks like a great place. Our concern is about your schools. Independent ranking systems seem to rate Lowell schools, as a function of MCAS scores, among the lowest in the state. Can you please address a few of our concerns? Our number one concern is safety. Are violence, drugs, bullying, or vandalism problems worse in Lowell than the average school system around Boston? Why are the MCAS scores below average? Is there an ongoing effort to improve? Do you have a problem retaining good teachers? If you are a parent, are you happy sending your children to Lowell public schools?”

My (edited) response: “I am proud that my children will be graduates of Lowell High School. We love this city and have truly made it our home. We have the best large urban school system in the state, but it’s not perfect, which is why I got involved. One reason our MCAS scores are low is because we are an urban, immigrant school district with the highest population of ESL students in the state and a good percentage of low-income families (65%). Lowell schools are truly diverse, which is a strength that isn’t measured on a test. As with any district, there are issues and kids who make bad choices, but our staff does a good job with safety and providing respectful school climates. In terms of bullying, we do a better job of preventing it than most suburbs because of our diversity–our students learn early on to accept people’s differences. Since my son started in the schools 12 years ago, I have seen steady progress around the quality of instruction. Teachers want to work here because we pay well, provide a generous benefits package, and offer professional support and advancement opportunities, and because they love our children. Our Teacher Academy, which we recently expanded so outside educators could attend, is a national model. (Lowell also has a renowned police training academy.) As a city, Lowell offers a thriving artist community, many fine restaurants, our own repertory theater, a beautifully restored historic library, a ball field, arena, and more. If you decide to come up for a visit, let me know.”

What would you have told Tom?

Since there’s obviously not much state revenue for next year’s budget, it’s a perfect time for our legislators to focus on reforms around a number of laws that impact our quality of life here in the Commonwealth. Lately, a lot of media coverage has been given to pension reform, which makes sense given the litany of abuses we’ve heard about. Another reform, perhaps not as visible in the media, but certainly of interest to the Lowell Police and members of the City Manager’s Anti-Gang Task Force (to which I belong) is the issue of laws that limit people from carrying dangerous weapons. State Senator Steve Panagiotakos has proposed legislation to expand an existing statute, a change many in law enforcement have been asking for since 1985. The current statute, MGL Chapter 269 section 10(b), reads like a laundry list of weapons; but without definition or inclusion of many of the newer, different kinds of disguised knives and machetes being found on the streets these days, it offers limited recourse for police. Coincidentally, the Lowell City Council is reviewing plans to add an ordinance to the city’s laws around this issue in response to handmade weapons such as golf clubs with blades, knives disguised as pens, and a variety of other weapons that have been confiscated by police. The ordinance would allow Lowell Police to arrest and fine someone caught carrying these weapons within city limits. With the added teeth of an expanded state law on this issue, perpetrators would also be subject to more punitive measures including incarceration. Given the likelihood of cuts to public safety budgets, the trend towards increased crime during difficult economic times, and the advent of warmer weather—public safety officials need all the help they can get, and soon!

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April 5, 1974
by Richard Wilbur

The air was soft, the ground still cold.
In the dull pasture where I strolled
Was something I could not believe.
Dead grass appeared to slide and heave,
Though still too frozen-flat to stir,
And rocks to twitch, and all to blur.
What was this rippling of the land?
Was matter getting out of hand
And making free with natural law?
I stopped and blinked, and then I saw
A fact as eerie as a dream,
There was a subtle flood of steam
Moving upon the face of things.
It came from standing pools and springs
And what of snow was still around;
It came of winter’s giving round
So that the freeze was coming out,
As when a set mind, blesed by doubt,
Relaxes into mother-wit.
Flowers, I said, will come of it.

In Cambodian culture, the expression “to have golden bones” is used to describe someone who is greatly blessed. Former U.N. Ambassador Sichan Siv, who visited Lowell High School yesterday, fits the description as someone blessed with brains, guts, determination, and the courage to seize opportunity—as well as a healthy dose of good luck. Siv spoke to a packed auditorium of LHS students yesterday as part of his visit to Lowell and a national tour promoting his book Golden Bones: An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America. As a Cambodian-born American who lived through the killing fields, Siv’s experience resonated with our students, who were enthusiastic and respectful, not only for its status as an amazing immigrant-success story but also because of its message of hope and perseverance through hardship. Siv told the spellbound audience how he threw away his glasses when the Khmer Rouge arrived so he wouldn’t be killed, volunteered to run a crane for them and then taught himself how to do it, and ultimately escaped across the border to a refugee camp in Thailand. At the refugee camp where thousands were cramped into deplorable living conditions and depression was rampant, Siv taught English as a way to provide hope to his fellow refugees, who were waiting for passage to places such as the US, Canada and England.  He told about his entry into the United States, finally, with two dollars in his pocket and an attitude to “adapt to be adopted,” which meant he took whatever work he could get and did his best at it. At first, that work was picking apples; later it became flipping burgers and driving a taxi in New York while earning a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. Siv also decided to become involved in our government, and so he volunteered on the presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush. With the success of that election, Siv was offered work at the White House. Within 13 years, he went from the killing fields of Cambodia to the White House of the United States. Last night, I saw him again at the Angkor Dance Troupe celebration of the Cambodian New Year. He told the audience how our city epitomizes the American spirit, and I was struck by how true those words were and how happy it made me. For more on Siv, check out his website. I’ll be back with a review of his book later.

I read with interest Marie’s post on the future of public libraries, especially the comment pointing out that Lowell’s library is perhaps the “second or third worst per capita funded library in the state.” This situation is not likely to improve with the looming budget difficulties, but libraries can be havens in tough times, providing a wealth of material for job-seekers, students or individuals who can no longer support a book-buying habit out of the household budget. It is that clean, well-lighted place that we all yearn for at times. The library needs and deserves our support. So, what, besides being a patron and paying your fines, can you do? You can join the Friends of the Pollard Memorial Library, the group that puts on the annual book sale. If interested in supporting them passively with modest dues or being more involved as a volunteer at the sale, contact Janis at friendsofpml@yahoo.com. They also need books for this year’s sale, which can be dropped off tomorrow (or May 2) between 9 am and 12 noon, a the Lowell Senior Center, 276 Broadway. And mark your calendar for Saturday, May 16, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, for the sale. It’s a great way to support a great cause. (If you join the friends, you can go to the Preview Sale, Friday night, May 15, 5:30 pm- 7:00 pm, refeshments served).

The Lowell School Committee will meet tonight in council chambers at 7 pm. Since there’s only one motion on tonight’s agenda and it’s from me, I’m including it here: “Request the Superintendent determine whether the Commissioner of Education would waive the physical education requirement for high school students who participate in school-sponsored sports programs. If allowed, request the Superintendent explore the feasibility, benefits, and drawbacks of instituting such a waiver system at the high school, providing a report with recommendations to the Lowell High Subcommittee.”

As I will explain during my remarks, under former Education Commissioner Dave Driscoll these waivers were allowed. Also, since the high school has very large physical education classes—upwards of 40 students, which was a criticism noted by the re-accreditation team—it makes sense to explore the opportunity. As we examine class scheduling and options for students to take electives under future budget constraints, it is especially worth considering the state’s physical education mandate given the fact that our student athletes practice about two hours a day, six days a week.

Tonight’s meeting, which is televised live on channel 10 (with replays and streaming video offered on demand through LTC), will include a Spotlight on Excellence for the Daley Middle School, winner of this year’s Knowledge Bowl, as well as reports from the Superintendent on an update of student enrollment projections over the next decade, professional development spending, a comparison of teacher attendance, and costs for using our facilities among other things.

The last time I truly worried about money, I mean the kind of worry that gnaws at your gut, was when my husband and I were in graduate school and unemployed. At the height of my worry about bills, lost revenue, and debt, my mother went into the hospital for tests and died three weeks later. Like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, I experienced my own version of a fist clenched to the heavens when I vowed never to let money worries invade my life again. After all, what was a little debt compared to losing my precious mother?

Fast forward nearly two decades and a different kind of worry grips me—that is, my son’s health. As a family, we faced his diagnosis of Hodgkins lymphoma and the terrible treatments that followed with determination and prayer. The support of family, friends, and community got us through, but even after we knew we had killed the cancer, I carried heart-clenching fear with me always. It occurs to me now that my worry about his health, like my worry about money years ago, hinders my ability to fully enjoy each moment and appreciate every gift—from the simplest pleasure of biking in the sun yesterday to the incredible joy of seeing him strong and healthy again. Worry is its own kind of cancer. It eats away at our enjoyment of life and does absolutely nothing to change the situation. So today, I resolve to face each challenge with courage, try my best at all my endeavors, and NOT worry about the outcome. I recommend you do the same. If we truly put aside the worry, and work on what we can do to improve things (look for work, get to the gym, become involved in our community), we free ourselves from the destructive cycle of worthless worrying and may actually get something done.

The older I get, the more cynical I am about newspaper coverage. (After being misquoted and seeing what passes as “balanced reporting,” I consider it a learned response.) Today’s Boston Globe ran a story about surveillance of public places that erroneously claims: “Police in Lowell are installing sophisticated video surveillance systems to watch students inside and outside the public schools as part of a citywide security system to monitor and deter criminal activity.”

I don’t pretend to speak for the Lowell police here, and in fact, I know little about the city’s plans for cameras except what I’ve heard about prioritizing “hot spots” of criminal activity and having live feeds to the police station. But I do know about security cameras in the schools, and I can tell you we have had them at the high school for years, and there is no plan to expand the system or go to a live feed with the police. At LHS, more than 100 cameras transmit internally to a video control center at the school, which is monitored by a security officer. The cameras view hallways, stairwells, doors, and outside areas, and have been extremely effective in deterring crime and catching perpetrators. For instance, although they are not in the bathrooms or locker rooms, they are installed directly outside those areas, which enabled high school security to identify the student who set fire to a trashcan in the boys’ bathroom a few years ago. The cameras enhance security (consider 3,800 students with only a handful of security and police officers), and they serve as a major crime deterrent. Today’s paper attempts to make this about civil liberties and some may see it that way; but the internal video surveillance system at Lowell High School serves a critical role in student safety, and I’ve got no problem with that. The fact that the paper got the story so blatantly wrong about the city’s plans baffles even the most cynical reader.

I guess I took Sunrise, the late, lamented UML morning show, for granted. I knew that if I didn’t tune in for the whole show, I could catch important bits on the ‘rewind’ portion from 9:00-10:00, or catch up with interesting guests and topics by listening to a podcast of the segment later in the week. Plus, there’s always NPR. But, the truth is, I really miss Sunrise. NPR is great, but it can be repetitive, and I miss the local slant on national or global news. I liked hearing firsthand from local pundits like UML Professor Bob Forrant how economic trends and politics were affecting the Merrimack Valley. I liked hearing our local politicians being interviewed in a fair and balanced way without the relentless political agenda of AM radio talk shows. I liked the mix of news, arts, essays and politics – it really worked. I really miss Perry’s soothing tones, Christine’s cheerful laughter and Bob’s zeal for a good story. I think the show was getting better all the time and becoming a cornerstone of Greater Lowell media. We lost a lot when we lost Sunrise.