Recommendations for 2019 Worcester preliminary election -- 2nd installment (School Committee)

Sadly, we believe that the Worcester School Committee needs a significant shakeup.  In our three decades in Worcester we have never before been as disappointed as we are now with the incumbent members of the School Committee.  It has become increasingly apparent in the last year that, despite the sincere efforts of many excellent and well-intended educators, our public school system is failing many of our students; we can and must do better; but most of the current School Committee members have opted for business as usual with a little bit of lip service to improvement. 

Tuesday’s preliminary election will remove only one of the 13 candidates; you get to vote for up to 6. 

Of the five incumbent members of the school committee seeking re-election, we feel strongly that only Jack Foley deserves our support.  The field of challengers this year includes some candidates with a wealth of experience and many with perspectives that need to be heard.  Among them, our strongest recommendations are for Cara Berg Powers and Tracy O’Connell Novick.  (Full disclosure:  we have both volunteered a lot on Cara’s campaign.)  It appears that Laura Clancey is the one challenger who is most in line with the incumbents and that the business-as-usual establishment is backing her.  We feel she would not be a good addition to the body.  Among the other five, it is not clear who are the strongest voices, and all would be an improvement over the incumbents. 

Why Cara Berg Powers?  She knows the Worcester schools both as an alumna and as a parent.  Cara has worked closely with urban youth for over a decade, she has made it her business over several years to thoroughly understand education policy, and she has in-depth knowledge and ideas about how to meet complex needs of a diverse student body. Her viewpoint is to treat all children as if they are your own.  She has knocked on thousands of doors all spring and summer and has listened to hundreds of parents and other concerned community members; she has specific plans to make sure these voices continue to be heard.   

Why Tracy O’Connell Novick?  She combines an exhaustive knowledge of education policy and funding streams with a fierce dedication to equity for all students.  She knows what is possible and what kind of educational opportunities we can be expected to provide for our students.  We can count on her to use her deep understanding to hold the school department and its leadership accountable. 

Two major issues have exemplified the need for change on the School Committee.  

1)      Sex education.  Comprehensive, age appropriate, evidence-based sex education saves lives, empowers young people to take charge of choices that profoundly affect their futures, and has been shown to reduce teen sexual activity.  By state law, any such program includes a parental opt out provision.  It is unconscionable that in Worcester we have none of it in our public schools, while the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases has been rising dramatically since 2015 and Worcester’s teen pregnancy rate is significantly above the state average.  The Worcester Impact on Sexual Health (WISH) Task Force was convened in 2017 to find an appropriate curriculum for Worcester schools. 

Composed of a broad base of community groups and health organizations, WISH engaged in an exhaustive and community-based process, eventually recommending three viable curricula.  One of these was deemed to be a political hot potato because it was associated with Planned Parenthood.  The curriculum that was ultimately recommended was scuttled by School Committee members.  Chaired by Brian O’Connell with additional members John Monfredo and Molly McCullough, the subcommittee that was supposed to hold a public hearing on the curriculum abruptly cancelled the meeting when the hearing was to take place.  O’Connell and Monfredo went public with criticisms of the curriculum, convincing Superintendent Binienda to pull it.  McCullough did nothing to blow the whistle.  In contrast, Jack Foley criticized the cancellation of the hearing.  You can read more details of how this all happened here and here.  This is beyond lack of leadership.  It is moving us in a regressive, dangerous direction.  At a public forum earlier this week, we heard Senator Harriette Chandler speak passionately on this issue:  that it is unconscionable to put political pressures before the lives of children.  We agree with Senator Chandler, and that is one major reason we recommend replacing these incumbents. 

2)      Racial disparities in educational opportunities and discipline.  These issues are by no means unique to Worcester, but we need better leadership to address them.  We have been involved in the local struggle around this perhaps more closely than many of you, so we will share our experience and perspective.  There are several links to go into the weeds. 

Both anecdotal reports of students’ lived experience and data collected over the last several years shows that public schools around the country, including the Worcester Public School system, have not lived up to their obligation to many of their students.  Worcester’s school population is about 70% students of color.  There are marked disparities between white students and students from communities of color in both educational achievement and the way they are disciplined.  In 2017-2018, Worcester’s students were predominantly Latino (42.9%).  English Language learners (ELs, students where English is not the predominant language in their homes) comprised a third (32.8%) of our student population.  Our ELs have the highest dropout rate at 5%, followed by Latino students, of whom 3.4% dropped out of school.  Latino students have the highest chronic absenteeism (19.9%) and disciplinary exclusion (11.5%) rates.  These numbers come from Massachusetts’ Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).  All of this suggests that Worcester Public Schools are failing our students of color, particularly our Latino students and English Language learners. 

The Worcester Coalition for Education Equity (WCEE) was formed to address these issues, calling for several steps to remedy the problems.  They hoped that school department leadership and its elected oversight body – the School Committee – would receive feedback and constructive suggestions for improvement with open minds and an eagerness to address the issues.  What they encountered instead from the School Department was defensiveness, withholding of key data, and disregard for the expertise of community stakeholders from different racial/ethnic groups. 

When WCEE issued a statement outlining the problems, offering a range of constructive action steps, and calling for the School Committee not to renew Superintendent Binienda’s expiring contract, several School Committee members responded with defensiveness and outrage.  Dianna Biancheria told Hank Stolz that WCEE was “pointing fingers” and “throwing a log on the fire;” saying that she didn’t know who the statement came from even though it came out with 23 signatories on it several days before this conversation.  (Hank also spoke with Isabel Gonzalez-Webster, who laid out how WCEE came to its recommendations, so you can hear why WCEE felt the need for action.) 

What followed got convoluted with a lot of people getting upset about accusations of racism, even though WCEE tried to keep the focus on structural racism and what could be done about it.  Mayor Petty tried to defuse the situation by issuing this statement accepting many of the recommendations of WCEE.  The School Committee, clearly unwilling to outright vote against renewal of Superintendent Binienda’s contract, could have taken action steps to actualize Mayor Petty’s statement.  They could have given her a one-year contract with specific benchmarks to meet the conditions outlined, with further renewal contingent on meeting them.  But that wasn’t what happened.  Instead they extended her contract for three years, with a substantial raise, with no conditions written into it.  The vote was 5-2 (the Mayor gets a vote) with Petty, O’Connell, Monfredo, McCullough, and Biancheria voting in favor, and Jack Foley and Dante Comparetto voting against.  (Dante Comparetto is not seeking re-election.)  Members of several communities of color felt that this had been a slap in the face.  We agree and believe that the School Committee members who voted in the affirmative should not be re-elected. 

If you want to learn more about the candidates’ views, you can browse the Worcester Education Collaborative’s online candidate forum .

To clarify our recommendations, you can vote for up to six candidates in the preliminary for Worcester School Committee on Tuesday, September 10.  Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM.

We would enthusiastically urge a vote FOR:

Cara Berg Powers

Jack Foley (incumbent)

Tracy O’Connell Novick

We sadly but strongly urge you to vote AGAINST:

Dianna Biancheria (incumbent)

Laura Clancey

Molly McCullough (incumbent)

John Monfredo (incumbent)

Brian O’Connell (incumbent)

Finally, we believe that all of the remaining challengers in this race would bring an improvement over the incumbents we have recommended against.

We realize that these are complicated issues and everyone has their own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about them.  We are very willing to discuss them further – feel free to contact us. 

Sincerely,

Margot Barnet and David Coyne