Comments by New Bedford Educators Association President Louis St. John to the New Bedford School Committee 6/13/2011

Regarding New Bedford Public Schools District Review


Mayor Lang, Members of the School Committee, Dr. Francis:

On behalf on the New Bedford Educators Association, I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you tonight. I would also like to present you with this document which will provide greater detail on my remarks.

I want to begin by providing some context and balance to the DESE’s report on our public school system by saying that there is a lot of excellent teaching and learning that goes on in our schools every single day. As you know, I am a proud graduate of the system, a proud teacher, a proud union leader and a proud parent of a child who is a student at New Bedford High School. There is no doubt in my mind that the New Bedford Public School system is a great place for students to learn and a great place for teachers to teach.

That said, NBEA knows that this district – like so many other districts serving a high proportion of low-income students – has its share of problems, some of which are highlighted in this report. There are several issues raised in the report with which we agree as well as several that we believe are misrepresented.

We then want to focus on what we can do from here to work together for the benefit of our students.

First, some points of agreement.

1. Principals have not been evaluated often enough. NBEA agrees with this statement. We have long advocated for more supervision and oversight of our principals.

2. The central office has been understaffed. NBEA agrees with this statement. There are a variety of reasons for this, some of them due to turnover of staff and others due to budgetary decisions. We are pleased that the school committee is addressing this problem by hiring two assistant superintendents.

3. There is a lack of common planning time. NBEA agrees with this statement. This is definitely a problem at the elementary schools and we hope it will be rectified because educators really do need time to coordinate their instruction.


4. There is a lack of individual planning time. NBEA agrees with this statement. At the middle and high school levels, educators receive one individual planning period per day. We believe that elementary educators should have the same.


5. Attendance in the high school is low and that has a direct bearing on the low four-year graduation rate. NBEA agrees with this statement. However, this is truly a community problem and not one that school personnel alone can fix. Parents, in particular, must be convinced to do more to make sure their children come to school every day and on time.

6. Funding is inadequate. NBEA agrees with this statement. As the report notes, the district has been forced to cut its budget and reduce staff in recent years and has failed to meet its net school spending obligations. That has got to change.

7. Class size is important. NBEA agrees with this statement. The report mentions that some positions were eliminated so that the district could maintain smaller class sizes. We agree that class size is important. Private schools also agree. A quick Google search of any private school will show how important class size is to learning. Local private schools keep their classes to 15 students or fewer and they don’t have to spend most of their day teaching their students how to take the MCAS test. The state of Massachusetts must do more than say education is a priority. They must provide educators with the resources we need. New Bedford students deserve no less.

Now we’d like to discuss some sections of the report that we think do not tell a complete – or completely accurate – picture.

1. Informal review and assistance. The report states that principals believe that they cannot provide specific feedback to teachers during the supervision process and that the collective bargaining agreement does not allow them to make notes during informal classroom observations, even for personal use.

The fact is that the contract does not prohibit principals from observing teachers in the classroom at any time, and it does not prohibit them from taking notes. All we ask is that if the notes are part of a formal evaluation, they follow the correct procedure for conducting one.

2. Evaluations following teachers. The report creates the illusion that a large number of teachers transfer from building to building to avoid negative evaluations or professional improvement plans.

That fact is that teacher evaluations are kept in the human resources office and they can be reviewed by administration at any time. Also, teachers who transfer are automatically placed on Year 1 of the formal evaluation cycle. The principal of the receiving school must evaluate the teacher during the next school year. In short, teachers cannot avoid negative evaluations or professional improvement plans.


3. I want to make a larger point about this issue, which one newspaper article referred to as the “dance of the lemons.” The very term is demeaning to the teachers of New Bedford who work their hearts out every day. We do not believe that there should be any “lemons” in the New Bedford Public Schools, let alone dancing ones.

Teachers who work in this district were hired, mentored, supervised, provided with professional development, given professional teacher status and repeatedly evaluated by district administrators.

To teach, educators must hold a teaching license and that license must be renewed every 5 years. It is not the district that grants these licenses. It is The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that grants them.


We think the DESE report, though inaccurate in many places, does – in other places – provide some valuable insights and information about ways the district can and will improve. However, we wish there had been a greater focus on the connection between the school and the community.

Many of the problems we see in our schools did not start in our schools. They are very complex issues, which schools and teachers cannot control, and in fact, extend beyond the district to the community, families and social services.
We are not trying to pass the buck – We are talking about the reality that we see every day in our schools. Tweaking some contract provisions here or there is not going to address these very real, deep and significant community and societal issues.

But there are some changes that are within our control.

Most of these require action by the top administration. We have faith in the Superintendent’s ability to make these improvements but she will need support and resources.

In closing, I would like to reiterate that the NBEA is committed to working with the Superintendent, the School Committee, and the community to improve our schools.


Thank you very much.