NEW BEDFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS
SPECIAL MEETING
KEITH MIDDLE SCHOOL
225 Hathaway Blvd.
New Bedford, Massachusetts
BAND ROOM
MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2012
5:00 P.M.
Vote to approve or reject the following Innovation Schools
Prospectus:
• Renaissance Community School for the Arts
• Esperanza School of Language and Culture
6 comments:
Please, please, please...everyone who works at Roosevelt Middle School, or Gomes Elementary School should and must attend this meeting to show that we ARE NOT in support of these two innovation schools co-locating in our existing public school buildings, usurping the resources from the students who neighborhood schools these are, and the teachers who work hard to do more with less already. Implore our mayor to do the right thing and improve what we have already, not keep trying newly packaged ideas and "innovations" that are proven not to be any more effective. Show your support and attend the meeting...it shouldn't take too long, and is a step in the right direction of saving New Bedford Public Schools. See you there!
Please note that no real plan for these schools actually exists. Even if the motives were pure and contractual issues resolved, there would not be any tangible proposal to meet these promises.
The prospectuses ( prospecti?) are little more than wish lists and it would be an embarrassment to the school system and committee to endorse them as viable proposals for the running of any educational enterprise.
At each stage politics has trumped planning, rallies have been more important than realities and the bar has been dramatically lowered for the use and abuse of our current limited resources.
Whaling City Watch: New Bedford's Voice
More Secrecy…
Yes, the word “secrecy” has become synonymous with the administration of Mayor Jonathan F. Mitchell.
Whaling City Watch has learned that the first vote on two autonomous schools proposals will be held Monday at 5 P.M. in the Keith Middle School Band Room. As of 8 A.M. on Saturday, this meeting has not been posted on the city or school department websites. However, the powers that be notified the city clerk on Thursday. More information on the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law and posting requirements can be found here:
http://www.mass.gov/ago/docs/government/2012-2-10-oml-guide.pdf
You know the United Interfaith Action forces will be there. I’m willing to bet this public meeting is being kept quiet so that the UIA folks will make up a majority of the audience. I wonder if Sister Marianna Sylvester will bring her pom-poms and lead everyone in song.
So now YOU know. If you object to the heavy-handed and unethical tactics utilized by the UIA, please contact Mayor Mitchell and Superintendent Shea. Tell them that you don’t want your school system hijacked and public money used for what are essentially private schools. Also, please consider attending the meeting to show your opposition.
The good citizens of the Whaling City want EQUITABLE education for ALL. The autonomous schools model will eat-up scant resources for a relatively small number of students, while the regular New Bedford Public Schools will divide-up the leftover crumbs.
Why all the secrecy about this meeting and vote? Why hasn't anything been printed in today's S-T about this up coming meeting? Why is it being held in the band room? Sounds like a violation of the Open Meeting Law as the only way the public will be able to know about this is by reading the blogs?
I am sure the members of the UIA will be there in full force. I think we should call these schools UIA This and That.
Guess John Q. Public is not on the need to know list.
If this meeting is like some of the other meetings held by the UIA, one will see the audience filled with seniors who are members of the UIA and not many young parents of school age children. I am sure members of the UIA have been placing phone calls to have their troops there in large numbers. Perhaps when they finish with the school department, they will focus on "Summer of Crime" and begin to dictate to the police department how to fix the crime issues in NB.
Wait a minute, I have a brainstorm! Let’s get the UIA to create a school to teach the honest citizen of New Bedford the proper way to ward off the criminals by teaching us how to get the most out wheeling the shovel handles or hurling mangoes at them.
Sr. Marianna used to have a "thought tent" at the Catholic school she was instructing at... she would put teens in there to "reflect"... candles almost burned the school down. And this is someone whose judgement we are listening to?
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