Thursday, March 28, 2013

Public Hearing #1 by Josh Amaral


Things got interesting immediately, as the committee announced there would be a two-hour time limit on the meeting, and commenters would not be selected in the order they signed up, but rather, by random drawing. Over a hundred people signed up to comment and due to the two-hour time constraint, only forty or so would fit. The committee announced that there will be another meeting held on Monday, for those who didn’t get to comment today.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So proud of all of my NBPS colleagues for going out last night and voicing their opposition to the "invasion" schools.

Anonymous said...

A.J. Gomes school: one house, one home, one family!

Anonymous said...

I hope last night was the beginning of the New Bedford Teacher Revolution. We need to take back our school system.

Anonymous said...

Unbelievable, go to the school committee meeting last night to voice my opinion,wait in line to sign up and only be told by Mayor Mitchell we will pick names randomly from a basket ...and will continue on Monday...thanks Mayor and what's happens if those people cannot make it...what a joke!

Anonymous said...

Believe me I understand there were a lot of people who signed up go down the list and make a cut and then continue to Monday .not fair to that person that was there early and didn't have the chance to speak!

Anonymous said...

I am strongly against Esperanza! I support genuine public schools! I am the product of one and my parents both taught at public schools! We need to keep the money where it belongs! These charters and innovations are such scams with all of their business and so-called community ties! Our schools should not be run like the financial institutions we've all watched collapse!

Anonymous said...

As a parent i am strongly against this. I think it is crazy for them to want to use the middle school for elementary age children. There is no good reasoning behind this...

Anonymous said...

The FUTURE of our beloved RMS is in dire jeopardy of being taken over by Big Brother Incarnate (He wears many disguises to fool the masses). It's all about SOLIDARITY and our Union reps, Louis St John, Chuck Lapre, Patty Benner, Barbara Swire, and Marc Arena, to name a few, work their A***S off to back us to the wall when the proverbial s**t hits the fan. This time the "S**t" is Esperanza!!!

Anonymous said...

A Buffoon…
by whalingcitywatch

If there were any doubts that Mayor Mitchell is an incompetent buffoon, they were all erased during the Innovation Schools public hearing at the Keith Middle School.

When Mitchell arrived, late as usual, the crowd was informed that only two hours had been allocated to hear the voices of the people. Each would get three minutes to state their case. With one hundred ten (110) people signed-up to speak, it didn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that the two hours was inadequate. Mitchell devised a lottery to decide who would speak and announced that the hearing would continue Monday night. King John's decision to continue the session clearly did not have input from other members of the School Committee as they seemed perplexed.

Some people came from out-of-town to offer expert testimony on Innovation Schools and they made a special effort to be among the first to state their intentions to address the School Committee. However, Mitchell's lottery deprived them of that chance. If they can't come to New Bedford a second time, we may never get a chance to hear their informed opinions.

There clearly wasn't much thought put into this whole process. This is just another sign that the Mitchell Administration doesn't give a rat's behind about public input. In fact, King John left the meeting at 7:30. Last night's meeting was merely a façade to quiet the masses.

Anonymous said...

Excellent point about the School Committee meetings that have lasted for 3 and up to 4 hours. Didn't the presentation meeting for the Innovation Schools last almost 3 hours; however, last night's meeting with so many people lasted for 2 hours!!!! At the beginning the Mayor told everyone that he had to leave at 7:30 for a meeting. Why didn't her reschedule that meeting? The Mayor left at 7:30 which, if you were not there, was 52 minutes before the end of the meeting. Dr. Finnerty when he took over announced that the meeting with began at 6:22 would end at 8:22 making the meeting 2 hours. The Mayor missed almost half the meeting.

Please make sure you attend the meeting on Monday to show solidarity