To Our Readers

When we started this weblog, we promised that we would deal strictly with fact. Part of that promise is to be willing to admit when our commentary has been . . . well. . . misguided. After reading Tuesday's Boston Globe, we find one of those moments upon us. Yes, dear readers, we have read the profile on our Superintendent of Schools, and we have been transformed. We have donned the black Nikes and the purple shrouds. We are ready to drink the Kool-Aid and enter the parallel universe known as "Fred's World."

We can see you, sitting at your computers, shaking your heads in wonder. What could possibly have happened to engender such a transformation? After all, have we not been vocal in our critcism of all Freddie-like occurances in the past?

Well . . . maybe it was the title of the article -- "His schools, his life." A martyr for the cause of education is our Superintendent. How could we resist?

Maybe it was the image of our Superintendent as Cheerleader, making a rare appearance in the locker room of the EHS girls' hockey team, where "his voice rose, trembled, then boomed" as he urged the girls to victory.

Or . . . maybe it's that we still believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Man in the Moon . . . because you would have to possess the naivete of a child to accept this powder puff profile as anything but a pre-trial public relations maneuver on the part of the Superintendent. While the article does make mention of the indictments currently pending against him, it generally paints a portrait of a tough but misunderstood public servant who has dedicated his life to the betterment of the Everett public school system. Take another look at that article title -- "His schools, his life." In the parallel universe of Fred's World, it's all about Fred. These aren't our schools -- they're Fred's schools.

Now . . . don't misunderstand us. People who dedicate their lives to educating our children are to be admired, honored, even revered -- and there is a list of such people far too numerous to publish here who never get the recognition they deserve. However, people who claim that "it's all about the kids" while behaving as if it's all about them are not "martyrs to the cause of education." Self sacrifice and self-promotion are not synonymous.

The Superintendent has used School Committee meetings as his own personal platform for villifying the Mayor and members of the City Council who question his actions or the actions of the School Department. He refers to these elected officials as the Mayor's "lapdogs" while maintaining his own 9-member Kennel Club in the form of the School Committee -- people who, individually, are fine, intelligent, well-thought-of members of the community but who collectively have allowed themselves to be co-opted to the status of rubber stamp for the whims of the Superintendent.

We hope that you will all read the Globe article -- it is as telling for what it doesn't say as it is for what it does.

His Schools, His Life