The Boston Herald Gets It Right

On page 15 of the Boston Herald, it was reported that Lona DeFeo, the maintenance manager of the Everett School Department, has been allowed to keep her job, despite her conviction three weeks ago in the school corruption scandal on charges of procurement fraud and conspiracy.

It is also reported that Alderman Stephen Smith has asked for an update on DeFeo's status at Monday night's meeting. We hope he gets it. We also hope that Joe Guliano has a field day with this one.

What is also interesting is the silence from Mr. Hanlon's office. The Boston Herald reported that Mr. Hanlon failed to return several phone calls from the reporter. Neither did Superintendent Foresteire, and School Committee member David Ela. It is also in this same week that Mr. Hanlon proclaimed during his inaugural address that "there has been a distinct lack of communication and cooperation between City Hall and the School Department administration. Whatever communication problems have existed in the past, I hereby proclaim are over - and I do mean over." Oh, they're cooperating all right. Perhaps in the "interests" of cooperation and good communication, Mr. Hanlon, Mr. Foresteire and Mr. Ela are all in the "Cone of Silence" together? (Apologies to Get Smart)

This has been a disturbing chapter in Everett's history, and it's clear that there will be no real closure until the Superintendent goes to trial. We fully expect that there will be another round of "editorials" condemning the Boston Herald for daring to tell the truth about the things that are happening in Everett. One paper has consistently blamed David Ragucci for the Boston press involvement - but he's not the mayor any longer. There was a move afoot at an Everett Bulletin Board to get its members to contact the Boston media outlets. It looks like they were successful.

It's going to be enlightening at the Alderman's meeting on Monday night. Let's hope the reporter from the Herald is in the audience.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=120242