Hypocrisy - The School Department, Accountability and the Budget Process

According to local press and the Board of Aldermen, our indicted superintendent of schools isn't accountable to anyone but the school committee. Or is he?

Check out this website.

Evidently, this is NOT what Fred said to the the nice folks from "Building Blocks," an educators' website created by Mass Insight Education. Mass Insight Education is an organization devoted to helping school districts reach higher levels of academic performance. Under the title, "Educators Blue Prints for Effective Standards Based Reform," Fred evidently sells one story to his peers and educators and quite another to the parents, taxpayers and city government. Our editorial comments are in "blue."

From the site:

In Everett, accountability isn’t just a catch-phrase. Everyone in the school community — from the superintendent to the parents — shares responsibility for improved student learning. The district employs specific evaluation systems to communicate and assess each party’s role in helping students meet the standards. Furthermore, it provides incentives in return for greater teacher accountability and takes action when anyone fails to do his or her part.


Step One: Hold the superintendent accountable, through regular reporting of performance data
Superintendent Fred Foresteire says he is accountable not just to the mayor and school committee — but also to the students, parents, school councils, teachers’ professional organizations, and the citizens within the district. [Funny, that's not what he says in Everett. He had his high priced school attorney send an alderman a long windy letter stating that he was only accountable to the school committee.] He strives to make that line of accountability crystal clear by communicating progress, data, and action plans on student performance clearly and regularly to all constituents. [Communicates progress? I guess we missed that school committee meeting!]

The Blueprint:
The superintendent must report regularly on progress with all constituents. The superintendent presents a formal progress report to the school committee three times a year. [Mr. Alconada...are you sure that this is happening?] Presentations are televised and available on the public access channel. [Mr. Alconada - what channel is this on, the fantasy channel? Most of the time, your members waive the reading and vote!] The superintendent and other central office staff also make regular presentations, in person, to the city council, school councils, teachers’ professional organizations, students, and parents. The emphasis on candid, regular, comprehensive progress reporting has helped to focus the entire community’s attention on academic achievement — and what must be done to continue improving it. [There has to be a parallel universe where these presentations are being shown....'cause it's not in Everett!]

The superintendent provides performance data to support budget requests. [Clearly, hell must have frozen over when this allegedly happened.] When presenting to the school committee, the superintendent provides updates on school improvement plans, outlines specific actions targeted for the year, and uses MCAS and other data to demonstrate progress toward those goals. [If Fred used MCAS data, he would be getting significant budget reductions, given that last round of scores.] Only then, with all of the data laid out, does he address the budget. [What? We honestly thought Fred figured out what he needed for football first, and then built the rest of the budget around that. Ask the special ed parents, and don't miss the state audit! ] The school committee and town budget managers have been responsive to the progress shown on these achievement measures (see the profile of Devens and Everett schools), and has generally funded the requested operating budgets. As Foresteire notes, “People are willing to pay for results they can see.” [We're still waiting for results we can see. He's right about people being willing to pay for results but we're also tired of paying for a broken, top heavy school system that delivers little in the way of educational excellence.]

Obviously, there's a huge difference between what Fred says and what Fred does. Fred doesn't do most of the "best practices" that he's laid out for Mass Insight. Everett Educator and sad student, among other commenters on this blog, have given us tremendous insight into what is really happening in our schools. But what Fred does have is an incredible public relations machine, building him up to be the posterboy of urban public education; he's even used special education money to pay for it, according to the state audit. But as the school falls down around him...our school committee refuses to act, despite a state audit revealing mismanagement and incompetence at almost every level. According to the audit, Fred's staff can't even take staff attendance right.

Memo to City Government - hold Superintendent Foresteire as accountable as he tells his peers. Get "all the data" he claims to provide before approving his budget. And if he screams - point out what he told "Building Blocks." If you still you don't get the data - call the Department of Education and ask them to step in before it's too late. The children of this city are counting on you.