Was so glad to see the articulate letters in both papers calling for the immediate resignation of the superintendent as a result of the grotesque mismanagement of civil rights cases in the schools. Along with her should go the city solicitor, the asst. superintendent who ran the fake investigation (that purposely bypassed the adult teacher who witnessed the event, among other wrongful actions), and any on the school committee who knowingly gave a nod to all these actions. This is a rallying cause that all who care about social justice should be able to come together and demand.
Interesting. What papers and what dated? I'd love to read them as I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Both Free Press and Weekly News (Thurs & Fri, yesterday & today).
its in the free paper, bob snow
MELROSE $169,744 CYNDY TAYMORE Superintendent.
Taymore makes $179,000, not $169,000, not including her inflated perks or the incalculable harm she has already cost our district, both financially and in every other way that counts.
You make the call: Fire or renew?
A superintendent who, instead of investigating a formal complaint of teacher-administrator misconduct, harassment and civil rights allegations, openly advises the aggressor-teacher to file false and retaliatory harassment charges in local district court against the child-victim a day after the parents advise the school district of the victim's resulting PTSD diagnosis resulting from the teacher's misconduct.
A superintendent who:
-Rewards an elementary school principal with a new contract after having been alerted of said principal "swatting" a family (who had just hours earlier filed a formal complaint of teacher misconduct with said principal) by falsely reporting to police that the complainant's child was at risk with the parent, prompting a frightening, intimidating and unnecessary four-hour emergency response by law enforcement resources. The principal is forced to file a retraction with chief of police, superintendent of schools and city solicitor
to remove false statements made to the responding officer.
-Rewarding an elementary school principal with a new contract after bringing the elementary school and thus the entire district down to level three status.
-A superintendent who openly permits a city solicitor to illegally communicate intimidating and retaliatory e-mail threats (in violation of civil rights laws) against complainants on her behalf, warning of possible criminal charges(harassment)against the complainants should they continue to pursue civil rights violations and teacher-administrator misconduct complaints with school administrators after the school district repeatedly declined to investigate.
All of that is outrageous and awful. Definitely should be fired, as should city solicitor and any others who have been party to the bad acts.
Unfortunately the School Committee rewarded their "exemplary" employee (and her revolting team) with extended contracts, and they did this long before they were required to. Then they made sure to give them big raises from their "pot" during the summer when the school committee figured no one would be watching. Of course to this day the public has no idea what kind of raises were given out or to whom, but you can blame Rob Dolan, Kristin Thorp, Margaret Driscoll, Chris Casatelli, Don Constantine, and Jessica Dugan for their comprehensive failures to represent the best interests of the city and school district and refused to provide transparency about the many bad acts they have either been part of or made sure to hide. Then they have the nerve to go to the citizens and demand more money, claiming dire need, when in fact there was a huge and as yet unexplained "surplus" both city-side and school-side. Now they are doing this with the upcoming budget season. They have lots of slick answers of course, but there's no explaining away their complicity in the illegal and nefarious conduct that the incredible OCR Findings document revealed. Instead of contrition, they are persisting in yet more aggressive bad conduct.
Sadly, the OCR findings and Resolution Agreement completely overlooked the sins of the administrators: Rampant intimidation and retaliation carried out by the superintendent, assistant superintendent, city solicitor and selected administrators (HM comes to mind) using public resources to target the victims of civil rights violations who have bravely filed complaints with the school district (despite their well-known reputation to retaliate). For these so called "civil servants" to brazenly and illegally attack and victimize the victims for a yet a second time is simply sadistic behavior that must not go unpunished. Why has the school committee *(except for Carrie Kourkoumelis and new members) been hiding in the shadows while their constituents are unlawfully attacked by these rogue administrators that they have legal and moral oversight responsibility for?
Let them know you want them to do their job:
http://melroseschools.com/school-committee/meet-the-board/#sthash.vbDxYNYy.dpbs
Mayor Dolan
Margaret Driscoll (chair)
Jessica Dugan
Chris Casatelli
Liz Deselm *
Ed O'Connell *
*New committee members
The middle school is another place where brazen violations of civil rights--against both students and teachers--are taking place right under the collective noses of the School Committee, all sanctioned by the administrative team. It is truly a hotbed of awful conduct by administrators. How Melrose has gotten to such a rotten place is on this community for allowing it to happen. Conversely it's on the community now to insist and demand that it be fixed.
Examples please? (other than the ginger day nonsense that was completely overblown by the middle school administrators to provide cover for the true civil rights indiscretions the administrators).
The 1993 Education Reform Act moved all School Committee responsibilities to three central areas: Hire/fire the superintendent; manage the budget with Foundation Aid/additional state funding; establish policies around mandated standards for improved teaching and learning. We should all also know that the overarching Massachusetts Selected Laws always have by statute that the superintendent is the "Executive Secretary" to the respective school committee. That means the superintendent works for the school committee not vice vera that gets postured as such. In any event Cyndy Taymore's total ineptness is in her employer's laps. Mayor Dolan and the SC should be firing her.