Once again, SC Chair Margaret Driscoll has improperly and rudely interrupted yet another citizen of Melrose during SC Public Comment period on November 15th for simply asking informed questions about school choice that Ms. Driscoll apparently deemed too controversial. A resident had simply questioned whether making slots for out of town residents would indirectly close spots for her daughter and other outplaced children who may want to return to their district schools from their outplacement(a completely valid question). At that comment, SC Chair Driscoll rudely interrupted and falsely claimed that "We can't have a dialogue here". Number one, there is no prohibition to asking valid questions of the committee and superintendent, regardless of whether they decide they want to answer these questions at the meeting or not. Number two, a school committee member or the superintendent is well within their right to answer the questions posed by residents at the SC meeting if they so please. So why do the voters and tax payers continually tolerate this women's extremely abusive behavior towards the stupid voters who elected her to office in the first place?? Go figure.
MD and her cronies/supporters = Melrose Supremacists
Not hard to see how a disgusting and truly dangerous character like DT got elected when you look at the revolting choices supposedly civilized people in Melrose have made and continue to support.
I wonder if this poor woman is even aware that Ms. Driscoll continues to insult her intelligence by openly permitting her daughter's name, SPED outplacement, school and tuition costs to be publicly posted ( most recently on the June 14th 2016 SC meeting packet on IQ2M)on the MPS school committee website in violation of FERPA, even though Margaret has been fully aware of this serious Federal violation of privacy laws since Aaron Leibowitz's article was posted almost two months ago in the Free Press?
[:-|]
Respect The Rights Of Others. Treat others as you want to be treated.
The above is a prime reason why citizens don't want to come before the school committee. The SC and Martha Grover like to say how no one wants to participate but when someone does, this is what happens. People watch on tv and see the disrespect and abuse.
That parent had every right to be concerned and ask her questions. The SC was pretending to call out for 'public participation' on school choice but when actually faced with some, Driscoll shut it down.
I don't understand having school choice when supposedly the schools are overcrowded and the sending districts send less than the Melrose per pupil expenditure.
There are so many complaints about the charter school taking kids away and the school system losing money because of having to overpay for them to the state that I don't understand taking in unnecessary extra kids and being underpaid for it.
To those who are going to point to the SC cockamamie rationale, I don't buy it. Most other communities do not participate in school choice. There are a few in low population areas but when I last checked on the DESE website, no top tier school districts were included and that tells me all I need to know.
"indifferent to the wishes of others and concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people's needs."
The "indifferent" part is accurate, if vastly understated. The "procedural correctness" is an interesting euphemism considering that this one woman alone (not counting the rest of the ship of fools on the SC, former and present) has been responsible for countless violations of actual law and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars spent defending her illegal actions (many of which have been found to be in violation by state and federal authorities). She plays the part of the officious school marm to the extreme, to the point that she was coined MPS' own Dolores Umbridge, which is a fitting characterization. Those in her camp fit almost too well in similar roles, Grover, et al., lining up with such perfect archetypical qualities that Rowley could definitely make a place for them in her lineup of evil and absurd characters.
The procedural correctness is on a sliding scale. It's only used to shut up the dissenters and anyone who looks like a dissenter. It's one sided. Notice how Martha Grover gets to take the floor whenever she wishes.
all good points, "Shutting Down"
The fact is, the School Choice Public HEARING is supposed to include a back and forth with citizens. That's what a hearing is. The Public Participation thing is different according to the state law, but other districts manage to have a respectful back and forth even there where our school committee does everything possible to disrespect everyone coming forward EXCEPT those they know are their tried and true SYCOPHANTS, like Grover. They will let those citizens (and/or city officials like MG, who shouldn't be allowed such privilege given her city positions and conflict, also as treasurer of the MEF), say anything and for as long as they wish. The SC members are total hypocrites who couldn't care less about a transparent and open civic process. MD is the one who deserves to be shut down.
Re: School Choice, the district actually makes money on this and it is a valuable thing to consider, since the pockets of open space (where it doesn't hurt other areas of crowding, like kindergarten) actually garner funds through Choice that pay for some of the other district needs. But then again, there is no reason to trust that anything is being determined competently given who is in charge.
If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem bystander.