I would like to make the community aware of a terrible situation at the high school. There is a lot of absenteeism among the teachers and not enough substitute teachers for whatever reason. They take a large number of classes and put them all simultaneously in the cafeteria with one substitute acting as a monitor. There is no teaching going on at all for this large group of students. Obviously this is happening period after period for the students who are in the missing teachers' classes. There are days where my daughter knows ahead of time she will be in the cafeteria for three class periods. Then the next day it is two. Then another teacher is absent. This is outrageous and unacceptable. The Melrose school system is basically warehousing our students every day. It is negligence and incompetence that should not happen anywhere. It is so demoralizing for the students.

This is a symptom of the dysfunction in the school system from top to bottom. I'm sure high absenteeism is a product of a bad environment to work in. These types of abuses happen when the system is worried more about itself than the people it is supposed to serve. The mayor, the school committee and the administration can babble on meeting after meeting about norms and communication initiatives that make them feel good about themselves. Yet right under our noses complete a disregard for the students of our community is happening day after day, month after month. We've realized that through the OCR results but this is an indication of systematic and widespread neglect. I don't blame the teachers. They have to deal with a terrible system themselves. I am so disgusted with everyone else involved. Luckily our family will soon be done with this whole mess. I feel for the families and students still moving through the system.

Absenteeism is not a problem in non-union charter schools.

Apples and oranges. Get rid of this gang of administrators and it wouldn't happen here, either.

The Melrose teacher's union is guilty of a lot, particularly in having Mateus and Baline as its presidents for the past many years (there is a new one now ever since Baline bailed). They have not done their job at all well when it comes to representing both the teachers' and students' best interests, and they deserve to wear the shame they have brought on the community. The most recent example (other than their wretched contracts that brought things like the MHS Parent-Teacher Meeting Fiasco that is ongoing or failure to use Aspen) is their totally inadequate representation (Baline still prez then) of art teacher Kristen McCarthy last June when she was treated so unfairly by administration and is now costing the district in 3 more OCR complaints.

But in this case, this is not a fault of the teacher's union as much as of administration and the school committee, that has failed in its oversight duties for many years. There is no excuse for substitute pay being now effectively below minimum wage. It's been a problem for many years and is now a crisis because the school committee and administration have neglected this situation for so long and cared so little. $50 is all that our district pays substitutes for a day of "teaching" (aka babysitting). This is far below what is considered standard or what is acceptable if this district continues to have any pretentions to anything but the lowest of the low. The school committee has willfully looked the other way at this for many years, even when it has been brought to their attention, and even when members' own children suffered the results. The mayor couldn't care less and is only there to flare his nostrils and threaten "not one more dime" as he continues in his juvenile rant after losing his override.

Remember, this is a school committee that 3 times voted for a new teacher contract 3 years ago without even having a document in front of them to study! The mayor and Margaret Driscoll were on that negotiating team and Thorp was the chair of the committee, all of whom knew that they were presenting a dramatically different contract for a vote without anything but the word of those 3 that it was "99% the same" (Dolan), which it most certainly wasn't as we later learned from the meticulous analysis by Gerald Mroz. Only Mrs. K voted against it and cautioned angrily that people generally spend more time selecting their breakfast cereal at the grocery store than this committee spent reviewing a document that represented the largest spending allocation in the city budget for years to come.

Where was the community outrage then? Answer: Nada! Where was MEF? Busy with their fluffy flamingo schemes and sucking up to administration so they could strut around and look important as they dole out their "grants". Where were the middle and high school parents (since most of them are too savvy to be involved with MEF)? Grumbling, angry but invisible.

Taymore and Driscoll (and probably Dolan) are again negotiating a new teacher's contract for the city. Probably MaryJo Hollender is the same attorney who did the the previous contracts, representing teachers (and in all other contracts--administrators, paras, etc.) but not doing anything to protect the students and community, IMHO. Do you ever wonder how these administrators (including the catatrophically failed ones) walk off whenever they want (like Picone is about to do in April) from their contracts prior to the completion of the terms, and with large payouts to boot, but the district gets left in the lurch every time? Well you can thank this attorney and the school committee for the lousy negotiations they have done for the past 14 years.

It's happening now, folks. Step up in some sort of meaningful mature way (show up, write public letters, speak, share information, organize) or content yourselves with paying a lot for the substandard and totally demoralized system that is now the Melrose Public Schools.

This would be a great story for Aaron Leiborwitz of the Free Press to investigate. It's really two separate issues. The staff absenteeism rates at the high school are through the roof, many of the students come home and mention teachers absent constantly. At what point does this become abuse of sick leave? Is Melrose High School typical of high schools around the greater Boston area, or are we far outside the norm? Having children several years apart, I never saw this level of absenteeism at the high school when my older daughter was there seven years ago, it seems to have exploded.

The second issue is the problem of substitute pay.....I never heard a word about this during the override campaign, and it's been a problem for YEARS. Why hasn't our current principal advocated for increasing substitute pay? She has known about this problem, and watched it go from bad to worse for years.

The exploding teacher absenteeism rates at Melrose High should be investigated, it's no secret amongst parents and students.

Also, why wasn't this issue been addressed in the last teacher union contract? I can tell you why - because substitutes do not need to be certified - therefore, why should the teacher union be concerned about them?

At the elementary level paraprofessionals are always used for substitutes. Which in turn causes non compliance of students Ed Plans. The lack of subs is definitely due to the poor pay and also the fact that they get paid monthly.

The Melrose Free Press might earn a Pulitzer Prize (if it did a Spotlight on the MPS). The questions raised are worthy of investigation. If I taught at MHS, I would use every single sick day allowed in my contract in order to preserve my mental health. I would feel sorry for my students...and guilty....but I would have to call in sick in order to take care of myself....

If you are a high school parent, ask your student how many teachers showed up to work today. They had a two hour delay, made they kids go to school, only to sit and do nothing. Half my sons teachers didn't show up today.

The substitute situation in Melrose is a disaster and has been for a long time. The District pays 55 dollars a day and the rate has not changed in over twenty five years, this is minimum wage. Shouldn't we be paying our subs more than someone who works at a fast food restaurant, I value my child more than a hamburger. As a result of the low pay there are no subs, when teachers are out they warehouse all the kids in the cafeteria with one person babysitting them.
Shame on Melrose.

And yet no one does anything but complain on here.

And the reason for this is because the school committee does not listen or care to consider the comments and suggestions by the public. This is all a circular argument that ends up with a dysfunctional school committee - and with 3 new people on the committee , you can expect a bigger rubber stamp than previous - especially without a CKK on the committee!

The people's voice (CKK) has left the committee and all we have left are the sycophants of the chair and Mayor.

And once again I say "Thanks, Melrose!", because the more the pool of good applicants shuns Melrose, my town has an increased chance of getting more and better candidates. Keep up the good work.

I do realize that at some point no candidates, not even the worst ones, will even apply to Melrose, so this superior pool will be diluted somewhat by the inclusion of those who once actually applied to Melrose. We'll have to be careful of that.

Actually, the reason the students go to the cafe instead of having a sub is to save money. It has nothing to do with not having enough subs. They have plenty of subs for the middle and elem schools. When it comes the HS they just let the kids use the time as a study block and have 2 permanent hired subs supervise all of them in the cafe.

Now, the real issue is teacher absence. This is a huge problem as the HS and needs to be addressed. But, as one person on this board said, really all we can do is complain here because the administration and the SC don't give a sh*t.

And yet, you are so naïve and still don't understand that their complaints to the school committee and administrators are simply ignored and/or are met with retaliation, public ridicule or snarky responses (such as dear Margaret's recent response to MFD). So they express their concern and anger on this website where hundreds of others can sympathize with them because they ,too, have been victims. And then things actually get done: Ridiculous override campaigns get squashed once the general public is exposed to the dirty details that the administration, school committee, superintendent and city solicitor try so hard to cover-up by hook or crook and OCR comes to town to ferret out the misbehavior amongst the ranks of our so called "leaders". The end.

I know it is not the politically correct opinion to blame the teachers for this problem. However, I DO blame the teachers. In their contract they get 15 sick days. That is in addition to the holidays, vacations, and the summer. Out in the private sector one is only allowed 5 days sick time. I do not believe most of the teachers in Melrose care about their students as much as they care about themselves. Parents will not say that because they are afraid of what will happen to their students at the school. Guess what? I'm afraid too. I have little respect for the teachers here in Melrose.

Just to provide balance to your comments above, admin staff and senior staff do not have the summer off but let's face it - with students not around, it is not as intensive job during the summer months other than preparing for the coming year. Of course we do this along with our regular job duties in the dreaded private sector job. I also disagree with you that MOST teachers do not care about their students. If that were the case with MOST teachers - then the situation would be much worse in our school system.

Generally speaking, I do not begrudge teachers for their sick time/vacations/summers. When I went to college and decided to become a teacher, I knew what I was getting into. I knew my college friends going into business would make a lot more money out of the gate, would have greater control of their retirement money, and would not have to be forced into a union. I knew the trade-off would be doing something I loved, and having job security, time off with my children, and a pension. It was all part of the "deal". However, here is the other part of the deal: I have worked in three districts during my 30 year career so far, and it has not been acceptable in any of them to take all/most/many of your sick days. It is an understood expectation that you do not take off Mondays, Fridays, professional days, etc. Of course, sometimes this happens, but if it happens a lot, the teacher would be not-so-subtly reminded of the expectations. In my current district, teachers come in early, stay late, and generally work in teams on curriculum for part of the summer. When people are out, there are clear and detailed lesson plans left for subs. There is a culture of professionalism, and I would be embarrassed to be a slacker or take advantage of sick time. There is a sense of pride and commitment to the students. I have heard from several Melrose teachers and students that I know how frequently teachers are absent (especially at the HS).I feel it has to come from the top. The administration has to build morale so people will feel like they can't miss a day for no reason. And, they need to figure out how to be more competitive with sub pay. It sounds like it is really out of sync with surrounding towns.