Maybe the Mascot/Red Raiders issue will finally takedown Taymore. God help anyone who attempts to change the outdated ways of Brigadoon...The Mayor's comments show a parochial and limited understanding of the world that exists outside Melrose's borders. Just because a bunch of former MHS football players want to maintain the name/logo/mascot the Mayor caves. Taymore is trying to save her own reputation (OCR Investigations)...she attempts a "Hail Mary" pass by invoking her "right" to make a decision unilaterally...(though the SC was informed and the issue has been on the MHRC agenda for months).... CT is now being "culturally sensitive". The Free Press printed a "Sitting In" article today written by the paid PR firm...Full of BS !!! Too Little...Too Late, Cyndy.... But maybe we should thank the football obsessed "RED RAIDERS" fans whose tackling expertise maybe the final play that ends Taymore's game!
Hey, I'm all for cultural sensitivity. In fact, I just sent Howdy Doody an email suggesting he lay off Chief Thunderthud.
Nonsense? Of course, but no more nonsensical than trying to cover for your buddy, the teacher who told a kid to "Go back to the plantation.". Cultural sensitivity indeed.
There was one guy who spoke at the meeting about the "perception" of Melrose - and he's only lived here for a year. We need a plethora of people like that - who aren't afraid of retaliation and put principles above politics.
It's disappointing to see so many bright, articulate parents at the SC meeting talking about feathers. Feathers and the name Red Raiders. This is a priority right now? With all the other issues facing MPS? Issues that impact their students that are sitting in the classrooms?
How about reading a letter about the money we ship off to MVCS every year? Or, how about one on the fact that kindergartners are going to be schooled in closets? Better yet could we have a conversation about hiring an expert to look at our SPED budget and figure out how to align it more closely with other districts in the state?
Don't underestimate Taymore. She knows a move like changing the logo will get publicity and distract from the real issues at hand - like the budget. And we swallowed it hook, line and dreamcatcher.
I'd bet my life that this whole "controversy" was contrived by the PR firm the taxpayers are paying for, to deflect attention from Taymore's abysmal job performance and to create the false impression that she actually cares about creating an environment of racial sensitivity and tolerance. It's all BS.
The featherbrained young parents now in a snit mean well but don't see the forest for the trees. The bunch from Tuesday night probably think they are "fighting" for Democracy itself, with their kumbaya quotes. Good on them for taking the time and hiring baby-sitters to come, and finding the courage to speak. There have been so many others before, who have tried and then eventually faded away with battle fatigue and fear of retaliation, clinging to that shopworn thing that they have to stay "positive" and "collaborative" and not venture near the third rail of "negativity." Where have they been all these months/years when the heinous civil rights violations of all sorts (including the enormously costly SPED violations) have been occurring right under their noses, or all the other multitudes of serious "negative" (dysfunction and wrong-doing) that are pretty easily observable? Answer: they have been living the dream, working hard, loving their children, assuming that the schools and community were as glorious as their realtors and the mayor was telling them all along, from before they even bought their over-priced homes and enlisted in Birth to Five or the ECC, etc. They were having babies and trying to be the best parents and people they could be, earnestly trying to keep faith that they really are living in a "wonderful" community where they can feel confident of the community values their children will be raised within. They are continuing in that vein, just a little the worse for wear now that they know that maybe the blush is somewhat off the Rose, having read about that pesky OCR business and now this outrage about "tommyhawks" and feathers. They are smart enough to see that some of these administrators are not too swift, but they buy into the jargon and don't look too closely. Most have never bothered to investigate beyond what they hear from their neighbors or friends at yoga.
The PR Machine is still managing to keep hold of these well-meaning but naive parents, feeding them just enough to let them think they are having an effect and that they can feel proud being part of a "positive" process. They don't realize how they have been co-opted and are being used. They don't realize that they are only being given just enough information to make them Believe.
They are worried about Kindergarten (again and always with this ever-renewing crew), and ECC/After-school fees, etc. They are being hammered with The Message: Dire Budget Crisis, as Dellarusso and Dolan once again ranted Tuesday night for the cameras (since most of the parents had already gone back home to their babies). These parents don't remember just a few months back that there was a $3.5 million-dollar SURPLUS (now hiding in all the various slush funds, Enterprise Funds, "safety reserves," and all the other euphemisms). They are going to continue hearing The Message every time the mayor, SC, Martha or Lisa or Jen or superintendent open their mouths, at every PTO meeting. They will want to believe in the basic goodness of these people because that is how they want to raise their children.
Some sort of incompetent version of a budget will be approved soon, hacked together by those cooking it all to continue The Message. There will be many Dire Warnings about pink slips and crowded classrooms and "contract negotiations" and on and on (remember just a few weeks back when the same ones said "there is no crisis?" One way or another the school year will draw to a close (with all the lawsuits, grievances, OCR complaints brewing and accelerating silently in the background, while the incompetent legal "team" continues to wrack up hefty fees, administrators take more junkets for their "conferences" with 4-star hotels...). The 5th-grade "graduation" excesses will take place. The proms and grad parties will take the front pages of the papers (hopefully with flowers for the dresses and not funerals for fallen inebriated students). Vuvu and ClownP will yammer away about the infinite superiority of MHS grads. And shortly after the budget brouhaha dies down, everyone will have departed for their cabins and beaches and won't notice the exodus of staff or 9th-grade students or the "pot of money" set aside for administrative raises that will get quietly voted unanimously sometime in June or July. There will be some executive sessions to approve some contract extensions of principals and others who keep getting rejected when they apply for jobs elsewhere.
The kerfluffle over feathers may or may not yield some interesting news pieces, but the battle fatigue for the new parents will quickly overtake them as it has for most of their predecessors who fought over other things that seemed terribly important at the time. The young parents haven't yet cottoned to the double-dealing that the administration is doing right under their noses, claiming to be working with them while at the same time laying down with the jock fanatics and loonies who care only about their precious sports identities. They didn't even seem to notice RD's sleight of hand in his ridiculous little speech Tuesday night about his time with the vets, as if that had anything whatsoever to do with whatever his "point of personal privilege" was referencing at the close of Public Participation. (He just wanted the young parents to think he was aligned with them without revealing that in fact he's totally aligned--or at least he was Tuesday--with the other side, a bit of a problem he will have going forward since these gullible parents are his electoral bread and butter. He may just have to flip and go with the Marshmallow Logo in the end, though he doesn't want to risk alienating his core support, which in this case is divided. But he'll just raise his finger and see which wind is blowing stronger, and go with that, cajoling and/or bullying the rest after he's tackled to the other side.)
Cynical much, yes. It could be different. It could get real. But that would take more than the superficial views and a real will to get to the bottom of all that's wrong. That takes backbone, too. Not sure many have the will or the strength or even the willingness to understand and pursue beneath the superficial.
Articulate and bright? Obviously not too bright if they can be distracted by so simple and obvious a PR play. I'm so sick of out-of-control PC crap. Maybe we should have the Celtics stop using a leprechaun - it might offend Irish people. Oh, wait.....I'm Irish. Is it weird that I'm not offended?
A dreamcatcher is a Native American device to protect against evil. I'm all for that, and I'm going to get one myself if it shields me from the rantings of the PC police. Meanwhile, I'm wondering how the kid that was told to go back to the plantation by Taymore's buddy Baline is feeling right now. Perhaps that's the kind of disgusting behavior we should be worried about.
You must think you're up for a Medal of Courage award yourself with your posting. And by the way, how many kids do YOU have in the district?
Anonymous is the differentiator? That is the most ludicrous comment I've read in a long time.
The schools are not helping the city of Melrose with the payments from many lawsuits. I have lived here for over twenty years and this should not be a problem in a wonderful city as Melrose is.