And you did all of that in 2 hours and 21 minutes? [:-?]

The mayor does have a staff you know...

That's exactly what I was suggesting. They really do think we're all stupid.

Yeah, I'm sure you got on the phone and called a dozen different families and they all told you that Melrose High is the only reason their kids did well.

Look, if you want to embarrass yourself by running all over town telling people that MHS is some elite bastion of academic rigor and professionalism, have at it. I'm sure people will just smile and nod politely at you, and then roll their eyes behind your back. Everyone with a kid up at that school knows full well what it is, and what it isn't . You are free to make a fool of yourself, singing the praises of Melrose High School. But I think the override vote gave you a pretty good idea of how much faith people have in the school system .

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a staff member, that's just the kind of language I would expect from some of them.

I know kids in many of those colleges. No one got a call asking about MHS. LIAR

Good Evening to all of you. I've been reading this post, and it's so interesting what you all have to say. Most of the time you all are nice to each other and I won't say you go over the line but when you say 'eat me' that crosses the line. So I'll get to the point, Melrose High School does the best job it can possibly do with what they have to work with. The other big part of this thing is really, is the student itsself. Let's call it what is it, a student that is willing to learn and a teacher trying to teach the student what they are trying to learn. We can talk about home life that is a part of this, some students grow up in homes that are perfect, and there are some students that don't grow up in a home that is perfect and there are issues. Sometimes the issue may be with the students itself, maybe with the parents, but there's one thing that I can say, none of you know the answer to that. Because you can only base it on your own family, not anybody else's family. Or as I call it the people talking and spreading rumors, sometimes they're true sometimes they are false. But let's make this more interesting, I know myself I've gone and spoken at public meetings, in regards to school committee, how about the rest of you? I have some doubts about that because we know who goes and who doesn't go. We also know a lot of people watch it, more than we'd think watch the meetings. So the big question becomes here, every family tries to prepare their children for higher education. They can only do what they can do. In the Melrose Public School Systems, they can only do what they can do if they are willing to learn. So the big question becomes for all of you, is it important to you what school your child goes to or is it more important to your child what school they attend? College education is very important, there is no doubt about it. So for those whom are whining, you're whining about nothing, why do I say that? How invested are you in the Melrose Public School system? There are so many things that have happened in the past 4 years, from civil rights violations to the Melrose School Committee using these new norms so that people that we elect to the office can't be who they are because it has to be what the whole melrose school committee thinks. Raises a lot of big questions about the politics about being on the Melrose School committee. A lot of this goes right back I think at least to mayor Dolan. It's called controlling everything. But maybe the bigger question for all of us in this community, we want our children to do well in college, no matter what happens, I know personally. I've had one family member graduate, and I have a second family member with one more year to go and he will graduate. So stop whining out there, about what melrose high school has done, they have done the job that they can do. As our family members go on to college, it's up to them to continue to succeed. There's no debate here. What's really important is hoping over time, this community comes together and let's the melrose school committee know, our superintendent, the mayor and the board of alderman what we want from the Melrose school committee in the long run, it's not about the short run. Let's add one more thing to all this, moving students from one grade to the other from the middle school to the high school to make room because the population has increased to a surplus amount really needs to be talked about. Not a question about having a meeting on Saturday morning. Some of these children are young and are not ready to go to the highschool or even the middle school. I think our superintendent needs to get her act together, I know she doesn't live in Melrose so she doesn't know what it's like to live here, she may not like what I just said, but I don't care. She has been invited to many events and doesn't seem to want to go. Is that because when she did the budget she realized that she could not give herself a raise? No folks I don't think it's that. She is definitely reading the melrose message board. And she is getting the pulse of this community. She is probably hoping that there won't be an emergency school committee meeting voting on either keeping her or letting her go. Yes I raised a question, it would be silly for me to not do so. I've been watching, it's just an opinion I believe there is a disconnect here. So folks, you all enjoy this beautiful weather we are having. I've probably given you a lot to think about, doesnt matter who you are. Because these are serious matters. This is not about trash talk, this is about real facts, that's all.

You had me at Hello

Thanks Auntie Ed.

What a week for the Red & White. On Thursday Melrose High School will host 4 State tournament games with one game on the road. Boys Tennis, Baseball and Boys and Girls LAX all at home, with girls softball on the road. On display will be a host of Melrose Seniors that will graduate Friday night with MHS's most successful academic class in many years. These kids are getting done on the playing field and in the class room. Congratulations to the parents, students, teachers and coaches of these great kids. Great time to be at Melrose High School!

Woohoo! The hits just keep on coming. I love the fact that everyone wants to start talking about civility when supporters of MHS start to push back. Well, that is not going to happen. Long time viewers of this site are aware of the lies and venom that spews out of the private school parents on this site. Too bad that you pay big bucks to send your kid to a crappy school.
All of the haters out here can EAT IT; EAT IT; SUC IT; SUC IT; SUC IT; AND EAT IT AGAIN!!!!!!

Everett High also has good sports. So easy with the cheerleading. Any kid who gets into BC from Melrose High would be going to Harvard if they had attended MC or SJP.

hehe is just another bozo lying through his teeth. Melrose High has put way more Melrose kids in the Ivies over the past 5 years than MC or SJP...combined. Pretty dismal showing out of both SJP and MC this year. While Melrose has 4 kids going IVY MC and SJP have no Melrose kids going Ivy. With hehe's philosophy every Melrose kid at one of these schools would go Ivy...but the truth is that with the rare exception most Melrose kids at MC and SJP end up at State schools or 2nd tier privates. MC has put 1 Melrose kid in an Ivy in the last 5 and probably last 10 years and SJP may be ofer on the decade. There is a big celebration going on at MHS Thursday and Friday between the state tournament games and graduation. There will be a large contingent of Melrose kids going to parochial schools in the stands green with envy...as there are at every MHS event. These poor kids even line up to watch their friends at MHS get on the bus for the proms. Their parents sold them a bill of goods...and the clowns on this site are way to ignorant to get it.

You are plain creepy.

Even assuming that's true, I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case. How many Melrose kids graduated from both of those schools in the last five years? How many graduated from MHS during the same period?

Duh!

Everything you post comes straight from the "How To Bamboozle The Public" section of the Dolan handbook, under the subtitle "Never Let Facts Get In The Way". You are so full of crap it's leaking out of your ears.

Mystic Valley Students Ace MCAS

Mystic Valley Regional Charter School students once again scored at the top of all Massachusetts students on the most recent MCAS 10th Grade ELA exams. Ninety-nine percent of the Mystic Valley sophomores scored either Advanced or Proficient on the ELA portion of the exam. Not one member of the sophomore class received a Failing grade on any of the three MCAS test areas.

For more details see http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/mcas/achievement_level.aspx?linkid=32&orgtypecode=5&orgcode=04700000&fycode=2014

Clown Patrol, you have an irrational hatred of Catholic schools.
I would be interested in your educational background. And your religious background. Something happened to you. Damaged you.

Waka Waka Waka!

Mystic Valley Elementary Students bomb on the MCAS

Good post by "Well" pointing out the solid performance by the Mystic Valley charter school on the 10th grade ELA MCAS exam. If you click on the link that "Well" provided and move up the page a bit to fourth grade you will see that in the same year 54% OF THE 4TH GRADE STUDENTS SCORED IN THE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT OR FAILING CATEGORY FOR THE MYSTIC VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL. It does beg the question as to why any well-meaning parent would ever send their child to elementary school there. It also seems to support the contention that, over time, the Mystic Valley school appears to weed out the special education students thus resulting in falsely inflated scores at the high school level.

Respectfully, I am going to disagree with this assessment. Well, it isn't really a disagreement, just another point of view.
In speaking with many teachers across some very wealthy and well-regarded districts, this issue came up. Why is it that there are good districts that perform not-so-well at the lower levels, but then have almost all students perform in the higher bands in tenth grade. The opinions about this vary greatly, so maybe you are right about getting rid of the SPED kids.
However, I know that some districts feel like the scores in the early grades are just not that important. If they can show their parents the worth of what they are teaching, and prefer to avoid teaching to the test and spending an inordinate amount of time on test prep, and still come out "okay" on the 3rd grade PARCC, they are fine with that. Truthfully, what does the 3rd grade PARCC score really mean anyway?
Maybe the test focus at the charter school starts later. When it actually counts.
Just a thought.

CP the anti-Catholic...I'm a Scandinavian Buddhist raised in an orphanage in Bangladesh, educated at Harvard and Oxford...you schmuck. This website needs counterbalance to the 5 year run of non stop "irrational" anti Melrose Public School rants by private school parents and the parents of underperforming Melrose Students. When you losers all pile into the clown cars and drive off into the sunset the Clown Patrol will no longer be necessary...but for now the pack of bozos needs to be reminded that Melrose High kids completely outperform, academically and athletically, the collective group of Melrose kids who go to parochial schools. The smart and talented kids stay here...where they get a great education, a great HS athletic experience, and make great friends. Just head down to the fields tonight and tomorrow night and enjoy the celebration...and look at all the forlorn Melrose kids going to parochial school taking it all in.

I am not now nor have I ever been the parent of a private school student, and I am not now nor have I ever been the parent of an underperforming Melrose student.

Fact: The school system sucks.

Fact: You have now and apparently have always had a documented irrational bias against any private school or any Melrose kid who goes to one, or any parents who send their kid to one.

Fact: Parents of kids who go private could not care less what happens at MHS.

Fact: It's Melrose parents whose kids do go to Melrose schools that post complaints about the schools on this site, you blithering idiot.

Boo Yah...big celebrations at MHS tonight and tomorrow. The school system you say "sucks" has 4 kids going to Ivy's and dozens more going to great schools. They also have 5 teams in post season play. Go down to the fields and the graduation Friday night and find all the unhappy parents and kids. They will be wearing AP & MC jackets in the stands. See if you can stomach the joyous celebration. I bet you can't. Eat your hearts out you losers. Honk Honk.

The losers are the "YES" Override group, the MEF gang and the city and school officials who are still licking their wounds and plotting revenge. The Private, Catholic and Charter kids and their families are grateful for better educational opportunities and being free of the crazy, fraudulent law breaking nut jobs who run the MPS.

Haha! I didn't vote for the override and I am thrilled it did not pass. Melrose has proven that if you have a motivated, hard working student anything is possible; including getting into an IVY or other great institution. No need for an override.
If your kid is lazy and not very smart there are all kinds of schools willing to take your money.
Let's put it all out there; the parents of kids in the district cannot stand parents of the private and charter school kids. The privates are a bunch of kids that aren't bright and simply could not keep up in Melrose so they left for private schools and their parents spend all of their time bashing the district. The charter school...well just go meet some of those families and draw your own conclusions. The only thing for certain is that they do a crappy job at the elementary levels and kids leave the school at an alarming rate.
I absolutely love to see all of the success that the district is having. It is great to see the parents of private and charter school kids start to get all worked up. In your faces!!!

Exactly what part of this do you nitwits not understand? Yes, from your point of view, constantly throwing stones at private schools, parents whose kids go to one, and the kids themselves sounds like a great way to divert attention away from to the dysfunctional disgrace the school system has become under Dolan/Casey and now Dolan/Taymore. It isn't, simply because parents from MHS don't give two $hits what happens at privates, and parents from privates feel exactly the same way about MHS. Go back to fat boy and tell him you tried, but it didn't work - like the override.

Four kids out of 230 are going to an Ivy school? Pitiful. It's not the kids' fault - they're the ones being shortchanged by the system. Melrose kids are as intrinsically bright as any kids anywhere, and many more of them would have been capable of Ivy work had they been prepared properly. They weren't, and no amount of finger pointing at privates changes that.

I can't wait until the kids of the knicker licker MEF pinheads get to the HS. Of course by then there will be another crop of gullible pinheads to replace them.

"I can't wait until the kids of the knicker licker MEF pinheads get to the HS."

This will be interesting on so many levels. I won't be surprised to hear that many of them change schools for HS. Or move to a different community altogether. Many families move to Reading, Southborough, Sudbury, Acton, Lexington if they can afford it. The reason given to you might be something like closer to family or my husband's job but the real reason is to get away from the school system. They don't want to offend you but that's why. Same as the Catholic school kids who are "miserable" at the pep rally. They are being polite or they hate the pep rally.

I am surprised at the few MEFers that have children in the Middle School who support the damaging policies that are in place and that are being put in place. They must feel that their connections and their jobs at city hall will keep their children from suffering. Probably true but disgraceful that they would support policies that harm other people's children.

Clown Patrol, your hatred for Catholic schools is irrational. Students attend them for many different reasons and not because they can't cut it in the mediocre Melrose school system.

You never mention the students from Melrose who attend independent or prep schools because that is the true brain drain out of the MPS. For the parents that can afford it or the students that are talented enough to get scholarships, these schools take many of the city's best students. Quiet as it's kept.

The prep school parents could not care less about the MPS after their children leave. Same as the Catholic school parents and the NE Metro Tech parents. Why would they? They have to concern themselves with their children's current school. The SC, Cyndy Taymore, college acceptance rates, etc are all past problems.