Is anyone wondering what is going on up there? So far, we have Fogarty moving up as the AD, and Merrill the interim principal. They then moved Courigan up to a permanent position as assistant principal. After that, everything went dark.
Will we be hiring a second temporary assistant principal now? If so, who will it be? Will Angela Singer now be in charge of the social studies curriculum, or will they appoint a director from the existing staff? If so, will that mean they will have to hire another history teacher to cover for a reduced teaching schedule that a director would have to have? Or will we just cut a bunch of history electives for the students?
And if we hire another permanent assistant principal, that would mean that Merrill would not be interim, he would either be permanent or out of a job.
It's obvious that Farrell has been planning to leave all along, if she was going to school to become certified as a business manager. The superintendent could have announced a search for a new principal in January, and had plenty of time to find a qualified one. Parents at the high school deserve some honest answers as to who the staff will be, what their duties are, who we will need to talk to if we have questions or problems, who our kids need to talk to to drop a class, override a recommendation, pursue an independent study, etc.
Parents are sick of being kept in the dark. This administration has shown nothing but contempt for high school parents, it's time the administrators quit playing games and patronizing us and tell us who they plan to put in these positions, since I'm sure they already know.
Thank God my kids are all out of the MPS and TG I voted against the override!
Again, all planning for CT's golden parachute exit. Robbie cut a deal with CT to move his political insider buddies into position in return for a good exit deal for CT. Looks like Conway will be the next super. He's been receiving a lot of face time with the school committee over the last several months.
Bet you never hear another thing about this. In most districts if you slapped a kid in the back of the head you would be out on your @ss.http://melrose.wickedlocal.com/article/20160401/NEWS/160409103
Still no word from the high school as to what the new administrative structure will be. I'm still getting the PR fluff emails of "What's New in the Melrose Public Schools" , though.
Principal Merrill is supposed to be holding a few meet and greets for parents, but apparently he's waiting to hear from a small clique of high school PTO parents to find out what dates work for them, before he schedules.
Mid July, and they still can't tell us who these " internal candidates" are for the second assistant principal position, or how, exactly, things are going to work with half the department chairs gone.
What a disgrace.
We all need to wait until Taymore gets back from vacation - probably be back in September.
Any word on who the second assistant principal will be? The job is not posted publicly, so they must be hiring an internal candidate, as they claimed they would. Why would it take this long to let parents know what was going on?
What's the big secret? There was mention of a search committee on this site, who are the members, and how were they chosen?
Why would there be a secret search committee chosen if they were planning to hire from within all along?
Are they expecting some blowback because of the person they chose? Is that why they are withholding the info from the public?
Someone's on the inside wife. [:)]
New other Asst Principal is Kari Berman. They turned away decent (actually qualified) candidates for their insider pick who was pre-selected. Totally ####ed up. This person has zero qualifications at the high school. Probably had the Freed girl on their committee again, preselected hand-picked favorite of administration (as was dad who was/is on their phony "tech council"). All just a bogus $hit$how sham. They really couldn't care less even that the impropriety of it all screams loudly to anyone with even the remotest bit of awareness.
Several new lawsuits against the administration have been brought as of this week.
CT madder than the nasty little hornet she already was. RD making her wear it all, or at least thinking that he's outsmarted her (not so much), refusing to let her resign because it would make him look bad (he already looks ridiculous), keeping her in a position by force that she wanted to walk away from with her fat pension and bennies. They're both venal and too arrogant to see beyond the end of their noses, thinking they're getting away with this $hit, both despising each other and flipping the blame for the mess back and forth. They're not getting away with anything. It's all blowing back big time. They're in fact both wearing it, as is the $hit$how of a sch committee. The kids and the community are paying for it all, and there is no end in sight, only more big doo-doo hitting bigger and bigger fans.
Well, when did they plan on letting the community know??????
Is it so dysfunctional up there now that no one knows whose job it is to send out notices?
And is Ms. Berman a temporary assistant principal? Because if she isn't, then the district just handed the principal job to Merrill without even doing a search, and the superintendent is lying to parents when she called him an interim.
Who is Kari Berman? What job was she doing?
Isn't there some type of requirement to publicly post public school jobs?
Lawsuits? Any info appreciated.
Forget my 1st question above. I remember Cari Berman from a poorly planned summer program a few years ago. Looked her up and realized she was the planner who waited until school was almost out to have the SWB program set up.
I'm sure she'll do a great job as Vice Principal.
She's the 6-12 Special Ed Director.
Swell. From sublime to ridiculous.
"Inside", please elaborate on the "several new lawsuits". The more of this stuff that sees the light of day the better chance we have of getting rid of these idiots.
The high school is in chaos. I feel badly for the incoming freshman.
If Berman has taken the job, why isn't her job posted? With the staff all playing musical chairs, there is one position short up there. Are they going to wait until August to post the job, so we can be certain to get the least qualified loser who couldn't find a job anywhere else? That seems to be what they usually do.
Who hires the assistant principals, anyway, the principal or the superintendent? And how does it work when you don't have a principal, just an interim?
Merrill principal (interim)
Corrigan asst principal #1
Berman asst principal #2
SFogarty AD
Both asst principals were promised these positions when CT/RD began their hack job decimating secondary education (while propping up/adding even more "support" positions to the amateur elementary teaching staff) with their new Reorg chart last May. They knew then that they would have these positions, and that any "search" process was just for show. Mocchi moved up to the 6-12 SPED position, someone CT has denigrated publicly with the most insulting kinds of words, and yet she has now promoted her.
Why would anyone be silly enough to expect that this arrogant administration would feel the need to communicate with the peons in the public, let alone be held accountable????
No one except Gerry Mroz showed up throughout the spring or summer (so far) to protest the most egregious part of all this, the slash and burn "management" of secondary education. Next Tuesday is a school committee meeting. If you care, get your butt there and speak during Public Participation. Otherwise, whine away here all you want, but none of it will matter.
That would mean that either Merrill gets the principal job, or he's out of a job????
Why do I get the feeling that that's not going to happen? Are they planning on doing a fake search and then hire Merrill anyway? Even if they do a search, when word gets out that there is a favored internal candidate, you won't get any decent people applying.
Then they will chose a really terrible finalist to make it easy to justify hiring Merrill.
Wow. I think I'm finally on board with the people who want to give Taymore the boot.
As the musical chairs continue, it's obvious that CT is on her way out and her hand-picked henchman, BC, will be moving up because RD thinks this a$$hat hung the moon, and we all know what an "education expert" RD believes himself to be, after all. They've completely given up even trying to make any of these ascensions into Peter Principle mania even vaguely legitimate, or the pretend search processes. They frankly and quite obviously don't care what the public thinks anymore. RD figures he has another 3 years until his next go-round in the voting booth (and maybe he's still expecting to get some plum job at the statehouse, though that ain't happening), so he has no compunctions about reaming the public for now. He's got his MEF-ites to worship him, and he never listens to anyone else anyway. CT is even more wretched than ever and throwing rage fits more and more often in between the constant burn of her increasing nastiness. They're all just going through the motions, and none too convincingly because they truly don't care. There's no morale left to sink. It's long gone.
This happened and its impact is already huge.
Quote: "“This will have a huge impact on our district, despite the commitment of our [administrative] team, and I think that commitment is what puts me in a position of feeling comfortable supporting it,” committee member Jessica Dugan said. “In my opinion, this is a hit for us.”...Nonetheless, the committee tried to look on the bright side. Several members suggested the program could serve as a pilot of sorts before being modified in the coming years."
JD is correct in saying this is a "hit" (meaning a damaging one). Her comfort in supporting all things Taymore reveals where this woman stands. Translation: she will find a way to whitewash literally anything, even when her intelligence and education tell her differently.
Quote: "“I think that applying this as a pilot program may give some people new opportunities to try things administratively,” Chair Margaret Driscoll said." Says it all. "new opportunities" indeed! Unmitigated hogwash from a dangerously crazed individual.
Quote: "“We are not dumping the reserves of the city in the schools for the sake of not making hard decisions,” Dolan said. “That’s how you collapse a community.”" Oh really. He'll say literally anything. Pure BS.
Quote: "The city has also increased its funding offer to the district by $155,000, despite Mayor Rob Dolan’s earlier suggestion that the city would stand pat on its initial offer of $25.7 million." Showing the cracks and where the bogus notion of actual, mature, responsible budgeting is entirely a fiction here.
May 05. 2016 9:56AM
Changes coming for Melrose High department head structure by Aaron Leibowitz
The School Committee approved a cost-cutting measure by Superintendent of Schools Cyndy Taymore last Tuesday, April 26, to overhaul the administrative structure at Melrose High School.
Beginning this fall, the district will eliminate its high school department chair positions and instead hire three “curriculum content directors” — one for STEM, one for humanities, and one for global education and the arts — to oversee curricula at the high school and, in some cases, at the middle and elementary schools.
The move spells the removal of three equivalent full-time administrative positions, including the Director of Visual and Performing Arts — a role created just two years ago — and the Athletic Director, whose duties will be covered by a Director of Wellness, Athletics, and Co-Curricular Activities following the retirement of longtime Athletic Director Pat Ruggiero this summer.
“My goal here, and I think my administrators are on the same page, is keeping our teachers, as many teachers as we can,” Taymore said, noting that many districts have gone to a similar model. “Unless someone wants to find me a quarter of a million dollars somewhere, I just don’t know where else to go.”
The plan is contingent on approval by the Melrose Education Association, which remains in negotiations with the district.
In effect, the duties of seven current high school administrators — the department chairs for math, social studies, science, English, global language, and the arts, plus the Athletic Director — will soon be covered by four people: three curriculum content directors and the Director of Wellness, Athletics, and Co-Curricular Activities.
Each content director will also be assisted by multiple “content facilitators” — teachers who will receive a stipend on top of their salary to focus on a particular content area.
Taymore said the decision, which passed by a 6-1 vote, would lead to a net savings of about $166,000. The removal of three positions will cut $266,000 in salaries, while the teachers who become curriculum content facilitators are expected to receive around $100,000 in stipends.
“This would give us an opportunity to provide leadership positions for teachers and, quite frankly, grow the next generation of administrators,” Taymore said. “There is some bonus in it.”
The STEM director will oversee the science, math and applied science programs for grades 6-12; the humanities director will manage English language arts and social studies/history for grades 6-12; and the director of global education and the arts will handle global language, art and music for the entire district.
Meanwhile, the Director of Wellness, Athletics and Co-Curricular Activities will assume the scheduling, transportation and hiring responsibilities of the Athletic Director, in addition to developing and coordinating the wellness curriculum for grades 6-12.
All four new administrators will report to Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Margaret Adams.
Christine Casatelli offered the lone dissenting vote on the proposal.
“The art and the music under global languages, it just doesn’t sit right with me,” Casatelli said.
Some committee members who voted in favor did so with some hesitation.
“This will have a huge impact on our district, despite the commitment of our [administrative] team, and I think that commitment is what puts me in a position of feeling comfortable supporting it,” committee member Jessica Dugan said. “In my opinion, this is a hit for us.”
Nonetheless, the committee tried to look on the bright side. Several members suggested the program could serve as a pilot of sorts before being modified in the coming years.
“I think that applying this as a pilot program may give some people new opportunities to try things administratively,” Chair Margaret Driscoll said.
Budget gap gone?
Since Taymore introduced her level-service budget in February, the district, city administration and School Committee have worked to reduce a $1 million gap in funding to less than $200,000 as of April 21.
That number does not include fee hikes the committee approved last Tuesday for extracurricular activities, athletics and music, which are likely to bring in approximately $100,000 in new revenue.
The committee also approved a $128,000 prepayment from School Choice revenue to help offset the budget deficit.
Factoring in the School Choice prepayment and estimated revenue increases from raised fees, the district appears not only to have shrunk its budget gap, but eliminated it completely.
The city has also increased its funding offer to the district by $155,000, despite Mayor Rob Dolan’s earlier suggestion that the city would stand pat on its initial offer of $25.7 million.
Still, Dolan emphasized, as he has repeatedly, that he would continue to be cautious when considering whether to dip into the city’s reserve funds to address an influx of young students into the Melrose Public Schools.
Melrose ended the 2015 fiscal year with $3.4 million available in free cash.
“We are not dumping the reserves of the city in the schools for the sake of not making hard decisions,” Dolan said. “That’s how you collapse a community.”
Dolan is a DONKEY he can let anyone GO!!!
Under Mr. Merrill.