RESIDENTS' ADVISORY COMMISSION FOR WORCESTER SCHOOL COMMITTEE

By Scott O’Connell
Telegram & Gazette Staff

Posted at 7:55 PM

   

WORCESTER – The Worcester Branch NAACP is pitching an idea to create a residents’ advisory commission for the city School Committee, according to one of its members.

That proposed body, which would be comprised of representatives of local school advocacy organizations, parents and students, would have the primary function of requesting and reporting on data from the school department through the School Committee and making policy recommendations.

Gordon T. Davis, chairman of the Worcester Branch NAACP’s education committee, said the commission would also address some of what he described as the School Committee’s representation issues, from its lack of a clear, formal citizen input process to the disenfranchisement some residents have felt from district leadership.

It’s also a way to insert African-Americans and other minority groups into the ongoing debate over the direction of the schools, which he said has focused predominantly on Latino students.

While he could offer no example of such a commission at the school level, he said the city has a similar concept in its citizen advisory council.

“I think to a certain extent this is to ensure we get a seat at the table,” he said. “I know it’s a new concept ... but we all have a stake in what’s going on in the schools.”

In particular, the advisory commission would be concerned with what is colloquially known as the “school to prison pipeline” – the school policies and practices that tend to punish students, particularly students of color, rather than help them get an education. The commission consequently would seek data – suspension rates, dropout rates, testing results – relevant to that focus.

Davis said the Worcester NAACP is currently reaching out to other local organizations to build a coalition behind its proposal. It has also discussed the idea with Mayor Joseph Petty, who serves as chairman of the School Committee. Petty’s office confirmed those meetings, but the mayor didn’t have a comment about the commission specifically on Tuesday.

The group has yet to approach the rest of the committee, however, according to Davis – “we’re going to wait to see who’s elected” in next month’s School Committee election, he said.

The one current member who is sure not to be on the next committee, Dante Comparetto – he dropped out of the race earlier this year, while the other five incumbents are still running – said the commission “sounds like a good idea to me.”

Comparetto also floated the idea of a School Committee ombudsman – another potential way, he said, of giving the public some input into the committee’s work. While the School Committee isn’t necessarily supposed to be intervening in individual constituent issues, he added, he doesn’t trust the school department to sufficiently fill that role, either.

“If we’re not supposed to be dealing with constituent service stuff, then who does it?” he said.

Committee member Dianna Biancheria, however, said committee members already are accessible to the public – “we’re out in the neighborhoods, we’re out in the community,” she said. “They have access to call us, email us, speak to us.”

She also expressed more confidence in the district administration to present school data to the public, saying she’d rather have the school department, rather than outside groups, in charge of deciphering and delivering that information.

The school system is under increased scrutiny now to release its internal data, after several community groups raised concerns this past year about persistent racial inequities in the district.

Superintendent Maureen Binienda is required by a 14-point plan she agreed to during her recent contract negotiations to specifically create a “clear and transparent process to provide the necessary, student-sensitive data needed to do a thorough review of the suspension rates” in the schools, according to a copy of that plan.

The intent of the residents’ advisory commission, Davis said, is to put a “little flesh and bone to what that group looks like,” referring to the unnamed individual or organization that would review that data.

Scott O’Connell can be reached at Scott.O’Connell@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottOConnellTG

We Must Ensure All Students Are Accurately Counted in Education Funding Reform Debate

We Must Ensure All Students Are Accurately Counted in Education Funding Reform Debate  New MassBudget Report Examines Accurately Counting All Economically Disadvantaged Students Every child in Massachusetts deserves an excellent education. To turn this vision into a reality, our unequal public education system desperately needs to bee remedied with state dollars to help our most disadvantaged students succeed. This past Thursday, the State Senate took a big step in the right direction and passed the Student Opportunity Act. This legislation would revise the Massachusetts' K-12 education funding formula and provide significantly more aid to many districts and students most in need.   Among other changes, this act proposes shifting how a low-income student is defined, defining "low-income" as 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, rather than the 133 percent level that has been used in recent years. While the act would provide significantly more state aid to school districts, the challenge moving forward is this legislation does not specify the method for identifying this expanded group of students. In our latest report, Making Every Student Count, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) analyzes the challenged of counting children who come from socioeconomic backgrounds, and highlights solutions to ensure all kids get the supports they need. "Children from low-income and immigrant households in our schools are most at risk of not being accurately counted," said Marie-Frances Rivera, MassBudget President. "This challenge deserves a thoughtful approach, that includes family outreach and engagement in order to strengthen families' enrollment in public programs that inform the districts low-income student count."   Many of the challenges arise because the current system requires heavily on data matching students who are enrolled in public programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Transitional Assistance for Families and Dependent Children (TAFDC), foster care, and MassHealth. There are some key challenges with this approach: Mixed-immigration status households eligible for these programs could forgo them due to the chilling effect of punitive federal changes, which could directly affect their local school districts' funding; Not all eligible students being enrolled in all programs they can participate in; and The misalignment between school rosters and program data, potentially missing students. The good news is that Gateway Communities like New Bedford and Springfield have been able to mitigate the challenges of the data matching approach couple with the chilling effects. Both cities, while vastly different, have experienced an increase in low-income students over time. Through the dedication of resources, these communities have been able to:  Regularly update the databases needed to make sure students who qualify for school meals receive them; Collaborate with local institutions to manually track and certify students who may have been missed; and Identify and support children from families from migrant, military, foster care and populations experiencing displacement. Click here to read the full report and learn more about the proposed changes. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, 1 State Street, Suite 1250, Boston, MA 02109

Time for Mr. Monfredo to Separate from the Worcester School Committee

TIME JOHN MONFEDO SEPARATED FROM  WORCESTER SCHOOL COMMITTEE

John Monfredo was the principal of Belmont Community School for at leat 20 years before he became a member of the Worcester School Committee. I have known him since the 1990s. He is a good man and principal.

Until recently I felt, because of his experience, he was a good school committee member. I began to have my doubts during the time that the Worcester School Committee chose a new superintendent of schools.

The acting superintendent then  was Dr. Rodrigues, who knew the job and had the advantage of speaking Spanish. Worcester has a growing Latino school population.

The candidate chosen was Mrs. Binienda, the principal at South High School. She did not have any experience as superintendent and she did not speak Spanish well.  Mr. Monfredo voted for Mrs. Binienda.

The doubt arose when I said to Mr. Monfredo that a doctorate is a requirement for being superintendent. He corrected me and said it was not a requirement. He said the Mrs. Boone, the previous superintendent, was working on her doctorate when she assumed the superintendent position. What Mr. Monfredo and other failed to inform us was that Mrs. Binienda did not have a doctorate nor was she in the process of getting one. She still does not have one.

This year 2019, several community groups concerned with education grew frustrated with the lack of transparency in the release of data about disparate suspension and expulsion rates. Worcester Schools had sixty percent of the so called emergency removals. An emergency removal of a student is done without due process.The numbers for Worcester were higher than Boston.

In frustration some in these groups called for Mrs. Binienda’s contract not to be renewed.

The School District was called “crazy racist” in a Face book post. In response Mr. Monfredo went on the radio and said that his policies were “colorblind. He also resigned from a Latino Education group that advised the School Committee. He was in the group to listen and enact policy. He was not there to advise the Latino about his point of views on colorblindness and the non-existence of school to jail policies.

Mr. Monfredo views on colorblind policies and school to jail perception are a form of White privilege. Colorblindness was a good thing when the racist segregationists ran the schools. It is not so good when we want to end racially adverse disparate impact policies.

It does not seem that Mr. Monfredo will be open to change. The Worcester School Committee has no Black or Latino members. The election cycle may be a good time for Mr. Monfredo to separate from the School Committee.

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GOVERNOR BAKER, WHITE PRIVILEGE, AND THE OTHER SHOE

GOVERNOR BAKER, WHITE PRIVILEGE, AND THE OTHER SHOE

 

Governor Baker has shown that he cannot run the state government of Massachusetts. There has been steady failures of State agencies in the performance of their responsibilities. Latest failure has been the Registry of Motor Vehicles’ (RMV) failure to review drivers’ violations committed in other states. This lack of review possibly is a factor in the death of seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire.

All of the victims of the RMV failure and that of Governor Baker were White and related to veteran military. Of course this would cause an uproar. However the uproar did not seems as great as when Governor Patrick bought curtains for his office.

Other failures by the Baker administration has been the criminal stealing of time by some State Police Troopers and what seems to be suspicious cluster of children death who were wards of the State. Governor Baker has not been transparent in either situation and it seems that many do not care. Could this be due to the fact in the case of the State Trooper thefts the perpetrator were almost all White? In the children’s deaths the children were almost all with dark skin?

The clearest example of Governor Baker’s White privilege has been the worsening service of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). Every week something goes wrong at the MBTA. Governor Baker has not been transparent about the problems. He hired the management company that should have anticipated and prevent the problems at the MBTA. The Governor has not assumed responsibility and does not seem to have a plan to resolve the problems at the MBTA. This is White privilege.

In 2015 Governor Baker viciously attacked the competence of Beverley Scott, General Manager of the MBTA at the time. Governor Baker said that she should have had the trains run on time despite record amounts snow. He did this through the media without ever once speaking to Ms. Scott. Ms. Scott is Black and she had previously ran a large transit system in the South. Baker owes her an apology.

The Governor’s bias toward Black women continued with the attack on District Attorney Rawlings for her end the mass incarceration programs. It was a surprise that District Attorney Rawlings called out the Governor Baker’s White privilege and racism when she mentioned that the Governor’s son who was alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman on an airplane was never charged by the State.

It has been my experience that when people admit to something it is sometimes done to hide something worse.  The scandals surrounding Gov.Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito could be a harbinger of worse to come.

Meet School Committee Chanllengers 7-22-19

The challenge of the non-incumbents

The Worcester Branch of the NAACP is sponsoring an education meet and greet for non-incumbent school committee candidates. The public is invited to meet the new candidates and ask them one on one questions.

The first part of the meet and greet will be the candidates giving their opinion about fully funded schools (Chapter 70) and disparate discipline enforcement (Chapter 222). The NAACP has met with mayor regarding these issues.

The meet and greet will take place

                                           Monday, July 22, 2019, 6 pm

                                          Centro Community Centr
                                          11 Sycamore St.
                                           Worcester MA 01610
The new candidates are:

Cara Lisa Berg

Chantel Berthea

Laura Clancey

Jernah Kamara

Mariah Martinez

Tracy Novick

Ruth Rodriiguez (write-in candidate)

John Tobaugh

NO IMMAGE 

Hermones McConner

Hate Crimes, Body Cams, Diversity, and Worcester Police

Hate Crimes, Body Cams, Diversity, and Worcester Police

 The Worcester Police under Chief Sargent has become more transparent. They seem to have changed for the better without affecting their effectiveness.  It was surprising when I heard activists in the Blacklives Matter movement say the same. I hope I don’t have to eat these words.

Several years ago the police in Worcester were hated. They used excessive force and harassed the teenagers out of the downtown and other places. The Worcester Human Rights Commission monitored the civilian complaints against the Worcester Police and at the urging of the Progressive Labor Party and other groups the police also began to report on incidents of hate crimes.

The incidents of both complaints and hate crimes have gone down. Although there is some questions regarding the methods of the statistical analysis, there seems to be a real reduction of incidents.

Since the Blacklives Matter movement there was a so called commitment by the City of Worcester for the implementation of the use of body cams for the police. After petitions to the City Council and the embarrassing admmittal in 2018 that there were no concrete plans for body cams, Chief Sargent got the police union to agree to pilot program for their use.

The chief was uncertain at the Worcester Human Rights Commission 6-3-19 meeting about the criteria that were to be used in the evaluation of the body cameras and policing. He sounded like he was making up policy at the meeting, but one can take away that he is in favor of the body camera use.

PLP petitioned City Council that it establish policy for the use of body cameras. This petition was sent to the Public Safety subcommittee chaired by Kate Toomey.

This city councilor has done nothing on the issue. I think she should resign from Public Safety subcommittee for abrogation of her duties.

Recruitment seems to be an area of confusion and double speak.  The recruitment Sargent spoke of the many things he has done including working with the Diversity Officer in the City Manager’ office. However as long as ex-military get first hot at the police positions, the recruitment of women and people of color is almost zero. There are no Black females on the police force in Worcester.

We will see soon enough if the transparency is long lasting. The body cams are evaluated in November. The complaints, diversity,  and hate crimes next report is due in early 2020.

Crimes Against Humanity at the United States Border with Mexico

Crimes Against Humanity at the United States Border with Mexico

 

The wall at San Diego

The details of the miserable conditions and injustices that asylum seekers are suffering at the United States border with Mexico is generally known, but many of the details are not. A friend, Ramona, and others from the Progressive Labor Party recently went to the San Diego/Tijuana crossing to provide legal and social aid. The details of their advocacy has helped in the understanding of the crimes against humanity by the American government.

 Most of the asylum seekers are from Central America and Mexico. The American government’s threat of sanctions against their countries of origin has only increased the incentive of asylum seeker to move to relatively safer United States. Surprisingly there were Haitians, Yemenis, Russians, Somalis, Iraqis, Brazilians, and more nationalities.

At the border crossing is a plaza, El Chaparral, to which scores of asylum seekers go every day. They wait there to get a number on the “List” or wait in the hope that their number would be called from the List. In December of 2018 the American government closed down the List and some who had gained entry to the United States were deported without standing. 

From the scores of people who gathered daily in El Chaparral, only 40 would be processed each day. In frustration many asylum seeker give up and self deport.

Given the miserable conditions in the countries of origin self- deportation is a choice of almost certain death. The asylum seekers on the Mexican side of the  border are kept in camps and live and sleep outdoors. Their clothing is not suited for the sometime cold nights of Norther Mexico. This is especially true for the youngest children and the elderly.

 Both girls and boys are preyed upon by human trafficker and sexual predators. Boys are targeted by the American Border patrol and arrested immediately and deported right away even when in the United States.

The miserable conditions improve only slightly for the people whose numbers are called and get processed. These people are sent to a facility called “The ICEbox”. Their outer clothing is confiscated and aluminum blankets are issued. The blankets are not suitable given the temperature. The ICEbox lacks proper sanitary appliances, privacy, and food.

When people are released from the ICEbox, the American government ships them to concentration like camps that could be anywhere in the United States. These camps aka ICE detention center jail people until their cases are heard. This may take years. It is at these camps that the children of asylum seekers are separated from their parents.

Some people unable to either get into the United States and unable to return to their country of origin have applied for “humanitarian “visa from Mexico. This allows them to work up to one year in Mexico. These visa adversely affect the asylum seeking status of the refugees. The Mexican government tells the refugees that legal help costs up $5,000 and that they are better off taking the visas.

Once the visas are taken the asylum seeker become the most exploited workers in Mexico, selling themselves as day laborers.  

Like the American government the Mexican government is creating conditions to make asylum seekers self deport. It has ordered recently the evacuation of the Benito Juarez Shelter. The government sent in its riot police to blockade food and supplies from going to the shelter, when the people refused to be evacuated.

My friend, Ramona, worked at Enclave in Tijuana. There she and many other American volunteers provided legal help, food, childcare, and medical support. While there Ramona said around 1500 asylum seeking people were helped. She said that she and other volunteers stay overnight in San Diego and travelled to Tijuana in the morning.

Sometimes the volunteer were hassled. Ramona recalled the time she was delayed because her passport had been stamped in an African country. A border patrol agent wanted to know why she was there. Ironically the Border Patrol agent was an immigrant from Uganda.

Some of the significant groups helping asylum seekers are World Central Kitchens, Food Not Bombs, and  Pueblo sin Frontera.

There are organizations of deported people including DACA Moms whose children are still in the United States. They stay near the border so that they can sometime see their children.  Another group is Deported Veterans, US military troopers who have been deported.  

Recently the Head of the American Homeland Security Nielson had resigned. Given the crimes against humanity going on at the United States border, it would not be a surprise if she had done so to stay one step ahead of the International Criminal Court.