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.