Matt Pinnochio Wilder would have us believe that the superintendent moved slowly out of abundance of caution. Yes, and Bobby Valentine is managing poorly because he is still evaluating his players. Right! Let us not mistake inaction for deliberate thinking. Let us not throw Chuck McAfee under the bus either. The district has had NINE (9!) months to get this started, and it is still rounding 1st base in its efforts. This is not deliberate, it is not cautious, it is not McAfee, it is not thoughtful planning--it is not anything but continued incompetence.

From Mayor Meninos Bio Page Innovative Schools: Awarded the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2006, the Boston Public Schools have transformed from chronically failing to one of the most respected urban districts in the nation.  At every grade level, Boston has reduced class sizes and raised test scores.  Mayor Menino’s recent work to ensure the passage of landmark education reform in the Commonwealth paves the way for innovative in-district charter schools and will provide urban districts across the state with the tools needed to turnaround their most underperforming schools.  Through inventive programming and collaborative partnerships with local colleges, universities, and non-profits Mayor Menino continues to bolster resources for English language learners, increase high school and college graduation rates, reduce the achievement gap, and re-engage drop outs.  By connecting schools, libraries, and community centers under the Community Learning Initiative, the Mayor aims to create a continuum of educational opportunities for the city’s youth – from dusk to dawn and from birth through college. Please let me know one of these statements which are true other than the fact that Eli Broad weaseled his reform ideas into this administrations mantra with his lil Broad prize for Urban Proleteriats educatin system. This was a priority for everyone at all the budget hearings on BPS the City Council needs to get more involved other than saying to this administration that this is their last chance of putting forth bad plans. And how about the fact that 5712 kids are still habitually late for school due to the poor routing software that BPS bought into.

This is what "innovation" looks like. Union busting pure and simple with no regards to the consequences to our students.  In Chicago teachers are taking a stand against school closings and education "deform".  Their fight is our fight.  This is what democracy looks like.  And the letter of support from the Boston Teachers Union...that's what solidarity looks like.

This piece illustrates the frustration of Urban educational reform and the misplaced trust in upper administration and politicians to solve a poverty problem.  

Why is Johnson still in charge....add this to another in a long list of failures and imcompetence.  How does a district not have its

personnel in place before school starts?   The district overall of the new ASPEN database for school attendance in grading has been a disaster with

little support for teachers and staff from the district....BPS systems is falling backwards fast....help!

I do not live in Boston. A major problem is that the Mayor does not like to hire people. So when he makes a poor choice he sticks with it rather than go through the hiring process.

Politicians and pundits cannot make educational policy. They don't understand the challenges and appear not to be interested in hearing them. They issue fiats and immediately lose interest, leaving all the nuts and bolts to the very educators to whom they refused to listen. Didn't politicians and pundits decide that more power should be in the hands of principals? Then they're surprised when hiring of administrators stops without one. And who knows why the principal left and why no acceptable replacement has been found? Maybe the politicians' and pundits' ideas are unworkable and this is too much change to expect in too short a time. Similar sweeps of staff have resulted in a similar lack of results in other cities. There is no point in demonizing educators when education is becoming more crucial to our nation's success and fewer talented and dedicated people are going into education.

You can't lay this failure on the Boston Teachers Union.

Menino is headed in the right direction on this, but Johnson dropped the ball.  The unionized teachers voted to make it an innovation school, and the BPS "leader" Dr. Johnson failed to get the necessary administrators in place to give the school a chance to succeed.

When other urban school systems are the comparison, being the best of the worst is not really a good thing.  Johnson and her crew are in over their heads.  The mayor won't fire her because his hands are tied by political correctness and he lacks the guts to really be "bold" although he likes to use the word a lot, all the while compounding the problem by perpetuating this myth of educationall excellence.  Of course  the BTU continues to be interested in only trying to get all it can while taxpayers and students are made out to be chumps.  The BPS consumes over 1/3 of the city's annual budget.   It is time to face facts and purge this failing organization and start from scratch.   

Part 2 of 2

Dr. Johnson and her team that couldn't shoot straight strike again!  Oh the horror!  Oh the lack of surprise!  Chuck McAfee has been a respected member of the Boston Public Schools for 38 years, he probably retired because he didn't want to be part of the carnage which follows all of the "turnaround" and "innovation" plans promoted by Dr. Johnson and Mayor Menino.  I spoke to several Madison Park Teachers Friday night, things are worse than are reported here.  Madison teachers were asking around about positions that might still opened at other schools.  This is never a good sign.

Overnight, Mayor Menino turned Madison Park Vocation School into an "Innovation" school. He told teachers if they didn't vote to be "Innovation" that he would do it anyway, and they would have less say. The voc model, adopted by Madison Park, has students going to school one week and going to a "workplace experience" the week after. This means that students are out of the classroom for 90 of 180 days.   Will these "workplace experiences" be the "gold standard of vocational education" a  "cooperative education job" which will lead to a career, or a way to provide Seaport hotels and businesses with urban students to work vacated menial jobs (formerly done by undocumented workers at minimum wage) for free or stipends?     

Boston Parents and Madison Parents listen up!  Students are out of the classroom for 90 of 180 days.  Innovation school administrators (when Dr. Johnson finally gets around to hiring them) can excess veteran teachers.  These veteran voc teachers are vested in their students and school community, they are the teachers who would voice their concern, and protest, if a "workplace experience" was just a way to get students to do menial jobs for free and didn't lead to actual career opportunities.         

Part 1 of 2 It is time to look at the big picture, so let me be candid. Boston Public Schools is the best urban school district in the United States. Veteran teachers accomplished that in the classroom not Court Street. How long to do think that big businesses and corporations were going to allowed this success to continue? To maintain their status quo, they need low paid, no benefit, service sector workers and they look to urban populations to provide them. Why do you think all these big businesses and corporations, and education vendors jumped in to "partner" with all the urban parent groups, like Boston United for Students and lead them to demonize veteran teachers and traditional public schools? Look at their member list, then look at the member organizations IRS 990's! Ask them to post these on their websites! Look at their conflict of interest! Paul Grogan, President of The Boston Foundation and Samuel Tyler, President of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau represent large corporations and businesses that are under scrutiny by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to "maintain a lawful workforce." In the Boston area, 400 businesses have already "partnered" with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by joining the agency's "voluntary" employment compliance program IMAGE (ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers). The goal of ICE is to deport 100% of all deportable persons by the year 2012. Probably as punishment to Mayor Menino threatening to opt out of the ICE Secure Communities (S-Comm) program, ICE conducted 89 inspections in the Boston area during 2011 (they only inspected 54 in 2010), and found employees who were working or hired illegally and fined those companies. If ICE meets their goal, who will fill those jobs when these workers are deported? Who will serve the latte, who will make the beds in the Seaport hotels, who will wash the dishes in the hotel restaurants? These are jobs can’t be outsourced! Boston area companies are trolling for low paid, service sector "lawful" workers, and where are they looking? In the Boston Public Schools! They are not doing outreach in Wellesley or Lexington! http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1111/111109boston.htm http://bostonunitedforstudents.org/Pages/members.html