0 Fact-Check John Connolly: Boston's Not for Sale! Or Is It?

The past two days of more political spin has left me wondering if people really buy it. I don't, because I realize that Mr. Connolly has been accepting outside money for several years thanks to the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) - both the national group as well as the Massachusetts group recently. Also, I wonder if the spokes-Mom in NECN's story has asked Mr. Connolly "who are they" regarding the donors as well as what DFER, Stand for Children and all their contributors who helped pay for quite a bit of Mr. Connolly's campaign expect in return from him as she asked during the news segment of the groups backing Mr. Walsh's campaign? I also wonder if the Connolly supporters even realize that Mr. Connolly has actually been getting funding for his campaigns from outside Boston since 2011? 

At any rate, my fact-checking shows pretty clearly that despite how Mr. Connolly would like to spin the latest news regarding the new "One Boston" political committee that has bought media time for Mr. Walsh, the reality is that he is doing the same thing. 

So, if Boston IS indeed for sale, now you need to ask yourself: which groups are more likely to care about what actual Bostonians care about? Those funded by a group whose purpose is to help give voice to the average working American regarding issues important to them such as good jobs, affordable health care, education, retirement security, corporate accountability and real democracy as Working America does, or those being funded by the investment groups and foundations like Stand for Children (see the article about SFC's dramatic change in focus) who are very similar to those who helped lead our country into the financial crisis of 2008? 

You get to voice your choice tomorrow - make sure to get out and VOTE! 

John Connolly via bounce.myngp.com	3:21 PM (12 minutes ago)
to me

Dear Friends, Just last week, an anonymous SuperPAC bought a half million dollars worth of television ads on behalf of my opponent. We don’t know who’s behind this shadowy special interest group. We don’t know what they expect in exchange for all that money. We just know that this is wrong. And moms, dads and kids from across Boston aren’t standing for it.See what they had to say at our rally yesterday: They’re right. Boston is not for sale.  Please stand up against these special interests by voting tomorrow, November 5. Use your vote to send the message that outside anonymous money has no place in our election. Sincerely, John R. Connolly Boston City Councilor At-Large ConnollyForBoston.com P.S. Please click here and sign up to volunteer on Election Day.

Paid for and Authorized by The Connolly Committee

The Connolly Committee
P.O. Box 320550
Boston, MA 02132

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by DFER Reformer of the Month

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January 2011: City Councilor John Connolly

It’s exciting to see dramatic changes in Boston. In the 90’s, the Hub was an original incubator for ed reform ideas. But charter schools eventually hit their cap and statewide complacency set in, and the wheels fell off the reform truck.

In the last few weeks, though, Mayor Tom Menino has been talking tough about a new teachers contract that would extend the school day, give principals more hiring leeway, and tie teacher pay to student performance. It’s spurred a debate Boston really hasn’t seen before.

These changes are on the table today because of the work of a Boston City Councilor, John Connolly. John, who chairs the city’s education committee, orchestrated an eight-hour hearing on the 255 page union contract. He called parents, students, community organizers, and education experts to testify about the importance of a longer school day. In the process, he completely reset the agenda.

John is a dyed-in-the-wool ed reformer. He grew up in Boston and went to Harvard, where he wrote his thesis on charter schools. He even taught at a charter school before running for a seat on the council.

Here’s the rub: Connolly is up for reelection this year. Don’t think for a second that the deep-rooted special interests in Boston will just let this happen. What John needs right now is money. Contribution limits are low in Boston, so every dollar goes an especially long way.

John Connolly

https://secure.actblue.com/page/dferjanuary11

http://ocpf.cloudapp.net/Filers?q=connolly&cat=C

0 Email Response from John Connolly to BPS Students' Email

As you may recall, on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, one week after Rhianwen had sent John Connolly, mayoral candidate, an email with her concerns about his positions regarding education in Boston, I posted that email as part of an article on the Patch. I did so because Rhianwen had not received even a courtesy response to her email from the man who claims he will be the "education mayor" and that he "will bring students in so their voices can be heard" if he is elected.

Roughly 12 hours after posting the Patch article, Mr. Connolly did finally respond to Rhianwen, which she received when she got on the computer Thursday night. I did text Mr. Connolly on Friday to ask that I be allowed to post his response here, as I am a fair person. To date I have received no response to that request, but again, because I like to be fair, I am posting it now for all to read:

Dear Rhianwen,

Thank you so much for reaching out to me.  I apologize for the delay in getting back to you, but the campaign keeps me very busy plus I try to spend some time with my three kids, including my new baby Mary Kate, so sometimes I fall behind on emails.  Thanks for your understanding.

I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your school year at the Irving and that you are doing well.  I am running for mayor because I believe that every student deserves a great education and I will work incredibly hard to ensure that students with an IEP, ELL students, all of your friends at the Irving, and children all across the city have access to a great school.  The ELT and other great programs at the Irving seem to be working well for you and your classmates and I want to make sure that every young person in Boston loves school as much as you do.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Best Regards,
John

I will leave it up to each of you to decide whether Mr. Connolly's response answered Rhianwen's concerns or not.

I can be reached via email at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter: @bpsnightmare.

0 A Boston Public School Student's Email to John Connolly, Mayoral Candidate

During Tuesday night's mayoral debate on WGBH, John Connolly made the statement: "I will bring students in so their voices can be heard." This reminded me to ask my daughter Rhianwen if she had received a response to her email sent to Mr. Connolly a week ago. She has not.  

Background: Rhianwen is 12, an extremely smart, loving, giving and thoughtful child who has known Mr. Connolly through my volunteer work in Boston Public Schools, especially the Roslindale Pathway, since 2009. Rhianwen has also attended the majority of school SPC/SSC and pathway meetings as well as the school committee, school choice community and EAC meetings for the past two years. Hence, my 7th grader knows far more about education policies and issues than most adults do. Over the past 7 months, Rhianwen became very involved with the mayoral race, working on a mayoral campaign herself. Rhianwen is not shy and has always spoken up about issues that concern her or to defend something or someone when necessary as she is fiercely protective and loyal. 

All of the above said, Rhianwen is also a child with special needs, who struggled for years to pass from one grade to the next and constantly would tell us that she was "dumb" and "stupid" no matter what we tried to tell her and what other successes she experienced. Since 1st grade Rhianwen has been receiving at least 45 minutes per day of services, every single day of school. Toward the end of 4th grade things started to change and she was able to really start showing, via her work, how smart she is (which everyone knew, but it was not evident via tests or classwork consistently.) This came about because Rhianwen has always worked hard and tried to do her best, but also thanks to help from the fabulous teachers and specialists at both the Mozart and Irving public schools. Over the past year Rhianwen has finally begun to experience more consistent success in school with her academics, yet even now she struggles with organization and writing, so she does not really like writing all that much.

Given the above, you can imagine my surprise last Wednesday night when she stated that she had written an email to John Connolly. I asked her to share it with me, so I am now sharing it with all of you:

From: rhianwen

Date: Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 9:33 PM

Subject: MY VOICE HEARD

To: info@connollyforboston.com

Hello Im hopeing this goes straight to John Connolly him self. Im a 12 year old kid in Public schools and I want to be  heard Now Mr. Connolly please do not make my schools go into the dump for one I love my school how it is and I know you want to raise the charter cap thingy but please I want to tell you how important Public schools are to me. They are where I have my friends my help because I am on an IEP and I don’t want no charter schools to take away my love of my schools now. Please Don’t take away my education because I want a successful future and with no public schools no city year and stuff like that it will be harder for me to work. I got to the Washington Irving Middle School. Please don’t take the one thing I care about so much away from me.   To contact me email me at <removed to avoid spam>

I am very proud of Rhianwen, for many reasons, not the least of which includes showing more civic engagement than many voters in Boston have so far, for even thinking to send an email to Mr. Connolly, for taking the time out of fun endeavors like Webkinz, Minecraft and Skyping with her cousins to look up his website, get the email address and then putting herself out there: that she has an IEP, her thoughts and feelings about her school, her education, her future and charter schools and his stance regarding them and her understanding that more of them will impact her school and education. Sometimes my daughter literally takes my breathe away, this is one of those times. 

Now, given his schedule, maybe Mr. Connolly has yet to see this email himself. Maybe someone, whether it was Mr. Connolly or a staffer, saw the last name and dismissed the email thinking it was from me (as I have questioned Mr. Connolly quite frequently about his education policies.) Maybe Mr. Connolly did see it and thinks I put my daughter up to it, though clearly he should know better. However, given the "voices heard" similarity to Rhianwen's email subject line in Mr. Connolly's answers last night, I suspect he has in fact read her email. So, why no response?

No matter what the endless possibilities are that Mr. Connolly or one of his staff may have contemplated, I think that his lack of response to a BPS student who reached out to him about her concerns regarding his mayoral education goals and platform speaks volumes about the reality behind the campaign rhetoric Mr. Connolly has been stumping on. 

Semantically, he may have "heard" my daughters voice when she wrote the email to him, but what does it say that she has received absolutely no response from Mr. Connolly or even a courtesy email from the campaign? 

Does this seem like the action of a person who claims he "has fought to give parents and students a voice in the Boston Public Schools" as his website claims?

Actions speak louder than words, campaign ads or stump speeches Mr. Connolly. Shame on you for not responding to Rhianwen. 

0 Boston Public Schools New Assignment Plan

The problem with our education system is not that parents do not have a choice. The problem is that inequities continue to exist. -Patsy Mink

We live in the city where public education was created, a city which is considered to be one of the most advanced cities with some of the greatest minds available, and yet, inequities still exist in our public K-12 schools. These inequities harm not only our most vulnerable populations of children, those who are socio-economically challenged and students who may be English Language Learners (ELL) or have a disability (SWD), but all of our students because they all pay the price for these inequities. As the K-12 grades are the foundation for our students future success, it is important that we address the educational issues as quickly as possible. So how do we fix these disparities? 

According to Mayor Menino, Dr. Carol Johnson, and others, the first step to addressing the issues our schools face is by putting in place a new assignment policy which will allow students to go to school closer to home. This push for schools closer to home is what led to the Home-Based model as the proposed assignment model for Boston Public Schools (BPS). On Wednesday night, March 13, the Boston School Committee (BSC) held the last community hearing regarding the proposed assignment model followed by a regular BSC meeting which included a vote on the Home-Based model. 

While the hearing and school committee meeting were going on, a loud protest was taking place outside the building by members of several groups and unions. I only spent a few minutes outside listening to the speakers, but most of us in the Winter Chambers could hear the chants of "Say no to racism in education" and see the signs they pressed against the windows while circling the building!

As there were well over 20 people signed up to speak during the hearing, the BSC meeting rules dictated that the original 3 minutes per person be cut to 2 minutes per person. As you can imagine, the BSC Hearing went over the one-hour time allotted for it and into the regular BSC meeting, with a brief break from testimony to officially start the BSC meeting. BSC Chairman Michael O'Neill allowed the hearing testimony to be directly followed by the "public comment" period of the BSC meeting. 

There were 2 1/2 hours of intense testimony by parents, advocates, community members, and politicians. Many community members testified that the focus should be on the quality of our schools; walk-zone priority being kept or removed; capacity concerns under the new plan; the clear inequity of the new plan for our most at risk students; concerns about our SWD children; concerns about segregation; and, the validity and interpretation of the data used.

Dr. Muriel Leonard, former BPS speech pathologist, principal, deputy superintendent and chair of the task force to identify school quality indicators, testified that as in 2004, once again quality was the issue raised most during the school assignment process and that the recommendations then are primarily the same as those made by the task force in 2004 which were never fulfilled. Dr. Leonard went on to state that the BSC should ensure that all the recommendations of both the 2004 task force and the EAC should now be fulfilled and that she, like others, will not accept "quality later".

Councilor John Connolly was the only politician who testified that the walk-zone priority should be kept, whereas Councilors Tito Jackson and Charles Yancey testified that the walk-zone priority would enhance the inequality of the Home-Based plan and should be removed. All of the Councilors testified that the focus should be quality schools. 

Barbara Fields, former teacher and then Senior Equity Officer for BPS, as well as serving on the executive board of the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts (BEAM), testified regarding the work that must be done to address issues of resources and planning, that even with removal of the walk-zone priority the home-based plan still disadvantages students of color and socio-economically challenged students as many of those children live in areas of the city where the schools are designated as the lowest performing schools. Ms. Fields urged the BSC members to ensure that quality remain a focus even after a vote that she was sure would lead to the home-based plan being adopted.

As I had outlined the issues of the "BPS Tiers" vs. actual Massachusetts DESE MCAS level designations during previous testimony, I instead focused my own testimony on highlighting the following:

• "Access" does not equal actual assignment, it only gives families the choice of certain schools - there is no guarantee your student will get a seat at one of your top choices;
• Questions still remain regarding:
• the validity of the data used;
• the interpretation of said data;
• policy recommendations and clarifications still needed;
• issues pertaining to students with disabilities (many);
• what happened to the requirement to have "academic improvement strategies" for each school being created and publicized prior to implementation of the plan.
• That further capacity analysis needs to be done:
• the data used did not factor in students who registered for Kindergarten in Rounds 2, 3, etc or students in grades 1-8, which leaves out a lot of students and though Kindergarten may be where the majority of students enter BPS, it is not the only grade level entry point for new students for many reasons.
• What about grandfathering of students with disabilities in their current school if they are in a specialized programs that due to the new BPS SWD Overlay map causes their program to be moved to a different school (again)? Will BPS honor the grandfathering of those students at their current school and run concurrent programs in separate schools until the grandfathered students at a school are all out of 8th grade? (this could possibly apply to ELL students also!).
• The "Quality improvement" promises are based partially on Mayor Menino's legislative proposals. There is no guarantee those proposals will pass at the state level or a guarantee by our city and state politicians or BPS of alternative funds/resources if the proposed legislation fails. This could lead to serious ramifications for the promised "quality improvements". I personally will not accept "well, we didn't get the money, so we will need to delay those improvements" as our political leadership and the district A) should have thought of this anyway, and B) I have been bringing this issue up since October through testimony at BSC, EAC and through articles and conversations - and still there is no alternate plan in place that has been publicized, so none of us should let this go.

When the last community member finished testifying, there was a presentation by the External Advisory Committee on School Assignment (EAC), represented by members Dean Hardin Coleman, EAC Co-Chair, and John Nucci. In addition to the EAC presentation, John McDonough, BPS CFO, acting as Interim Superintendent during Dr. Johnson's bereavement leave, read Dr. Johnson's memo which outlined her recommendation of the Home-Based model without the walk-zone priority. Dr. Johnson's recommendation leaves walk-zone access in place because that access is built-in to the Home-Based model. 

During and after the EAC presentation, the BSC members were able to ask questions about the Home-Based model, and the recommendations by the EAC and Dr. Johnson. I credit the BSC members for asking some great questions. 

John Barros asked that the district come up with a way to create the choice baskets for each family based on actual capacity of open seats at a school, factoring in the number of seats that are already guaranteed to siblings, instead of just based on proximity of the school and Tier designation. Mr. Barros example was of a school which he is given as a choice, but in reality, due to sibling grandfathering, there are actually only 5 open seats available, which ties in directly to scenarios and questions I laid out during my examination of the Quality Choice Plan (QCP) in October and which can now be asked regarding the home-based model. Mr. Barros suggested using the available seat information to then potentially add additional schools to families baskets to allow families a greater chance of obtaining a seat they want for their child.

Caludio Martinez, adding on to a recommendation of amendment to the "recommendation memo" made by Mr. Barros, illustrated the issue of the difference between the BPS "Tier" system and the MADESE "Level" designations. Mr. Martinez stated that while registering his child for school he was given the choice of the JFK school, according to BPS it is a Tier 2 (top 50% of schools), whereas MADESE Level has it listed as a Level 4 (turnaround status) school, which shows that clearly he was not given a true "high quality" school as part of his list.

While responding to Mr. Martinez's observation about BPS Tier vs. MADESE Levels, Dr. Kamalkant Chavda, Asst. Supt for Data & Accountability, stated that because the MADESE way of comparing schools statewide "were not appropriate and significantly different" which significantly penalizes BPS, that BPS decided to come up with a BPS specific metric for assessing the schools. One of the "nuts and bolts" ways of assessing the BPS schools (more favorably obviously) was "that our students with very high needs, students with disabilities and ELL students, Level 1, 2 and 3 were removed from that analysis, because again, by default, we are ranking schools, tier-ing schools and we want to make sure when we do that we remove some students with very high needs who are served in very specialized strands."* For the entire statement by Dr. Chavda on this, please see the video of the meeting and go to the fourth hour (04:26m). * MUCH more on this later as you can imagine! 

However, due to a correction by Alissa Ocasio, BPS Legal Advisor, the "friendly amendment" could not go forward attached to the EAC recommendations or without the Superintendent making her own recommendations first according to state law. Chairman O'Neill did note that Mr. Barros could bring the suggestions up under new businesses which would allow the BSC to ask for the Superintendent and BPS' input and recommendations on same, which is what ultimately ended up happening.

After all the testimony, questions and answers on Wednesday night, March 13, the Boston School Committee (BSC), by a vote of 6-1, approved the Home-Based school assignment plan without the walk-zone priority for Boston Public School (BPS) students. They also approved all of the recommended overlays and recommendations, inclusive of grandfathering of current students and their siblings. 

I fully support a new, less convoluted system for assigning our students to school. I also like close to home for children, especially younger students, and in fact have been lucky that except for my son in high school, my girls have been able to attend schools close to us. 

That said, I am extremely concerned that with this vote done, we will not see the same level of community pressure to ensure that good policies are put in place regarding this new plan and our schools quality levels. We need the community that came out, spoke up and pushed for the focus to be on quality first, even when they get busy with other things, to continue the fight for all of our students and their right to quality schools no matter where they live. Otherwise, I fear we will be back to just a few of us, like Peggy Weisenberg, Barbara Fields, John Mudd, Kim Janey, myself (who I am sure the BSC gets tired of hearing from) and a few new faces like Kenny Jervis, Meghan Doran of Boston Busing and Desegregation Project (BBDP) and a few Quest members continuing the pressure. 

What remains to be seen is whether we move Boston schools in a better direction, or will we now, as in 2004 when some of these same recommendations regarding quality were originally made, fail to follow-through?

I will keep updating you regarding the process and other BPS related issues, so I hope you will keep reading!

You can contact me at bpsnightmare@gmail.com and follow me on twitter @bpsnightmare.

2 Advanced Work Class Seats Under New Boston Public School Proposals

When looking at Advanced Work Class (AWC) 6th grade options for my daughter back in 2009, I was told by a Boston Public School enrollment administrator to not even bother applying for the Ohrenberger, King or Curley schools AWC 6th grades as "those seats are already taken by the students at those K-8 schools - there will be no openings for students from other schools" which I knew, but it was great to get confirmation by a BPS official. I chose the Irving and am now happy for it, but at that time it was a roll-of-the-dice move on my part as a parent, and my child's education was what was at stake. 

Thankfully, through community pressure, Superintendent Johnson removed the prior principal, put Arthur Unobskey in as new Principal in June 2009, and that, in conjunction with the Roslindale Pathway Advisory Group (RPAG - formerly Irving Advisory Group (IAG)) working together with BPS and city officials has made the Irving a school I love having my girls attend. But in reality, what choice did I really have? None, because in reality, given the statement above, there was no other place I could send her at that time which would have seats for the AWC. 

Now that we are looking at revamping our current school assignment model, parents are asking about AWC and the following answer has been posted on the FAQ www.bostonschoolchoice.org page:

Q: What about AWC (Advanced Work Class) programs? What if my new zone doesn’t have a school with such a program?A: The BPS Advanced Work Class program offers an accelerated academic curriculum to students in grades 4, 5 and 6. Student participation is by invitation only and is based on a student’s scores on an eligibility test. Only certain schools offer an AWC program, so BPS allows students to change schools to access the program if they are eligible. Under the proposed models, BPS would do two things to ensure any qualified student can continue to access an AWC program. First, BPS would work to place more AWC programs in schools and zones that already have students who are eligible for the program; and second, BPS would allow students to transfer schools so they could access an AWC program even if that school is outside a student’s home zone. For example, if a student lives in a zone with no AWC programming but qualifies for the program, then that student could transfer to a school outside his or her zone and BPS would provide transportation.

First I have to ask: Has anyone clued Jerry Burrel, Director of BPS Enrollment Planning in about this potential change to current policy?  I have worked with many AWC parents over the years who come to me with questions. This is especially true when they hear that most AWC seats in a school will be filled by children already assigned to that school (whether in AWC or Reg Ed). The most common question is: Will BPS open more classes in highly-demanded schools or zones? The response has consistently been the same from Jerry Burell (via emails I have his permission to share): 

From: Burrell, Jerry
To: Karen Kast-McBride
Jan 24, 2012 

Hi Karen,  

If I find that demand exceeds supply in any assignment zone and in any AWC grade, we will arrange to open an additional class to meet the demand.  There have been one or two instances in the 14 years that I have been responsible for student assignment where I have added another AWC class.  

Thanks,
Jerry Burrell

From: Karen Kast-McBride
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 10:16 AM
To: Burrell, Jerry
Subject: Fwd: ConnectED Call to parents affected by registration form glitch
Hi Jerry,

One of the other Irving Advisory Group (IAG) members asked me to forward the below question to you. I happen to know discussions between parents are going on about this very question, so if you can let me know what to share with them I will pass it on to the IAG as well as others. 

Thank you!
Karen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: KC
Date: Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: ConnectED Call to parents affected by registration form glitch 

To: Karen Kast-McBride  

Does Jerry's email also mean that should demand for 4th grade AWC seats exceed supply, they are willing to expand that program in the West Zone too?  That would be reassuring to know. Thanks,

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Burrell, Jerry <jburrell@boston.k12.ma.us>

Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 9:10 AM

Subject: RE: ConnectED Call to parents affected by registration form glitch

To: Karen Kast-McBride 

Cc: Snyder, Denise M, Johnson, Carol R, Adario, Evelyn T, Vieira, Maria L 

Hi Karen,

Your latter interpretation is correct: only 55 students met the Roslindale Pathway priority status.  And, yes, I can assure you that all other current grade 5 West Zone students invited to the AWC program have the Irving listed as a grade 6 AWC choice.

I should also note that the BPS is always prepared to increase capacity in any program should demand exceed the supply of available seats.  

Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

Jerry Burrell

Director Enrollment Planning and Support

Basically, what it all came down to was that if there are available AWC seats in ANY schools in that grade anywhere in the district (other than the school a parent may prefer and even outside that child's zone) then Enrollment Planning would not increase the seats in any given area, zone, etc unless demand exceeds the supply of available seats program-wide (entire district).  

Example: The Irving middle school had 12 children on a 6th grade AWC "wait-list" at the beginning of this year as we had already filled the 50 seats allocated at the Irving. I believe the majority of the students on the list were coming from our Roslindale Pathway elementary schools, so they had priority placement at the Irving for a regular ed non-AWC seat, but because there is no such priority specific to AWC for our Roslindale Pathway due to the limited number of AWC seats in the zone, some of our "K-8 Pathway" AWC students did NOT get an AWC seat at the Irving. So we asked about opening another class for AWC at the Irving, which would have allowed all 12 students to have a seat, plus room for about 13 additional AWC students (or we could have reconfigured the AWC classes into smaller classes or possibly in other ways). The answer was NO because there were empty 6th grade seats at other middle schools so therefor no reason to open a new class. 

Another example: of the Roslindale Pathway elementary schools, only one - the Bates - has AWC for 4th & 5th grades (one class per grade, 25 seats per class). Of course, this means that children assigned to the Bates in 3rd grade who are eligible for an AWC seat get first chance to fill those AWC seats for 4th grade, which leaves very few open to our other Roslindale Pathway & West Zone students who may be eligible and want to go to the Bates. This year I believe there were 7 seats available in the 4th grade AWC class. I am not sure if there were any 5th grade seats available at all since, of course, first priority went to those children either already in the 4th grade AWC class, then to the other 4th graders who qualified at the Bates. I am sure the same was true at the Curley, King and Ohrenberger. This means children within our Roslindale school pathway have to go outside the pathway to access AWC, which defeats the purpose of the pathway for those children.

Second question, given the limited space in our schools, where would "BPS work to place more AWC programs in schools and zones that already have students who are eligible for the program"? 

• At the Irving, we have the space to expand, but the Bates elementary school does not so they could not add any 4th and 5th grade seats for AWC there. There really are no available classrooms waiting for a class to be assigned to them in many of our BPS schools. As with my points regarding Kindergarten seats promised by different plans, most schools can not remodel and do not have space for modular classrooms - not in Roslindale or other sections of the city which are densely populated. 
• So, how will this need for additional seats be addressed with the promised additional classrooms opened at current schools and not just the usual SOP of sending children to schools with AWC seats which parents do not want their children to attend?
• How is this different from the current policy already in place?

The way I see it, the answer on the school choice site is the same policy as always, not anything new, and parents need to be clear that the current policy is as stated above in Mr. Burrell's email to me: "If I find that demand exceeds supply in any assignment zone and in any AWC grade, we will arrange to open an additional class to meet the demand.  There have been one or two instances in the 14 years that I have been responsible for student assignment where I have added another AWC class."   

In reality, with whatever proposal the EAC (External Advisory Committee) on School Assignment makes to Dr. Johnson, these questions remain:

• Will the current standard operating procedure regarding AWC seats change and allow new seats to be placed in the schools parents WANT their children to attend?
• If yes, please elaborate on HOW these seats/classes will be added especially in our smaller schools. 
• Also if yes, can we please have that with details of how it will be accomplished and in writing?

0 Final Thoughts on the Quality Choice Plan

For parts 1 - 5 of this series regarding the Quality Choice Plan, please go to October 2012.

Is the Quality Choice Plan offered by Councilor John Connolly et al really the answer to Boston Public Schools' assignment and quality issues? 

I began this series not only to answer the above question for myself, but also to review the Quality Choice plan in a comprehensive way in the hope of answering the questions I and others were asking regarding the proposal. Please read the earlier articles to see the complete list of questions and concerns I raised, plus some answers from John Connolly's office.

Let me state again: at this point, I am not for or against any of the proposals, whether by Boston Public Schools or community members. Apparently, my asking questions translates to mean that I am against this plan to some folks. I am not. Yes, I ask hard questions, but after 20 years of studying education law and school districts, especially BPS, I have knowledge, insight and experience about how things generally get done, and it does not always benefit our students. Our students are the ones I care about. 

The fact that no one was prepared for the level of questions that myself and others are asking about this plan, as well as others, is concerning given BPS' history. Without answers to the questions and concerns raised, how can I or others possibly support any of the proposals? This is true of ALL of the proposals. 

Being fortunate enough to have worked with Councilor Connolly on several education related matters over the years, I do know that he wants quality education throughout our city and I believe his co-creators do also. I think the Quality Choice plan has some great suggestions and ideas for how to improve our Boston schools and move us forward.

According to the email sent out on October 3, 2012, John Connolly states: 

However, we are convinced that our plan, the Quality Choice Plan, presents a creative alternative that focuses on improving school quality and bridging the divide between those who want schools close to home and those who want broad choices.

Reading that line, I am sure many, like myself, expected a detailed step-by-step plan outlining how Boston could accomplish the task of improving every school and revamping our assignment process. Unfortunately, this plan did not live up to my expectation above, but instead led to questions about the demands it makes for BPS to create and implement a plan.

• How do the creators think the above will happen?  
• What time line for creating and actually enacting such a plan would BPS have, if they chose to pass this plan?
• What would the deadline be for all schools to become quality schools? 
• Again, who would oversee this process?

Still, comparatively, the Quality Choice Plan is well-written and easier to conceptualize, to some extent, for me given my knowledge and experience with BPS. However, a well written plan does not always mean it is a plan which can be implemented and become reality. Though the QC plan is well written with links to where data/ideas came from, as far as I know, per my conversation with John Connolly's staff a couple of days ago, we have yet to receive any of the nitty-gritty details laying out the steps and resources necessary or the time-lines and no one has run the actual numbers for this plan, or told us, besides "transportation savings" and "increased enrollment", where the funding will come from. The proponents of any proposal should have had all the detailed plans, data and budgets run prior to release of a proposal, not expect BPS to do it for them. I urge the QC creators to provide the above on their website as soon as possible.

As it stands, any transportation savings will not be realized immediately (more like 5 -8 years from now) and even then it is questionable whether those savings would ever be enough to make a true impact on our schools. Increasing enrollment is a long-term goal, so again, no immediate impact for our students. Putting a plan in place without a guaranteed funding source from the beginning, especially given possible government tax cuts ahead of us, would be irresponsible and potentially disastrous for our students. This means we must have other funding sources that are guaranteed and immediately accessible. I know BPS would be appreciate more funding to help improve the schools!

If we do not have a plan which clearly lays out all the relevant details, time-lines, and especially funding, there is the potential for failure and our students are the ones who will pay the price. Despite not being an accountant or even liking math, I can read and use a calculator, so did some rough math utilizing BPS' 2013 budget numbers which showed me that this would be an extremely expensive proposal to put in place even when only "converting/transforming" current schools. As this is something I know the creators are well aware of, I urge them to let the public know how and where this funding will come from, whether the funding is guaranteed and how it is guaranteed.

Additionally, the plan's proponents seem to either be unaware of or have forgotten that, in order to transform schools into Pilot and in-district Charter schools, that must be approved by 2/3 of the voting members of the BTU at that school. That alone can take years to make happen, despite the teachers wanting the same thing families do: quality education for every student. There is no way anyone, whether BPS central admin or Boston politician, can guarantee that this can be done. 

At the October 9th community meeting at Mildred Avenue, I did speak with Representative Russell Holmes, one of the supporters of the QC plan, and asked him if they had run the numbers for this plan. Rep. Holmes told me that the creators/supporters have not run the numbers and that they felt it was up to BPS to do that. I also asked Rep. Holmes what his thoughts were regarding the segregation issues that have been raised and he informed me that it did not bother him whether schools were segregated as long as they were quality schools, to which I honestly did not have a quick response as it concerned me to hear him say that. No matter which plan is put in place, segregation is a real possibility for some of our students and will occur as soon as the plan is implemented, whereas a school becoming a mid-high level quality school may take several years, so how do the creators feel about that? Segregation is about more than ethnicity, it is also about ability levels, language barriers and economic status to name the three constants which BPS struggles to help students overcome every year.

Thursday night, October 18th, at the Condon school community meeting, John Connolly presented again, but this time with a power-point and about 30 minutes of floor time.  I urge John to put that power-point on the QC website for the public to review. I have extended an invitation to John Connolly et al to a community meeting which would be open citywide where he could present this plan and have a real question and answer session, something which has not been possible at BPS meetings. I am told his schedule would not allow for this through the first week in November, so asked about anytime after that, but the short answer seems to be no at this point, which is disappointing. 

We know that the EAC will most likely propose a hybrid plan made up of the best of all the different proposals to Dr. Johnson. I do believe that the Quality Choice Plan has some great ideas for how to improve our district and I urge the EAC and BPS to incorporate some of them into any plan BPS finally decides on. 

That said, myself and others are still awaiting responses to other questions raised both through these articles and those brought up by Anne Walsh's email. 

Maybe once I receive those answers, which will be shared with everyone, I can be more supportive of the QCP, but until that time I stand where I started: concerned about some portions, especially funding, segregation of certain populations and the possible impact on our most at-risk students.   

Update, October 23, 2013: To date, none of the questions beyond the email from Ann Walsh in my prior article have been answered though many have asked them!