Update: West Roxbury state rep says chairwoman must resign as well.
The Globe reports Lorna Rivera has resigned her seat on the School Committee after learning texts she'd exchanged with another committee member during an October meeting on selecting exam-school students without an exam were being made public.
The Globe reports Rivera apologized profusely for bemoaning "Westie whites" in a text to another member at some point during the nine-hour meeting. Although the few Whites from West Roxbury who actually testified during the hearing spoke in favor of doing away with exams for at least the coming school year, 10 of the 14 families who claimed to have been damaged by the vote in a failed lawsuit against the one-year exam elimination were from West Roxbury.
According to the Globe, the member with whom she was texting - Alexandra Oliver-Dávila, who replaced Michael Loconto as chair after his resignation - agreed, texting "I hate WR." She has not resigned. Both questioned why the exchange was being leaked now.
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Comments
A few points that have
By Lmo
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 10:37am
A few points that have nothing to do with what Waquoit said.
1. He didn’t say parochial schools are public, just that the students could apply/attend BPS schools.
2. Didn’t say charter schools are private, just that their students can apply/attend BPS schools.
3. Didn’t ask about exams. Can students in your district apply to the public school system if they previously attended a parochial school or charter (of your district has them)?
Thank you
By Waquiot
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 11:06am
You replied better than I could.
One could spend third grade in a charter or parochial school, but then the decision is made to transfer to the public schools for the fourth grade. Same thing with going from the sixth to seventh or eighth to ninth. It's just that there is a big issue with that sixth to seventh grade move.
It still is fascinating that people outside of Boston (and in the case well outside of Boston) seem to think they understand education in Boston better than Bostonians do.
Oh, aren't you cute
By lbb
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 12:19pm
Let me disabuse you of the notion that I didn't live in Boston for a significant period of time, and don't know anything about education in Boston, or about educational issues such as charter schools and exam schools. You're like a new parent who thinks that no one who doesn't have children can possibly know anything about them -- or, as they say in the martial arts, "Nobody knows more about karate than a green belt. Just ask one."
Anyone can make fair claim to "understanding education" better than someone like you whose response to a real problem - suburban kids parachuting into a Boston exam school - is dewy-eyed disingenuousness. You don't want to grapple with the problem? Fine with me -- as you never fail to point out, it's not my kid getting screwed over. Reap what you sow, Waquoit.
how many parachutes are there?
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 2:23pm
The school department has employees that investigate this. Honestly, the registration requirements have seemed a bit too much in my opinion. Because of this supposed rampant fraud, the school department refuses to change a child's address in the system despite the fact that school officials have made repeated home visits. In any normal system, a home visit would verify an address. The consequences are that official school mail stop getting to the parent, also no bus or tpass.
I knew a family that moved to Milton, but never transferred the kids to Milton public schools because their visit to school department office was too intimidating. Those kids went to nonexam BPS schools.
If you are aware of a specific parachuter, here is procedure:
Investigation and enforcement
The School Committee has approved extensive residency investigation and enforcement strategies, including:
Employment of a residency investigator to pursue cases of suspected residency fraud;
Random residency audits and spot-checks of out-of-city MBTA train stations; and
A Residency Tip Line (617-635-9609) for families, staff, and students to report possible residency violations.
Any family under investigation may be required to present additional proofs of residency beyond those outlined above.
Don't mind llb
By Waquiot
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 3:29pm
They appear to know a lot more about Boston schools than we do.
Why did the city legal
By Bostonwoke
Mon, 06/07/2021 - 10:21pm
Why did the city legal department selectively redact the offensive comments? The Globe filed a FOIA but the city withheld relevant communications
I'm eager for more details
By Rob O
Tue, 06/08/2021 - 9:46am
I'm not sure this is correct, and I hope there is a lot more reporting on this, but it may be that the Mass. public records law (state FOIA) covers communications made in a public capacity and the City Law department (or whomever made this decision) decided that these comments were made in a private capacity and therefore not responsive.
Typically you do not redact non-responsive documents. You redact documents that are responsive but cannot be produced for another reason, such as a privilege.
How did text messages become public (business) communication?
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 06/09/2021 - 10:18am
I missed this somehow. Were the text messages made on work phones?
Sounds like
By anon
Mon, 06/07/2021 - 11:56pm
The lawsuit might have some merit after all. Three members of the School Committee openly expressing racial animus?
Why in the world was this meeting allowed to run for 9 hours?
By cinnamngrl
Tue, 06/08/2021 - 9:36am
That was the disaster right there.
Because...
By anon
Tue, 06/08/2021 - 10:43am
Someone (maybe the Superintendent, or maybe Marty Walsh himself) decided to leave only two weeks between the time BPS announced the proposal and the time the School Committee would vote on it. During those two weeks, there were no public comment sessions -- only information sessions where the public could only ask questions about the proposal. It's not rocket science to figure out that such a drastic proposal would spark tons of public comment, resulting in a 9 hour meeting even after limiting "the general public" to 2 minutes each (while allowing commenters with no connection to the district, like Dr. Kendi, the opportunity to have a written comment read out loud with no time limit whatsoever).
She may not have been far off
By dd808
Tue, 06/08/2021 - 1:58pm
She may not have been far off the target.
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