Election Day Thoughts about Schools and the Charter

Today is Election Day. Although this has been a quiet election in more ways than one, I encourage you to fulfill the obligations of living in a democracy, and vote. I believe that you have had to work a little harder this year to learn about your candidates, to make an informed choice.

For School Committee, there are four of us running for three seats. Mr. deKanter and I are running for re-election, something that rarely happens on the SC these days. You also have a choice of voting for former City Councilor Audrey McCarthy, and Peter McClure, who is running for the first time. Outside of whatever presence in the blogosphere any of us may have had, the general media have pretty much ignored this race; if the Current published anything about who we are or what we stand for, I never saw it. The Daily News ran one piece on each of us. There was no coverage from Port Media, no coverage by WNBP, and the only Candidates Night that allowed the community to see the four of us in one place, and ask any questions was sponsored by me- also unusual. I thank the Kelleher Park Tenants group for inviting us to be part of their Meet the Candidates night.

If it sounds like I am suggesting that the media has not met their threshold obligation in a democracy to inform the community, I am. It is disappointing. Nonetheless, we have an obligation to vote, and I encourage you to do so. I ask for your vote today.

I also wanted to briefly clarify another issue on the ballot, the Charter. I dissented from the document, for what I feel was an inappropriate and uncalled for change in current practices, the decision to prevent elected municipal employees from serving in an office they have been elected to. I won't go into it any further. The more important point I would like to make is this:

There is so much in the proposed Charter that will enhance the ability of Newburyport to do it's business efficiently and transparently, I intend to vote for the Charter today.

There is so much in it that will enable us to better educate our children- from a more rigorous approach to financial planning to the creating of an over-arching human resources function in city government, that I am voting for the Charter, and urge you to do so as well.

Politics is the art of the possible, said Tip O'Neil. I believe that Despite the shortsightedness of the Commission on an issue I felt strongly about, I believe there is much good that will be accomplished under the new Charter. To that end, despite my misgivings on this single issue, I urge you to vote to support this Charter. In the long run, it can be amended to accommodate my concern, or the concerns of others. But the right step is to put it into place, now.

See you all on the other side of the election. Win or lose, it has been a privilege to serve.

What If They Had An Election...

Last Tuesday, October 18th, the one and only Candidates Night for School Committee hopefuls was held at the Newburyport Public Library. 12 people attended, 17 if you counted the moderator, Rob Kaplan, and the four School Committee candidates. Rob did a terrific job ensuring that every question that was intended was asked, and managed to prevent each of us from sucking the oxygen out of the room with windy answers.

You could blame the small turnout on a lot of things. Poor advertising, though every school family was informed, and the Current and the Daily News ran the notices several times. Uninspiring candidates. A lack of burning issues. Voter apathy. Voter happiness with the status quo.

Still, there a few aspects of this Candidates Night that made it unusual. The first was that after talking with a number of groups that usually sponsor these kinds of events, it was clear that while there was some interest in sponsoring a Candidates Night for the City Council at Large race, no one was interested in doing the same for the School Committee. So, I organized it myself. It was a little unusual- a candidate pulling together all of the others running for the seats, giving the opportunity for my fellow candidates to meet the community and respond to questions. No one felt a compelling vested interest in gathering us together and asking us questions. In a democracy, that is troubling.

It leaves me a little puzzled. In the next four years, the School Committee will be bringing two debt questions before the community for renovating the Nock/Molin and building a new Bresnahan. the total of those projects, before reimbursement from the state could exceed fifty million dollars. I would have thought there might be some questions about that. The High School has undergone a schedule change this year, and there are four or maybe five new department heads. A lot of energy is being focused on the Science Department. But there were no questions on that. Our MCAS scores were a mixed bag- real progress in ELA at the Elementary School level, as predicted by Dr. Kerble following our early literacy initiative, and some uneven news about elementary math, and math below the High School. No questions.

I still get comments from people meeting me in the community about my thoughts on PE at the High School, but I had no questions on that issue.

Maybe people haven't started paying attention yet. Maybe people are pre-occupied with the economy. Maybe this election is the calm before the storm.

Regardless, on Tuesday, November 8th, the City of Newburyport will have an election, filling an open School Committee seat, and an open City Council At-Large seat. I'd encourage people to formulate questions, and get them answered. By all of us.

The next four years promise dramatic changes in our schools- curriculum, instructional practices, evaluation, assessment- buildings and grounds. Think about it, and talk with us.

Thanks.

A Generation of "Solutionaries"

I continue to be approached by people, every day, about the story in the Daily News about my testimony on waivers and mandatory PE. I am surprised by this; the story was a week ago. More than that, they have been expressing unconditional support for the ideas I have proposed.

One person, Elizabeth Marcus of Transition Newburyport, sent me the embedded link to a talk by Zoe Weill. I found the video eloquent. Actually, it is a lot more than that. It is the first time I have seen someone create a link between those 21st Century Skills that we all talk about for our children and educational system, and civics, ethics and morality. Putting those 21st century skills to a purpose that goes beyond competing in the global market- Weill challenges us to teach our children how to live intentionally in the world they will inhabit.

She suggests some very interesting ideas about how we can organize our curriculum, our systems for educating kids. Food for thought. Thank you Elizabeth. I would encourage Transition Newburyport to hold a workshop on education, soon. Soon.

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5HEV96dIuY&feature=player_embedded

Physical Education- Thinking Outside the Box

After being alerted to a couple of bills being considered by the MA Legislature this week about making Physical Education mandatory from K-12, I was able to put together some testimony for submission, and delivered it both in person and in writing.

Before I cut and paste it, a few caveats.

First and foremost, I strongly support PE, and it's larger context, health and wellness, as critical items in our curricula and in the lives of our students. I have voted numerous times over the past ten years to ensure that our PE, Health and Wellness offerings are expanded at every level, and become an integral part of our student life and academic trajectory.

Secondly, the proposed bills did not allow for a waiver process through which students participating in school organized sports could "waive out" of the PE requirements, by dint of their efforts in the sport. In reality, the amount of physical activity involved in training for any of the sports offered at the High School far exceeds the minimum mandated by these bills. If we are to face the 21st Century with anything approaching a competitive attitude, we need to find ways to celebrate what our kids are doing at times and in places that go beyond the walls of the school. We have kids who are putting in 12 hours a week training for cross country, we have kids competing at the state level in activities like martial arts, fencing, dance- all without
getting any real credit from the schools.

Thirdly, the offering of a waiver for participating in school-sponsored sports, which could potentially affect the 60% of Nbpt High School kids doing sports, would free up time in the schedule to allow them to take more classes, especially at the AP and Honors level; it would free up PE teacher time to offer a broader range of electives in areas not currently being offered. In short, it makes great sense.

My testimony:
Testimony on H 1053, S 216
September 20, 2011
Bruce Menin, Vice Chair Newburyport School Committee

I want to thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony on the Bills before you, H 1053 and S 216. I appreciate the effort that has gone into addressing many of the issues contained in those bills.

My name is Bruce Menin, and I’ve served as an elected member of the Newburyport School Committee for ten years, the last two as Vice Chair. Please note that this testimony is not offered as the “official position” of the School Committee as a whole; neither does it reflect the opinion of any other School Committee member. I do believe, however, that my tenure on the Committee, my experience as a teacher, and my role as the parent of two students in the public school system give me a level of practical experience, some clarity and hopefully wisdom on the substance of the bill.

I urge you to oppose the statutory mandate of Physical Education courses as part of the curriculum for students; better yet, I encourage you to amend the bill to allow school systems to grant PE waivers in the high school if a student is participating in organized scholastic sports.

In my ten years as a School Committee member, I have always strongly supported wellness curricula at every grade level, and fully endorse the value of vigorous physical activity at every grade level. My concern with this bill stems from what I see as a growing problem- and has become an “on-the-ground” reality for parents and students. The current requirements for PE at the High School prevent a growing number of students from taking additional courses that would better prepare them for college, and for competing in the global economy. Locking in the mandate suggested by this bill will only compound that problem for us, and society. We teach to each student according to their gifts and challenges, and yet we have had to tell more students every year that because of the stagnant Chapter 70 reimbursement formula, and the burden that places on cities like Newburyport to either find new money every year, or make cuts in our school budgets, we cannot staff and cannot fit into their schedule courses like AP Chemistry or AP Physics. Already, existing requirements for PE make scheduling very difficult; the mandate imposed by this bill compounds that problem. In Newburyport, 60% of students at our High School participate in inter-scholastic sports, so we are talking about a significant number of students impacted by this bill.

There is a very bittersweet irony here. Parents in Newburyport, and other communities now pay to have their kids participate in sports. If we were willing to value those sports as a substitute for a token Physical Education requirement of 30 minutes of physical activity a day, we would enable students to put together an academic schedule that offers greater challenge and rigor.

We have also found that the scheduling intricacies of accommodating these PE courses in High School often results in the insertion of a study hall in a preceding or succeeding semester so that the gym requirement is met. In effect, we limit the academic choices some of our students can make so that they can play volleyball during the school day, and then further compound that problem by giving them a study hall so that their schedule aligns with a gym class the following semester. And, we essentially ignore the clear value of those sports that they are doing, whether they are sanctioned or not.

A way to address this would be to allow School systems to offer Physical Education waivers in those circumstances where students participate in a school sanctioned or organized sport. While that wouldn’t begin to address an ancillary problem- we have students who are competing at the highest levels in non-school sanctioned sports or physical activities- swimming, martial arts, dancing- who receive no credit for that, yet are still required to fit Physical Education into a High School schedule.

My best guess, after ten years on the School Committee, is that a waiver would not only free up critical schedule time for academic courses, but it would also enable current PE teachers to offer a wider range of wellness electives as part of the overall curriculum at the high school. I believe those courses will be as critical as anything else we do during the school day. In fact, it might free up PE instructors to offer more diverse PE courses during the day as electives- fencing, or wrestling, yoga or dance. Allowing waivers for student athletes actually encourages the kind of physical activity this bill purports to value. It builds on what is already a strength in many school systems.

Telling a student athlete, who works out 2 hours a day to compete at a school sponsored sport, or a non-sponsored sport, that we can’t work AP physics into their schedule because they are required to take PE so that we can ensure they get 30 minutes of physical activity per day is simply not the way to prepare MA students for the future. Offering them half a credit for that participation, with a mandated requirement that they also take a full HS PE load along with it is not a courageous step into the 21 Century.

In the ten years I have been on the school committee, we’ve gone from offering a free public education, to one that is forced to charge fees for participation in virtually every extra-curricular activity, including organized school sports. That is also not a constructive direction to be going in. To essentially ignore the value of that sport as part of the academic record of a student makes little sense; it misses an opportunity to build a well-rounded student taking a more rigorous and flexible schedule.

The idea of a waiver around Physical Education for High School students, contingent on meeting a clearly proscribed set of alternative options, has been a part of the California State Board of Education Statutes for several years.

We can do much better than this, by allowing school systems to grant waivers from the traditional PE courses to those students who often exceed the minimal standards of 30 minutes of activity by participating in inter-scholastic sports. A PE waiver for student athletes is sensible, it celebrates their accomplishments on the field and in the gyms while enhancing their ability to take the kinds of courses that will change their lives, and probably our own, in the future. Please consider amending this bill to allow for waivers, or not sending this bill as constituted to the full legislature for consideration. I ask this as the parent of a student athlete- celebrate her achievements on cross country fields, and allow her to take the classes she feels will give her the future she wants. Allow our school system to offer those classes. A simple waiver crediting her for the work she has done after-school- work which requires her to exceed the minimal expectation of 30 minutes of activity a day by 400%, six days a week throughout the school year, would accomplish both.

Thank you.

Let's Play Two- Running for Re-Election

That was what Ernie Banks, the Chicago Cubs legend used to say at the beginning of each baseball game. It reflected his love for the game, his appreciation for being able play baseball for a living.

I'd like to play two- or actually, four. I am running for re-election. If the voters approve, I would be starting my fourth term. When I first joined the School Committee ten years ago, I didn't expect that I would be sticking around. The majority of School Committee members have been "four and out" over the last decade- up until this year, Steve Cole and I have been the only two SC members to seek re-election. That small club has one more member this year, Mr. de Kanter.

In 2000, I ran as a "reformer"- as an advocate for the students, for the staff- for the schools. I believed then that we had a lot of work to do- some of it structural, some of it cultural. Change takes time. Changing institutional culture takes a lot of time. I know that now. When people have asked me how I might characterize my experience on the School Committee, over the years, I've often jokingly said it's been like riding shotgun on a glacier.

However, I remain optimistic about our future. About the quickening pace of change. About the renewed energy I see, the thoughtfulness and intention and commitment I see from the staff at the schools, the growing engagement of parents. I want to continue to be part of what I have called "this conversation about who we are as a city, as a society" that is reflected in the schools we offer to our children.

I think consistency is important, and that continuity has a value. But even though I believe they are good words to describe my experience on the School Committee, those aren't the reasons I am asking people to vote for me. I would like to return to the SC because I still believe there is much to do, and much to accomplish. I believe I have the energy and aptitude to remain part of that process.

In the ten years I've been privileged to serve on the School Committee, I've worked with five principals at the High School. Five Superintendents. Four Mayors. That is no way to cultivate leadership, to encourage innovation, to reward creativity. To my way of thinking, it is a rationale for complacency. Don't like what this principal wants me to do, or what this Superintendent thinks we should prioritize? Let's just wait. There'll be another one here soon enough- this one will be gone, and we'll still be here. You've heard it before, and not just about the schools- you've heard city employees saying it about the two-year Mayors.

But things are changing. The influence of our new Superintendent, Dr. Marc Kerble, is being felt at every level of our schools, and across the community. I was part of negotiating three consecutive one-year contracts with the teachers- within 5 weeks of Dr. Kerble's arrival, the SC and the Teacher's Union had agreed to a reasonable three-year deal. That isn't a coincidence.

Dr. Kerble has helped us to focus on student achievement, and challenged us to find the resources to improve in that area. But he didn't go hat-in hand to the Mayor and City Council during the last budget process. He encouraged our staff to rethink how we do our business, Dr. Kerble was able to find additional savings in the budget as it existed.

A person who encouraged me to run for another term reminded me that if I am re-elected, I will have served long enough to have been part of the renovation at the High School, the Nock-Molin, and the rebuilding of the Bres. They suggested that would be a marvelous legacy.

I don't see that as my "legacy."

My "legacy" includes voting to remove our world language program from the elementary school, and then the middle school- and coincidentally, both votes literally took the program away from own daughter. My legacy is cutting teachers at the High School, it is serving on the Committee that was forced to reorganize and close a building to ensure that the system survived.

Right now, that's the work to be done. I don't want to minimize the importance of the two building projects coming up, but the prize that my eyes are on has to do with moving our schools, teachers, administrators, students, parents and community into the 21st century. That work has just begun.

I ask you to allow me to continue to rebuild what the economy, my own votes, have forced our schools to become- places that offer the best education possible, but have significant challenges ahead keeping up with the demands of the 21st Century.

I'm still motivated. I am still jazzed by the work. I don't see the School Committee as a step towards any other elective office. It is the work I want to do, that I feel best suited for.

Over the coming weeks, I will be writing more on this blog- looking at the issues we face, and sharing my own thinking on how to approach them. Those of you who know, understand I will not shy away from taking positions I believe to in the best interest of our students and the schools.

I ask for your vote on election day.

Thanks. It has been an honor, and a privilege to serve.

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS- Last Rant Before the Holidays

Sometimes, it just takes your breath away. Like today.

In today's Daily News, there is a fairly accurate article about a presentation made by Superintendent Farrell at the last School C0mmittee meeting this past Monday. We'd asked the Superintendent to give us her take on the most recent cuts made by Governor Patrick, and their impact on this current school year. And we asked her to help us understand what would like happen next year, given the cuts we'll see this year.

Daily News 1.2 million

Pretty grim stuff, but I tend to like to deal with reality-based budget planning. Public comment, as we have come to rely, was offered by Dr. Ralph Orlando, whose passion for the schools, and whose relentless advocacy on their behalf, is often accompanied by very astute analysis of current budget trends. He worked hard on the Mayor's Revenue Task Force, and thankfully, he pulls no punches. As an aside, he got my write-in vote for School Committee this year, even though his wife threatened bodily harm to my person for my efforts.

The article was accurate. Things look grim. Grimmer than usual.

And the answers are the same. Cuts or find new revenues. Nothing new about that.

Reading the Comments

Sometimes, though not often, I read the comments that accompany the Daily News. They are usually passionate, expressive, and riddled with innuendos or talking points straight from talk radio. They rarely cite any sources of information to validate what are offered as "facts", or as things "everybody knows".

I read the comments because they help me to understand better what people are feeling and thinking. Not that I don't get plenty of it here at the blog, on the streets, or at School Committee meetings. And as a keen believer in the value of dialogue, I will pretty much listen to anything anyone offers as their perspective, even if they refuse to offer that perspective with a basic respect for people they disagree with, or to inform the conversation with facts that can be verified.

In eight full years on the School Committee, I have been flamed, shouted at, and called just about everything imaginable. I have had messages left on my answering machine that scared my children. I have had a group of people who disagreed with me curse me out and flip me the bird in front of my own kids. You get the picture. I earn every cent of my annual stipend of $2,400. Sorta like hazard pay for civil participation.

I don't usually respond to comments offered by the Daily News readership. There isn't much percentage in trying to use facts as a basis for conversation when people refer to those they disagree with in derogatory and demeaning terms. I value their feelings, and defend their right to air them, but can rarely extract much beyond their understandable feelings of being exploited and ripped off. I learn some things, but don't usually find workable answers to these civic problems we face.

Today, there was a comment I felt worth sharing. It is a particularly valid point of view, despite the tone and lack of factual content. Here it is...

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Is anybody paying attention to this? Fees? Are we feed enough? And scrapping art and music? Why not just end public education and make it all fees for everything? Orlando is a BOOB! Does this city want to have a teachers strike cause that is what will happen next! Why don't some of these administrators, overpaid I might add, take a paycut? Some people in this city just don't get it. Some of these members on the school commity are only in it for power and they do NOT give a rats behind about education, the kids or the schools.

Even as rants go, this one is pretty impressive. It demeans a member of the community for the temerity to urge the city to fund schools better. In a curious linkage of cause and effect, the writer suggests that adding fees for services, (which for the past five years has been in effect increasingly shifting the burden of funding a public education from the community to the end users), will result in a teacher's strike. It suggests that the way to resolve a budget deficit of 1.2 mil, much of which is a result of money that the state has given us for years simply being subtracted from our next year allocation, is to ask our administrators to take a pay cut.

Cool. Let's work that one out. Five principals, let's average their salary at $80,000- let's figure each of them will step forward, and not only give up a raise, but they'll give back 10% of their salary. Grand total, $40,000.

Now let's add a 10% give back from the Superintendent. Hmm. $12,500. Grand total, $52,500.

That'll almost prevent the layoff of a single teacher.

But if we can't add fees, and we won't get money promised by statute from the state, and we aren't allowed to generate any new revenues from the city in the form of ballot initiatives, even if we recapture 10% of the administrative salaries, how will we make up the balance of the anticipated shortfall, which would be approximately $1,148,000?

Well, the scenario suggested by the poster of this comment, umm, really limits our options.

Please

Times are bad. They are scary. People are worried about their finances. We get that. But we have to talk about how we will meet the basic needs of providing the kind of education that will prepare our students for college, for the world of work. For the next 50 years. Given the lack of funding, we especially have to talk about it now.

We have to have a dialogue; not a rant, not a monologue, not a demonizing, factually bereft confusion of opinion with what is really happening. You can have an opinion. You can hold onto it despite an onslaught of facts. But at some point, standing there flipping the bird and sticking your fingers in your ears, shouting louder than me so that you can't hear me say things you don't want to hear will not help us to meet the challenge of educating kids for tomorrow with less money than we had this year.

That is what we are trying to do. Public education is not the civil equivalent of picking the public's pocket. You don't get what you don't pay for.

And one more thing. Not liking what we are spending our money on as we desperately try to maintain a quality education with fewer resources, is not the same thing as wasting our money. It does not reflect squandering resources. The budget is available on line. Look for yourselves. If something isn't clear, contact the administration, or the School Committee, and ask for an explanation. You have the right to that. We may disagree on the spending choices the School Committee, upon the recommendation of trained educators, are making. That is why we offer the community the opportunity to publicly challenge every penny and every allocation in our school budget during the budget hearings we conduct every year before we vote on a budget.

Not for nothing, but would you like to guess how many citizens attended the budget hearings that were sponsored by the School Committee prior to submitting the 2009/2010 School budget to the Mayor?

None. Not one person. And I believe the record will show that there was not a single comment offered by the public on the budget.

I'm all for transparency. I'm all for informed discussion of differences, of participatory budget-building.

But if you are going to claim that money is being wasted by the schools, you have the responsibility to be clear and specific about how that is happening. Clear, and specific.

The kind of comments that seem to proliferate on the Daily News and other blogs- demeaning, filled with unsupported assumptions, aren't helpful. Asking some of the most skilled, best educated and hardest working individuals in the community to help resolve community-wide, state-wide budget crises by giving back 10% of their salary is certainly a strategy. Heck, I bet if your boss asked you to do that, you'd be one of the first to offer it up.

But when you sit down and figure out what it will actually do to help address the deficit, and you discover that it would resolve less than .04% of the needed revenue to avoid class size increases and staff reductions of a magnitude that will shock even the most virulent anti-tax crusader, you gotta put something else on the table. Your job isn't done. You wanna yell at the umpire, you gotta buy a ticket to the game. Sitting at home and yelling at the TV won't get the message across.

That is not the way a respectful, responsible community goes about resolving real differences.

OK. I feel better.

Education Priorities for the Mayoral Candidates-- A Primer for Reading Between the Lines, Part 2

In today’s Daily News, the Mayoral Candidates discuss their priorities for the schools, and education in general. It might be helpful to consider what each candidate is offering as priorities. It might also be helpful to read between the lines to see what they aren’t saying. I’ll try to do both. You can read their responses here.

When you have finished this series of posts, I'd encourage you to head over to the website for each candidate, and explore their thoughts on schools and education. The format for the Daily News article was very confining; each candidate may have more information available at their sites. You can reach Donna Holaday here, and James Shanley is here.

Time on Learning

Time-on-learning is an important issue on a number of levels. Our ability to stay in compliance with the state regulations for teaching time is important. Linked to that will be our ability to retain our accreditation with the agency that accredits schools in the country; that accreditation will be critical to the state’s willingness to fund the school. No certificate, no funding. The candidate correctly identifies the problem, identifies one complication that is currently being considered- the present use of the block schedule. What is lacking is a basic acknowledgement that some this will take funding beyond that currently provided to reintroduce some electives and sections of curriculum.

That theme, funding, will haunt the rest of this assessment. That’s where, for the most part, dear reader, you have to go between the lines.

Superintendent

The Superintendent search is important. Hiring the strongest possible Superintendent should not be controversial; there is a very capable national search firm generating candidates, and a local search committee that will send three of the six applicants forward to the School Committee for their decision. The reputation of this search firm, and our own unfortunate experience with their recruiting Kevin Lyons away from Newburyport is a strong indication that if there is a great candidate out there, we’ll see them.

Perhaps a more telling response might be what one considers a “strong” superintendent; and what kind of a relationship each mayoral candidate feels they should have as mayor with the Superintendent.

Restoring Foreign (World) Language to the Middle School

An important issue. Eight years ago, Newburyport had a World Languages program that was considered a state model. It began in kindergarten, and flowed through high school. We did that because it is research-based conclusion that the younger a child is, the easier it is for a child to become proficient in another language.

Because of budget cuts, we are in the process of eliminating French as an option. We have also cut back our offering of World Languages significantly. For those students currently in the system, they will need to wait until 9th grade to start a language, and they will have very few choices of which language that will be. Of course, in a global economy, and with census projections that the United States will shift to a Hispanic majority well within the lifetime of our currently enrolled students, we are sending Newburyport students out to seek their fame and fortune in the world with a distinct communication disadvantage.

Some of this can be funded grants, and from the support of educational philanthropies. Twice in the last several years the community has turned down a debt exclusion and an override that would have generated funds that were specifically targeted towards restoring World Languages in the schools.

Based on my own experience over the last eight years, restoration of World Languages at a level that provides the minimal opportunity for the greatest number of students will require significant commitment of funds; greater than will be available through grants and philanthropies. But it is a high priority.

The next post will finish with candidate priorities, and offer some questions for readers to consider as they make their choices about which candidate will best address school issues.

Education Priorities for the Mayoral Candidates-- A Primer for Reading Between the Lines

This is a long, long post. I have divided it up into several separate postings; conventional wisdom (something I’ve never ascribed to) says that no one will read a dense, focused article that requires a bathroom break to finish. So, this is the first part.

In today’s Daily News, the Mayoral Candidates discuss their priorities for the schools, and education in general. It might be helpful to consider what each candidate is offering as priorities. It might also be helpful to read between the lines to see what they aren’t saying. I’ll try to do both. You can read their responses here.

I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t other issues affecting the community that deserve attention. There are. I’ve got an enlightened self-interest in this particular topic, though. It is not my intention to publicly support one of the two candidates; I am not going to do that here, or anywhere. There is a Holaday sign at 83 Lime Street, and it reflects the support of my wife for her candidacy. Frankly, it means she has one supporter in the house, and another voter who isn’t saying which candidate gets his vote. If you wander a little farther up Lime Street, there is a house that has both a Shanley and a Holaday sign, so having one voter declare their support and another choose not to isn't so odd. I don’t think that a public declaration of which candidate I intend to vote for adds anything to this discussion, and might actually subtract from a fair consideration of the issues.

I’m offering you a framework for evaluating candidate positions on education issues. You may, and should draw your own conclusions. As far as this mayoral race goes, as a voter, taxpayer, and School Committee member I am interested in some very simple outcomes. Like the election of a mayor who recognizes that the schools represent 45% of the total budget of the city, who understands that a measure of the vitality of the community (and to be mercenary, the ability of a community to hold real estate values high) is the quality of it’s schools. One who understands in a very fundamental way that the quality of a school is comprised of many things- administrative leadership, active parents, thoughtful teachers who feel supported and are able to engage students and teach a challenging and coherent curriculum. I want a mayor who believes that schools are a community asset, and works to engage the entire community in supporting local education. Finally, I’d like to see the election of a mayor who understands this will require that the school and city ensure that the resources and funding it provides are spent efficiently, and ultimately, are ample enough to do the job.

Yeah. Maybe I’m setting the bar pretty high. Using the questions I am suggesting in the above paragraph, and the answers of the two candidates published in today’s Daily News, you can see which candidate will score above the mean. Then go to their websites for those answers that didn’t fit into the Daily News format. Hopefully you’ll find them there; I think they should be there.

Each candidate was asked to set three priorities, so we can look at what those priorities are, or appear to be, and discuss them a little bit.

By my reading, the range of priorities includes time-on-learning at the high school, hiring the strongest superintendent, restoring foreign language at the middle school, working on a budget to present to the City Council (and being the first mayor to actually sit at the negotiating table with school employees in at least the last nine years); implementing and funding the Strategic Plan, doing a school building analysis to make sure the school facilities are up to the task of education, (and establishing good relationships on the state level to get any school capital needs funded). Also included in the list, as a sort of bonus, was a priority encouraging cooperation between the schools and youth services to ensure services are complementary.

I think this is a fair range of issues, and in some cases actual priorities, as far as it goes. Might not have been the three I would have chosen, but I’m not running for mayor. Let’s look at the overarching issues these priorities reflect; after we do that, you can decide whether either candidate, in their artificially shortened response, actually tells you what they will do. After that, I’ll share those priorities that will determine my own vote on Election Day.

Swimming with the Big Fish- Searching for a New Superintendent

Tonight, the School Committee met in public session with the consultants hired to conduct the search for a new Superintendent. John Connolly and Al Argenziano will be the two consultants from HYA working with the Screening Committee and the School Committee, HYA is a national organization, and the search will be national in nature.

Nobody knows better than Newburyport that HYA always gets their man or woman- recently they were hired by Hudson to help with their Superintendent search. They were successful- Hudson, you may remember, hired Kevin Lyons.

You can catch tonight’s meeting on cable later this week. To summarize some of the most important points raised tonight:

* HYA will conduct the search, and do all the initial screenings. They will forward the names of six candidates to the Screening Committee appointed by Mayor Moak.

* The Screening Committee will interview all six semi-finalists, and forward the names of three finalist candidates to the School Committee for their consideration. The School Committee makes the final determination.

* It is the School Committee that will set the parameters and role of the Screening Committee. The School Committee will use information generated by community responses to a Leadership profile to create a “script” of questions to be asked of each candidate by the Screening Committee. The School Committee will use the same script as the basis for their interviews of the finalist. The questions will be developed through focus group meetings and interviews in the community.

* Those community focus groups and interviews will happen in early November.

* The School Committee hopes to be introducing the new Superintendent to the community by March 31, 2010.

A few more points worth noting- HYA has told the School Committee that they search “very aggressively,” and that the likely candidate for the Newburyport job is not currently looking for a new superintendent position.

Also, they were clear that “the compensation package will determine the ultimate quality of the candidates you will get.” They will be doing some research on current salaries in MA and elsewhere in the country, and make a recommendation to the School Committee. Given the number of current openings and the generally thin pool of potential candidates, we should be prepared for serious case of sticker shock. A serious case of sticker shock, indeed.

The Shape of Things To Come

There are a lot of things happening over the next several months that will have an impact on the schools this coming year. These include:

Elections

Since my name isn’t on the ballot for School Committee this go round, we have another uncontested election. You History shows that the three SC elections I have run in have been contested, the intervening elections- not. Three up, three down. This election is no exception. There is something about my presence on the ballot that stimulates the impulse for democratic, multi-candidate elections. Despite the absence of a field of candidates, these are important elections.

With an open Mayor’s race, the School Committee has four of seven seats up for grabs; since Steve Cole is the only SC member running for re-election, we will be seeing three brand-spanking new faces on the Committee come January. Dan Koen and Cheryl Sweeney, who ran unopposed, will join Nick DeKanter, Stephanie Weaver, Steve Cole and me. The Mayor-elect will assume the position of Chair of the School Committee, as authorized by the City Charter. The School Committee rules provide for a Vice Chair to preside over the meetings.

New faces, new challenges. As the election season proceeds, we will be gearing up our search for a new Superintendent. The School Committee has hired a search firm, and the Mayor will be convening a Search Committee shortly. Hopefully, the School Committee will be choosing from several candidates some time this spring.

The Charter

Also on the ballot is the Charter Review Question. A positive vote on the question will also establish a Charter Review Commission. The Commission will review the governing structures of the City, and recommend any changes that will promote better efficiency and accountability in governance. The potential exists for the Commission to consider School Committee terms.

If you search diligently among the 20 names on the ballot, you will find mine. I like to think of the Charter Review process as a Civics class. I’d appreciate your vote. I’ll study hard.

Other Stuff

Also on the docket for the fall will be the school administration response to MCAS results at the Middle School level. At the next School Committee meeting, October 5^th, there will be a full presentation to the community of the MCAS results, with some of the initial analysis of data that is being done; with next steps. While on the whole the MCAS scores were very encouraging, there are some steps we need to take to address challenges that have been identified. I will devote a posting on those results shortly.

The ongoing economic challenges remain; these will become most apparent as we start the process of creating our budget for the next year later this fall.

I will post on each of these issues over the course of the next several months.

Buckle your seatbelts, folks. Should be a ride.

Back on the Radar Screen

I have been uncharacteristically quiet for the past year or so. It feels like time to get back into the blogging business. People have expressed concerns about the issues and challenges facing the schools in Newburyport. Local media is not always able to, or inclined to present nuanced issues in all their complicated and messy glory. Other commendable local blogs are helpful, but don’t focus on the particular issues affecting schools regularly. A real public conversation about the schools is usually limited to a brief period before School Committee meetings; and thus far, even that is available only to those attending the meeting. The rest of the debate is held in blog posts and through letters to the editors. Those places provide great vehicles for expressing an idea, but leave a lot to be desired as a way to bring new and fresh ideas to the table for vetting.

The community should have a place to go for a dialogue about the long-term implications of the challenges we face. We need information, context, explanation, and a place to challenge assumptions and raise concerns about our schools.

Schools are no less important to me, and the larger community, than they were when I last posted in 2008. Some of the issues are old, some of the challenges we face as a community are new, and unprecedented. I’ve always believed that if you give the community all the information they need to make a decision, you significantly increase the likelihood they will make a good, compassionate decision. Solid, factual information is truly the down payment on the democratic process, and impending elections are always a good time to ante up.

Over the coming months, I will attempt to clarify some of the complex issues facing our schools and the community. Too often, local news reporting fails appreciate the larger context in which issues arise. Sometimes they do not, or cannot examine issues that cannot be easily rendered in black and white. I hope this blog will help. I will continue to strive for balance in the presentation of those issues; but again, I strongly believe that transparency rules, and that an informed community will get it right most of the time.

I write as a member of the community, as a parent, and as one of seven elected School Committee members. I do not write on behalf of the full Committee; nothing I say should be construed as representing the deliberations of the full Committee. I’m on my own here, folks. Again. Thanks for taking the time to read. And to think for yourselves. Those two practices make Newburyport a far better place to raise our kids.

Check back in the coming weeks, y'all. Let the conversation begin.

My New Year's Revolutions

Sorry to have been off the radar screen for such an extended period of time, but in many ways, I have been prepping for the year to come. Around this time, every year, I draw up my list of New Year's Revolutions, like a lot of you. I wanted to share some of mine, at least the ones that affect the Schools. Please remember that the following represent my own singular views, and should not in any way be taken as the inclination of the School Committee as a whole. Try to imagine six other people with their fingers in the ears going "I can't hear you!!!" Some others on the Committee may feel the same as I do; let them share those views on their own blogs.

• I resolve to do everything in my power to move the dialogue about the schools from abstraction to reality. The reality is that the Newburyport School system, like much of Newburyport, like much of Massachusetts, depends primarily on property taxes for funding. The abstraction is that since the Schools get about 45% of the City budget, they should get 45% of the revenue. When you sit back, and really think about it, that kind of reasoning is way south of silly. The level at which a City department is funded needs to be based on it's intrinsic value to the community, and not some arbitrary formula that makes things come out all even and pretty. There will times when we need to put extra money into waterworks. There will times when we need to spend money to make our buildings more efficient consumers of energy. You plan, and then you allocate them money to get the job done correctly, meaningfully. Yeah, it involves hard choices sometimes, when the elected officials can't generate new ideas for generating revenue; but when it comes to educating kids, I would suggest those debates are worth having.

• In the ongoing dialogue that has been part of the Task Force on Revenue, I have learned a great deal. It is clear to me that Newburyport has, for some time, consistently failed to create a multi-pronged, consistent and coherent strategy to root out every penny possible from the feds, the state and the private sector. For example, unlike many cities, Newburyport has no centralized database of what grants it has applied for. There is no file, and no review process to ensure that money is spent as it was allocated. Forget the fact that with few exceptions (the Beacon Coalition) we have failed to find ways to creatively bind several grants to meet community needs; we don't even know what Department has applied for what grant. It's even worse than that- we have no centralized triaging of potential grants; there is no-one in the City who reviews the various potential grants available, and channels them to the Departments who can apply for them. We have left money on the table; and even worse, we don't even know who has what grants and whether they have been spent in accordance with their allocations. I resolve to work closely with anyone (do I sense a possible Ordinance?) who will at least ensure that all grants; state, federal, private, that are used to address needs in this City, are kept in a central file, available to any citizen; I would also include in those files any reports required on the expenditures made by the grantee. Y'know, that whole accountability thing.
  

• I would feel less passionate about funding for the Schools if I wasn't convinced that we are closer than it seems to bringing our system into that top 15% or 20% statewide. We have the plan; we have the staff; we have mechanisms in place to ensure that every expense is transparent and justified. We just need to breach the funding hurdle. I am resolved to do everything in my power to ensure better communication about the successes we are experiencing, to ensure that every additional penny we ask for is justified to the community, and to work as creatively as possible to explore ways to reshape the whole idea of how we educate students and continue to support the professional growth of teachers.

• I am resolved to do everything that I can to find opportunities for members of the community, stakeholders and those who have yet to acknowledge they are stakeholders to participate in the ongoing dialogue about the Schools, what they are doing, and to best do it efficiently. There are a number of subjects we will be considering over the next several budget cycles that can help re-shape education, from extended day to extended school years, from shifting hours to identifying and incorporating ways for students and staff to work more directly with the local community as partners.

I am resolved not to wear a baseball hat during meetings.
I am resolved to listen at least as much as I talk.
I am resolved to make sure that for each constructive criticism I offer, there will be a possible solution suggested.

And brothers and sisters, let us all bow our heads and buckle our seatbelts. The ride is about to begin.

Imagine

Friends-

I can tell you exactly what I was doing 27 years ago tonight.

A close friend, living not far from The Dakota Building called me up to tell me that John Lennon had been murdered. I got the news from him about fifteen minutes before it hit the airwaves. For fifteen minutes, I hoped that my friend was wrong. He was right.

I didn't agree with everything John Lennon said and did; but I passionately believed in his right to say it. He challenged us to reshape our world and our community, to rethink our relationships; I listen to his music now, and I can't shake the sense that he was entering a new, incredibly thoughtful and productive place on his journey.

One can only imagine.
Over the past several days, an e-mail from Yoko Ono has been making the rounds. I offer it here as a posting. We are a nation at war with other nations, at war with itself; we are a nation that once was a beacon in a dark world, of freedom, of rights; and now we torture mentally ill "terrorists" to produce intelligence that is utterly useless. Suddenly, after all these years, we quibble over the definition of torture.

Lennon knew we could be so much better than that; he challenged us to be. And we can; we must.

On December 8th, 11.15pm (your local time) remember John by taking a moment of quiet reflection. If you would like to play or sing the song "Imagine" and imagine a world of peace, just know that we are all together at that moment in every time zone, as IMAGINE PEACE makes its way around the world - every hour for 24 hours. Send in stories & photos of what you did on December 8th to stories@imaginepeace.com for us, the family of Peace and Love, to tell us and tell us of your experiences. That would be lovely!

With deepest love
Yoko Ono Lennon


Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

John Lennon December 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980
Rest in Peace John.

www.IMAGINEPEACE.com

Image courtesy of University of California, Irvine, Film and Video Center

Holiday Greetings Worth Hearing

Some of you may remember an earlier post about a friend of mine, (October 15th, to be more exact), in which I mentioned how the sweet and the bitter sometimes entwine; how on the first anniversary of our marriage, one of my best friends died from AIDS. Charlie could do and be anything he wanted, and he was and did a lot of things- theater, film, writing. He was eloquent and self-deprecating, sentimental and compassionate. In a very short time in the field he eventually chose, Meeting Planning, he succeeded brilliantly, serving for a year as the President of the Meeting Professionals International Greater New York Chapter. In that capacity, he wrote a holiday message to the membership in 1989; at his passing, the MPI felt compelled to reprint it when the next holiday season rolled around.

Charlie Stramiello (1989-1990)

Editors note: Because of Charlie’s untimely death, we have chosen an excerpt from his Metrolines “President’s Message” December ‘89/January ’90 issue which we feel best exemplifies the compassion and sincerity he had for life and for all those who knew him. RR

Below me lives a ninety-year-old German woman who fled to America after having lost her entire family during the War. For the past fifty odd years, she’s lived alone, surviving on little more than a fixed income, memories of her deceased husband and son, and memories of her native homeland.

Whenever I visit her (which admittedly isn’t often enough), I’m shamefully reminded how insignificant and inconsequential many of my personal “swipes at life” are, especially as they pertain to career, finances or self-aggrandizement.

With 1989 behind us now, I hope that you – our valued MPI member – will take a moment to give thanks for all the comforts you enjoy, and to carry the feelings of charity with

you in the days ahead.

Whether it’s through your continued involvement with an MPI-endorsed charity (such as City Harvest) or event (such as the “Cruise for Caring”), or through your personal support of a charity of choice, please do not forget those who are less fortunate than yourself.

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year, all year, every year. Peace on Earth. Good will to all.

Written by Charlie when his personal health was long gone. The sentiments prevail, though. As we move into the next year, I find Charlie, as ever, setting a higher bar- for compassion, for gratitude, and for the ability to laugh.

From the MPI-GNY website.

Cow Pies and Sharing the Pain

Sorry about the little vacation. I've actually been quite busy over the past two weeks; much of it having to do with the School Committee, and the Revenue Task Force.

On the SC side, I have working through several iterations of the School Committee Goals for the coming year, which will be voted on at our next meeting, December 17th. The agenda for that meeting will be fat and sassy, and will include the goals, two budget presentations- the level services budget for '08/'09 and the Superintendent's Value-Added recommendations to that budget, essentially, what we need to do to improve our schools that would add costs to or require additional cuts to the Level Services budget. As well, we will go into Executive Session during the meeting for the purpose of finalizing the negotiated contracts with the Superintendent and the Assistant Superintendent, negotiated by Andrea Jones, Gordy Bechtel and myself; we will come out of that session to vote publicly and go over the specifics for the community.

And before you go much further, I should explain that I have been pursuing my task as assigned for the Revenue Task Force, looking at the City budget; I've met with several City Councilors, and will probably meet with several more. I confess that I am somewhat frustrated; if I had a buck for every shrug I've gotten in those meetings when I've raised a question about budgeted expenses, we could bring foreign language back to the middle school next year. So if the tone of this post drifts into smarminess, or lets the occasional sarcastic inference creep into the text, mea culpa. I'm sorry in advance.

Three Simple Rules

For those paying attention, what we've learned from our recent budget history can be boiled down to three essential elements:

YOU CAN'T START EARLY ENOUGH- This year's budget process began four months ahead of last year's; and for the first time in a long time, possibly ever, the estimated level services budget (no changes in the level of services from this year to the next) will be delivered before December 20th. Past practice would put this into the hands of the Community and the SC around late February. We will also be receiving a second, "value-added" set of budget recommendations from the Superintendent that would identify additional spending that would immediately impact student achievement this coming year. And one more point to make, for all those aficionados of Zero-Based budgeting- both the level services and the value-added budget are adjusted to account for new regulatory conditions we face.

KEEP THE COMMUNITY INFORMED, AND THE MESSAGE COGENT- In every way, the SC will work with every constituency in the City to ensure that information is accurately disseminated, everyone is on the same page, and the entire community has every question answered.

WE DO NOT HAVE A "SCHOOL PROBLEM," WE HAVE A MUNICIPAL PROBLEM. EVERY COMMUNITY HAS A MUNICIPAL PROBLEM. WHEN WE CONTINUE TO PARSE THE ISSUES FACING US INTO SCHOOL/CITY, THERE WILL BE NO SOLUTIONS POSSIBLE.

Salem is Slipping...

For the second time in 3 years, the City of Salem has had a deficit in the School budget. Three years ago, an unexpected rise in fuel costs forced the City to lay off teachers in the middle of the School year. The deficit this year has already reached $1.8 million, with 6 months left to go.

Mayor Kim Driscoll of Salem has issued a statement along the lines of "everything is on the table; the schools cannot bear the full brunt of this deficit."

Wow. You mean other City Departments will be asked to share the burden of re-directing revenue to the Schools, because Salem has suddenly realized that Schools have an intrinsic value to the community? I mean times are tight for every community in the Commonwealth, but to put everything on the table to ensure the Schools survive. Gutsy. Salem, which has a crime rate proportionately much worse than Newburyport (compare the 2005 statistics, and note that the formula used by the feds allows for the population disparity between the two cities).

In 2007, "The city (of Salem) spent $7.2 million funding the retirement system last year - more than what it cost to pay for the city's 83-member Police Department.

Compared to Newburyport

The City of Newburyport, with a police force of 38 (?), last year was budgeted at nearly $3,000,000. When you compare the crime rates between Salem and Newburyport, and then realize that they are funded proportionately about the same, you can only come to one inescapable conclusion.

You Can Always Find A Policeman in Newburyport When You Need One

The Police in Newburyport are clearly better at controlling crime than those of Salem. I mean, the numbers bear that out. The police overtime alone in the 2007 budget cost us more than it would have to keep foreign language in the Middle School for this year; but if you want a safe, peaceful community, you have to pay the piper. Really, when you look at the crime rates between Salem and Newburyport, you can only wring your hands in despair that the School Budget crisis might require every Department in the City to give up something.

I'm Not Listening

And to all of you people in Wards 4, 5, and 6 who told me you voted against the override because you think the City-side of the budget has become a pasture for sacred cows to graze, the Mayor disagrees. He said so tonight at the School Committee meeting.

I just wanted you to know, I've done what you've asked; delivered the message. The Mayor just disagrees with it.

Clearly, what we have here is a failure to communicate. I'm not sure we can expect the Mayor to take a stand like Mayor Driscoll, although hope springs eternal.

Before we cut DPW again, let's make sure that we order more grass seed; unless things change dramatically and for the better, those sacred cows will still need their feed. As for the kids, well...

I remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, when, finally, he, and John Hancock, Jefferson and Adams had managed to pass the Declaration of Independence. In considering the magnitude of the deed, Franklin spoke eloquently.

"And so, my friends, we must all hang together now, for if we do not, we will most assuredly hang separately."

Community. A community that binds itself together is willing to make the sacrifices it needs to, to accomplish goals that it finds of great and future value.

There is a lot more to talk about folks, regarding the need for some sort of municipal response to the community crisis. Keep tuned.

Thanks to you, I'll be on the air here for at least four more years.

Magic is afoot...

Here it is Monday (Tuesday); I'm still jazzed from the School Committee meeting, with lots of good stuff to share- but I'll wait til tomorrow to do that.

On Saturday, the progeny and I ventured into the realm of magic. Twice, in one day. Actually, as Leonard Cohen said, Magic is afoot. It abounds, it is everywhere; we need only open our eyes, or in simply lift them up, and look skyward. Sometimes, with just the right amount of seed, faith and patience, magic will gently land right on our palm. My daughter Linnea, and her friend Sarah, equal parts faith, patience, and sunflower seeds were rewarded.

Later that night, the progeny and cub scout friends spend a few hours at the Plum Island Aerodrome, playing flashlight tag, making somors, and watching the skies for shooting stars.
Again, a football field of magic, of kids running and laughing in the dark, stalking coyotes and howling at the gibbous moon, and occasionally managing to catch a blazing meteorite, when they stopped playing to rest long enough.

We have problems to work out as a municipality. But faith and magic abound, and there will be solutions that will require us to make sacrifices.

Magic/sacrifice. The wonder on a kids face when a chickadee lands on their hand, when a star breaks free from the firmament and streaks across the sky; that is why we need to leave this world a better place than we found it. And there is only one way to do that, now. Ensure that we raise children who are critical thinkers, who understand that with rights come responsibilities. We need to ensure that our children are wiser, and smarter than we are.

Parents, the community and the schools can make that happen.

Wisdom, from a teacher in Virgina

Ken Bernstein teaches History and Governance at the High School level in Virgina. His posts on the Daily Kos blog often provide insight and wisdom into teaching and education. He has had three diaries at Kos over the past ten days that are worth reading. Particularly after the election we have just had, the GIC debacle (which I frankly think, based on my own exploration, should be not be laid at the feet of the city unions in general, and the teachers in particular).

Check out these three posts. They will help us to understand a number of issues that will be part of the coming dialogue over the next few years, including merit pay and how you create a basis for it, what should be done about poor teachers, and community partnerships.

The Importance of Teachers

The Education Question in the Recent Democratic Debate: What was Wrong With It

On the Measurement of Teachers

What's a Crummy Teacher, and Why Do We Have Them?

Ken's blog is at: Teacher Ken

Very thoughtful and provocative ideas, communicated honestly and succinctly.

The importance of values in education...

In addition to being highly entertaining, this You Tube segment finds Leonard Nimoy describing how his upbringing and education as an Orthodox Jew in Boston, and the values he learned, were very much a part of his role as Spock, and were recurring themes in the Star Trek series.

And along the way, it becomes clear that he is very intelligent, passionate man, for whom values are not something he takes out once a week. He lives them. Priceless.

Leonard Nimoy and the Vulcan Greeting

And an important lesson in civics. We get very caught up in the struggle to fund the schools, and determine what our educational goals are and should be; and sometimes we lose sight that parents, schools and the community have a very common purpose and investment- ensuring that the next generation of leaders have become critical thinkers, and that they have created a value system that will sustain them, and the future. Nimoy speaks poignantly about his.

A Pragmatist's Manifesto? Part 2

Summary Paragraph: The second, prescriptive section of the Pragmatist's Manifesto, nailed to the cyber-door of this blog this morning by the late, but apparently not departed Newburyport luminary Lord Timothy Dexter. In which Dexter points out that labels don't matter any more when describing the political views of people, because of the appearance of a new type of Newburyporter, or rather, the increasing visibility of these folks.

PART THE SECOND, A NEW AND BENEFICENT POLITICAL ANIMAL WALKS THE LAND

The Knowing Ones have always been quick to label- conservative, liberal, progressive, reactionary; and the labeled were quick to accept those labels. And the final element of the critical dynamic preventing Newburyport from becoming a politically mature municipality was the willingness of the general populace to accept these short-handed, and ultimately meaningless descriptions.

I'd suggest based on my observations over the past 250 years, labels don't mean a damned thing any more, except to the unimaginative and uninspired. They are another way of keeping the people divided and at each other's throats, while the business of the City, and the businesses of the City become more intertwined. It is another artificial division of people; a silly way of typecasting a person so that you can feel good that you needn't listen to their message, because you are convinced it never changes.

We have recently seen the emergence of a new approach to the political dialogue here in Newburyport. It has been called the "bridge-building" phenomenon. I prefer to see it as "The New Pragmatism," practiced by the New Pragmatists.

In the end, it is the only political movement that will enable the City to save itself from it's own inefficiency, lack of vision, and unwillingness to live in the reality-based world.

The old labels just don't work any more. In a single election, one's position on the continuum of anarchist to libertarian (Hmmm. Perhaps it is better described as a circle), can change based on the other people elected to office around you. Take Menin, for example. He ran for office six years ago with reputation for pugnacity, and a pathological need to challenge the status quo, a bomb thrower; suddenly, in his third successful run at the office, he has become a sensible and prescient advocate for innovation and change. But nothing about his beliefs, his commitment to process transparency, and high regard for community engagement has changed in 7 years. Nothing has changed except the cast.

These new politicians and leaders, however, are the last hope for reasoned, empowering and consensual change. Newburyport has a rapidly growing population of Pragmatists. They can be easily spotted in the field.

First off, they seek pragmatic solutions to the problems we face. The pragmatic formula is simple. We acknowledge as a municipality that we have a problem. Then we seek a solution that is consensual, equitable, compassionate, efficient, empowering, measurable, and creative. That involves gathering ALL the information needed to solve a problem, designing a table and a process to engage the best thinking we can on the issue, and using the above criteria to solve it.

Labels beyond pragmatic no longer apply. Pragmatic principles themselves are redemptive and respectful; they require us to treat one another respectfully, and devise solutions that share the burden, or adjust the burden so that the impact may be better borne by those better able to handle it.

You can see the New Pragmatists popping up everywhere. They thrive on sunshine, and believe in building consensus, instead of pulling the wool over your eyes. They seem able to move beyond labels and evaluate ideas; they are sensitive to the inevitable tensions of a city where the demographics have changed so dramatically that now, fewer than half the residents were born here. The Pragmatists know that the wisdom of consensual-problem solving is not the domain of the smartest, it resides in the most thoughtful and compassionate.

They approach an issue from the perspective of what it will take to make it work, not why it won't work. They are honest in their assessments, they don't hold personal grudges, and they find ways to work together on what they have in common. And often, they discover a genuine interest in making this a more livable city, and cleaner and greener destination, a place where community policing is the rule and not simply a shadow exercise; where the schools themselves are community assets and the stakeholders are the entire community.

The Pragmatists on the current City Council will make themselves known soon enough. The same for the those on the School Committee; they are beginning to infiltrate Boards, and Task Forces and Commissions.

If you want to find the truest measure of what this whole treatise is about, look no farther than Gary Roberts, whose unexpected retirement from the City Council for the next two years, and his anticipated return two years from now, will bring one of the most decent, honest and pragmatic public servants back into the life of this community. Gary was relentlessly honest, and may have paid for that by being targeted by no less than 3 different "constituencies" in the past election. If this City is lucky, and we continue on the path of pragmatic problem solving, as opposed to our double-step back to the future, Roberts will find the heart to stay active and then return to the City Council, where his leadership will be critical to the Pragmatic Revolution.

I recently came across another publication on the web, that spoke about the growing need for bridge-builders in Newburyport. I accept that idea as a metaphor for the New Pragmatics.

Best of Luck, Newburyport
Lord Timothy Dexter

Y'know, Dexter makes some wonderful points. I couldn't have said them better, myself.