Claremont Academy Teachers Protest School Overhaul

Friday, April 13, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Shocked and bewildered – and steaming mad – teachers and students from Claremont Academy in Worcester armed themselves with signs and the loudest shouts they could muster during a picket outside School Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone’s office on Thursday.

Numbering more than 100, and supported by teachers from other schools and representatives from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, they picketed loudly for about an hour in front of the Durkin Administration Building on Irving Street, where Boone’s and other administrative offices are held. Their protests could be heard inside the building, but Boone didn’t hear them. According to one school officials, she left town Tuesday, one day after delivering the message that Claremont Academy employees must reapply for their jobs at the end of the year. Even then, there is no guarantee they’ll return to that school.

That news has outraged and deeply saddened the approximately 40 teachers and 400 students at the academically-challenged middle/high school.

“It was presented to us in a cruel fashion,” eighth-grade teacher Beth Lemieux said of the news Boone delivered in a letter. “We come in every day and we really work hard. Every one really gives their all for the kids.”

Maria Newton, a music teacher for grades 7-12, talked as she carried a sign high above her head, angrily relaying how she had come to work at Claremont.

“I was placed there for the good of the students,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “Now they’re telling me I can’t come back. And I have to reapply? That’s all I better say.”

No layoffs

With Boone nowhere to be found, and her fill-in - Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeffrey Mulqueen not seen inside the administrative building, it fell upon Human Resource Manager Stacey DeBoise Luster to weather the storms of protest. Mulqueen also failed to return several phone messages.

Sitting in her office, where protesters’ shouts were clearly audible, she shook her head vigorously when asked whether any employees at the middle-high school were being laid off.

“No, no, we are not laying anybody off,” Luster said in earnest, almost hushed tones. “They are being asked to reapply. If they choose not to, they will still have a job. We will just reassign them.”

They are, she said, being told they must reapply. Even if they don’t, she said, they will still have jobs in the fall. They’ll simply be reassigned.

School vote

The School Committee, during a recent executive session, voted 5-2 in favor of the move. That vote only became public when School Committee member, and state representative candidate, Dianna Biancheria, pushed the issue with a school lawyer and the city. Biancheria was one of the two committee members voting against the decision, which is being labeled “unprecedented.” Indeed, it has never been done before in Worcester.

Boone notified teachers and employers at Claremont Academy, a Level 3 school, of her decision in a letter she delivered Monday, April 9. Since then, according to teachers and other school officials, there has been a noticeable decline in morale.

“I have heard from teachers and parents that the climate has dramatically changed (since Monday),” Biancheria said in a statement released to GoLocalWorcester. “Teaching and learning has been dramatically affected by the after school announcement made by administration. We have nine weeks of school remaining, and currently it does not appear that administration is prepared with a plan or strategies to continue to have the focus on teaching and learning in our classrooms.”

Biancheria was particularly critical of the superintendent, saying: ““On Monday she met with the teachers and handed out letters of displacement. Then she left Worcester.”

No one inside the offices of the administration building would identify Boone’s whereabouts, saying only that she was not in her office. Biancheria said she was attending a conference elsewhere.

Challenges

Claremont has been among the city’s academically-challenged schools, but at Level 3 it is not in the range of a Level 4 or 5, the worst levels under state laws. There are three Level 4 schools in Worcester: Chandler Elementary, Union Hill and Burncoat Preparatory. The latter will actually be designated Level 4 next year, according to Luster. A Level 4 school is deemed underperforming, while Level 5 indicates a chronically-underperforming institution. That means they are not meeting state mandated guidelines and performance levels.

No one is disputing the problems that have plagued Claremont, a school that has already undergone two redesigns. It started as the Woodland Street School. In 1992, it was changed to the Accelerated Learning Laboratory. To this day it is commonly referred to as an ALL school. In 2007, the school was split into two separate academies: Woodland and Claremont.

The turmoil didn’t stop there, however. There have been many changes in school leadership. Most recently, Paula Severin announced she is leaving at year’s end. When asked why Severin resigned, Luster said she did not know. She also said there was no formal resignation letter. Severin will be replaced by Ricci Hall, the current principal at nearby University Park Campus School, a grades 7-12 offshoot of Clark University. He will be the second University Park administrator to head Claremont Academy. June Eressy was hired previously, but she retained her duties as principal at University Park. Hall will not. Luster disputed a statement Biancheria made to GoLocalWorcester that Assistant Principal Shannon Sutton had been fired.

“Keep in mind these changes are for next year,” Luster said. “Right now, the staff is still there. The superintendent’s plan for next year includes the elimination of the assistant superintendent’s position. But (Sutton) will be kept as an employee.”

Luster said the administration sees the University Park Campus as a model for Claremont.

“I think so,” she said when asked whether that was an influence in the decision to make changes in the teacher ranks at Claremont. “The idea was how can we us the best practices at University Park, because it is a proven success, and bring them to Claremont.”

Contract was followed

The explanation was not as clear when it was pointed out that such a drastic measure is not being taken with the city’s Level 4 schools.

“All the teachers have to express an interest in returning,” Luster said. When pressed, she acknowledged they are not being asked to reapply.

The superintendent, she said, used the district’s turnaround guidelines as a rule and chose as her option for Claremont the move of making them apply for jobs all over.

“We used the contract process in moving forward with this,” Luster said, before admitting nothing like this had been done before. “The superintendent, in the best interest of the teachers and students, can move people and transfer them.”

Teachers at Claremont have been transferred before, albeit not on such a mass scale.

Minimum requirement

If they want to return next year, one of the requirements will be a minimum 30 hours of professional development over the summer, something not all teachers seemed aware of as they marched in the protest.

“We have a food pantry at our school,” Newton said. “What part of that is going to be in my professional development?”

Leonard Zalauskas, president of the Educational Association of Worcester union, said the matter could have been handled differently.

“This is unprecedented. They really haven’t given us a good reason,” he said. “Why restart? The school has always had challenges, but it really is in the middle of all the other schools at its level in the city.”

Zalauskas said he sees Boone’s decision as making “a science project out of the kids” at Claremont.

“This is not the way to do business,” he said. “If you want education reform, do it in a collaborative way. Anything done top-down usually fails.”

Whatever confusion there may be among teachers at Claremont may be cleared up soon. Luster said she is going to the school Monday, April 23 “to talk to them.”

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