A Preview of the Worcester School Superintendent’s Evaluation

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Walter Bird Jr., GoLocalWorcester Reporter

The Worcester School Committee won’t officially evaluate Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone until next week, but some members are already grading her. Boone released her self-evaluation Thursday, measuring her performance against goals outlined in November. Most school board members hadn’t read the report one day later, but gave the school boss an inkling of what to expect next week.

“I am certainly impressed with Dr. Boone’s efforts to move forward in this community and interact with all sorts of community representatives,” School Committee member John Monfredo said, listing it as one of the superintendent’s strengths.

Making the Grade

School Committee members don’t grade the superintendent on a letter scale, but if they did, Monfredo would give Boone an “A-”, because I feel she has met the expectations of her goals. She has been a visible force in the community and has tried to include many partners in our community to make the system go forward.”

Boone earned extra marks, at least from Monfredo, when she advocated strongly – and ultimately successfully – for additional school funding from the city. The school department secured an additional $1.7 million to hire teachers and lower class sizes. Boone, Monfredo said, “was very articulate in making her case and explaining why that money was needed.”

Despite giving Boone an overall “A-“, Monfredo awarded a slightly lower mark in one instance: the superintendent’s handling of the Claremont Academy controversy, he only dropped her grade to a "B+" for how she dealt with the situation.

Boone’s self-evaluation makes no mention of the Claremont issue, one that enveloped the school late in the year and led to wild protests and on-again, off-again union negotiations. While whether it comes up next week in any committee member’s evaluation is yet to be determined, some of them were candid in their assessment of Boone’s handling of the situation.

Claremont Controversy

The issue arose after the School Committee authorized Boone to conduct impact bargaining with the teachers’ union at the school. However, she ended up issuing notices to all teachers that they would have to reapply for their jobs before returning to work in the fall. None would be guaranteed to return to Claremont, although every teacher would have the opportunity to be transferred to another school in the city. It kicked off an ugly situation that led to protests and, ultimately, invited state involvement. Finally, Boone agreed to allow some teachers to retain their jobs at Claremont, while others would have the chance to bid on jobs elsewhere in the district. Neither Mayor Joseph Petty, who chairs the School Committee, nor other committee members have ever said publicly whether they were aware the superintendent was going to displace the Claremont teachers.

“It was a gutsy call,” Monfredo said. “She had to make a decision on how we could best move forward. There could have been more communication with the union. Communication is always a gray area.”

Unlike Monfredo, School Committee member Dianna Biancheria, who is running for District 15 state representative, would not to lend an overall grade to Boone. Biancheria, however, was not as hesitant to grade Boone's handling of the Claremont situation. In that instance, she said, the superintendent earned a “C-.”

“That entire situation could have been handled a number of different ways, I think we learned,” Biancheria said.

First-term School Committee member Donna Colorio, who’s only been on the board for six months and will be taking part in her first evaluation of Boone, said she wanted to digest the superintendent’s self-evaluation before issuing a grade, but like Monfredo and Biancheria, Colorio had a definite opinion about the Claremont Controversy.

“I supported what she did,” said Colorio. “I thought it was in the best interest of the school district and in the best interest of the students. But I’m looking for results and there won’t be any results in that situation for a while.”

Strengths and Weaknesses

Turning attention elsewhere, Monfredo acknowledged a weakness in the superintendent : her inability and unwillingness to play the political games. He gave her a “B” in that regard.

“I think she’s not political enough,” he said. “She’s really professional, but she needs to do a better job with elected officials, especially on the state side.”

Sounding a refrain she has repeated often, Biancheria, who has been a critic of the Boone administration for not being more open with the public, said transparency is the superintendent’s major weakness. On the other hand, Biancheria said Boone has the “ability to pick out opportunities of innovation,” although she cited nothing specific.

Not every school board member was as forthcoming. Novick, who said she read Boone’s self-evaluation, nonetheless declined to comment at length, saying, “I’m not going to express any opinion until I’ve prepared my evaluation.”

If past history is any indication, Boone can expect a mixed result from Novick, who said she believes her evaluations have been mixed “every year.” She didn’t want to offer up a grade because, “It’s too complicated an issue to boil it down to a grade.”

Worcester Tech is among the many schools under Boone's charge

Boone's Self-Evaluation

Boone evaluated her performance in four areas: student academic achievement; providing welcoming, safe and secure schools; communication to share and promote practices and results; and fiscal and operations management.

Boone listed several accomplishments in each category. Under fiscal and operations management, she touted the June 6 invitation from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the school district to join the feasibility process for replacement of the Nelson Place School and five accelerated repair projects. Her efforts to improve communication included continued individual meetings with School Committee members on a regular basis. Boone said her work to provide safe schools included the appointment of Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeffrey Mulqueen as the designee for hearings potentially leading to long-term student suspensions. Among the accomplishments Boone listed under student academic achievement was the implementation at Worcester East Middle School of an Innovation School Plan for a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) academy this fall.

The School Committee's evaluation of Boone is scheduled for Thursday, June 21.