A group of Boston parents has filed a lawsuit against the school committee and Superintendent Brenda Cassellius for what they call a "wholly-irrational" exam school admissions process, which. People felt heard. She worked her way up from teacher to assistant principal to associate. In one light, Cassellius looks like the ideal person for that mission. Share Your Memories and Sympathies and Join the Bereaved! Perhaps that is why she seemed so buoyant when I visited Lee K8 with her and why she meets regularly with her student cabinet, and with BPSs student advisory council. Tell us what she really thinks of the joke of a school committee and the oversized influence of the powerful teachers union. As the students offered suggestionsfree menstrual products, cleaner bathrooms, improved ventilationCassellius had her executives take notes. ", In a statement, the mayor said she was "grateful for the Superintendent's leadership, especially while navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.". First published on February 7, 2022 / 4:00 PM. That kind of knocked me down a peg. She picked herself up by reading every book I could find about the craft of leadership, she said. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius will resign at the end of the school year in June, closing out a turbulent three-year tenure overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, in. By then Cassellius had earned a reputation for being full of energy and big ideas. Previous superintendents had done deep dives into the details of how the district ran. I'm a little sympathetic the second time. And that was before the pandemic hit, turning the district and her job upside down. Once, a BPS official saw Briner and Cassellius huddled in a hallway in the Bolling Building. Cambridge's public school superintendent left last summer, and Boston is now in a similar position. Enjoying #umich's first #marketing #communication summit with colleagues Eric Anderson and Nick Looney in the beautiful Michigan Union. Brenda married her partner in life Jason Cassellius, they lived together and had three children, Christian Michel, Ani Grace and Charles Justice. She came under fire from some parents and teachers for her efforts to reopen the . Jun 2002 - Aug 20031 year 3 months. Last month, she filled in at Nathan Hale School as a substitute fourth grade teacher for a day. I want you to run academics for Memphis middle schools, Johnson told Cassellius, assuring her she could handle the job overseeing 31 principals, many of them decades older than her. Who is giving that criticism? she asked me. Parents Evaluation. She does view her job in terms of improving equity, says Keri Rodrigues, a prominent Massachusetts education activist, but wanting it and being able to make it happen are two different things., Edith Bazile, a vocal supporter of Cassellius during the superintendent selection process, has since concluded that Cassellius doesnt have what it takes to lead the district as it emerges from the pandemic. Whats more, there was no train running along the parks length. Parents have seen at least a decade of turmoil, as you said, with a revolving door of superintendents and interim superintendents. Or, as Casselliuss remaining supporters contend, is the problem that Bostona city of sharp-elbowed politics and deep skepticism of outsidershas refused to give her a fighting chance? I need to come hang out here more often, she says. Denne knap viser den valgte sgetype. And she sincerely sought their counsel. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 BPCAE families in U.S. District Court in Boston on Friday. This button displays the currently selected search type. Peter Kadzis: No there have been problems that go way back, even as far back as Ray Flynn and Mayor Menino. Brenda Cassellius, the head of BPS, has a vision for the future unlike any superintendent the city has ever encountered. "Under the circumstances, she's done a great job. Shes scattered, she struggles with talent management, and she doesnt provide a clear vision., Those traits were on full display once she arrived in Boston. Meg Woolhouse is GBH News' K-12 education reporter. The couple has been happily married for years and is parents to three children. But it's not the only issue here. Joe Nathan / This button displays the currently selected search type. We couldn't do it without you. The swiftness of criticism, she told me, and the willingness to condemn, its something uniquely Boston. Casselius is the second BPS superintendent to leave after three years on the job. Over the next 40 minutes, as we tour the facility, she amiably talks to a janitor, a secretary, two assistant principals, and a security guardwhile also dancing, leaping between social-distancing markers on the floor, and, on the playground, jumping down a hopscotch court. I had never met with a school superintendent, says Matthew Thompson, pastor of Jubilee Christian Church in Mattapan, the biggest Protestant church in New England. Everyone was going every which way without direction, without leadership., Meanwhile, the senior leadership ranks cleared out as incumbents defected (Casselliuss chief of staff left in complete and utter dismay, a current BPS official says) or were pushed to resign. Zip codes are allocated spots at the schools based on the number of students living in the area and family income. Brenda Cassellius Salary Details Revealed Brenda Cassellius' compensation is very high as she earns $311,000 every year. They did not. We got Tommy Chang, who relatively quickly washed out. On Wednesday, when asked whether she's still thinking about changes to the admissions process for exam schools, Cassellius indicated she is no longer considering changes. It is tradition for the President to recognize special guests during the State of the Union address each year. Este botn muestra el tipo de bsqueda seleccionado. Brenda's parents have always been supportive of her professional endeavors. In our conversations, Cassellius seemed to ask for two things: time and skepticism of her critics. Will new reporting & school support systems help students? When Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius resigns at the end of the school year, she'll take with her hundreds of thousands of dollars from a separation agreement. She came under fire from some parents and teachers for her efforts to reopen the schools for in-person last fall. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. When the new system was approved, many city leaders and school advocates hailed it as an outstanding vote that helps to address longstanding equity issues within the district. Before she even started the job, when she was still a candidate for the position, she had already seemed to achieve the impossible: winning the support of the community, the school committee, the teachers union, and the mayor. Alexi is from Springfield, Massachusetts and attended college at Hofstra University in New York where she majored in journalism and Spanish. When she was selected as a finalist in the spring, BPS staffers at Bolling, as well as executives at education nonprofits, had called their contacts in Minnesota to get the scoop on the promising candidate. Whats more, in a district with chronically declining enrollment, it wasnt even clear to them that there would be enough students to populate all of Casselliuss new programs. "We have come to this decision after careful deliberation, with mutual respect for all involved and an acknowledgment that there is much work still to be done this school year and beyond," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu wrote in a letter to the school community. And in that time, building improvements and academic improvements have been promised, but not met. Alexi Cohan is a general assignment reporter covering local news and government as well as health and medicine stories. As she traveled the city on her listening tour, Cassellius issued a flurry of staffing directives that often went unannounced and unexplained. She has overseen defections and ousters among her senior executives, a revolt from school principals, and public excoriation from influential nonprofits and activists. Instead, invitations will now be issued by weighing student performance, zip code and GPA or MCAS results, a change that was considered a historic win for underserved communities when it was approved. Strike a blow for transparency for once. She served as co-anchor of the NBC news program Weekend Today from 2003 to 2007, and hosted the series Campbell Brown on CNN from 2008 to 2010. The parents of all Boston school children will appreciate the rare candor. Trying to keep the union appeased and keeping the schools open during the coronavirus pandemic had to be a difficult job for Cassellius. It will be a tough sell among Boston stakeholders. Photo by Matt Kalinowski. This didnt come entirely as a surprise. In a 5-2 vote, the Boston School Committee selected to appoint former Minnesota's Commissioner of Education Dr. Brenda Cassellius as their next Superintendent Wednesday. BOSTON Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius will resign at the end of the school year. A group of Boston parents has filed a lawsuit against the school committee and Superintendent Brenda Cassellius for what they call a wholly-irrational exam school admissions process, which had recently undergone changes due to the pandemic. The mayor and Cassellius say they arrived at the decision to have Brophy help BPS together. She has one of the highest-stakes jobs in Boston, and the second-hardest job in the city after mayor, one source told me. Cassellius often describes her plans for reform as bold, which is also a good descriptor of Cassellius herself. She said her Emerald Necklace concept wasnt a plan but a prop or visioning tool. But the lawsuit says the zip code quota system is wholly-irrational and states that it serves to disfavor Asian and White students by decreasing their numbers at the Boston Exam Schools while favoring Latino and African-American students by increasing their numbers., A Brighton parent and member of BPCAE said, My kids have to submit GPAs and with so many kids in this zip location I just feel that my kids, their chance will be limited to get into exam schools., The lawsuit states, The Students are being required to apply through a race-based process. When BPS faced a lack of staff, Brenda took a substitute teacher position at Nathan Hale Elementary School, Roxbury. The Emerald Necklacea narrow, marshy landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmstedcould not possibly be the site of a half-dozen or more high schools. It is not hard to imagine how a person with this gift, as well as Casselliuss taste for disruptive, visionary thinking, could be a good fit for superintendent of BPS, a district thats long had a broken relationship with the community. Her hometown school board, which had watched her work closely for years, passed her over, citing the scarce progress on closing achievement gaps during her eight years as the top education official in the state. Cuando se ampla, se proporciona una lista de opciones de bsqueda para que los resultados coincidan con la seleccin actual. Cassellius had the political acumen necessary to be successful in Boston and also understood the critical role of educational equity and the needs of Black and brown students, as well as low-income students and English-language learners.. When you are really smart and your mind is moving a lot, sometimes you have to take the time to pause and hear from others., Carol Johnson saw both promise and room for growth in Cassellius. It worked. When Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius resigns at the end of the school year, she'll take with her hundreds of thousands of dollars from a separation agreement. September 8, 2018 Will new reporting & school support systems help students? In a letter to "the BPS community" this morning, Mayor Wu said she, School Committee Chairwoman Jeri Robinson and Cassellius decided it was time for Cassellius to move on. COVID was an incredible challenge. Cassellius recently penned a column for The Washington Post about the teacher and staffing shortage plaguing the schools. In some cases, that lack of attention paid off. I was such a go-getter, she told me, and confident and, you know, dig in. Was it the pandemic, which stalled Casselliuss agenda and turned her job into mission impossible? She does not seek out people, Bazile says, who are going to push her, interrogate her process, and ask provocative questions., Even more unnerving was the growing sense among BPS staffers that Cassellius herself realized she was in over her head. She was named superintendent in May 2019 by then-Mayor Marty Walsh. But it shows that her top allies confidence in her was rapidly eroding. This button displays the currently selected search type. Cassellius has come to Lee this morning to check on the work being done inside the cafeteriaa space as wide and tall as a gymnasiumwhere a dozen or so chefs are busily prepping packaged meals and bags of groceries. As a parent, I want to request that my child receive a fair and equitable opportunity to apply for these three exam schools, said Bentao Cui, president of Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence, a new organization pushing for a merit-based entrance to Bostons exam schools. She quickly won jobs as a teacher, assistant principal, and then principal of a middle school, after Carol Johnson (who would later serve as BPS superintendent) hired Cassellius to work in the Memphis school district where she was superintendent. ", 'Heartbroken' by the tragedy of war, a Ukrainian opera singer performs in Belmont, Healey's proposed budget a boon to education and the environment, Senate confirms first Hispanic judge to Massachusetts federal court, The woman who introduced MLK Jr. and Coretta Scott lies in an unmarked grave in Boston, The civil rights memorials that expose America's ugly history and warn of repeating the past. Cassellius will likely be muzzled under a non-disclosure agreement when she leaves, but it would be nice if she spilled details of her brief time as superintendent on the way out. We're seeing staff come back! Boston School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, right, spoke to the media after she helped dismiss children at the Nathan Hale Elementary School after substitute teaching there in January. Was it the superintendent herself, who, her critics argue, is too focused on visionary (and starry-eyed) future transformations to tend to the urgent problems of the present? Brenda Cassellius, David Esquith, Minnesota State University Mankato, PACER Center, School Safety Technical Assistance Center, US Department of Education Office of Safe and Healthy Students, Walter Roberts / 0 Comments, The following column originally was published by ECM Publications Helping students be safer at school By Joe Nathan on February 10, 2016 at 2:03 pm Joe Nathan David Esquith shares one of the deepest concerns parents have: I worry about a call from the school that my kid got hurt. Its important that Esquith understands, [], Joe Nathan / Day? she responds, incredulous. The district has seen four different people leading the city schools in the last 10 years. Once we got settled in a classroom at the school, Cassellius told me about her life. Leading for equity, Dr.. After two-and-a-half turbulent years as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Brenda Cassellius will resign in June, city officials announced Monday. The Boston School Committee extended their agreement in June 2021, reports WGBH. Will she bring in someone local like they're talking about? Brophy might have seen it this way, too. When you are disrupting the status quo with an anti-racist lens, as an African-American woman, you have to think about the motives of why people might be criticizing the ideas and the disruption that Im making so that underserved children can be served better and to create opportunity and access. In Minnesota, he explained, he and Cassellius shared a frustration that an entrenched bureaucracy stood in the way of bold change. She is confronting an entrenched bureaucracy that wants to pursue incrementalism, rather than radical reform, and she is determined to shake the cobwebs free. I was called everything from the N-word to mulatto, she says. Its a gray and frigid morning in Dorchester when Brenda Cassellius bounds toward me on the front lawn of Joseph Lee K8 School. But mostly the Boston Latin School. I get that. In a statement, Cassellius said, "Working alongside so many people - parents, educators, community and faith leaders, and philanthropic partners - all dedicated to helping our children achieve their dreams has given new meaning to my vision of all hands on deck. You know what would be kind of cool, Nate, is having a youth portion of the presentation. Kuder said he loved the idea. The tour earned her a lot of goodwill. The windows open there. Before her aide could object, she was off. The district is primarily Black and Latino, and parents have been promised much over the years and bore the brunt of the pandemic illnesses and job losses. The Boston School Committee announced last week that Dr. Brenda Cassellius will serve as Boston's next superintendent. Cassellius has faced criticism for allowing her administrator's license to lapse. Does the union get to dictate policy? Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. Here are some entertainment opinions that you can follow: Guests manage to have a better time when entertainment involves actions they can be instantly linked in. If we heard this plan two or three months ago, we may have said, Lets all work toward this, said Shah Family Foundation executive director Ross Wilson, whose organization works closely with BPS, on a podcast the next day. Decade of turmoil, as you said, with a revolving door of superintendents and interim superintendents entrenched! 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