Daily Archives: January 26, 2011

In Memory of Charles H. “Chick” Loucraft Sr

Posted on by
4

Today’s Sun has the Obituary of Charles H. “Chick” Loucraft Sr.

“Chicky” worked at the Greater Lowell Tech and before that Keith Hall. During my short time at the Tech I had the pleasure of getting to have lunch and talk with Mr. Loucraft on a couple of occasions. If you were to look up the word Gentleman in the dictionary his picture would be there as an example of what a gentle man is.

Chicky love teaching and loved placing kids in jobs and watching former students succeed. He loved Catholic education and talked about his time at Keith Academy, the brothers and some of the students including my late cousin Walter who he remembered from Walts days at Keith and shared some great stories.

Mr. Loucraft is what you want in a teacher, someone who loved his job and the students and really showed it because he went the extra mile and over the next week or so I am sure his family will hear stories from former teachers and students and will find out even more than they already knew what a special man he was.

condolences to his wife Margaret (They celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on October 29, 2010) and to his children, grandchildren and many many friends.

School Committee member Dave Conway is correct: Time to be Respectful and Move On

Posted on by
1

Lowell School Committeeman Dave Conway on City Life this morning, stated that it was time to be respectful of Dr. Scott and her wishes to leave and now we must move on and begin the process of selecting a new Supt. Mr. Conway responded to many questions better than most school committee persons to date and was pretty clear that we all need to respect the fact that the Supt. has chosen to move on and we should now begin the search to replace her and stop the whispering and rumors on both sides.

Mr. Conway in responding to my question about the usefulness of an advisory panel after the disasters that were the Headmaster and head Football Coach panel admitted that the headmaster panel was not properly instructed and that the school committee must set clearer direction and scope.

Mr. Conway and I agree on something! It is time for both the School Committee and their supporters and Mike Gallagher the Supt. representative and me to stop talking. It is time to be respectful and appreciate all Dr. Scott has accomplished while here in Lowell but she for whatever reason has chosen to leave and the school dept. will go on.

It is also time to acknowledge that no useful purpose can come out of playing the they should have responded sooner, she should have not gone to the Sun and the many other arguments that are floating out in the City. All it does is divide and neither side will ever agree. Use it as a learning lesson and move on.

It is now up to the School Committee to clearly set the parameters and qualifications desired in a New Supt. and define what the rules of the search will consist of.

If they chose to have an advisory committee, they need to spell out exactly the role and the exact number of candidates that they should bring forward. It is NOT the job of the advisory board to select a candidate, that is the one thing under Education Reform that falls on the School Committee and one they should and will do.

Dave Conway is correct, It is time to be respectful to Dr. Scott and to the School Committee and let them move on for the good of the system.

For once, even I’ll listen to Mr.Conway and follow that suggestion….