Next up: Site visit panel

In case anyone thought that the Blue Ribbon Panel was the end to the Lowell School Committee sharing the responsibility to choose a Supt. it is NOT. If you felt slighted that you were not picked to take part in selecting the next Supt. (No one asked me) you still have a chance.

In the Personal Sub-Committee meeting on March 2nd the sub-committee consisting of members Martin-Conway and Laraba voted that when it comes down to doing a Site visit for a finalist the following people would participate:

Recommended site visit panel

• School Committee Member
• Central Office Administrators
• Principals
• Teachers Union Representatives
• Parents

The fact that two of the finalist have no site to really visit doesn’t matter. We could drive to their company (if you can locate it) or their house for lunch and a walk around their neighborhood.

What I find real interesting and maybe it is just a transscription issue (Jackie and Alison, proof read these minutes for me and let us know) did you notice that School Committee Member is singular while all other people listed are plural? Does that mean each group gets to send more than 1 member except the Lowell School Committee who are limited to 1?

My guess is that the School Committee who wanted the Blue Ribbon Panel before they didn’t put forward a candidate a couple of them wanted and would probably like a do over because they are confused and upset by his elimination, will probably only want 1 member since they really want others involved in the selection so they have some cover. (The Panel only gave us 5 and eliminated the one we really wanted , when we went to a site visit and they didn’t feed us lunch).

I suggest that they use this next panel has a fundraising effort. They can sell tickets to raise money and have a lottery to see who gets to be part of the next panel. The money can be earmarked for media and library specialist (until John Leahy and Jim Leary change it to buy new football uniforms.)

You buy a ticket for $5.00 and if your name gets picked you can go on a site visit. That way the School department gets more needed revenue and no one can complain they were not asked to be involved.

However I doubt Paul Georges wants to spend any of his money and just wants a free appointment because HIS teachers deserve to pick their next boss. Don’t we in the private sector get to pick our boss?

I’d pay to be on a site vist panel consisiting of :

Jay Lang & Jane Mosher-Canty from Central Office Administrators
Paul Georges and Mike Earle Teachers Union Representatives
Edward Rozmiarek and Eilish Connaughton – Principals
Myself and Carlene Bell-Flanigan – Parent members
Dave Conway from the School Committee

As long as we could go in 1 van or Limo together with John McDonough has our driver and George Anthes as a non-voting member along for the ride to ask questions. It would be a heck of a trip and the conversations would be intense and interesting.

Change under the SUN

In case you missed Mimi’s report, there is a change at the SUN involving the employment of Managing Editor MK Gudza.

To be fair before commentating on this, I emailed Editor Jim Campanini and Publisher Mark O’Neil at 11:45 this morning, asking about that change and a couple other things I have noticed in the past two weeks:

1) This Day In History from the SUN has been done for the last couple of weeks by Tyler Dumont instead of Jim O’Loughlin. Is this permanent or will Jimmy O be back?

2) Did Mike Hayden choose to end his column or did the paper make that choice for him

3) Reports on another BLOG have MK Gudza out as Managing editor. Is this true?

Neither gentleman has responded to my email (2nd time Mr. C has chosen to ignore my email, was it something I said Jim? may I call you Jim? Hello Mr. C…anyone? ).

It has been confirmed by numerous contacts that she is no longer with the paper.

I contacted MK but all she would say about her employment status at the SUN was “You would have to speak with the paper for information.” but she did want to send this message to people
“I have grown so affectionate of the greater Lowell community in the past five months, and thank all those who reached out to me in a welcoming way.”

Like Mimi and Cliff I met MK on City Life and she seemed to not only embrace the blogging community (Unlike Mr. C who seems to dislike most of us) she seemed to be bringing the SUN back to a newspaper that was more interested in direct , fair reporting and not the opinion driven newspaper many have been critical of. Apparently Mr. O’Neil is a strong supporter of Mr. C and likes the slanted view over the direct reporting method.

Greater Lowell Tech Agenda and Live On-Line Broadcast

GLTMeetingPackage040711

School Committee Meeting Live Broadcast : The School Committee Meeting Live Broadcast is available during scheduled School Committee Meetings. The scheduled meeting dates and times can be found online here:School Committee Schedule.

Beginning with tomorrow nights meeting You can go the the Greater Lowell Technical School website and view the meeting live on your home computer.

The school committee would appreciate your feedback on the quality of the feed and especially the audio. Can they be heard and is it clear.

Please send feedback to the Chairman Mike Lenzi – mlenzi@gltech.org
or Sub-Committee Chair George O’Hare – gohare@gltech.org or Lowell Rep Fred Bahou -fbahou@gltech.org

Attached is a very full Agenda for tomorrow night.