"Psychological & Emotional Abuse"

 A benign Calvin Terrell appears before angry parents 10/3/14 at the Middle School

The Special Education Parent Advisory Council, a state mandated organization whose charge is to give advice to the District and advocate for children with special needs, heard members brand Calvin Terrell's 10/2 presentation at Amherst Regional Middle School "psychological and emotional abuse" at their 10/15 meeting.

The advisory group members expressed dismay with Amherst Public School officials response to the fiasco saying, "This slow and anemic response is not acceptable."  Indeed!

   Amherst SEPAC on Calvin Terrell Draft Minutes

Interestingly the schools did launch an Internet survey of Middle School parents but refuse to release the actual ANONYMOUS responses, citing privacy concerns.

But their "analysis" shows a majority (54%) had problems with the presentation and only 15.5% thought his work "should continue".

WHMP radio takes up the issue

What Other Admins Make

Maria Geryk, Sean Mangano, Mike Morris

Just so I'm not accused of being an Irish sexist bully picking on a female CEO by publishing Maria Geryk's five (5) year taxpayer funded contract, here's the other two contracts for recently promoted males. 

   Mike Morris ARPS Contract

Interestingly Mr. Morris gets three (3) years as Assistant Superintendent and Mr.Mangano only gets two (2) as Finance Director.  

   Sean Mangano Contract ARPS

Not that I would accuse anybody of sexism because of that.

Also have to wonder in his contract what is meant by "good cause" under the termination heading?  Since his predecessor Rob Detweiler simply disappeared, aka was fired, back in January for what may have been "good cause".

But since the Schools refuse to talk about it, we will never know.

Platinum Parachute?

Superintendent Maria Geryk, RSC members Lawrence O'Brien, Katherine Appy

So for those of you who honestly think the lap dog Regional School Committee and Union #26 would ever even remotely consider terminating the $168,000 per year contract of Amherst Pelham Regional School Superintendent Maria Geryk (and the free services of her husband Kurt) take a gander at her very recently signed five-year contract.

Although it was retroactive a full year (2013) it would still take a buyout of 3.5 years or $553,000 tax dollars.  Which, simply put, ain't gonna happen.

   Maria Geryk Schools Contract

They Had A Secret

Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee meeting last night

So I guess the way this works is the Regional School Committee and Union #26 directly oversees Superintendent Maria Geryk so that's why her salary/raise is an exact amount, and then they gave her a range for the new Assistant Superintendent, Mike Morris and the new Director of Finance Sean Mangano who she directly oversees.

Hey at least she didn't use the absolute top end with both those salaries. Although as I pointed out last month Mr. Morris @ $115, 000 gets a 15% raise and Mr. Mangano @ $95,000 a whopping 90% raise.  

Notice too there was no discussion whatsoever about job performance.  Like none.  Zero.

And since Tara Luce is an employee of the Public Schools that Maria Geryk oversees, she probably should have abstained. 

Interesting that rookie School Committee Chair Trevor Baptiste, who comes on like an opinionated bull in a dainty china closet, did abstain (for no apparent reason).

Click to enlarge/read

Public Comment?

Trevor Baptiste, the only minority member of Regional Agreement Working Group at 6/12 meeting

UPDATE 3:00 PM  School Superintendent Maria Geryk has kindly negotiated a live session between Mr. Terrell and concerned parents.  Next year.   And only now is he "developing an outline of his presentations"?!

#####

Tonight's 6:00 PM Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee meeting -- so soon after the Calvin Terrell disaster at the Regional Middle School -- should be nothing if not interesting.

In his first act as the new RSC Chair Trevor Baptiste proposed changing the restrictive "Public Comment" period to allow for more extemporaneous input after the disastrous June 24 meeting cost Lawrence O'Brien the chairmanship. 

The public comment period had become a hot bed of activity around racial issues -- and deservedly so.  The predominantly white committee (7 of 9) was having trouble concentrating on their routine agenda items.

At a June 18th meeting of the Equity Task Force, Chair Amilcar Shabazz purportedly talked about an unreported -- more like covered up -- violent racial incident where three black youths "aggressively and seriously assaulted" a white youth because he was the "greatest student racist they could find."

Unnamed members of the Equity Task Force seemed to think Shabazz violated the (FERPA) rights of all the youth involved, since insiders were well aware of the incident and the names of all concerned.  But us lowly outsiders -- who represent the vast majority -- had no idea the incident had even taken place.

Individual Chairs of the school committees that make up the Region, circumventing the Open Meeting Law, signed a sharply critical memo chastising Shabazz and apologized to the parents of the white child involved.

Lawrence O'Brien Chair (for a day) 6/24 RSC meeting

In response, RSC Vice-Chair Trevor Baptiste called a renegade Regional School Committee meeting without approval of then Chair Lawrence O'Brien to countermand the 7/15 memo pillorying Shabazz.  That single motion passed by unanimous vote of the five members (out of nine) who dared to show up. 

And at the next meeting of the full Committee (8/14) Baptiste was elected chair, trouncing O'Brien (5 votes to 3).

So how is Mr. Baptiste -- one of only two black members of the RSC -- going to handle this sad, sadistic episode where a well-paid black motivational speaker terrorized all too many 7th and 8th graders with violent images of loved ones being gunned down before their innocent eyes?

#####

No controversy is complete without an internet poll (not mine)

Poll Of The People

Calvin Terrell demonstrating the power-of-the-universe-in-a-phone routine to upset parents  at packed 10/3 Middle School Principal's Coffee Hour

Mass email to parents 10/3 (click to enlarge/read)

"The School Messed Up"

Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris (far left) Calvin Terrell (multi-colored cap), none too happy parents (right) 10/3 meeting which Terrell thought was an "emergency meeting"

A friend and l-o-n-g time reader likens my school posts to, "distant underwater tremors that turn into 30 foot waves breaking on the beach."

Amherst Public Schools "Media Climate & Communications Specialist" Carol Ross

My boots on the ground coverage of last week's (10/3) "Coffee hour with the Principal" took a few days to catch fire, but as of now the Comments are fast approaching the limit allowed by Blogger, a barrier previously broken only once (school related of course) out of over 3,368 posts published.

 Today's Gazette editorial:  (go to Google News and search using the headline)

While it took the Gazette almost a week to catch up to the shocking story of race/anti-bullying "motivational" guru Calvin Terrell terrorizing our children, they now seem to be making up for lost time. 

Today for instance, in the highest circulating edition of the week, the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette presents a very thorough editorial decrying the sorry affair.

Although in their typically diffident manner they fall short of demanding the schools exterminate their relationship with Terrell.

A glaring oversight. 

 Last year Terrell was paid $2,700 for one day gig

Springfield Sunday Republican Reports 

If It Sounds Good ...

Calvin Terrell (left), Middle School Principal Mendonsa  (rt) explaining themselves to large crowd of peeved  parents

In addition to screwing up the story of good old Lord Jeffery Amherst and his famously infected blankets, Mr. Terrell also had a fanciful spin on why police did not expeditiously move in at the 1999 Columbine massacre.

Naturally it was a race thing.

Although he is correct that the horrific high school mass murder was a watershed event, forever changing the way police react to such situations.



Just as 9/11 was a sea change for airline personnel who were originally trained to be compliant and go along with hijackers -- give them whatever they want.

After all, whoever heard of using commercial passenger airliners as guided missiles.

Click to enlarge/read

Say What?

My friends at the Gazette have switched over to Facebook commenting for their online articles, which I of course think is a good thing.  Yes, trolls and cranks thrive under a cloak of anonymity.

But based on a Facebook posting I received in the dead of night (2:00 AM) I'm now not so sure that simply having to identify yourself keeps the discussion civil and prevents namecalling ...

UPDATE (11:15 AM):

 

So Mr. Geryk has removed his incendiary comment from my highly public Facebook page.  

But no, I'm not going to remove it here.  In Massachusetts you cannot record someone without their knowledge, but if someone calls you up and leaves a message on your voice mail then that is fair game.

#####

These are in response to article about Maria Geryk's $11,000 raise:

Click to enlarge/read

Back On Top Again

 ARPS School Superintendent Maria Geryk

Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk has regained the coveted #1 position as highest paid town employee (technically the "schools" are a legally separate entity) at $158,000 up from $147,000 and now eclipsing Town Manager John Musante who briefly leapfrogged her last week with his Select Board approved 2% raise bringing him to $150,628.

But you have to wonder what the impact -- using the school's favorite buzzword these days, equity --  would be if all school employees received a 7.5% raise?

Between the Regional and Elementary schools total salary costs in FY15 is $32.5 million, so that generous raise would have cost taxpayers an additional $2,437,500 -- to a school system already sky high in average cost per child to educate:  $18,388 per elementary student and $18,026 for Regional student vs state average of $13,636.

Although her current $158,000 salary after 4 years now at the helm only matches exactly the incoming salary for Alberto Rodriguez back in 2009.  After an annoying blogger made public a document showing Rodriguez was taking a total of 40 days off in his first year as Superintendent, combined with internal criticism about his management style, Rodriguez parted ways with Amherst after only 8 months. 

Geryk is now closing in on the last Superintendent with any longevity, Jere Hochman, hired in 2003 (at just over $130,000).  Hochman lasted five years, voluntarily leaving for his old stomping ground Bedford Central School District (N.Y.) with a slight pay increase to $262,000.

When Hochman was first hired his $130,000+ salary raised eyebrows, nowhere more so than the Town Manager at the time Barry Del Castilho.  The Select Board suddenly gave Del Castilho a mid-contract raise of $10,000 to sooth his ego.

 Town Meeting Annual Warrant 2004

Hwei-Ling Greeney brought an advisory petition to Town Meeting demanding the Select Board roll back the raise.  Article #38 passed 81-71, but the Select Board simply ignored the will of Town Meeting.

Of course in 2007 when Town Meeting voted to oppose flying the commemorative flags on 9/11, the Select Board routinely cites that shameful vote for an excuse to keep the flags down 4 out of 5 years.

This past year the Amherst Regional Public Schools have been in disarray over racial incidents, one particularly mishandled event which led to the High School closing down for a day.

And according to the Mass Dept of Elementary & Secondary Education neither the Regional Schools or Elementary Schools are making much progress toward their target goals.

Regional Schools 1-10

Elementary Schools 2-10

After a year like last year, what kind of a message does it send to reward leadership with a whopping 7.5% raise?

Dog Bites Children Story

 New sign at Crocker Farm Elementary School

I'm feeling remiss to even publish the link to this petition on everyone's favorite left wing platform, Change.org, since I'm sure it will probably stimulate a signature or two and School Superintendent Maria Geryk tells me she gets livestreamed email notification with each signature.  Yikes!

I always thought not having dogs on school grounds during school hours was the kind of thing you did not need to put signs up over.  Kind of like those warnings on motor oil not to drink the product.

Considering today's front page Gazette article confirms the dog that viciously attacked two school children on school grounds during school hours still has not been identified, thus forcing the children to undergo rabies vaccination, it's probably not the best time to start such a petition drive.

I was also a little taken aback by the Gazette naming the two children.  Our local hometown newspaper has a policy of not naming sexual assault victims so why should dog assault be any different -- especially when they are juveniles.

I've named (and received bitter criticism over it) college aged youth who died via heroin overdose or falling while under the influence of alcohol or even a suicide victim who used a dangerous (to first responders) chemical cocktail in an enclosed automobile. 

But I would not have named the children involved in this traumatic event, even with parent permission.

Although I would be happy to publish the name of the irresponsible dog owner who selfishly left the scene thus sentencing those two children to a scary procedure.

Anyone have any tips? 

Controlling The Message?

 

A two hour frank discussion about race 
 

Although WHMP was not snarky enough to set up up empty chairs at the "Reading, Writing & Racism?" community forum this morning on the Amherst Town Common to represent Amherst town officials last minute cancellation, they did manage to mention it a few times during the two hour broadcast.  To the applause of the studio audience of 35 or so.

 Crowd on the town common watching live radio broadcast

Town Manger John Musante (whose brother Dave is WHMP general manger), School Superintendent Maria Geryk and new "Media & Climate Communications Specialist" Carol Ross had originally accepted the offer from WHMP  (not exactly a Fox News) to discuss the new "Amherst Together" initiative, a direct response to the racial turmoil over the past year.

Town Manger Musante already caught criticism on Monday night at the Select Board meeting, which consisted entirely of his "evaluation," where SB member Alisa Brewer bristled at his entering into an agreement with the schools without first checking with his bosses, the Select Board.

The schools lack of transparency was repeatedly cited as a problem.  And not just from parents, activists or the media.

Recent ARHS graduate Catia Correia, who worries about her brothers in the aftermath of #Ferguson, talked about the racial incidents surrounding teacher of color  Carolyn Gardner:



Other panelists brought up all the usual criticisms of our public schools -- the achievement gap between students of color and white students, low percentage of minority teachers and just the perception that the administration takes an us against them stance with community members who are trying to help.

By failing to show up for this important unscripted event, town and school officials sent a message that they are uncomfortable having a frank discussion about race when they are not in control of the microphone. 

Makes you wonder what they are (still) trying to hide?

 

Sonji Johnson-Anderson tells panel they did not need a question mark after the title "Reading, Writing & Racism?"

Stephen Armstrong, Ph.D. and owner of Kumon in South Amherst asks panel "Specifically what are you going to do over the next 12 months to level the playing field?"

Come Together, Right Now

 

Maria Geryk, Calvin Terrell, Aaron Hayden, John Musante, Connie Kruger

Amherst Regional School Superintendent Maria Geryk hosted a meet and greet in her office this afternoon between Amherst town officials and chief warrior in the war on racism, Calvin Terrell.An outgrowth of a joint partnership between the schools and town dubbed "Amherst Together".

Amherst College has agreed to underwrite (at a cost of $38,000) ten visits to Amherst over the next year by Mr Terrell to work with elementary, Middle School, High School and Amherst College students.

Adults too must be involved, like all those in the room this afternoon, which included Town Manager John Musante, Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, Select Board Chair Aaron Hayden and rookie SB member Connie Kruger.

Only two of five Select Board members attended (the other three were on vacation) but since this was a public meeting with no actionable motions on the agenda, not having a quorum was inconsequential.

The group discussed race, equity and power for just over an hour with the stated goal of constructing a path towards what in Amherst has been an illusive search for the Holy Grail since the the 1970s:  Racial harmony.

According to Terrell, "Youth are the tip of the spear."  

 

Media & Climate Communications specialist Carol Ross (left)  Maria Geryk, Calvin Terrell

Acknowledging the difficult, unending work that lay ahead, Terrell told the group, "You're always going to have naysayers.  But they should serve to keep you focused, to make you strive even harder."

Equitable Vs Fair

Officials from all 4 towns:  Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury

The Regional Assessment Working Group -- yet another subcommittee formed by the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee -- met yesterday for the first time to deliberate their charge:  "Analyze historical assessments, investigate assessment alternatives, and make a recommendation of an assessment method going forward."

The "working group" is facilitated by Sean Mangano who stepped into the well worn shoes of former Finance Director Robert Detweiler after he mysteriously disappeared six months ago. 

School spending accounts for the lions share of municipal budgets in all four towns.  The current 50+ year old  Region consists of the Middle and High School but the Regional School Committee also formed a committee almost three years ago to discuss and plan for regionalization at the pre-K through six grade as well.

The criteria for the working group is to come up with a finance method that is fair, predictable, affordable, easy to explain to the voters and one that avoids budget buster spikes for individual towns.  Or what one member referred to as "No nukes."

 

Obviously the equitable thing is for all four towns to pay the same cost per student.  Currently the assessment method takes that into consideration but is also based on a "five year rolling average."  And that seems to generate "a hit" to individual towns about once every five years.

Discussion centered around what is fair vs equitable, or ... how do you provide a "circuit breaker" or "cap" to help  any one overburdened town deal with what could be a budget buster?

Amherst Finance Director Sandy Pooler, obviously a numbers guy, wondered how you define "ability to pay?"  He seemed to  approve of the common sense policy of everybody paying the same cost per student, thinking it might better "resonate" with voters.

The group will meet every other week and expect to have a recommendation for the Amherst Regional School Committee sometime in September.  

Approval will require a simple majority vote by the RSC and then all four Town Meetings must endorse the new assessment method; although after that only three-out-of-four approvals will be required to pass the  Regional Budget.

 

(left to rt) Maria Geryk, Kay Moran, Alisa Brewer, Bernie Kubiak, Andy Steinberg

I Am What I Am

 ARPS Superintendent Maria Geryk, the town's highest paid employee

As part of the state mandated comprehensive evaluation of Amherst Regional Schools Superintendent Maria Geryk that played out last week at the circus-like Regional School Committee meeting the Superintendent had to present the committee with a "self evaluation".

Out of the five overall goals she considered two of them "met" and the other three showed "significant progress."  All in all, not too bad as self evaluations go. 

The Regional School Committee seemed to agree and 7 of the 11 gave her a sterling review with 2 abstaining (being only recently elected) and 2 seemed to disagree.

Pelham SC members: Tara Luce abstained, Trevor Baptiste voted "no" and will issue his own evaluation

No mention or discussion of the racial incidents that fractured decorum over this past school year or the unjust treatment of a white student bullied by three black students, or even the inept implementation of a ban on nuts.

There was some mention of the many "lockdowns" during the year and follow up meetings with police to "adjust procedures".  So let's hope that solves the problem.

And next year the High School and Middle School will have cameras installed in the hallways, although the problem with racist graffiti occurred in the bathrooms, where you can't very well install cameras.

   Maria Geryk Self Evaluation

"Proficient to Exemplary Rating"

Maria Geryk, Amherst Town Meeting 5/7/14

Anytime a high ranking appointed public official is evaluated by elected amateurs -- especially a particularly docile board like the Regional School Committee -- I always factor in the tumultuous 1968 election where LBJ "won" New Hampshire, but only by 7 percentage points over upstart Eugene McCarthy (49% to 42%), and later dropped out of the race.

Is this year-end evaluation of Amherst Regional Public Schools Superintendent Maria Geryk really more "Exemplary" than "Proficient"?   Should she have scored a LOT higher?  

Or considering the tumultuous year at Amherst Regional High School, a LOT lower?

(Safe bet she will not be dropping out.)

   Maria Geryk Evaluation

The Cost Of Education (In a College Town)

Amherst School Committee: in the hot seat

Town Meeting went pretty much as planned Wednesday night.  The Elementary and Regional School budgets all passed rather handily after a fair amount of discussion, but not a whole lot centered on cost -- as reflected in the (not so)average cost per student.

The Elementary Budget of $21,490,563 represents an average cost per child of $19,136 and the Regional Middle and High School budget of $29,618,478 represents $20,328 per student.  State average is dramatically lower at $13,636 per student.

Or another way of looking at it is Amherst spends at the Regional level $6,692 more per pupil than state average.   Thus the 1,457 students projected next year cost almost TEN MILLION DOLLARS ($9,750,244 to be exact) over state average.

One reason for the high cost (which are fast approaching private school price points) is "administration cost"  is 66% over state average.   And even though an overhead showed a slight increase in the percentage of the elementary budget eaten up by administration, it generated no discussion from the floor.

Overhead used at Town Meeting

Mass Dept of Education data base

Early in the Elementary School budget discussion Town Meeting member Walter Wolnik read a statement praising the financial prowess and presentation skills of Rob Detweiler, the Schools Director of Finance who mysteriously disappeared three months ago.

Wolnik wished to know if and when he would return to his duties? 

 

School Superintendent Maria Geryk and Sean Mangano (Dettweiler's replacement) listen to Walter Wolnik's statement

Detweiler was on paid Administrative Leave for six weeks (costing taxpayers $15,000) and is still on unpaid Administrative Leave.  School Superintendent Maria Geryk confirmed that he, "will not return in his role ... I appreciate your support of Mr. Detweiler, however I will not be speaking further about the reasons why he is no longer in this role."

Typical layout of classrooms at Wildwood. "Temporary walls" (going on 25 years now) don't go all the way to the ceiling

Article 17 was also an expensive school item, a $1 million Feasibility Study of Wildwood Elementary School (built 1970)  with 60% of that picked up by the state.   As usual some folks had sticker shock over the $1 million price tag even though it's really only $400,000 of town money.

But the motion passed with a solid two-thirds majority, solid enough that no standing or tally vote was required.  And the very next article, to rescind a $400,000 appropriation from last year for new boilers for Wildwood School, passed after a long discussion, thus covering the town's share of the feasibility study.

Since that study will eventually lead to a new school or major renovation (with the state picking up 60%) it doesn't make sense to replace the boilers now at 100% town cost.

 Amherst Elementary Enrollment Trends (going down, down, down)

The Cost of Mistakes?

Rob Detweiler: Still on Administrative Leave

The schools are the largest employer in Amherst town government so it's not surprising that a tiny number of employees come and go under somewhat mysterious circumstances.

In the private sector, taxpayers in general --or even customers in particular -- have no right to know why a popular employee suddenly disappears.

Although in most cases, where the reasons are somewhat benign, the business may be forthcoming when you ask what happened to your favorite aerobics instructor, barista or convenience store clerk.

But a public entity using public money owes the general public an explanation. 

   Rob Detweiler Case

Public Documants czar to ARPS attorney Giny Tate 3 years ago (which they ignored):

Rob Detweiler still shows up on ARPS website as Director of Finance and Operations

Amherst Bulletin reports

"Consistent With The Definition"

Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk, Thursday morning

So the long awaited official report from the Amherst Schools on the incident that closed the High School last month because of a "threat" posted to Facebook was just released, on a blog of all places.

Interestingly the report does admit "there were separate behaviors during the series of events that are consistent with the definition of both bullying and racial harassment."

And since it was the white student's family who complained repeatedly to school authorities about three black students bullying their son, it seems fair to say their charges have been confirmed.

No word on whether the father of the white student, who works in the schools, and was suspended for three days without pay for trying to stop the bullying, will be reimbursed for those days and the stain on his employment record removed.

And no mention of any discipline for school officials who failed to act on the white parents plea to help their son.

Racism By Any Other Name

ARHS closed January 27 due to "unforeseen circumstances"

Are the Amherst Regional Public Schools guilty of a coverup in the Facebook Confessions threat incident that closed the High School on January 27?

At the Community Meeting held later that night to (sort of) explain the "unforeseen circumstances" that suddenly shut down the school, why did school officials not mention the racial component and bullying that led to the fear fueled "threat" being posted on Facebook out of self defense?

And exactly how did the mother (Jamie Sadiq) who blew the whistle on the racial backstory (but not the bullying) leading up to the Facebook incident know the white student involved?  Police and School officials had only learned his name at 3:30 AM that very morning and were refusing to divulge it to the media.  

And why didn't the schools contact the Amherst Police Department after a white father first complained to Dean of Students Mary Custard about the bullying his son was receiving, which later escalated to (criminal) assault by one of the students, who is black?

Why was the white youth suspended for 12 days and his father who works for the schools suspended without pay for 3 days, while the three black youths who bullied him -- including the one who laid hands on him -- received no suspensions?

As part of "Warrior Week" at ARHS, the schools published and promoted two compelling incidents of racial bigotry aimed at a new teacher of color that occurred last October.  But why are we only now hearing this sad story?

Those back-to-back incidents clearly crossed the line into criminal activity via Civil Rights infractions.  Again, why was the Amherst Police Department not immediately notified last October?

Anyone see a pattern here?

Anyone remember 12 years ago when Superintendent Gus Sayer failed to file a 51A report when a mother complained her 15-year-old son was propositioned by the new Principal (Steven Myers) who turned out to have a pedophile background?

And yes that's the same Gus Sayer who retired from Amherst within a year of that ignoble incident, but then came out of retirement to become Superintendent of South Hadley High School where he failed to protect Phoebe Prince from bullying -- and dying.  

In response to that tragic incident the state passed an anti-bullying law requiring all schools to report incidents exactly like the ones that have occurred at ARHS since October.

Amherst needs to start prioritizing the health and welfare of all students (whatever race, creed or color) over their public image.

Amherst Regional High School kids stomp out racism/sexism/homophobia last year.  Well, almost