Lifting the Charter Schools’ cap
There’s a movement to put on the ballot next year a question about lifting the limits on charter schools all over the Commonwealth and the group Great Schools Massachusetts must collect 65,000 signatures this fall in order to see it through.
There is a huge number of children in waiting lists because they have reached their maximum numbers. Here in Lawrence, they expect to increase another 200 seats next year among both charter schools to alleviate the need.
Charter schools are public schools supported 100% by the state and they work in cooperation with the Lawrence Public Schools system contrary to what has been said on the radio by uninformed individuals.
There are many differences between the two systems with the main one being parental participation: parents are expected to take a very active part in their children’s education, volunteer with school activities and attend meetings. The waiting lists show that families are prepared to do all that.
It’s Official!
At last Tuesday’s City Council meeting, they appointed Eileen Bernal to the position of Chief of Staff once the Home Rule Petition was approved by the Legislature.
I was curious to see the vote because I scolded Council President Modesto Maldonado for voting in favor of said Home Rule Petition to be sent to Boston and wanted to see how it was handled this time.
My reason was because politicians should have convictions and stick to them. The hiring of Ms. Bernal is one issue brought up in the affidavit to recall Mayor Dan Rivera and he is in favor of that movement. His original vote to send the Petition to Boston to facilitate her taking the job permanently seemed to be in conflict with his opinion of the issue. My thought at the time was that he was condoning an action which he considered illegal.
His explanation was that he didn’t want her to feel that he was voting against her so he decided to vote that way. I didn’t like his excuse then or now. We need leaders with strong convictions!
Tuesday night the Council President just asked to “reconfirm the vote taken earlier.” He had no choice this time.
Congratulations, Eileen! I hope the mayor follows your advice.
Finance Committee investigation
Another topic at that meeting on Tuesday night was the investigation Council President Maldonado is conducting on the supplemental budget requested by the mayor and the lack of action from the Finance Committee.
This Committee is formed by Kendrys Vasquez, chair, Estela Reyes and Marc Laplante. Maldonado didn’t offer any details about the investigation although Vasquez offered a long list of meetings that were canceled or could not take place because they had a recess and vacations. It’s really difficult to believe that in 45 days, they could not find one night to get together and discuss the mayor’s request.
The end result was that their lack of action within that timeframe caused the supplemental budget to be approved automatically.
Council President Maldonado accused them of collusion with the mayor.
