Day? she responds, incredulous. 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. She had been sitting in her car for the past 45 minutes, she explains, on a conference call with other big-city superintendents brainstorming ways to reopen schools in the middle of a pandemic. In one light, Cassellius looks like the ideal person for that mission. The problem was the timeline: She wanted it done now, before the new school year began the following month. Brenda's parents have always been supportive of her professional endeavors. On July 22, less than a week after the principals letter was made public, Cassellius appeared, via Zoom, before the school committee to present a draft of BPSs reopening plan. Cassellius speaking to the media with Mayor Marty Walsh, who says he is and has always been confident in the superintendent. So she's been tested by fire. Bill would see benefits restored by Seth Moulton bill, 98.5 employees had their sensitivity training after Tony Massarotti suspension, Mike Felger rants about people getting fired over a 'bad comment', Denver gang member gave 14-year-old permission to open fire on woman with AR-15 after fender-bender, DA alleges, In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime, Florida lawmakers to consider expansion of so-called dont say gay law, Drone crashes at Disneyland after hovering over visitors heads See video, Rapper Travis Scott wanted for assaulting Manhattan club sound engineer, destroying $12K in equipment. 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. Este botn muestra el tipo de bsqueda seleccionado. As a leader, she said, its good for people to know that youre human., Casselliuss colleagues, and many of her sharpest critics, however, have never questioned her humanity. Without Charlene, I dont think Brenda would have survived., In the months that followed, Briner helped prop Cassellius up, sometimes almost literally. Still, Casselliuss critics and some of her former supporters fear she is ill equipped to tackle this next challenge. Cassellius added that theres nothing wrong with showing vulnerability by crying. A bitter irony of 2020 is that even if you believe, as Casselliuss critics do, that she mismanaged the coronavirus response, it is not clear how much it mattered. Tanisha Sullivan, president of Bostons NAACP chapter and a member of the districts exam schools working group had called the move a historic and positive, transformative mark on our city.. A spokesman for BPS declined to comment due to pending litigation. How much influence and interference did they really have on her and how the schools are run? Working with educators, parents, business people, students, policy-makers and other concerned people throughout the United States. 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. She has worked arduously to reach her dream of becoming a successful teacher. The plan was opposed by some parent groups that wanted 20 percent of the spots at the schools set aside for the best applicants regardless of socioeconomic status. 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 was looking to the futurea future beyond the pandemicand was on the verge of unveiling her new vision, a plan she called Return, Recover, and Reimagine.Were going to be really reframing and pivoting, she told me, because our five-year strategic planthe one she announced a year ago, parts of which were later lambasted by the principalshas gotten very little attention., The new plan, she said, would increase the budget, close achievement gaps, and turn BPS into a real 21st-century school district., The Best Public High Schools in Greater Boston, The Best Public High Schools in Mass., Ranked, This search result is here to prevent scraping, Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli to Open Hook + Line in the Seaport, The Real, Essential Backstory of the MLK Statue The Embrace', On the Market: A Newport Condo Tucked Away in a Stone Turret, Review: Moca Largely Succeeds With Wildly Clever Seafood, Five Boston Homes for Sale for Under $800,000, This Stoughton Artist Paints Saturated Scenes of '60s Suburbia Boston Magazine, Careers and Internships at Boston Magazine. Its that she was falling apart., In October 2019, Cassellius reached for a lifeline, hiring Charlene Briner as her new chief of staff. Then she reflected. The daughter of a young single mother who later became a young single mother herself, Cassellius grew up on food stamps in the projects of Minneapolis and participated in a Head Start program. Most employees who leave companies get an exit interview thats how most businesses operate. The Boston School Committee has voted to confirm Brenda Cassellius a career educator who rose from paraprofessional to state commissioner, mostly in Minnesota as the next superintendent of. would be stepping down at the end of the school year, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius to step down, Boston Public School students walk out, call for remote learning, COVID-19 outbreak at Curley School 'caught us by surprise,' says Boston Public Schools superintendent, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at GBH, Transparency in Coverage Cost-Sharing Disclosures. Thanks to passionate, practical parents, students and educators, Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs, MDE offers great opportunities to help develop education plans, School Safety Technical Assistance Center, US Department of Education Office of Safe and Healthy Students, Massive misunderstanding or classic bait and switch. Cassellius came to Boston less than a year before the pandemic began, forcing her to deal with several unexpected issues, including remote learning and mask and vaccination requirements, as well as staffing issues. Santoro: Meg, it seems clear that parents want and actually need a level of stability considering the pandemic, the turnover of superintendents. According to five current and former BPS officials, she often appeared to make snap decisions, seemingly without contemplating their ramifications. The mayor and Cassellius say they arrived at the decision to have Brophy help BPS together. Brenda Cassellius, the head of BPS, has a vision for the future unlike any superintendent the city has ever encountered. This button displays the currently selected search type. If Casselliuss critics are wrong about her, then this is how: She has arrived in an institutionally conservative city that has a well-documented skepticism of outsiders. Cassellius chats with the head chef, who shows her a color-coded calendar of the months meals. I need to come hang out here more often, she says. We couldn't do it without you. A superintendents contract can be broken with four months notice and the school committee extended Casseliuss contract last year, according to the Herald. - SEPTEMBER 9: Boston Schools Superintendent Brenda. Together, we've laid a stronger foundation upon which BPS can continue to build. 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. I dont want this to come off negative, she told me in our first interview, but I think theres almost a sense of pride in that Bostonians say theyre hard on people, just like in Minnesota we have Minnesota Nice., Paul Reville, who served as secretary of education under Deval Patrick and is a supporter of Cassellius, says Cassellius needs to be given time. Peter Kadzis: No there have been problems that go way back, even as far back as Ray Flynn and Mayor Menino. 2016 columns / In meetings, she often broke down in tears and said she felt overwhelmed, according to three people who witnessed these episodes. This button displays the currently selected search type. And my hunch is . . Kadzis: That's what I might say, but she's a very accomplished woman. She is too focused on big-picture plans, Bazile says, and she does not have the leadership tools to put in place policies that are going to make those plans actually occur in reality. It creates a level of desperation, Bazile adds, because we cant lose this generation., On the afternoon of November 13, I joined a Zoom call with Cassellius, her chief financial officer, her chief operations officer, and some of her favorite people in the district: her cabinet of student advisers. "I don't have any further thoughts on that at this time," she said. 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. The school committee approved her plan and Walsh agreed to the budget increase. Per her contract, Casselius must be paid a years base salary, or the rest of what she would have been paid, had she stayed until 2023, whichever is less. Rachel Pearson is a parent advocate and trainer at the PACER Center, a nonprofit that champions youth with disabilities and their families. Do you mind if I run a tape recorder throughout the day? I ask her. Brenda Cassellius Selected As Next Boston Schools Superintendent May 2, 2019 BOSTON ( WBZ NewsRadio) After a year-long search, Boston Public Schools has a new leader. 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 extended their agreement in June 2021, reports WGBH. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Reading Sage MCAS Practice Test. Alexi Cohan is a general assignment reporter covering local news and government as well as health and medicine stories. 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. Cassellius often describes her plans for reform as bold, which is also a good descriptor of Cassellius herself. Prior to that she served as Minnesota's education commissioner. Give us details on her relationship with former Mayor Marty Walsh and current Mayor Michelle Wu. She has one of the highest-stakes jobs in Boston, and the second-hardest job in the city after mayor, one source told me. In addition to his editing duties, Senior Editor Peter Kadzis contributes political analysis and is part of the trio that produces the Scrum Podcast. I paused. As the students offered suggestionsfree menstrual products, cleaner bathrooms, improved ventilationCassellius had her executives take notes. The move would have rendered Cassellius virtually a figurehead, still nominally in control of the district, but with many core responsibilities removed from her portfolio. See all the student videos on the Dual High School/College Credit page. "The Boston Teachers Union is thankful to Dr. Brenda Cassellius for her contributions to our public schools during what have been incredibly trying and unprecedented times," union president Jessica Tang said in a statement. When BPS faced a lack of staff, Brenda took a substitute teacher position at Nathan Hale Elementary School, Roxbury. Cassellius took the top job in Boston eight months before the pandemic prompted a shift to remote learning that has since transmuted into staffing shortages, mask mandates and other complicated issues. In a couple of hours, Boston Public Schools families will begin lining up at the door of the school, which has been turned into a food-distribution site. Together, we've laid a stronger foundation upon which BPS can continue to build. No further reasoning was given. As she traveled the city on her listening tour, Cassellius issued a flurry of staffing directives that often went unannounced and unexplained. Santoro: If Rachel Skerritt is happy where she is, why would she even consider taking on this monstrosity? Once we got settled in a classroom at the school, Cassellius told me about her life. Parents have seen at least a decade of turmoil, as you said, with a revolving door of superintendents and interim superintendents. Bill would see benefits restored by Seth Moulton bill, 98.5 employees had their sensitivity training after Tony Massarotti suspension, Mike Felger rants about people getting fired over a 'bad comment', Denver gang member gave 14-year-old permission to open fire on woman with AR-15 after fender-bender, DA alleges, In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime, Florida lawmakers to consider expansion of so-called dont say gay law, Drone crashes at Disneyland after hovering over visitors heads See video, Rapper Travis Scott wanted for assaulting Manhattan club sound engineer, destroying $12K in equipment. Once, a BPS official saw Briner and Cassellius huddled in a hallway in the Bolling Building. Briner stood close to her and said, Lets breathe in. Yet even by the standards of a city that has had five superintendents in the past decade, Casselliuss first year and a half on the job since arriving from Minnesota, where she served as the commissioner of the Department of Education, has been tumultuous. In theory, this was a fine idea. 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? GRADE 3 READING Virginia Department of Education Home. 2016 columns / When I asked Mayor Walsh about this effort, he said it would be false to characterize the role explored over the summer as a checkmate to Brenda. However, he said that as of December, Cassellius was seeking to hire a new operations director. 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. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Working with educators, parents, business people, students, policy-makers and other concerned people throughout the United States. Dr. Brenda Cassellius has spent three decades as an educator devoted to helping all children succeed and thrive. After two-and-a-half turbulent years as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Brenda Cassellius will resign in June, city officials announced Monday. Nor could the surrounding city blocks, which encompassed some of Bostons most expensive and densely populated neighborhoods. In some cases, that lack of attention paid off. 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. But that's not to understate there's a considerable amount of frustration out there. parents, and others. At the Joseph P. 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