Pittsfield School Committee Candidates Discuss Education
 United Educators of Pittsfield's School Committee debate for the eight candidates was sparsely attended Thursday. |
"I think it is very important that teachers are heard," said incumbent Katherine Yon. "I feel it is important that there is a mechanism, a way for teachers to speak up."
Yon said there used to be advisory councils for teachers to weigh in on what was happening administratively but many of those have disbanded. She wants to bring those back to allow teachers to have more opportunity for input.
Her answer was in response to a question posed by United Educators of Pittsfield President Brendan Sheran during a forum with all eight candidates. All six incumbents are seeking to return to the School Committee and are being challenged by Salvatore Frieri and Irwin Moiseff.
Incumbent Anthony Reillo said to fight the bureaucracy, the administrators need to empower the staff.
"You need strong leaders. You need to develop leaders at the school level," Reillo said. "All of our teachers are required to have master's degrees. Think about the talent pool."
Incumbent Joshua Cutler said the biggest piece of advice he had was to "take chances" and encouraged teachers to get involved in the process instead of taking orders. Incumbent Cynthia Taylor called for innovative ways to build on the strengths of teachers. Incumbent Daniel Elias said he'd like to have teachers represented on school councils and a representative to appear at School Committee meetings. Incumbent Pamela Farron called for collaborative efforts.
"When the administration and the teachers can't work together and don't have respect, the student feels that and takes that on. It becomes a sick building," Farron said. "We are experts in our fields and we need to be respected as that."
Newcomer Frieri said "top-down bureaucracy is lazy" for a system. He says he'd seek staff who feel connected and invested in the schools rather than following the processes handed down from the top. While Moiseff said he'd cut down on administrative positions. Moiseff encouraged the city to back away from accepting federal and state control of the system.
"Education is our responsibility. When we start accepting federal money and state money, we are accepting federal and state control," Moiseff said. "We've got to take the bull by the horns here."
Moiseff also believes that there needs to be better budgeting for school infrastructure improvements. He called for a master plan for every facility so that the city doesn't have "balloon payments" for massive renovations or rebuilds.
"This has to be part of our budget for the top down. We have to maintain these four walls," he said.
Reillo agreed with a "comprehensive plan" so that maintenance doesn't get away from the city.
Yon said improved maintenance starts with the School Committee getting more insight and control over the buildings. Currently, the maintenance is done by a city department and overseen by city officials and not school officials.
"The maintenance is directed from the so-called city side. I've often thought the School Committee should be kept more up to date at that is going on in our schools," Yon said.
Frieri said the issue of building maintenance is that of accountability. He said he'd push for a closer relationship with the mayor, superintendent of schools, and facility managers to ensure the School Committee knows what is happening and what the challenges are.
"The issue we have here is an issue of accountability," he said.
Farron said maintenance has been "pushed to the side" in the past and that has left Crosby, Morningside, Conte, and Pittsfield High School left in need of renovation work. She called for immediate action on projects to improve those schools.
"We don't need to wait until Taconic is finished. It is a long process," Farron said.
Taylor agreed and added that the funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to offset costs of the renovation come from city taxpayers and it is time to "bring them back home." Cutler and Elias also spoke of the importance of moving projects along for those schools.
"These are the projects I would encourage the School Building Needs Commission to look to next," Cutler said.
Cutler recently sat on the negotiating team with the UEP to craft a new three-year teachers' contract. He said the contract narrows the salary gap and provides a more welcoming maternity and paternity leave that will make it more appealing to retain and attract teachers. He says the new vocational programs at Taconic High School will be "top notch" and will help attract students.
The city loses many students to school choice and tuition every year. Taylor called for a marketing effort to bring those students back.
"We offer great teachers and the best selection of course offerings in the county," Taylor said."I'm in favor of a marketing program to bring more students into our district."
She added that "art and creativity saves lives" and promised to work toward rebuilding the district's art and music programs.
Elias agreed with a marketing campaign to attract and retain teachers and students. He further called for the city to track graduates as they go through college and try to bring them back to teach.
While Reillo said, "to retain teachers once we have them, they have to feel respected, valued, encouraged, and treated like the professionals they are ... If you've got teachers who feel that way, they will perform."
Frieri said "great educators go where poor educators were let go." He said he would focus on rooting out the bad teachers and building a stronger staff. Frieri said teachers don't want to teach in a district where other teachers are being detrimental to the student's learning.
In a question about diversity, Frieri said the school's student population "is a strength" because it mirrors the real world. He believes the school should do more to get the families of all demographics involved in the school.
"This is our strength. Pittsfield mirrors what the rest of the world actually looks like," Frieri said. "We need to take the students we have across all of the schools, reach out to their families have their families have a huge voice in what is happening in their schools. ... We don't have to change it, we just have to tap into it."
Yon agreed that the population is a strength because it provides opportunities to teach students compassion and understanding of different backgrounds and cultures. Elias said service projects should incorporate the diversity.
However, Farron says not everybody accepts the diversity. She is calling for an honest conversation about diversity community wide.
"We do have a lot of diversity but the problem is not everybody values it," she said.
Meanwhile, Cutler says the schools need to continue doing targeted recruiting so that the staff reflects the diversity of the student population. Moiseff had a different take saying, "the teachers you hire should be the best and not because you have a quota for a certain race." He called for getting rid of a diversity liaison position.
Taylor said economic diversity is the biggest challenge to teachers. She wants more resources to help teachers deal with not just education but issues of poverty the students often face as well.
When it comes to drugs, mental health, and safety issues in the schools, Farron called for more partnerships with organizations in the community and the formation of more student advocacy clubs.
"I would continue to seek public private partnerships. We are a community," Farron said. "I would continue to support programs like that and continue to collaborate with people in the community."
But she doesn't feel metal detectors should be installed because "they give you a false sense of security. Former Police Chief Reillo agreed that metal detectors aren't the solution. He called for closer partnership with the Police Department's Student Resource Officers.
"The whole drug issue is something our community has been dealing with for years. Critical in that effort is to have adequate prevention programs. We also have to deal with the treatment side and the enforcement side inside and outside of school. To make that happen we have to have a good relationships with the police department and the city," Reillo said.
Cutler boasted of the hiring of additional behavioral technicians in the last budget cycle and called for expansive DARE teaching. Taylor called for closer connections between students and staff to prevent violence and drug issues. Moiseff called for "zero tolerance" policies and contracts signed each year between the students and the school outlining behavior expectations. Yon said she'd like the district to work even closer with the Pittsfield Community Connection's mentoring program.
Yon raved about how community partnerships have allow for other organizations to help serve vulnerable students after many alternative education programs were cut. But, she would still like to see more mentoring.
"I'd also like to see expansion of mentoring programs. I think mentoring is crucial," Yon said. "Every student needs to know there is an adult in the building who really cares about them."
That will help get children off to a good start, she said. Elias called for expansion of early education programs while others took it a step forward calling for universal pre-K.
"We should provide universal pre-K but we know we can't afford it with the state and federal government," Taylor said.
Moiseff called for improving the vocational offerings and Reillo said he'd like to see alternative education programs become available at the elementary school level.
Frieri, a principal in another school district, said the schools need to welcome the children earlier in their lives. He also said he'd like to see sports offerings extend to younger ages.
"To have that connection gets them really invested. That is their second home," Frieri said.
Frieri was the only one to speak in favor of charter schools. He said the district shouldn't disparage charter schools but instead find ways to work collaboratively.
"A charter school didn't rise to its level of operation because it was the worst possible thing in the world," Frieri said. "We need to start working with charter school leaders so we can get the best education to students no matter which team."
Farron says she understands that some students thrive in a different school. But, the funding for charter schools needs to be changed before more schools are proposed in the Berkshires. Cutler agreed with both sentiments. Moiseff said he wouldn't have a problem with them if the schools were under the city's jurisdiction. He said the School Committee needs to look closely at why students would go there to find out "what we are missing" and improve that aspect.
Taylor opposes the system calling them "publicly funded private schools." She said the charter schools don't have to accept every student and can expel students with behavior issues. She says it creates and unfair playing field among schools and the funding system takes money away from city schools.
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