Receiver
Rileys Millions Free
Dental for all LPS Students and their
Families
TOM
DUGGAN
LAWRENCE
- With the Lawrence Public School under
the complete control of the State
Department of Education there are a lot
of changes coming to the school system,
and a lot more money being spent.
Where we are - State Commissioner of
Education Mitch Chester has appointed a
receiver, Jeff Riley, to
control every aspect of the school
system. He is operating without a
superintendent. He does have the power of
the Superintendent and the School
Committee, and thanks to state
legislation has full control and
authority over the entire Lawrence School
System. He is, however, not the
superintendent of schools.
The elected Lawrence School Committee no
longer has any authority over spending,
hiring, contracts, or school department
policy. And while they still hold public
meetings, members of the committee are
locked out of day to day operations of
the school district.
Yet, Receiver Riley submitted his
proposed budget last month on school
committee stationary which said Lawrence
School Committee Budget with the
School Committee logo on it, giving many
the impressions that the elected school
committee had something to do with his
budget.
Receiver Jeff Riley is now going into his
sixth month as receiver of the Lawrence
Schools. He is the former Chief
Innovation Officer for the Boston Public
Schools. Riley was hired by Education
Commissioner Chester Mitchell with no
experience in turning around a failing
school system. He was given a three and a
half year contract, at $198,000 per year
with benefits and reimbursements to
turn around the school
district, yet there is no legal
definition or policy outlining what
specific goals must be met to for the
schools to be considered turned
around.
Under the law, the State Education
Commissioner or receiver may expand,
alter or replace the curriculum of the
schools. They may increase the salary of
teachers or administrators in order and
can reward or give bonuses to teachers
and administrators the commissioner or
receiver can suspend, change or terminate
any bargaining agreement and can extend
the school day or the school year at
will. The one thing that the legislation
specifically spells out is that they
shall not reduce the compensation of any
teacher or administrator.
A New Cabinet
Riley didnt waste any time bringing
friends, acquaintances, and former
colleagues on board to work in high paid
administrative positions. He created a
cabinet of administrative
jobs, also creating their salaries, job
requirements and determined the language
in each of their contracts.
Even though the positions were publicly
posted on the school departments
website, all of the people Riley has
hired were people that he knew.
The Valley Patriot matched up the posted
job descriptions of Receiver Rileys
cabinet and new hires, with
the resumes of those he hired. The job
descriptions look as though they were
designed for specific people Riley was
affiliated with in the past.
The commissioner can terminate the
receiver if he doesnt meet one or
more of the goals set for the turnaround
plan, instead of terminating the
receiver, however, the commissioner can
simply change the goals of the turnaround
plan to keep him employed.
The Players and Their Pay
Mary Lou Bergeron, who was named acting
superintendent when Wilfredo Laboy left,
has now returned to her position as
Assistant Superintendent of Operations
and Support Services. It is unclear in
Rileys budget how much Bergeron is
making, and our sources say Riley already
has someone in mind to replace her.
Dale Lipkin is the new Assistant
Superintendent of Curriculum and
Instruction. She is making $128,900 plus
benefits and expense reimbursements.
Marlise Rodriguez-Garcia was hired as
Rileys Chief of Staff
at $115,000 per year.
Shalimar Quiles, a Lawrence High School
graduate and former intern to Riley in
Boston, was hired as the $65,000 per year
plus benefits and expenses.
Public Relations
The Receiver holds public meetings for
one hour on the first Tuesday of every
month and calls them school committee
meetings although he runs them from a
chair facing the school committee and the
agenda items are his own. Riley held a
meeting last month to unveil his fiscal
year 2013 school year spending plan,
topping off at $158 million. He spent
only ten minutes on a presentation to the
public giving no details at all about how
the money was directly being spent.
School Committee members were not invited
to the meeting and those who found out
about it had to sit in the audience.
Riley has told members of the elected
school committee that, since they do not
legally exist anymore he has no
obligation to give them information or
notify them about his
meetings.
Last month School Committee member Pavel
Payano had words with Riley after a
meeting expressing his frustration over
committee members not being notified of
the public budget hearing or receiving a
copy of the budget. As a result of the
interaction Riley never posted the May
school committee meeting and members were
informed a day in advance their meeting
had been cancelled. Some members wanted
to meet as scheduled to discuss the
topics that were on the agenda, but were
told the meeting had never been posted 72
hours in advance so the meeting could not
legally take place.
Parents have complained to The Valley
Patriot that Riley has had no meetings
with parents to let them know what
changes he is making or what his plans
are for increasing test scores and how
this will all ultimately impact their
children.
The elected members of the school
committee requested The Massachusetts
Association of School Committees to
intervene and come into the city to
advocate for them having oversight on how
Riley spends the taxpayers money
and maintaining some level of local say.
The takeover legislation specifically
states:
(g) The commissioner and receiver
shall provide a written report to the
school committee on a quarterly basis to
provide specific information about the
progress being made on the implementation
of the districts turnaround plan.
One of the quarterly reports shall be the
annual evaluation required in subsection
(g).
What is most important is that the
public have oversight as to how their
money is being spent and making sure that
any programs that are implemented in the
Turnaround plan are long term sustainable
within the framework of the budget.
said Jennifer Cooper of the Lawrence
School Committee. If the
legislation doesnt remove the
school committee and doesnt
specifically say that the school
committee has no oversight on how our tax
money is being spent, and it specifically
does call for the receiver to submit
information to the school committee, I
would say that the school committee does
have an oversight responsibility. We will
find out when the Massachusetts
Association of School Committee comes in
on May 10th.
Increases in the 2013 School
Budget
The
2012 school year budget was $143.9
million. More than 99% of that money was
paid by state taxpayers.
This years proposed
2013 school year budget is estimated by
Riley to be at $158 million. But Riley
himself says that those numbers are not
real and will change [most likely go up]
once he defines the turn-around
plan required to be unveiled last
month. No turnaround plan has been
revealed as of the day we went to print.
Within Rileys budget he admits that
the individual schools have yet to submit
their spending plans.
His budget also doesnt include the
millions in grants that normally dont
go through the school committee but are
designated for specific programs. It also
doesnt include the millions in
private foundation money he is planning
on bringing in for programs like; free
dental services for all Lawrence Public
school children, and multicultural
enrichment programs.
Nobody knows if Riley can pass a budget
without releasing those exact numbers to
the public since this is uncharted
territory. Lawrence is the first school
district taken over by the state of
Massachusetts under the new chronically
underperforming legislation and is
being positioned as the national model
for state takeovers of school systems.
Just One Example of Rileys Spending
Increases - Dr. Mary Lou Bergerons
office budget (for operating expenses)
went from $78,000 in the 2012 school year
to $1.2 million in the 2013 school year
for an increase of $1.15 million.
Salaries under the authority of the
Assistant Superintendent went from
$264,512 in the 2012 school year to $1.87
million. In just one assistant
superintendents budget alone, the
proposed spending increase
under receiver Riley tops off at $2.7
million dollars.
Free Dental for Everyone
Private Foundations Leveraged
to Increase Government Spending
Much like the way the Lawrence Public
Schools offers free meals to all students
and their families, Receiver Riley plans
on using money from a private foundation
called Polished Teeth, LLC which touts
itself as a 501C3 not for profit
corporation, to start offering free
dental services to all students in
Lawrence and their families.
Although Receiver Riley calls the free
dental plan a proposed plan,
the fact is Riley has complete authority
to implement whatever programs he wants
and does not propose the plan
to anyone for approval.
Emails obtained by The Valley Patriot
show that Commissioner Mitch Chester and
Receiver Riley, along with Chris
Gabrielli, plan on increasing government
spending in the Lawrence Public Schools
over time, using private foundations
connected to or affiliated with Chris
Gabrielli. The foundations will donate
money for programs in the schools and
eventually pull back their funding;
leaving the state and federal government
to pick up the tab once these programs
and the curriculums are entrenched in the
school system.
Commissioner Chester spells it out in an
email to Gabrielli and Receiver Riley in
an email (dated February 3, 2012) as
follows:
It is important to reiterate that
these private resources are meant to
compliment and leverage, not supplant
[replace] public funding ... Bottom line,
private resources spent now will leverage
orders of magnitude larger public
resources over time.
The email also spells out how the
receiver and private foundations can
increase government spending on the
Lawrence Public Schools:
Also, it has been reported that
some federal money currently available is
not being used because of limited skill
and capacity and as more schools in
Lawrence become subject to state
turnaround requirements [schools that
they deem to be failing] they also become
eligible for federal School Improvement
Grant support
According to the emails, Receiver Riley
has been communicating with a variety of
private education foundations including
the Bill Gates foundation.
NEXT MONTH: How false data and public
propaganda was used to take over the
Lawrence Schools for Political and
financial gain.