Public deserves answers
from school committee chair
Last May the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges (NEASC) notified the
North Andover Public Schools that their
high school was being put on warning of
losing its accreditation.
But, it wasnt until August 25th
that North Andover Superintendent of
Schools, Marini notified the public that
the high school was in trouble.
Marini claims that the accreditation
war-ning was a mistake and that he had
met with NEASC officials who supposedly
told him that, despite this mistake
the school would have to go through
the tedious process of being reevaluated
to have the warning removed.
School Committee Chair
Barbara Whidden vigorously defended
Marini at the time as she and other
members of the committee made excuses for
his failure to notify the public about
the high schools woes. She and
other committee members even chided a
member of the public who inferred that
members of the committee "must have
known" since nobody on the committee
was taking any steps to hold Marini
accountable for the deception.
But, what Barbara Whidden and her
colleagues didnt say back in
August, was that she too knew that the
high school was put on warning and that
she had, at the very least, given her
tacit consent for Marini and the high
school principal to meet with NEASC in
secret without ever telling her fellow
school committee members (or the public)
whom shes supposed to be serving.
Its a situation that harkens back
to the AL Perry days of back room deals,
decisions about the publics school
system being made in secret and members
refusing to come clean about what was
really going on, that is ...until getting
caught.
But heres where it gets even more
Perry-like.
In mid September, during a school
committee meeting that was not taped and
was not broadcast on cable access TV,
Whidden finally decided to tell the truth
and admit to the public, or at least the
five people in the room, that she did, in
fact, know about the high schools
warning back in May. Word spread only
though the website established by North
Andover parents (http://www.northandover.org)before
the Valley Patriot website broke the
story.
Two weeks later, the school committee met
again, this time cameras rolling and the
public watching at home. Parent Dawn
Crescitelli spoke at public participation
asking Whidden to explain her involvement
in withholding information on the high
schools warning and repeat what she
had said at the untelevised meeting two
weeks earlier.
Not surprisingly, Whidden refused saying
she had already explained it at the
previous (untelevised) meeting and then
arrogantly suggested that Crescitelli get
the minutes (a written record) of the
meeting as if somehow that would
inform North Andover residents watching
at home why she acted unilaterally (in
violation of the town charter) and
without a vote of the school committee
authorizing her to do so.
Since then, not one of Whiddens
colleagues on the school committee have
demanded accountability from Whidden or
Marini, at least not publicly. Not one of
them spoke up and demanded that Whidden
explain herself (while the cameras were
rolling).
And, while Superintendent Marini
eventually did apologize and took
responsibility for his actions, to date,
Whidden and her colleagues have refused
to do so.
Now I admit, it is completely believable
that an incompetent NEASC team made a
mistake by putting North Andover on
warning when they shouldnt have.
But it is quite unbelievable that a body
of elected officials, charged with doing
the publics business in public
would have nothing to say about the
matter at all.
Well, maybe its not so
unbelievable.
After all, this is a school committee
that allowed Superintendent Harry
Harutunian to run amok with no oversight
for years, never demanded accountability
from the likes of former Chairman Al
Perry, and has been totally silent when
it came to holding anyone accountable
(including fellow board members) when
revelations came to light that something
has gone wrong in the North Andover
Public Schools.
AL Perry may be gone, folks, but his
legacy lives on.
Tom Duggan is the president of Valley
Patriot, Inc., a former Lawrence School
Committeeman, and hosts the Paying
Attention! Radio Program on WCAP, 980AM,
every Saturday from 10am - noon. You can
email your comments to Tdugjr@aol.com .
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