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School Issues Take Center Stage in
Lowell
Richard
Howe
While the Fifth District
special election and the city council race grabbed
everyone’s attention this fall, the Lowell Public
Schools recently seized the city’s political
spotlight.
Superintendent of Schools Karla Baehr stunned most
observers by announcing on November 19th that she would
not seek an extension of her current contract which
expires in June.
Instead, she will seek the office of Massachusetts
Commissioner of Education, a position held by David
Driscoll until his retirement in August. With her
doctorate from Columbia, a lifetime of experience in
Massachusetts public education and stints as
superintendent in Wellesley and Lexington along with her
time here in Lowell, Baehr seems especially well
qualified for the DOE job.
Ironically, Dr. Baehr’s potential may be more
apparent to those outside of Lowell than to some of the
city’s residents, a situation reflected by the
recent School Committee election.
David Conway, a soon-to-retire housemaster at Lowell High
School and first time school committee candidate, topped
the ticket after running a vigorous campaign that was
particularly critical of Baehr’s hiring practices
which Conway alleged favored outsiders at the expense of
those already employed within the Lowell school system.
In addition, the superintendent’s most vocal
and consistent critic on the current committee,
Regina Faticanti, finished a strong second, her best
electoral result in years. In contrast, Baehr’s
strongest supporters, Jackie Doherty and Connie Martin
slipped significantly with Doherty falling from first to
fourth and Martin from fifth to sixth.
Another Baehr supporter, Kevin McHugh, failed to win
re-election after ten years on the committee. The
two other committee members, John Leahy and Jim Leary,
have both supported Baehr in the past, but recent
indications are that they would at best take positions of
relative neutrality when it comes to the superintendent’s
future in Lowell.
The wild card on the school committee will be the new
mayor. All indications are that long-time city
councilor Bud Caulfield will be elected by his colleagues
in January. (Lowell’s Plan E charter provides for a
school committee of six members elected at large by the
voters plus the mayor who is a city councilor elected by
the other councilors on inauguration day).
While Caulfield has always voted to fund new schools and
has been an avid backer of performing arts programs such
as the high school band, he has consistently rejected
school department requests for more funding at budget
time in recent years.
Given the makeup of the new school committee, Caulfield’s
frugality would certainly make Baehr’s professional
life infinitely more challenging were she to remain in
Lowell.
Hovering in the background through all of this was the
future of Lowell High School headmaster William
Samaras. Having indicated to Baehr last spring that
he would retire after this academic year, Samaras changed
his mind in September and asked for another year, a
request that Baehr refused.
This set off a firestorm of negative public reaction
against Baehr from many quarters including former Lowell
Sun publisher Kendall Wallace and State Senator Steve
Panagiotakos.
Perhaps constrained by confidentiality rules, Baehr never
made public her reasons for wanting to replace Samaras
and all the attention and publicity given this issue
certainly buttressed the performance of Conway and
Faticanti on election day.
With her reliable support on the school committee
transformed in an electoral flash, any hesitation that
Baehr may have felt about seeking the DOE position
evaporated.
As a former history teacher, Dr. Baehr is undoubtedly
familiar with the Napoleonic era military term “to
steal a march” which means that one army gains an
advantage over its opponent by moving sooner than
expected.
Whether it was intentional or coincidental, Baehr just
“stole a march” on the school committee with
the timing of her departure announcement. Instead
of compiling conditions and caveats for a contract
extension, the school committee is now scrambling to
adopt a selection process for Baehr’s successor on a
timetable set by the outgoing superintendent and not by
the school committee.
In her seven years in Lowell, Karla Baehr has repeatedly
demonstrated her determination to tackle the issues
facing urban public education with a comprehensive, data
driven, research based master plan. A similar approach
would serve the state well at the Department of
Education. But some in Lowell contend that Baehr’s
approach was too heavy on theory and too light on
building relationships with the city’s power
brokers.
I disagree.
Schmoozing can only paper over problems, not solve
them.
The recent political developments in Lowell are
symptomatic of a broader societal dissatisfaction with
the public schools.
The time for incremental improvements has passed.
People want leaps of progress and a rapid rate of change
that has not been evident to date, all within a
relatively short period of time.
That someone as impressive as Karla Baehr, even after
devoting all of her talent and attention to the Lowell
schools for more than seven years, was not able to keep
pace with these demands is compelling evidence that the
time for a radical restructuring of our public schools
may have
arrived.
Richard P. Howe Jr. is the creator of www.richardhowe.com, a blog that provides commentary on
politics in Lowell. He also serves as Register of
Deeds of the Northern District of Middlesex County.
You can email him at lowelldeeds@comcast.net
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The December 2007
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
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