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March 11, 2008
Jack may have edge for top school job
THE LOWELL School Committee has four finalists in hand to succeed Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr, who opted not to seek a contract extension after nearly eight years.
Right now, the finalist who appears to have the inside track is 56-year-old Wendy Jack, the director of curriculum and instruction at Lowell High School.
No one is talking publicly, but Jack could already have three of four votes she'd need. Her likely supporters are Mayor Edward "Bud" Caulfield and School Committee members Dave Conway (a former LHS housemaster and Jack's colleague last year) and Regina Faticanti.
But getting that fourth vote could prove difficult.
Jack might ultimately get hurt by fallout from the power struggle between Baehr and LHS Headmaster William Samaras.
Samaras won that fight -- keeping his job for an extra year despite Baehr's desire to force him out at the end of the current school year -- and likely influenced Baehr's decision to leave town. Hard feelings remain, however.
Jack is considered to be Samaras' candidate for the superintendent's job, which might force Baehr's supporters on the School Committee, Jackie Doherty and John Leahy, to look elsewhere. Both Doherty and Leahy have had little battles with Samaras, who might end up seeking yet another extension to stay on at the high school if Jack becomes his boss.
Jack will need support from committee members Jim Leary and/or Connie Martin.
Right now, neither is a sure bet to be in her corner.
All the interviews will be conducted this week. The dates and times will be determined by the School Committee tomorrow night.
IF JACK is the top candidate, Portia Selene Bonner, 41, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Hamden, Conn., and Chris Augusta Scott, 42, superintendent of schools in Norfolk, occupy the next tier.
Bonner did reasonably well in her interview before the Superintendent Screening Committee last week. However, she lives the farthest away, at a time when there appears to be strong preference for local candidates.
Scott had a strong interview, but her district is puny compared to the Mill City.
Though 55-year-old Paul Schlichtman, the Lowell School Department's coordinator for research testing and assessment, is a local candidate, he also has no significant district supervisory experience. That would seem to make him the least likely to get the job right now.
TWENTY-ONE people applied for the job, and word on the street is that the screening committee had no trouble narrowing the list to eight semifinalists. (The Column has learned that several applications were just plain laughable.)
Then three candidates dropped out, shrinking the pool of semifinalists to five.
Now there could be even more shrinkage, and there's nothing the School Committee can do about it.
On Tuesday, Scott will interview with the New Bedford School Committee, where she also is a finalist for the superintendent's job. Bonner follows on Wednesday.
Unlike the advertisement for the Lowell job that carried no salary range, the New Bedford job was advertised at about $155,000, about what Baehr made.
Scott and Bonner could take the New Bedford job -- if it's offered -- before they're even interviewed in Lowell.
Schlichtman is also pursuing the superintendent's job in the Berlin-Boylston Regional School District.
Jack is the only candidate who's not interviewing for a job elsewhere.
JUST HOW thin was the applicant pool? Think about it: Not one finalist has been a superintendent in a district even one-quarter the size of Lowell.
At least one School Committee member is floating the idea of asking Baehr to stay on one more year as an interim superintendent, to allow the district to conduct another search. The Column has learned Baehr would not accept that job even if it was offered.
Meanwhile, Baehr, with 17 years of experience running school districts in Lowell, Wellesley and Lexington, is essentially a shoo-in for any open superintendent's job in which she's interested.
Baehr, however, said last week she has yet to decide what she will do next.
If for some reason the School Committee can't agree on a candidate, there's always Elaine Espindle in Dracut.
IF THE finalists' interviews are scheduled sooner than Thursday, School Committee member Jim Leary will not be in the house -- but for a good reason.
He and his wife Kyra flew to Guatemala Thursday morning and will be returning to Lowell on Wednesday with an addition to their family -- 9-month-old Lorenzo.
Immigration officials will officially make young Lorenzo an American citizen at the airport in Charlotte, N.C. His arrival marks the end of wading through red tape and jumping through hoops for the Learys.
Leary promises he will be back on the job Thursday night, prepared to interview the finalists. After a week in Central America, he may be asking questions in Spanish.
CITY COUNCILOR Alan Kazanjian's motion last week prompted councilors to name the new Middlesex Street Garage after former councilor and Mayor Edward J. Early Jr.
Other than being a regular at the Kazanjian-owned SAC Club, Early has been out of the public limelight for years. He didn't even attend the City Council inauguration in January, to which former mayors are invited.
Heck, Councilor Armand Mercier, another SAC club regular, had to convince the shy Early to have his mayoral portrait hung at City Hall in 2005, decades after his mayoral term in the late 1960s.
Kazanjian's motion was unanimously approved. No councilor could vote against it, even if they disagreed, without looking like a jerk.
WHEN STATE Rep. Dave Nangle heard City Manager Bernie Lynch was proposing to appoint former Mayor Eileen Donoghue to the Arena Commission, one Nangle buddy said he was "in a panic."
Apparently, the friend said, Nangle feared that the seat would provide a bully pulpit for Donoghue if she chooses to run against him in a Democratic primary. Another Nangle pal said the rep wasn't in a panic, but "apoplectic."
Neither is true, said Nangle.
"I really don't care," he said. "I'm gearing up for re-election, whether I have an opponent or not." If re-elected, it would be his sixth term.
Donoghue said she's undecided about running against Nangle. She has to decide by April 29, when nomination papers are due.
Some folks, like Nangle, are wondering whether Lynch even posted the position, and whether he received any interest from anyone else. The Column is wondering, too. Lynch couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
THE TYNGSBORO School Committee took a peculiar approach before offering its superintendent job to Darrell Lockwood last week.
Each committee member spoke about the qualifications of both finalists, Lockwood and Christine Tyrie. But other than Barry Dick, not one explained why they picked Lockwood.
Three members -- Diana Keohane, Martina Witts and Collin Manzo -- even said they couldn't decide which candidate to vote for, so they would go along with the majority. Committee members Burt Buchman, Bill Downing and Jeff Hunt simply picked Lockwood without further comment.
When it came time to vote, the audience still had no clue who any of the committee members, other than Dick, favored for the job.
After the meeting ended, Downing and Buchman were asked their reasons for choosing Lockwood. They gladly explained why. Witts, Manzo and Keohane said they came to the conclusion that both would be equally good choices.
WHY AREN'T they running? Littleton has many open seats up for re-election in May, but neither incumbents nor challengers have stepped up to the plate.
Selectmen Incumbents Reed Augliere and Ivan Pagacik haven't said whether they'll run for re-election, while resident Ken Smith is the only challenger so far.
"Board of Selectmen is a pretty important position, and right now we only have one person running for two openings," said Town Clerk Diane Crory. "It's a pretty sad state we're in right now."
Other uncontested races include School Committee, Planning Board, Moderator, Cemetery Commission, Library Trustee, and Park and Recreation Commission.
Neither incumbents nor challengers have pulled papers for the Board of Assessors, Light and Water Commissioner, and Commissioner of Trust Funds.
Papers must be picked up at the Town Clerk's office by March 20, and are due back on March 24.
ALONG WITH serious statistics about domestic violence and unequal pay for women, last Monday's Lowell Women's Week opening breakfast had light moments, too.
State Sen. Steven Panagiotakos compared life at home with his wife and two daughters to living in a Greek sorority house. He also elicited laughs when he recalled a discussion on breaking the glass ceiling he'd had with his girls. "I told them they'd have to break a little glass to get ahead," he said, adding one took him literally and broke the garage window.
Middlesex County Sheriff James DiPaola, another father of daughters, recalled coaching the first female major-league Little League player in Malden, then turning the team over to his sister, making her the first female coach in the city's history.
City Councilor Rita Mercier, always good for a laugh, brought chuckles when she told the men they looked "mahvelous," but that it was the women who made them look good.
Perhaps the most laughs -- and gasps -- came from keynote speaker Diane Patrick, wife of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who read from a gem of a booklet she'd found somewhere: The 1943 Guide to Hiring Women -- 11 Tips on More Efficiency. Among them?
"Hire young married women, since they won't be as flirtatious" and "It's a good idea to give every girl an adequate number of rest periods, since they like time to apply lipstick and fix their hair."
We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go," said first lady Patrick.
To which the audience loudly applauded.
FORMER LOWELL Building Commissioner Joe Guthrie is up on his feet and ready to get "dancin' again," he says, after suffering a minor stroke a month ago at his Westford home.
Guthrie has been recuperating at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, where he's been receiving a steady stream of friends, causing nurses to demand he observe the closing curfew or else.
"What are they going to do, throw me out?" he joked last week. Guthrie is due home in a week
The Column wishes him a solid recovery.
LIKEWISE, BEST wishes go out to Dennis Ready, a former Chelmsford selectman and town official, radio talker and good guy. Ready will go under the knife tomorrow morning at New England Medical Center for quadruple bypass surgery.
LOIS FRANKENBERGER, the amiable public relations specialist at the American Textile History Museum for 10 years, received a heartfelt send-off Tuesday from museum staff. Frankenberger moves to New York this week to be near family and pursue other interests. At the party, she told museum director Jim Coleman "both the museum and I are on the verge of exciting new adventures."
But, she added, "the 10 years I spent here were so rewarding. I've learned more about textiles and seen people come and go. It's a sweet sadness I feel."
The museum gave her with a coverlet, woven in the museum's weave room. She presented the museum with a book on the history of nylon, which she'd received when she worked in publicity for Dupont.
The museum expects to hire Marcia Cassidy, formerly with Lowell General Hospital and The Sun, to handle public relations.
DRACUT SELECTMAN George Malliaros can always be counted upon for a few good quotes.
Selectman James O'Loughlin suggested the town could get Lowell developer Kazanjian to reduce his price further for a 14-acre parcel the town wishes to buy.
Malliaros replied, "There's an old saying: 'You can get milk from cows and eggs from chickens but a pig always get slaughtered.'"
Later, "I think it was Mark Twain who said, 'Land is so valuable because they're not making any more of it.'"
Malliaros also said the $1.02 million price tag was a good deal because, "Dracut taxpayers are only paying half. The state is paying the other half."
The board agreed the price for the land is steep, but Malliaros pointed out that the United States "lost a stealth bomber a couple of weeks ago worth $2 billion. What are we quibbling about?"
ATTORNEY HAROLD Greenspan, who is representing newly hired Dracut School Superintendent W. Spencer Mullin in contract negotiations, was running late for a scheduled meeting with the School Committee.
Seems there was a minor accident and he was trying to call the committee's attorney, Ed Morris, to tell him about his tardiness. Just so happens, Morris was involved in the minor fender-bender.
"I volunteered my services," joked Greenspan.
"I took him up on it," said Morris.
This week's Column was written by Sun Editor Jim Campanini, Assistant Managing Editor Kristopher Pisarik, City Editor Christopher Scott, City Hall reporter Michael Lafleur, Littleton reporter Bridget Scrimenti, Tyngsboro reporter Chris Camire; Dracut reporter Dennis Shaughnessey and Lifestyle reporter Nancye Tuttle.
Posted by Admin at March 11, 2008 8:41 AM
