Her colleagues found her leadership erratic in other ways as well. For this Herculean challenge, leadership will matter. While the nation tunes in tonight to hear the We will remember him forever. I want you to run academics for Memphis middle schools, Johnson told Cassellius, assuring her she could handle the job overseeing 31 principals, many of them decades older than her. Interpretive Guide for Minnesota Assessment Reports 2015 2016. However, she was Carol Johnson's chief of staff, a former superintendent. At the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, for instance, she wowed teachers and parents when she started communicating with children in American Sign Language. When you are disrupting the status quo with an anti-racist lens, as an African-American woman, you have to think about the motives of why people might be criticizing the ideas and the disruption that Im making so that underserved children can be served better and to create opportunity and access. I was such a go-getter, she told me, and confident and, you know, dig in. And thats a good thingright? The BPS officials listening to this concept were stunned. Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams is the current superintendent of Eastern Carver County Schools in Chaska, MN. Anything you think we should spend money on, you guys? she asked. She worked her way up from teacher to assistant principal to associate. That was after she already had two other meetings this morning. But we can assume it will be at least 18 months and possibly two years left on her contract, which could give her a payout of up to $600.000. The Supreme Court is hearing the Harvard admissions discrimination case, which could effectively end affirmative action. After completing the proposal, she walked into the mayors office with her pitch: Add an additional $100 million to BPSs budget. A bitter irony of 2020 is that even if you believe, as Casselliuss critics do, that she mismanaged the coronavirus response, it is not clear how much it mattered. When Cassellius arrived in Boston to vie for the BPS top job, she pitched herself as a deft political operator laser-focused on equity. You can do this. It was so fun to see Tou again in new employee orientation Even though it is a Wednesday morning, Lee K8, a sprawling red-brick building standing behind us, is mostly empty, staffed by a skeleton crew and completely devoid of children. BOSTON Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius on Tuesday addressed her planned resignation at the end of the academic year but did not give a reason for her departure.. Prior to that she served as Minnesota's education commissioner. This memorial website was created in memory of Brenda D Cassellius-W, 35, born on December 31, 1972 and passed away on April 29, 2008. However, out of public view, their support was wavering. Nor could the surrounding city blocks, which encompassed some of Bostons most expensive and densely populated neighborhoods. Battenfeld: Boston parents and kids deserve a, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Battenfeld: Boston parents and kids deserve a truthful accounting from Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, Editorial: Focus should be on saving Social Security, Lucas: Heres hoping for a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024, Howie Carr: The kinked grocery cart under Bidens America, Woodward: Blame organized crime for shelves under lockdown. She came under fire from some parents and teachers for her efforts to reopen the . According to sources with direct knowledge of this effort, as well as contemporaneous records, the officials were seeking candidates to step into a new role: czar for BPS operations and pandemic response. She was just four months into her job as superintendent and had a bold idea she wanted to share. Boston parent group suing school committee for, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Boston parent group suing school committee for new exam school admissions process, Boston looks to continue remote testimony for public meetings, Special Olympics grant brings the magic of inclusive sports to BPS schools, 98.5 employees had their sensitivity training after Tony Massarotti suspension, Mike Felger rants about people getting fired over a bad comment, Heres what Maura Healeys $55.5 billion budget buys, Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence. On. Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius will leave her post at the end of the school year. When she arrived here in the spring of 2019, she inherited a system plagued by underperforming schools, yawning achievement gaps between Black and white students, decrepit infrastructure, and a distrustful relationship with the community it must serve. And I started to do things where it wasnt just my idea, but everybodys idea.. I was called everything from the N-word to mulatto, she says. Here are some entertainment opinions that you can follow: Guests manage to have a better time when entertainment involves actions they can be instantly linked in. She quickly won jobs as a teacher, assistant principal, and then principal of a middle school, after Carol Johnson (who would later serve as BPS superintendent) hired Cassellius to work in the Memphis school district where she was superintendent. It does not seem that there is any appetite to give people room to prove themselves., If Cassellius shares that sentiment, she was too diplomatic, in most of our conversations, to say so. Earlier this week, Boston Public Schools announced that Superintendent Brenda Cassellius would be stepping down at the end of the school year. She served as co-anchor of the NBC news program Weekend Today from 2003 to 2007, and hosted the series Campbell Brown on CNN from 2008 to 2010. So what went wrong? Boston schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius will step down at the end of the school year, following a turbulent tenure marked by major disruptions in learning caused by the pandemic as well. Midday, I say. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. And in that time, building improvements and academic improvements have been promised, but not met. As this story went to print, Cassellius was preparing for a virtual retreat with the school committee. Photo by Matt Kalinowski. We took a look at her responses in multiple interviews with Boston education leaders, her extensive background in education leadership, and her plans for Boston Public Schools, to uncover how she will shape the next generation of Boston's young scholars. Collaborations, School Choice (including dual credit, district & chartered public schools). Stream GBH's Award-Winning Content For Parents And Children. Her heart is in the right place and I believe deeply she is a good person, says a former BPS official. She's super smart. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Boston School Committee extended their agreement in June 2021, reports WGBH. Together, we've laid a stronger foundation upon which BPS can continue to build. COVID was an incredible challenge. Her hometown school board, which had watched her work closely for years, passed her over, citing the scarce progress on closing achievement gaps during her eight years as the top education official in the state. Half African-American and half white, some of her formative experiences included being the target of hatred from adults. In Boston, where more than 54,000 students returned to class on Tuesday following the holiday, Superintendent of Schools Brenda Cassellius told reporters there were 1,000 staff members out, including 461 teachers and 52 bus drivers. If Casselliuss critics are wrong about her, then this is how: She has arrived in an institutionally conservative city that has a well-documented skepticism of outsiders. But that's not to understate there's a considerable amount of frustration out there. In July 2020, they wrote Cassellius a letterwhich was leaked to the Boston Globeexcoriating her redesign proposal as a top-down exercise in poor planning that is divorced from any authentic analysis of data, lacks major details that must be thought through prior to implementation, [and] ignores years of studies about BPS high schools and the complex issues they face.. Cassellius made the announcement in a letter to parents, students and staff Monday. She has a deep gift for connecting with children, says a current BPS official who is critical of her leadership. I'm a little sympathetic the second time. He had a flawed first search for a superintendent. Blue Ribbon Schools, Brenda Cassellius, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota Education Report Card / 0 Comments, The following column appeared in several APG of Eastern Minnesota newspapers during September, 2018 Will new reporting and support systems help students? In one light, Cassellius looks like the ideal person for that mission. Further, just before applying for the superintendent role in Boston, she had been turned down for the same job in Minneapolis. Lack of uniform start and dismal dismissal times is the root of the problem, report says. The column gave a good glimpse of some of the real problems facing school systems like Boston. Despite Casselliuss public victories, though, BPS officials were alarmed by the mounting evidence that she was an ineffective administrator. The Boston Public School Committee is expected to sign a separation agreement Wednesday to give Cassellius at least $311,000, the Boston Herald reported. During the second half of 2019, she visited every school in the district and met privately with parents, religious leaders, activist groups, and politicians. Dismayed by the prospect of sending kids to school there, she asked her staff to find a way to close italong with another dilapidated school, the Jackson/Mannand send the students elsewhere. Once we got settled in a classroom at the school, Cassellius told me about her life. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. Brophy might have seen it this way, too. Both her father's name and her mothers are unknown. The district is primarily Black and Latino, and parents have been promised much over the years and bore the brunt of the pandemic illnesses and job losses. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Santoro: People will welcome the challenge. It was chaos, says a current BPS official. "She didn't make a difference, period," the mother said. 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If you're a scraper, please click the link below :-) In districts that were well managed and in those that were not, the results have been largely the same: learning loss for students and hardship for parents and teachers. BPS officials stress that the superintendent had every right to put her own team in place. Students in the zip code with the lowest family income will be placed first. Shes had an extraordinarily difficult maiden year as superintendent, and I think shes performed remarkably well under the circumstances. But, he adds, There have been times when Brenda had such a bold vision that its overwhelming to people. Brenda Cassellius was born in Minnesota on September 9, 1967, and she will turn 54 in 2022. For that kind of money, Boston parents and voters deserve a full accounting of what led to the mutual decision for Cassellius to depart. Charlene has a way of coaching Brenda, says the former Minnesota Department of Education official. I dont want this to come off negative, she told me in our first interview, but I think theres almost a sense of pride in that Bostonians say theyre hard on people, just like in Minnesota we have Minnesota Nice., Paul Reville, who served as secretary of education under Deval Patrick and is a supporter of Cassellius, says Cassellius needs to be given time. Then, as a superintendent for the first time, she briefly led a two-school district. It's been two very difficult years for schools, as many teachers and school officials are leaving. Join us. What are their intentions and motives? Was it the superintendent herself, who, her critics argue, is too focused on visionary (and starry-eyed) future transformations to tend to the urgent problems of the present? Brenda Cassellius, Carlton Jenkins, Equal Opportunity Schools, Higher Ground Academy, Hopkins Public Schools, Minnesota Department of Education, Steve Massey, Zena Stenvik / 0 Comments, http://hometownsource.com/2016/03/09/joe-nathan-column-massive-misunderstanding-or-classic-bait-and-switch/ The following column originally was published by ECM Publications Massive misunderstanding or classic bait and switch By Joe Nathan on March 9, 2016 at 5:27 pm Joe Nathan The Minnesota Department of Education wisely passed on an offer recently that represented, in part, a massive misunderstanding and, in part, a classic bait and switch. []. Sensing the COVID-induced hesitation in my voice, the superintendent, who spends a lot of time in the field and knows every school building in the district inside and out, quickly offered another option. 2018 Columns / BOSTON The Superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Dr. Brenda Cassellius, has announced plans to resign after three years as leader of the state's largest school system and will address the decision in front of reporters at a news conference scheduled for 10:15 Tuesday morning. It wasnt long before the principals made their dismay painfully public. / CBS Boston. It began when the new superintendent came to town. This new official will be more senior than Casselliuss chief operations officer, the mayor said, and will have a broad scope of operations duties, including school facilities, transportation, and food. Walsh added he is confident in Cassellius and always has been. At the Joseph P. Tynan Elementary School in South Boston, she toured the hallways and classrooms with parents and their students, letting them know that she believed the school belonged to them. Throughout her tenure as superintendent, Cassellius has seemed happiestand told her colleagues shes happiestwhen she is in schools and with children. She sees something and she does it. Casselliuss decisiveness and big ideas, however, sometimes ruffled the feathers of more traditional colleagues, Johnson says. There have even been rumblings that she may not last much longer in her position. 2016 columns / Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images By Meg Woolhouse Peter Kadzis Henry Santoro February 11, 2022 Morning Edition Share Email Facebook Listen 8:10 In some cases, that lack of attention paid off. I think Wu understands that the next super needs the trust of students, their parents and Boston teachers to really hit the ground running. In a statement, Cassellius said, "Working alongside so many people - parents, educators, community and faith leaders, and philanthropic partners - all dedicated to helping our children achieve their dreams has given new meaning to my vision of all hands on deck. Was it the pandemic, which stalled Casselliuss agenda and turned her job into mission impossible? To say that Casselliuss daily life in Boston has not been smooth is something of an understatement. It is tradition for the President to recognize special guests during the State of the Union address each year. That's not out-front administration. Peter Kadzis, GBH senior politics editor, and Meg Woolhouse, GBH education reporter, joined host Henry Santoro on Morning Edition to discuss. When Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius resigns at the end of the school year, she'll take with her hundreds of thousands of dollars from a separation agreement. The problem was the timeline: She wanted it done now, before the new school year began the following month. Hi, Wellington. Let me cite an example: the surprise closing of the Curley school. September 8, 2018 Will new reporting & school support systems help students? People felt heard. Or, as Casselliuss remaining supporters contend, is the problem that Bostona city of sharp-elbowed politics and deep skepticism of outsidershas refused to give her a fighting chance? It will be a tough sell among Boston stakeholders. BPS was a troubled district; that was no secret. She does not seek out people, Bazile says, who are going to push her, interrogate her process, and ask provocative questions., Even more unnerving was the growing sense among BPS staffers that Cassellius herself realized she was in over her head. It is not hard to imagine how a person with this gift, as well as Casselliuss taste for disruptive, visionary thinking, could be a good fit for superintendent of BPS, a district thats long had a broken relationship with the community. Then there was a second better search and there was a superb candidate, Marie Izquierdo, from Miami. The couple has been happily married for years and is parents to three children. That is exactly how Briner sees it after working alongside Cassellius in Boston. Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. She doesn't have heavy-duty system wide experience. On January 8, 2020, in his State of the City speech, Walsh called out Cassellius by name, saying she was working hard to give every single student access to high-quality schools., Cassellius says she felt she was flying high, on her way to achieving her vision for a better, fairer BPS. Until then, my sleeves are rolled up because we still have work to do," Cassellius wrote in her letter. On Wednesday, when asked whether she's still thinking about changes to the admissions process for exam schools, Cassellius indicated she is no longer considering changes. School officials under Walsh tightly controlled the search process when Cassellius was hired and now the school committee says it wont divulge details of the separation agreement until next month. The Boston. In addition to his editing duties, Senior Editor Peter Kadzis contributes political analysis and is part of the trio that produces the Scrum Podcast. And we want to see all the dirty details including money figures of the separation agreement Cassellius now must sign. Trying to keep the union appeased and keeping the schools open during the coronavirus pandemic had to be a difficult job for Cassellius. Cassellius's name on the list is no surprise, since she has publicly shared her interest in the job. . Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments ? If we heard this plan two or three months ago, we may have said, Lets all work toward this, said Shah Family Foundation executive director Ross Wilson, whose organization works closely with BPS, on a podcast the next day. She is the head of school at Boston Latin School. But it shows that her top allies confidence in her was rapidly eroding. Cassellius informed Boston students, parents, and staff in a letter Monday, saying she . She does view her job in terms of improving equity, says Keri Rodrigues, a prominent Massachusetts education activist, but wanting it and being able to make it happen are two different things., Edith Bazile, a vocal supporter of Cassellius during the superintendent selection process, has since concluded that Cassellius doesnt have what it takes to lead the district as it emerges from the pandemic. 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