Boston schools face shakeup, departures
Top Boston Public Schools personnel are headed for the door amid a district reshuffling that has some parents questioning the direction of the system.
Instructional superintendent Alexandra Montes McNeil is leaving July 1 for a position in Needham as assistant superintendent for human resources. Instructional superintendent Marice Edouard-Vincent is interviewing in Medford for a superintendent position this week, according to Medford Public Schools.
The high-level exodus comes as the district resets administration posts, creating an office of elementary schools and an office of secondary schools for next year. At least nine top BPS administration jobs have been posted with deadlines to apply by April 20 — with current job holders being asked to reapply, the Herald reported last week.
The latest turnover follows the departure of Frances Esparza, who served as assistant superintendent of the Office of English Language Learners before leaving last summer for a job leading a Los Angeles charter school agency. Esparza originally came from the Los Angeles Unified School District with Superintendent Tommy Chang.
A former Edwards Middle School teacher, Priya Tahiliani, has since served as interim ELL assistant superintendent.
That job was posted in February with the application deadline set for April 8. BPS declined to comment, citing “personnel matters pertaining to individual employees.”
In Needham, the school committee said it was thrilled to get Montes McNeil, who once turned around Boston’s Mario Umana Middle School Academy as principal and was a finalist for interim headmaster of Boston Latin School.
“Our hiring team, parents and community members had a chance to meet with her,” said Heidi Black, chairwoman of the Needham School Committee. “I thought her qualifications were outstanding.”
The turnover has some parent activists worried about how it could impact the district.
“As BPS faces yet another round of cuts, it’s understandable but troubling to see seasoned educational experts, especially of color, increasingly leave our district,” said Heshan Berents-Weeramuni, a Curley K-8 School parent.
The administration changes are the latest in a long line of upheavals in BPS and spell a lack a stable leadership, some City Hall watchers say.
“Whenever someone brings in people from elsewhere, it is most likely they’ll go back to where they came from,” said Larry DiCara, a former City Councilor. “We’d be much better off with stable leadership. This is the byproduct of when you bring in people from far away.”
“There seems to be a number of different initiatives along this line of how you get central office to work with the schools,” said Samuel Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. “We are seeing the beginning of preparations for next year.”