IT’S Time for change
Embattled Boston School Committee needs an overhaul
Time to dismantle the dysfunctional Boston School Committee.
The appointed board that has been rocked by a series of controversies can no longer be taken seriously or make major decisions affecting thousands of schoolchildren.
The latest slap in the face was the resignations of Chairwoman Alexandra Oliver-Davila and member Lorna Rivera after private texts between them were released showing them disparaging West Roxbury parents as racist and “westie whites.” And just a few months earlier a student member of the committee resigned, saying he and students were being ignored.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey is vowing to fill the vacancies on the board quickly but here’s a better idea: just forget about appointing them as acting members and get behind a plan to return the school committee to one elected by voters.
The school committee was an elected board more than 30 years ago, but changed when then-Mayor Ray Flynn wanted control all by himself. Voters agreed to change the board to an appointed one.
Since then, the school committee has been a rubber stamp for the mayor. The Herald in 2019 did an analysis and found the committee voted unanimously in almost every decision. And how’s this? Then-Chairman Michael Loconto refused to let committee members speak to the Herald, then refused comment himself.
Boston parents and schoolchildren deserve better.
An elected board may not be perfect but at least the members are directly
‘The people of Boston, the families of our schools, deserve to have a voice. We need a body that will be accountable to families as well as the mayor.’
KIM JANEY acting Boston Mayor, in support of an elected school committee, when she was still just a city councilor
accountable to the voters. When they screw up — as politicians tend to do — they’ll generally be voted out.
The resignations of Rivera — one of the rare dissenters on the committee — and Oliver-Davila are just the latest shakeup in the school panel, which has been rocked with controversies.
Three committee members have now been forced to resign over the last year, including Loconto, who quit after being caught during a Zoom meeting on a hot mic mocking the pronunciation of names of Asian people waiting to speak before the board.
The school committee is now being led temporarily by Michael O’Neill, who served as chairman previously until 2017.
Something is clearly wrong when you have three chairmen run the board in just over a year.
Janey supported at least a hybrid board with both appointed and elected members. Or at least she did until she became mayor and took control.
“The people of Boston, the families of our schools, deserve to have a voice,” Janey told the Bay State Banner earlier this year when she was a city councilor.
“We need a body that will be accountable to families as well as the mayor.”
Now’s the time to back up her words with action.
Other city councilors have also voiced support for an elected school committee, including Michael Flaherty and Julia Mejia, who told the Herald the “best way for accountability is through the voting process.”
Boston voters should at least have the chance to decide the fate of the committee.