Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius will resign at the end of the school year, bringing to an end a three-year tenure marked by COVID-19 upheaval and leaving Boston's new mayor with major decisions on the education and policing fronts. That's not out-front administration. But when youre in charge of a school district for more than 50,000 students, being nice isnt enough to prevent us from being honest that shes not getting the job done.. Note that clicking the link below will block access to this site for 24 hours. Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said she supported the change because it is easy to understand, maintains academic rigor, and increases the opportunity for disadvantaged students. 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. The discovery of a gun at a South Boston school on Friday along with the vicious attack on a principal a few months ago showed the school system has a long way to go at protecting kids and teachers from violence. Bill would see benefits restored by Seth Moulton bill, 98.5 employees had their sensitivity training after Tony Massarotti suspension, Mike Felger rants about people getting fired over a 'bad comment', Denver gang member gave 14-year-old permission to open fire on woman with AR-15 after fender-bender, DA alleges, In 4 years, Lori Lightfoot went from breakout political star to divisive mayor of a Chicago beset by pandemic and crime, Florida lawmakers to consider expansion of so-called dont say gay law, Drone crashes at Disneyland after hovering over visitors heads See video, Rapper Travis Scott wanted for assaulting Manhattan club sound engineer, destroying $12K in equipment. She did not say why she is leaving. Enjoying #umich's first #marketing #communication summit with colleagues Eric Anderson and Nick Looney in the beautiful Michigan Union. 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. Shes a quick problem solver, says Bernadeia Johnson (no relation to Carol), a former superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools. It was chaos, says a current BPS official. Cassellius added that theres nothing wrong with showing vulnerability by crying. The plaintiffs are asking the court to prevent admissions decisions from being made under the new system and to prohibit the district from using a zip code system as a factor in future admissions decisions. Cambridge's public school superintendent left last summer, and Boston is now in a similar position. Cassellius has faced criticism for allowing her administrator's license to lapse. On July 22, less than a week after the principals letter was made public, Cassellius appeared, via Zoom, before the school committee to present a draft of BPSs reopening plan. AN EDUCATION CAREER Cassellius spent her early career as a single mom. Joe Nathan / Cassellius will likely be muzzled under a non-disclosure agreement when she leaves, but it would be nice if she spilled details of her brief time as superintendent on the way out. 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. Cassellius recently penned a column for The Washington Post about the teacher and staffing shortage plaguing the schools. 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. 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. Midday, I say. Somebody who's passionate about helping inner city kids," said Yonathan Fassil, whose child goes to Boston Latin School. "She didn't make a difference, period," the mother said. 2017 columns, Charter schools, Columns (J. Nathan), Dual HS/College Credit, PSEO / Transitions are difficult for kids and adults alike. 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. This button displays the currently selected search type. In theory, this was a fine idea. Instead, invitations will now be issued by weighing student performance, zip code and GPA or MCAS results, a change that was considered a historic win for underserved communities when it was approved. The historic building and the congregation within it both seek to reckon with a truer version of their history. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. Cassellius often describes her plans for reform as bold, which is also a good descriptor of Cassellius herself. Half African-American and half white, some of her formative experiences included being the target of hatred from adults. Throughout her tenure as superintendent, Cassellius has seemed happiestand told her colleagues shes happiestwhen she is in schools and with children. According to five current and former BPS officials, she often appeared to make snap decisions, seemingly without contemplating their ramifications. However, she was Carol Johnson's chief of staff, a former superintendent. And that was before the pandemic hit, turning the district and her job upside down. She has one of the highest-stakes jobs in Boston, and the second-hardest job in the city after mayor, one source told me. She sees something and she does it. Casselliuss decisiveness and big ideas, however, sometimes ruffled the feathers of more traditional colleagues, Johnson says. The swiftness of criticism, she told me, and the willingness to condemn, its something uniquely Boston. 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? For this Herculean challenge, leadership will matter. Once, in August 2019, Cassellius returned to the Bolling Building in tears from a visit to the McKinley South End Academy, which was housed in a decrepit building. Meg Woolhouse is GBH News' K-12 education reporter. GBH News brings you the stories, local voices, and big ideas that shape our world. 2016 columns / Her colleagues found her leadership erratic in other ways as well. Cassellius has barely stopped moving since. Hi, Rose, she said brightly. Santoro: People will welcome the challenge. She is confronting an entrenched bureaucracy that wants to pursue incrementalism, rather than radical reform, and she is determined to shake the cobwebs free. Trying to keep the union appeased and keeping the schools open during the coronavirus pandemic had to be a difficult job for Cassellius. Can Wu deliver? She is the head of school at Boston Latin School. Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments ? But it's not the only issue here. This year, in addition to giving thanks to God and [], Joe Nathan / The column gave a good glimpse of some of the real problems facing school systems like Boston. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. It will be a tough sell among Boston stakeholders. She has taken charge of a flailing school district and recognized the need for bold and uncomfortable changes. Brenda Cassellius's husband is Jason Cassellius. As this story went to print, Cassellius was preparing for a virtual retreat with the school committee. She had been sitting in her car for the past 45 minutes, she explains, on a conference call with other big-city superintendents brainstorming ways to reopen schools in the middle of a pandemic. Santoro: So is this a wait and see thing now? Brenda married her partner in life Jason Cassellius, they lived together and had three children, Christian Michel, Ani Grace and Charles Justice. We talked about that challenge routinely, he said. Kadzis: That's what I might say, but she's a very accomplished woman. Theyve held more than 100 meetings around the state since January 2016 on one of the most important issues facing Minnesota: [], Joe Nathan / 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. Casselius is the second BPS superintendent to leave after three years on the job. When you are really smart and your mind is moving a lot, sometimes you have to take the time to pause and hear from others., Carol Johnson saw both promise and room for growth in Cassellius. (Second-hardest job in the country after president, another said.) I get that. Brenda Cassellius was born in Minnesota on September 9, 1967, and she will turn 54 in 2022. As a parent, I want to request that my child receive a fair and equitable opportunity to apply for these three exam schools, said Bentao Cui, president of Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence, a new organization pushing for a merit-based entrance to Bostons exam schools. She asked me what I would do if I was superintendent. Meanwhile, she funneled what she had learned on her listening tour into a strategic vision plan that laid out a roadmap for BPSs next five years. Henry Santoro: Meg, let's start with you. After two-and-a-half turbulent years as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Brenda Cassellius will resign in June, city officials announced Monday. They began considering an intervention. Her leadership skills are very lacking, a former Minnesota Department of Education official who worked with Cassellius told me. Further, just before applying for the superintendent role in Boston, she had been turned down for the same job in Minneapolis. Denne knap viser den valgte sgetype. Casselliuss staffers were stunned that she believed it was possible to shut down two school buildings in a matter of weeks, when that process normally took years. GRADE 3 READING Virginia Department of Education Home. Most employees who leave companies get an exit interview thats how most businesses operate. Massachusetts could get another snowstorm Friday: What areas were the jackpot zones in this past storm? They were tracking COVID, and it was the parents that forced the closure of the school. 2017 columns / I had never met with a school superintendent, says Matthew Thompson, pastor of Jubilee Christian Church in Mattapan, the biggest Protestant church in New England. Dr. Brenda Cassellius has spent three decades as an educator devoted to helping all children succeed and thrive. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. You know what would be kind of cool, Nate, is having a youth portion of the presentation. Kuder said he loved the idea. Lets breathe out. That is exactly how Briner sees it after working alongside Cassellius in Boston. Kadzis: Well, first of all, I didn't sound very sympathetic the first time. When I told Josh Collins, Casselliuss former spokesman at the Minnesota Department of Education, about Casselliuss troubles in Boston, he said some of the dynamics sounded familiar. Photo By Matt Stone/ MediaNews Group/Boston Herald. 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. She was named superintendent in May 2019 by then-Mayor Marty Walsh. All of this landed in her lap precisely when the district was trying to figure out how to reopen schools in the fall. Alexi is from Springfield, Massachusetts and attended college at Hofstra University in New York where she majored in journalism and Spanish. And my hunch is . 'Nothing Is Pushing Me Out': Boston Superintendent Brenda Cassellius Says Of Resignation February 8, 2022 / 12:14 PM / CBS Boston BOSTON (CBS) -- After three years on the job, Dr. Brenda. The pandemic impacted us all, including our workforce. But that's my best guess. The daughter of a young single mother who later became a young single mother herself, Cassellius grew up on food stamps in the projects of Minneapolis and participated in a Head Start program.. 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. A superintendents contract can be broken with four months notice and the school committee extended Casseliuss contract last year, according to the Herald. Brenda Cassellius, the head of BPS, has a vision for the future unlike any superintendent the city has ever encountered. Perhaps that is why she seemed so buoyant when I visited Lee K8 with her and why she meets regularly with her student cabinet, and with BPSs student advisory council. As she traveled the city on her listening tour, Cassellius issued a flurry of staffing directives that often went unannounced and unexplained. But hearing it 49 days before the school year starts doesnt give you much hope., The teachers union also criticized the plan, calling it totally out of touch with reality. In the midst of the pandemic, a teachers union taking a shot at a superintendent should be as shocking as an April snowstorm in Boston. Nor could the surrounding city blocks, which encompassed some of Bostons most expensive and densely populated neighborhoods. She said her Emerald Necklace concept wasnt a plan but a prop or visioning tool. Reading Sage MCAS Practice Test. 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. Brenda ignored all of that, a former official says. The plan was opposed by some parent groups that wanted 20 percent of the spots at the schools set aside for the best applicants regardless of socioeconomic status. And now I know its for getting us through this pandemic. Her confidence, and her self-belief, paid off. Even though the July intervention did not come to fruition, Walsh still took measures to bolster the central office. You can do this. It worked. It caught me off guard, Cassellius admitted during the interview in a BPS classroom. 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. Meg Woolhouse: Well, Henry, I think there's a lot of optimism around Wu she's a mother of two young kids who are in the schools in Boston, and I think people feel like she might be able to fix what's broken at BPS. She does not have a day to spend on me. On. When she was selected as a finalist in the spring, BPS staffers at Bolling, as well as executives at education nonprofits, had called their contacts in Minnesota to get the scoop on the promising candidate. Thatd be pretty powerful, Cassellius said. She was just four months into her job as superintendent and had a bold idea she wanted to share. However, out of public view, their support was wavering. Many times over a career great humans cross your path that bring an almost indescribable energy, however every time the person is in the room you feel their Collaborations, School Choice (including dual credit, district & chartered public schools). The tour earned her a lot of goodwill. 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. It's been two very difficult years for schools, as many teachers and school officials are leaving. After all, equity is her driving passion. She fell afoul of the powers that be when she made it clear that she thought they had to close schools to make running the system more efficient. Mask up, Superintendent, an aide says, and she pulls her facemask over her nose. Most recently as Boston Public School Superintendent. Joe Battenfeld is a veteran Herald political columnist and multimedia reporter. Thats exactly what Boston needed, says Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston chapter of the NAACP. The trouble, according to interviews with 14 current and former BPS officials who have worked directly with Cassellius, and who spoke anonymously for fear of professional consequences, didnt start with the pandemic. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Superintendent Brenda Cassellius held a press conference Tuesday, a day after announcing Cassellius resignation. Photo by Matt Kalinowski. Listen Live: Classic and Contemporary Celtic, Listen Live: Cape, Coast and Islands NPR Station, Meg Woolhouse and Peter Kadzis on Morning Edition | Feb. 11, 2022, Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images, "Wu understands that the next super needs the trust of students, their parents and Boston teachers to really hit the ground running. When BPS faced a lack of staff, Brenda took a substitute teacher position at Nathan Hale Elementary School, Roxbury. Brenda's parents have consistently encouraged her career goals. Then, throughout the day, the students would shuttle between buildings on a train. 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. In 2021, school districts will face the daunting task of repairing the damage sustained during the pandemicparticularly for low-income children of color who have borne the brunt of the school shutdowns. ", In a statement, the mayor said she was "grateful for the Superintendent's leadership, especially while navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.". College campuses increasingly offer time off for mental health, but some are skeptical. Whats more, in a district with chronically declining enrollment, it wasnt even clear to them that there would be enough students to populate all of Casselliuss new programs. We could use more of that honesty and advocacy for school children. Boston School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, right, spoke to the media after she helped dismiss children at the Nathan Hale Elementary School after substitute teaching there in January. Let me cite an example: the surprise closing of the Curley school. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. We're seeing staff come back! The superintendent was about to go into a meeting and she was falling apart, the official says. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. 2018 Columns / Lack of uniform start and dismal dismissal times is the root of the problem, report says. In our conversations, Cassellius seemed to ask for two things: time and skepticism of her critics. Brenda Cassellius has spent three decades as an educator - most recently as the superintendent of Boston Public Schools, and before that, as Minnesota's Commissioner of Education. The Boston. First published on February 7, 2022 / 4:00 PM. What's the mood among parents and students over this announcement? A group of Boston parents has filed a lawsuit against the school committee and Superintendent Brenda Cassellius for what they call a "wholly-irrational" exam school admissions process, which. The promotions left colleagues, and sometimes the promoted employees themselves, baffled. Brenda Cassellius has been criticized for her job thus far as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, though her supporters say she deserves time and a chance to implement her vision. Whats more, there was no train running along the parks length. So she's been tested by fire. Superintendent Skipper and her husband Peter, a retired BC High School religion teacher, have three children of whom they are very proud, and two amazing son-in-laws: Kassie, a teacher in the Denver Public Schools and her husband Joseph Montoya who is Senior Director of Residential at Namast Solar; Lihlani, who is the Associate Director at Its a very bold vision, she said, to get people to stretch their thinking. Of her big ideas, she said, The good ones stick and the bad ones fall away. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius taught a fourth grade class Wednesday as school districts across Massachusetts struggle to reopen due to COVID-19 staff shortages. Last but not the When [Casselliuss predecessor] Laura Perille was in front of an audience of children, she seemed stiff, the official says. BOSTON (CBS) - Boston Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius is resigning at the end of the school year. No further reasoning was given. The Supreme Court is hearing the Harvard admissions discrimination case, which could effectively end affirmative action. She was also a finalist for a state superintendent job in Michigan. But the lawsuit says the zip code quota system is wholly-irrational and states that it serves to disfavor Asian and White students by decreasing their numbers at the Boston Exam Schools while favoring Latino and African-American students by increasing their numbers., A Brighton parent and member of BPCAE said, My kids have to submit GPAs and with so many kids in this zip location I just feel that my kids, their chance will be limited to get into exam schools., The lawsuit states, The Students are being required to apply through a race-based process. 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. For the next hour, she listened warmly and keenly to the advice of her most important constituentsstudents. Interpretive Guide for Minnesota Assessment Reports 2015 2016. Even with her facemask on, her expression made clear that the episode had been painful. You have a vision, according to the official. The Emerald Necklacea narrow, marshy landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmstedcould not possibly be the site of a half-dozen or more high schools. While the nation tunes in tonight to hear the But even if the consequences of the pandemic are not Casselliuss responsibility, the recovery from it will be. . Lets go to TechBoston, she suggested. With help from the Minnesota Department of Education and Target, we have completed new videos that are in 7 languages: Hmong, Somali, Arabic, Karen, Dakota, English and Spanish. Parents have seen at least a decade of turmoil, as you said, with a revolving door of superintendents and interim superintendents. During the second half of 2019, she visited every school in the district and met privately with parents, religious leaders, activist groups, and politicians. As Minnesota students return to school, for most families, the key questions involve their own youngsters. Support GBH. According to a person who spoke with him multiple times in August, the COO said, in colorful language, that Casselliuss teams preparations were so far behind schedule that it would require drastic measures to open school buildings in time. Run the recorder throughout the midday. CSC Projects: Completed and Current: 2022, Dramatically Reducing Minnesota Student/Family Homelessness, Promoting/Encouraging Greater Use of Service-Learning, Increasing College Readiness 2015-present, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) (English y Espaol), Map of MN Higher Ed Dual Credit Policies & PSEO Sites, Student Voices Real Dual Credit Students, New High School/Higher Ed. Parents Evaluation. One day in 2004, Johnson walked into Casselliuss office to offer her the biggest promotion of her life. Boston Public School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius will walk away with more than $300,000 as part of a separation agreement that she reached last week with the Boston School Committee. Wu hinted earlier this week that she wants someone local for the job. By then Cassellius had earned a reputation for being full of energy and big ideas. Per her contract, Casselius must be paid a years base salary, or the rest of what she would have been paid, had she stayed until 2023, whichever is less.