With a minimum of ceremony, Dr. Joseph Connelly and School Committee Chairman Keith Cheveralls signed the contract that will make Connelly Harvard’s interim superintendent of schools from July 1, 2011, until June 30, 2012. The signing took place Monday, May 2, at a special meeting of the School Committee.
Connelly told the committee that he plans to “be visible” in Harvard beginning in the latter half of May, when his successor in Gloucester will take over some of his duties there. He asked about upcoming school events, and committee members promptly suggested the after-prom party Celebration and the Bromfield School graduation. Connelly expressed interest in attending both, but “only as a spectator.”
Under the terms of the contract, Connelly will receive an annual salary of $143,000. He can also continue to draw his full pension, because the School Committee asked for and received a “critical shortage waiver” from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. That pension is based on the average of his last three years’ salary while he was superintendent of schools in Stoneham, a position he held from 1998 to 2007, when he officially retired. In his final year there, Connelly’s total compensation was $145,557, including fringe benefits of life insurance, an annuity, and a longevity bonus. According to the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System calculator, Connelly’s pension probably falls between $90,000 and $113,000 per year.
With the contract signed, Connelly and the School Committee turned to a discussion of goals for the upcoming year. It quickly became clear that the issues were numerous and complex.
Most committee members expressed concerns about the need to improve technology and technological literacy in the schools. Cheveralls cited the Devens contract and the Shaw Trust as sources of funds to invest in technology over the next five to seven years. “It is not educating our children sitting in the bank,” he stated.
Committee member Piali De urged caution, saying, “I’m a big technology fan. But I have trouble justifying more equipment, because the day you walk out of the store, it is obsolete. We need a plan—not just equipment.”
Connelly asked if anyone from Harvard attended the state workshops on educational technology, which he said were very good. The committee said Harvard had not sent anyone to those sessions.
Members also noted that the incoming principal for the Hildreth Elementary School, Dr. Linda Dwight, would need support in her transition to the Harvard school system. Committee member Patricia Wenger pointed out that Dwight—whose previous administrative experience was in Pennsylvania—will need to become familiar with Massachusetts’ standards and practices. Connelly suggested the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals Association as an excellent source of mentoring and information.
De argued for a thorough-going evaluation of curriculum in the Harvard schools. “We’re a good school system, and we do well by many measures,” she said. “But we don’t have a proper mechanism for evaluating our curriculum. The [state] frameworks should be our floor, not our ceiling. … We have failed to initiate a computer science program. Our math curriculum has not changed. Today’s world seeks for us to go beyond where we are.”
In response, Connelly suggested that sometimes curriculum change was hindered “not by a lack of desire but by a lack of logistics. You need a forum for teachers to generate new ideas.” He pointed out that Massachusetts is considering moving to the national standards in education, which might be an opportunity to evaluate curriculum as a whole.
Recently elected School Committee member SusanMary Redinger brought up the search for a new permanent superintendent, which will be a major responsibility over the next year. She noted that the committee will have to consider several different models of leadership, including the possibility of sharing an administrator with another town.
Both Redinger and Cheveralls expressed the hope that Connelly would help the committee take an objective look at the Harvard school system. Redinger said, “It would be useful to capture what it is that makes us a successful district. We need to identify those factors so that we can budget to support them. But we are too close to see it clearly.”
“It isn’t simply money per pupil,” Connelly agreed.
After hearing the committee’s concerns and perusing the proposed list of subcommittees, Connelly had questions of his own. “How do these issues relate to your strategic plan?” he asked. “What does the plan identify as your initiatives for this year?”
Board members acknowledged that neither the topics nor the proposed subcommittees were linked to the district’s strategic plan, which was written in 2008 and set five major goals to be achieved by 2013. (The plan is available at www.psharvard.org/superintendent/index.html.) Both Cheveralls and De admitted to frustration with measuring progress against the goals of the strategic plan. “It is very difficult to get an objective sense of where we are,” Cheveralls said.
Connelly asked about Bromfield’s scheduled NEASC evaluation and seemed surprised to hear that it would take place in the spring of 2012, during his tenure. (NEASC, or the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, determines the accreditation of high schools.)
Connelly told the committee that he plans to meet with Bromfield School Principal Jim O’Shea, Hildreth Elementary School interim principal Suzanne Mahoney, and other administrators and officials in the Harvard system over the next several weeks. He also hopes to meet with Dwight when she visits Harvard.
