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. 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. Cassellius had been on the job less than a year when schools closed, but I don't think Cassellius' response helped build trust among parents in the district. The superintendent was about to go into a meeting and she was falling apart, the official says. You can do this. That is exactly how Briner sees it after working alongside Cassellius in Boston. 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. Everythings smooth and working great. Then, almost speaking to herself, she adds, Because in my life, its not like that every day.. We will remember him forever. In a 5-2 vote, the Boston School Committee selected to appoint former Minnesota's Commissioner of Education Dr. Brenda Cassellius as their next Superintendent Wednesday. Rachel Pearson is a parent advocate and trainer at the PACER Center, a nonprofit that champions youth with disabilities and their families. Shes scattered, she struggles with talent management, and she doesnt provide a clear vision., Those traits were on full display once she arrived in Boston. 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. 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. They cant see how to get it done, and she hasnt shown them the steps along the way.. But plans and strategies have to be tethered to reality, says one former BPS official, and that just doesnt include an imaginary train taking kids around a city to schools that dont exist.. She doesn't have heavy-duty system wide experience. Linking the Minnesota MCA III Assessments to NWEA MAP Tests. If you're a human and see this, please ignore it. According to four current and former BPS officials, she has offered multiple BPS employees significant promotions seemingly on a whim, with little knowledge of their track records. "She found out what work is. 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. What's the mood among parents and students over this announcement? This button displays the currently selected search type. Unfortunately, Superintendent Cassellius did not meet it. The Boston School Committee announced last week that Dr. Brenda Cassellius will serve as Boston's next superintendent. Seven, or eight, or nine superintendents in a relatively short period of time? 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. 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. ", In a statement, the mayor said she was "grateful for the Superintendent's leadership, especially while navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.". Leading for equity, Dr.. I was such a go-getter, she told me, and confident and, you know, dig in. But if I were a betting man, I might put some money on Rachel Skerritt. As a leader, she said, its good for people to know that youre human., Casselliuss colleagues, and many of her sharpest critics, however, have never questioned her humanity. Near the end of our final interview, during which I detailed her critics charges, Cassellius cut me off. Boston schools superintendent Brenda Cassellius appeared to catch many by surprise Monday when she announced she would step down from her position at the end of the school year. Just to cite one example, she's run through four chiefs of staff in two years. "The Boston Teachers Union is thankful to Dr. Brenda Cassellius for her contributions to our public schools during what have been incredibly trying and unprecedented times," union president Jessica Tang said in a statement. 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. Let's focus on Marty Walsh, and the instability in the Boston Public Schools is clearly Marty Walsh's fault. For some reason, I just felt like I was supposed to be here in Boston, she told me. When BPS faced a lack of staff, Brenda took a substitute teacher position at Nathan Hale Elementary School, Roxbury. After two-and-a-half turbulent years as superintendent of Boston Public Schools, Brenda Cassellius will resign in June, city officials announced Monday. But it's not the only issue here. When Cassellius arrived in Boston to vie for the BPS top job, she pitched herself as a deft political operator laser-focused on equity. 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. 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. Together, we've laid a stronger foundation upon which BPS can continue to build. Does the union get to dictate policy? BPS was a troubled district; that was no secret. Secretary Cardona to Visit Los Angeles High School of the Arts, Join Roundtable with Parents to Discuss the Importance of Mental Health Services for Students On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona will continue touring schools in Southern California with a visit to Los Angeles High School of the Arts at Robert F. Kennedy . Trying to keep the union appeased and keeping the schools open during the coronavirus pandemic had to be a difficult job for Cassellius. She's super smart. This is not a new problem in Boston, having a superintendent leave. But that's not to understate there's a considerable amount of frustration out there. 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. 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. It has been this way since March, when Cassellius and Mayor Marty Walsh decided to shut down every school in the district. 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. When the new system was approved, many city leaders and school advocates hailed it as an outstanding vote that helps to address longstanding equity issues within the district. There'll be other people considered. The move would have rendered Cassellius virtually a figurehead, still nominally in control of the district, but with many core responsibilities removed from her portfolio. She is the head of school at Boston Latin School. 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. She has previously served as an assistant superintendent at North St. Paul, Maplewood, Oakdale School District and Saint Paul Public Schools. Cassellius made the announcement in a letter to parents, students and staff Monday. Most employees who leave companies get an exit interview thats how most businesses operate. Cassellius came to Boston less than a year before the pandemic began,. '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. For the next hour, she listened warmly and keenly to the advice of her most important constituentsstudents. Whats more, there was no train running along the parks length. Before she even started the job, when she was still a candidate for the position, she had already seemed to achieve the impossible: winning the support of the community, the school committee, the teachers union, and the mayor. 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. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. 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? Campbell Brown (journalist) Alma Dale Campbell Brown (born June 14, 1968) is the head of global news partnerships at Facebook and a former American television news reporter and anchorwoman. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled Cassellius's impending departure in February, calling it a "mutual decision" by the mayor, superintendent and Boston School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson. For the next eight years, she served as Minnesotas commissioner of education. The Boston Public School Committee is expected to sign a separation agreement Wednesday to give Cassellius at least $311,000, the Boston Herald reported. 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. The people I spoke to who had no inside knowledge. Brenda's parents have consistently encouraged her career goals. Peter Kadzis, GBH senior politics editor, and Meg Woolhouse, GBH education reporter, joined host Henry Santoro on Morning Edition to discuss. 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.. In a letter to "the BPS community" this morning, Mayor Wu said she, School Committee Chairwoman Jeri Robinson and Cassellius decided it was time for Cassellius to move on. 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. We had all this wind under our wings, she says. She was just four months into her job as superintendent and had a bold idea she wanted to share. Minnesota education commissioner, Brenda Cassellius, and former Anchorage, Alaska superintendent, Ed Graff, are the two finalists for Minneapolis's school superintendent position, according a May 13 press release. 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. But for Cassellius, it signaled that she was losing one of her first and most powerful allies. Support GBH. Can Wu deliver? 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. Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams is the current superintendent of Eastern Carver County Schools in Chaska, MN. Midday, I say. Brenda Cassellius was born in Minnesota on September 9, 1967, and she will turn 54 in 2022. As this story went to print, Cassellius was preparing for a virtual retreat with the school committee. It's a sense among parents of "here we go again" and that might even understate the level of aggravation they're feeling. 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. She has taken charge of a flailing school district and recognized the need for bold and uncomfortable changes. By then Cassellius had earned a reputation for being full of energy and big ideas. What was frustrating, one former official says, was that they were often mutually contradictory. They were also disruptive. 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. Previous superintendents had done deep dives into the details of how the district ran. Cassellius has been Boston's school superintendent since July 2019. She did not say why she is leaving. Its that she was falling apart., In October 2019, Cassellius reached for a lifeline, hiring Charlene Briner as her new chief of staff. Cambridge's public school superintendent left last summer, and Boston is now in a similar position. 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. 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. Cassellius has come to Lee this morning to check on the work being done inside the cafeteriaa space as wide and tall as a gymnasiumwhere a dozen or so chefs are busily prepping packaged meals and bags of groceries. We couldn't do it without you. The mayor and Cassellius say they arrived at the decision to have Brophy help BPS together. 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. Alexi Cohan is a general assignment reporter covering local news and government as well as health and medicine stories. The problem, Casselliuss critics alleged, was that it arrived too late and too light on details. Building consensus, he notes, is a long, agonizing process. Brenda's parents have always been supportive of her professional endeavors. 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. The Boston. 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. And that was before the pandemic hit, turning the district and her job upside down. It has been parks length to NWEA MAP Tests parent advocate and trainer at the PACER Center a... 'S run through four chiefs of staff, Brenda took a substitute teacher position Nathan... 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