By Michael Gagne
Herald News Staff Reporter

Improving the city’s schools is a process that’s far from complete. But the public school system is in a good position to continue the work, without a state-appointed monitor overlooking the process, say education officials.

Contrast that sentiment with 2009, just five years ago, when the prospect of a state takeover of the city’s public school system loomed large.

In a letter and a 91-page report from March of that year, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester wrote to then-Mayor Robert Correia that he had been ready to declare the Fall River school district underperforming.

Data showed a large number of Fall River students under-performing and failing on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests. But it wasn’t just students who were failing; there were shortcomings in the system itself, too.
“I was concerned up and down the line,” said Chester, who spoke with The Herald News recently.

After reviewing the district in January 2009, state education officials found ineffectiveness in several areas, including governance by the School Committee, and that the district had been lacking in its central administrative capacity, lacking a human resources director and a chief financial officer. That ineffectiveness trickled down into the schools themselves, state officials said.

But because Correia had requested DESE review the district, Chester stopped short of recommending a takeover.
Instead, he recommended the district adopt a recovery plan and a state-appointed monitor to oversee progress made on that plan, quarterly.

Now Chester and other education officials say the district, which in 2012 moved from a recovery plan to an Accelerated Improvement Plan, no longer needs to be monitored and can continue the work of improving student performance on its own. The announcement came to the School Committee when it met last Tuesday.

From state watch list to monitoring

Before 2009, the district already had a long history of poor student performance on MCAS tests. It was on watch, from 2004 to 2007, by the state’s former Office of Educational Quality and Accountability.

By the time DESE issued its report, there were more concerns than just student performance.

“Our key concerns were around governance, and leadership in the district,” Chester said. “We were watching a School Committee that in our estimation was not focused on the right things.” He defined “the right things” as taking the actions needed to help the district improve student achievement.

Chester said he was further concerned about the committee’s conduct during that time, and what he said was its second-guessing of Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown, who had been months into her appointment as acting superintendent. A few months later she received a full-time appointment, a title she has held since.

Chester said he was “concerned about whether the School Committee was going to give [Mayo-Brown] a chance to be successful.

“It wasn’t clear that the city was watching out for the well-being of the school district,” he said. “Our concerns were substantial and lasted several years.”

Committee vice chairman Mark Costa called 2009 “a dark time in Fall River school history.”

Former committeewoman Marilyn Roderick, who sat on the committee for a decade until 2011, said there was friction among committee members at the time. She saw the involvement of DESE in a positive light.

“They weren’t coming to Fall River to bury Fall River,” she said. “They were coming to lift Fall River.”

During the recovery process, committeeman Joseph Martins on occasion made his grievances with state education officials clear.

Martins said officials made accusations he considered to be “unfounded. Do I have to say yes to everything the superintendent wants? Is that efficiency?”

By 2013, School Committee governance was the last piece of the improvement plan that had to be finalized.

“It’s unfortunate it took as long as it did,” Costa said.

Former committeeman and former Fall River Schools Superintendent Rick Pavao said it “took some arm-twisting to make members realize we’re a policy-making board.

“And we came together because we got on the same page,” Pavao said.

Mayo-Brown said despite some initial pushback about some of the early requirements of the Recovery Plan, in particular the hiring of an executive director of HR and a chief financial officer, the committee overall “has been supportive of the recovery work.”

“Each time we’ve presented a need for a resource in order to meet the goals of the recovery plan, the School Committee has ultimately supported those resources,” Mayo-Brown said.

“It may have taken some debate, deliberations, as it should. It may have taken me coming back to them one or two times, but in the end, they have been extremely supportive of the resources that I needed in order to implement the recovery plan.”

A different school district today

Chester said he now sees a different district in Fall River, one that is more focused on student achievement.

“I think it’s been evolutionary,” Chester said of the committee’s shift in focus. “There’s not any particular moment in time. For the most part I’ve seen it withdraw micromanaging, focusing more on policy increasingly over the last couple of years.”

But presently, Chester said, “it’s a much more professional committee, more focused on what’s important. And I’ve watched the school district improve as a result. It’s a real success story.”

He added that Mayo-Brown has grown into her role as superintendent, “to becoming one of our more mature and savvy urban superintendents.”

Mayo-Brown said even without direct DESE oversight, “there’s still a lot more that needs to be done. We’re engaged in that work.

“The department simply feels that we have the structures and systems in place to support the improvement of our schools,” Mayo-Brown said. The results of the work by educators in the district had been a long time coming.

“For each of the past five years, when our results come in, it’s like, oh almost there. They haven’t quite come together yet. But we stayed the course, and we knew that eventually, it would come together,” Mayo-Brown said.

While Fall River is still in the “middle of the pack” of urban school districts in terms of students’ academic performance, Mayo-Brown said student growth the past few years has outpaced that of the state, enabling the district to gain some ground.

Mayo-Brown said she would like to see Fall River rise to the top of that group.

“As long as we keep that acceleration growing, you’ll see us aggressively climb to the top performing urban districts, because we’re outpacing the state and we’re outpacing our urban peers,” she said.

“The superintendent and the School Committee are working much more effectively as a governance team. Good things are happening; we’re very optimistic,” said DESE Deputy Commissioner Alan Ingram. “And more importantly, the students have been a beneficiary.”

Ingram said the work between committee and superintendent is far from over.

“All relationships require work,” Ingram said, and “a conscious effort to be more collaborative.”

“Fall River Public Schools is certainly a better district today than when they began the recovery plan,” Costa said. “I think we’re on sound footing to continue to make progress in the district. I think it took some time to develop. I am pretty confident that progress will continue.”

Martins last week said that while he’s “happy that the Department of Education has taken away the stigma of being watched,” he is not convinced enough progress has been made in improving student achievement to achieve a previous state-set goal for narrowing proficiency gaps.

“What I see is more of the same,” Martins said. “We have made some pretty good strides.”

Martins used an analogy of running the Boston Marathon to explain his position on the district’s progress. “The first year, you don’t quite make to Heartbreak Hill. And the next year you make it half way up the hill.

“But the goal is crossing that finish line,” Martins said.

Others seem focused on the progress that is happening.

“We just want to see continuous progress for students,” Chester said, adding that continuity in Fall River’s leadership and a consistent improvement plan “make the difference.”

Mayo-Brown said the district’s culture has become more student-centered. Social and emotional learning have become components of teaching.

Left out early in the recovery process was teacher input in schools’ decision-making, Mayo-Brown said, “because we had to make decisions quickly and demonstrate to the state that we could put ourselves on this path.

“We’ve gotten it to where it is now. But we will plateau unless teachers get very involved in shared decision-making around what needs to happen,” Mayo-Brown said.

“It’s been a journey,” Mayo-Brown said. “There were times where it’s been sort of a process.”

She said the community wants its children to succeed, as well.

“I feel that in the community, that people want Fall River children to be successful, and that doesn’t happen in every community across the state.”

Fall River offers a more affordable tax rate than many other cities in Massachusetts and there’s plenty to love for young families within the city limits, too. Surrounded by well-preserved green space, a school system that makes certain our children and families are well supported, we are maintaining a rural, family-friendly place to live, work and play.

FY 2014 TAX RATES

FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS – Flanked by local stakeholders, Mayor Will Flanagan announced on Tuesday a new program aimed at strengthening the middle class and providing incentives for those who choose to purchase a home in Fall River.

Standing outside a single family home on Lawton Street, Flanagan said, “Buy Fall River Now will allow those who may be looking to purchase a home in our region to give serious consideration to Fall River, recognizing our many attributes and providing financing options that are far more affordable than anywhere else.”

The program features assistance with acquisition, down payment and closing costs, as well as mortgage payment protection for up to 6 months if they become unemployed. Participating lenders offer innovative loan products, first time homebuyer incentives, financing solution for low- and moderate-income homebuyers, special programs designed specifically for Veterans of the U.S. Armed Services, active-duty military, and spouses of soldiers, sailors or marines killed while on active duty, as well as homeowner and investor rehabilitation solutions.

“We applaud the City of Fall River for their commitment to affordable home ownership,” said MassHousing Executive Director Thomas R. Gleason.  “By increasing home ownership opportunities for low and moderate income homebuyers and providing financing for homeowners to rehabilitate their homes, we can help to revitalize neighborhoods and strengthen the community.  We are glad to be a partner in the  Buy Fall River Now initiative.”

Michael Dion, Executive Director of the Community Development Agency, whose office is responsible for the administration of the US Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD) Community Planning and Development Programs assisted in the makeup of the program, and has worked with local lenders.

“Buy Fall River Now will have a direct impact on our neighborhoods and in the process provide economic opportunities for realtors, contractors, local lenders, as well as industry related local companies that work in the field,” stated Dion. “Individually, we have all done our best to promote Fall River; through the hard work and efforts of the men and women here today.  This program now affords us the opportunity to better market our programs, and provide one stop shopping for anyone looking to purchase or rehabilitate a home in Fall River.”

Combining MassHousing programs exclusive to Fall River with participating local banks and the Community Development Agency provides a platform for the 5 programs that encompass Buy Fall River Now :

• First Time Homebuyer
• Buy Fall River
• Home For The Brave
• Homeowner Rehabilitation
• Investor Rehabilitation

“The City of Fall River has always been fortunate to have local banks that are part of our community, reinvesting in our neighborhoods, and doing great things to improve our quality of life.  Buy Fall River Now is another example of this.  BankFive, BayCoast Bank, Mechanics Cooperative Bank, Bristol County Savings Bank, St. Anne’s Credit Union and First Citizens Federal Credit Union exemplify what it means to be a community partner, and have consistently reinforced their commitment to our community, stated Flanagan. “I remain committed to enhancing existing neighborhood revitalization strategies, enticing the middle class to purchase a home in one of our many neighborhoods, and improving the quality of life for us all.”

For More Information visit http://www.buyfallrivernow.com or contact the Community Development Agency at (508)-679-0131.