School News
Published on August 1st, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - A new face will be on board to welcome Stoneham public school students back next month.
Wakefield resident Joseph Casey has been hired as the new Assistant Superintendent of Schools for Stoneham, replacing Dr. Elizabeth Keroack who left last month to join the Malden Public Schools.
Casey was one of 34 applicants to express interest in the position. A screening committee appointed by the School Committee waded through those applications and narrowed the pool to nine for interviews. From there, the number was whittled to four and subsequently to two who faced the School Committee last Thursday in public interviews.
Casey currently is the K-12 Director of Curriculum and Technology for the Georgetown Public Schools. He plans to start his new position in Stoneham on or about Sept. 1. Since he lives next door, Casey plans to spend some time learning the ropes during August.
According to School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly, both Casey and his challenger, Richard Robbat of Lexington, who is the K-12 Director of Curriculum for the Gardner Public Schools, were both strong candidates.
"We were very impressed and satisfied with the qualifications of the two finalists," Connelly said.
While both shared strong backgrounds in curriculum and school building administration, Casey's expertise in technology helped sway the decision in his favor.
Lead removal
Yet another change in the state's Department of Education regulations will end up costing the town of Stoneham more money.
The good news, however, is that the school department will share that burden with the lessee of its North and East School buildings.
DOE regulations now require that all lead paint be removed from buildings which house any special education programs. Prior to this change, the law specified no lead paint in buildings occupied by children under age six.
The SEEM Collaborative is a special education program for students age six and over. It has recently entered into a rental agreement with Stoneham Public Schools for the East School building on Beacon Street and has renewed its lease for the North School building on Collincote Street.
School Department Business Manager Michael Musto reported that a waiver for the process of rectifying the problem was sought and has been granted by the state verbally. Projects of this magnitude are generally required to go out to bid, a process that could take up to 30 days.
However, since students will be back in about a month, time is of the essence and the work must be completed before school doors open.
SEEM agreed to work with the School Department on rectifying the problem and found three licensed, qualified contractors who committed to completing the job by September. The lowest price came in at $87,000.
According to Connelly and SEEM Executive Director George Flynn, SEEM will put up the money for the contractor to do the work. Stoneham will pay half, about $43,500, by a reduction in SEEM's rental payments over a period of a few years.
In the meantime, Stoneham will appeal to the state for emergency reimbursement money, just as it did when the Middle School needed immediate help with structural problems a couple of years ago. In that instance, the state ended up paying 63 per cent of the final cost.
"It shows good faith," School Committee Vice Chairman Jeanne Craigie said of the agreement with SEEM, adding that it is a "creative way for us to finance all these rules and mandates."
Renting the buildings to the SEEM Collaborative was supposed to help out the school department budget by generating much needed revenue. The new mandates, however, complicate matters by cutting into that rental income.
Central School Update
It's getting close, real close. But the word is still that the new Central School will be ready for teachers and students on Sept. 1.
"They're going like mad," said School Committee Chairman Marie Christie who passed by the site on a recent Saturday at 5 p.m. and saw that it was still bustling with construction activity.
Substantial completion certification is still on target for the end of August, Connelly advised. However, he suggested to the School Committee that a back up plan be developed just in case.
Aug. 7 is the "absolute final date" to determine if the building will be ready for occupancy, he said, and that decision needs to be made with the School Committee.
Although maintaining that the building is still on schedule for the September opening of school, Alexandra Construc-tion has requested that teachers not be allowed in the building before Sept. 1. While this will undoubtedly be a hardship for teachers, with all the unpacking that needs to be done, Connelly said that this request will be honored in order to take advantage of every possible opportunity to open the school on time.
Vandalism
Calling recent vandalism at the high school an "unfortunate incident," Craigie praised the efforts of those involved in the quick response to remove the hateful graffiti that one group of people defaced the High School with on July 21.
"From my perspective ... we all worked together, did everything according to a crisis plan ... and proved that when people work together, we do the right thing," Craigie said.
In particular, Craigie praised the Department Public Works employees who came out on their day off to sandblast the hateful messages sprawled across the building.
"It was a total cooperative effort," agreed Connelly referring to the clean up.
According to Connelly, a similar incident, albeit on a smaller scale, took place two years ago. At that time, the Anti-Defamation League was contacted as to how to handle such a hate crime.
Based on that incident, Connelly said, "we had the procedures in place (and) everyone followed them to the letter," in dealing with this recent episode.
The matter is in the hands of the police now, not the School Committee, Craigie said.
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