As Haverhill city and school leaders Tuesday mark the official start to construction of a new Hunking School, some school district leadership changes to face “academic and financial” challenges are coming for the next school year.
In the first of several anticipated changes, Haverhill Public Schools Superintendent James F. Scully announced Monday Tilton Elementary School Principal Maureen Gray will be “moved to a different leadership position next year” as part of an ongoing effort to “stabilize the environment and improve the academic standard at that particular school.”
“Bonnie Antkowiak will assume the principalship at the Tilton School. I am deeply appreciative of Maureen for stepping up to the plate and helping us during this past year of transition at the Tilton School. I am most grateful to Bonnie for accepting the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of teachers at the Tilton School,” Scully said in a letter to district staff.
In the aftermath of four Haverhill schools elevated to “Level 1” designation by the commonwealth, Scully said he will be “making other changes where warranted” in the coming months.
“This year we were all pleased to see that four of our schools were designated as level 1 schools. It is my understanding that the elevation of three schools to that designation is the greatest number of schools to be elevated to the level 1 standing in the commonwealth,” Scully said. “Next year the challenges we face are both academic and financial. The spiraling costs that are facing us in special education have increased approximately $3 million over a two-year period. I have been looking at a number of leadership positions so that we can better posture ourselves for the next academic year.”
Jim Scully….the spiraling costs are a result of your own doing. The harder you and teachers work to raise the standards of students throughout the city the bigger the target Haverhill public schools become for parents with children who have special needs living outside of the city. You need to get Brian Dempsey and Linda Dean Campbell involved at the state level. Either change the state law that requires cities to cover the cost of students with special needs or have them cover it out of the state budget. This issue is not going away Jim. You need to address this immediately. It’s simply not fair for citizens of Haverhill to invest financially to raise educational standards and then be taken advantage of by an unfair law.
Parent stated that the reason Tilton is such a mess is because Haverhill decided to put most the special needs kids in one school, Tilton. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but they have a child in that school and that is the perception there.