Students stream through the doors of the new Hunking School.
Superintendent James J. Scully said students from Consentino School will fill 40 of roughly 60 available seats at the new Hunking School when it opens next fall.
School officials had the first meeting this week to determine how they will fill the remaining available seats after all students in the Hunking School’s catchment area are accounted for, he said.
Mayor James J. Fiorentini said he is concerned that there is a public perception of a “tale of two cities, with a beautiful new school in Bradford, but not in the other quadrants.”
Fiorentini said he wants to be sure that as many students as possible from the Tilton and Consentino schools neighborhoods are given the opportunity to attend the Hunking.
Scully committed to providing the majority of the available seats to students who live in the Tilton and Consentino schools’ quadrant, which includes Washington and High streets, as well as lower Hilldale and Lowell Avenue.
Scully said the public grand opening celebration for the new Hunking is expected to be May 21, at 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon. A formal announcement will be made once the date is confirmed.
The Hunking school has been in horrible condition for years. Kudos to the kids & teachers for making do & excelling with what they little they have had to work with for so long. They deserve all the newness/advantages this new school brings. This whole tale of two cities notion is ridiculous. Not everyone on the south side is affluent, by a long shot. There are plenty of working class/low income families in Bradford and at Hunking (37% according to the last set of school stats). The 40 “extra” seats may sound like a lot but spread out over all 8 grades (9 if there is to be kindergarten there) does not equate to much. Leave them open for incoming students to the area, especially with the new homes being built.
And John from Bradford is spot on – the south side of the river is constantly ignored when it comes to public projects.
Come on Mr Mayor, our children are not UPS packages that can be moved all over the city because you don’t have the courage to do the right thing at the Titlon and Consentino schools. I know you have already began your campaign, don’t worry we will bury you with this issue. You are a political coward!
The kids in Bradford have been enduring the decrepit Hunking school for years. when the city built a few good schools years ago, Bradford got The Bradford Elementary school. all of the other schools in Bradford are about 100 years old. If you want to talk about a “Tale of Two Cities”, Look at all of the development on the north side of the river, look at all of the public parks and playgrounds, there are none in Bradford that aren’t attached to schools. The south side of the river is neglected by the city, constantly. When the Comeau bridge was redone, they completely redid the intersection on the north side. New island, lights and curbs. On the south side, someone had to go before the city council just to get a stop sign put in. All of the newness ended at he end of the bridge. There is new housing coming in Bradford and that is probably where the extra seats will get used in the future.
“Public Perception”? The mayor is only concerned about shaping public opinion of “himself”. Remember, this is an election year for the incompetent mayor. Every decision you see him make from now until November will be based on his positioning himself to curry favor with some constituency group to get votes. In this instance, he’s caving into the constant, unwarranted demands of the race based Haverhill Hispanic Coalition and the Washington Street neighborhood group Urban Kindness.
What we’re witnessing is the insane ideology of liberalism in action being implemented by an incompetent democrat mayor. The kids who will be rewarded with the benefit of going to a new school will be those who underachieve, have parents who make the loudest demands–many which will be based on racial criteria, and even have behavioral issues. Merit, academic performance, and achievement NEVER has a place in decision making with liberal politicians.
The only way to rid the city of this insane, inherently unfair process is to get rid of those elected liberal democrat officials who make these decisions. Remember this in November.
Jack Haverhill is just sad that 40 kids are escaping his iron fist at consentino.
Sorry Dan, I have no idea what you’re trying to communicate.
Wanna try again?
“public perception of a “tale of two cities” –
Mayor Jimmy is suffering from confirmation bias again, maybe cognitive dissonance, it is two different cities. If you take out the low income developments and the creep that has started across the bridge, there is a huge difference in economic, social, and education levels.
What will be more interesting is how those 40 kids are “elected”. Will they be patronage picks? Or will they be some part of yet another failed social experiment in the name of ideology? Or, will Mayor Jimmy try and spread the pain around, send kids with no hope, absentee parents, academically challenged, in the hopes of watering down the schools to balance out their state testing results, then take a victory lap on improvements on the poorest performers getting a bump as a result?
As I’m certain there are teachers that will never publicly agree, but will privately, that some of the demographics of Haverhill use the school system as a baby sitting service. Of course, Mayor Jimmy thinks he’s doing everyone a favor by importing/inviting more uneducated, low income (or no income) people, and even Invaders, above and beyond any state mandates, and thinks this will improve city economics and education performance. Of course, we all know what a folly and false paradigm that belief and ideology truly is, with the test performances, or lack thereof, to back it up.