Brookline High and Race.
By Jim Conley • Jun 23rd, 2008 • Category: Brookline Town Meeting, On Brookline BlogThe response to the question put to Schools Superintendent Bill Lupini on his involvement with the racial screed put out by BHS staff is rather shameful. Lupini says he is “proud of the accomplishments by Brookline’s METCO students.” Okay.
But Conquest’s point (in his TAB column) was that the school had failed these students.
So it’s clear to see that the response strategy was to say that Conquest had attacked the “young people he pretends to champion.”
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Brookline High School’s Race Problem.
By Jim Conley • Jun 23rd, 2008 • Category: Brookline Schools, Previous ColumnsThe achievement gap between “students of color” attending Brookline High School and students not of color is vast. In 2005, 53 percent of black sophomores at BHS scored in the “needs improvement” range on the MCAS reading test while only 10 percent of whites scored so. The verbal mean score of BHS students taking the SAT was 462 for blacks and 619 for whites that same year.
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The New Selflessness (2).
By Jim Conley • Jun 19th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Fire, Brookline Override, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Previous ColumnsI suppose we could live in a community where firefighters refuse to risk injury from fighting blazes caused by the careless mixing of lit cigarettes with astroturf (as is the case with Harrison Street), but we don’t. They rush in while the careless rush out. Only to be later accused of milking the system by the princes and princesses in our (well adorned) public palace.
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Richard Kelliher Plays Iago.
By Jim Conley • Jun 16th, 2008 • Category: Brawl at Town Hall, Brookline Override, Brookline Town Government, Previous ColumnsThat’s the least of it, though. Our Iago has also created a culture in Brookline town government that is outright hostile to the (non-crony) citizenry. He and other town hall staff are agents of deception; planting Desdemona’s handkerchief among the many drawers of our local government and then stage whispering all manner of nonsense on how it got there.
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Guest Column: Systemic Accountability (Part 2A).
By Archie Mazmanian • Jun 12th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Previous ColumnsAt first blush it would seem that the Selectmen’s evaluations of the Town Administrator pursuant to Section XI of the Employment Contract once placed in his personnel file would have the benefit of the cited exemption from public records. But the role of the Town Administrator as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Town would seem to be uniquely different from most, if not all, Town employees.
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Two Years On Brookline.
By Jim Conley • Jun 9th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Previous ColumnsWe all seem to dance around it, but the reality is that we only have a few genuinely bright people serving in town government. When it comes to our executive branch, I can only point to Selectman Dick Benka as operating on all cylinders. Our town managers have no idea what they are doing, and the town administrator is woefully ill-equipped to lead them.
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Strange Approach to Economic Development.
By Jim Conley • Jun 6th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Town Government, On Brookline BlogToday, as it’s announced that unemployment and energy costs are in rapid ascent and retailers are seeing steep slides, I received an e-mail from a host of town agencies promoting an event called “Better Parking = Better Brookline.”
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Barney Frank Told Us So.
By Jim Conley • Jun 5th, 2008 • Category: Brookline Town Meeting, Previous Columns, St. Aidan'sWhat I do remember is Frank saying that he is going to secure $1.5 million in federal funds to help replenish the $6 million in public funds given to the project by the Brookline Selectmen. In June of last year, the Congressman told Town officials he’ll chase down the $1.5 million needed to jump start the project, making any additional subsidies from the Town low risk. But Frank hasn’t come through with the additional dough.
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Guest Column: Systemic Accountability (Part 2).
By Archie Mazmanian • Jun 2nd, 2008 • Category: Brookline Override, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, Previous Columns, The Allen FilesThe ultimate question is, how can Brookline residents be assured that our Selectmen have duly and truly accounted for the Town Administrator’s performance if the Boards evaluations rendered pursuant to Section XI are not available to the public?
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It’s a $25 Million Renovation Project.
By Jim Conley • Jun 1st, 2008 • Category: Brookline Finances, Brookline Selectmen, Brookline Town Government, On Brookline Blog, Robert AllenThere they go again. In all the nonsense over having $700 thousand left over for office furniture from the town hall renovation, the flunkies in the town administration want us to believe that they’ll have only spent $14 million on the gut and build out.
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