I’ve updated portions of the post to reflect my best guess at reality. Since it’s the weekend, it’s a little harder to make calls to verify what’s really going on.

What kind of mistake was made in reporting all this inaccurately, I wonder?

I don’t think the appearance of chaos is a valid reason to not revisit this decision. In fact, I think more damage would be done by simply saying “oh well, one got away, let’s not look bad”, both in terms of having a lesser qualified person in a higher-profile job, and in terms of adding to the “it’s who you know” reputation of the schools and the city.

Thanks for the map link. I realize that there are a lot of factors behind the boundaries, many of them pertaining to racial and ethnic issues. I think it is terrible to have segregated schools, but I can plainly see the effect of focusing so heavily on race to the point where a parent feels encumbered by these factors, particularly when they result in fluid boundaries.

I am confused at how so much attention can continue to be paid to Springfield and dividing up it’s 20% white student population when most surrounding districts are 90-95% white and much better funded, and no one utters a peep about that. In essence, Springfield’s suburban ring has evolved into the segregated neighborhoods that required integration 30 years ago. Of course, the Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that intra-district busing is unconstitutional, so there’s little hope in doing anything there, and even if it could be done, that would just push people into the exurbs.

But looking back, we went from a situation where we had segregated but equally-funded schools to one of segregated but differently-funded schools, with more funding going to schools in towns with few minorities (or poor people). Seems like a step backward to me.

I think a better approach is to target economic segregation — stop messing with the schools, and instead break down barriers that prevent poorer people — who happen to be from certain races or ethnicities — from concentrating into poorer communities. School segregation problems would then be less dramatic.

In that sense, I think if Springfield dropped race/ethnicity from its decision-making process, the results wouldn’t be that different. Sure, Brightwood school would wind up predominately Hispanic, but that wouldn’t be because of any factor except that Hispanics primarily choose to live in that neighborhood — the economic differences in Springfield neighborhoods are not that large, and nearly every neighborhood has all classes of housing, from low-income to rental to single-family.

About Carroll Street, where Domenic Sarno lives, it may not be in the zone for Frederick Harris Elementary School, but then again, the older Sarno daughter just might be old enough to be a “legacy” student at the school, as long as her parents find a way to get her there and she doesn’t have to take the bus. The younger daughter might not be old enough to be a legacy student. There should be a separate category for “patronage” student.

I’ve seen a little bit of how that works, with a tiny glimpse behind the scenes when I got confused by the new boundary system in mid-stream. The boundary line for the Sumner Ave School zone came down solidly between my house and the other school we walked to four blocks away.

For more baffling boundary maps that haven’t been publicly released, go here.

As the city improves its operations, it will definitely make mistakes. But we need to focus on the big picture, on the end results, not on the missteps. Unfortunately, a misstep is easier to focus on than the absence of a misstep.

When I read Councilor Stebbin’s remarks, I was disappointed. After all, from the outside, choosing a candidate with 2 years of algebra teaching experience at Commerce over someone with a PhD who had previously administered an IB program and another who had 15 years of administrative experience seems extremely fishy, particularly when the choice is a seated city councilor with political connections. His comment seemed to oppose revisiting this choice.

But for now, I’m optimistically choosing to believe that the Republican didn’t capture the essence of Stebbins’ opinion in it’s one-sentence quote. I don’t see his being listed as reference as a big deal — and I doubt that he pulled any strings to get her the job, I don’t think city councilors have that much sway in the school department.

I think that a lot of the focus in improving government has taken place at Court Street, not State Street, and that perhaps the next focus of the FCB should be the school department. As a member of the general public, I have not been impressed with what I’ve seen there. They can’t even get the school boundaries published to the general public, and from what I can see, are actively withholding this information from wide distribution, perhaps to avoid being pinned down on decisions, or perhaps to be able to dole out a little patronage — for example, how is it that our incoming mayor’s 2 kids attend school at Frederick Harris when Carroll Street appears to be squarely within Beal’s zone?

From all that, plus the hirings of school committee member’s family, I get the sense that the school department operates on patronage and connections rather than qualifications and competence. Maybe that’s why our schools aren’t performing as good as they could.

The ensuing procedure can be difficult to navigate, because it’s a unique situation in the city right now, and it’s also relatively temporary, let alone a whole new level of accountability. The burden of responsibility for making protocols straightforward falls on the control board.

That said, I think hiring protocols in the past were likely not very straightforward. This maybe led to some bad habits. Perhaps it could be said that Burke became a part of that culture, along with other municipal employees who may not have been all that sure what was expected of them when big decisions were at stake.

I agree that chumminess is a likely reason for Mazza-Moriarty’s selection for this job. Her brother, Thomas Mazza, used to work directly for Burke as the school department’s well-regarded business manager, until last summer, when he left to become the Longmeadow public schools’ business manager.

Bruce Stebbins is supportive of Mazza-Moriarty because they are friends, and there is a loyalty there (also why he signed as a reference).

Mazza-Moriarty said she was dissapointed at not getting the job and thought that politics had a role to play in it. No, Rosemarie, politics had a role to play in you *getting selected* for the job. Honest administration was the reason for the re-posting.

I truly do have trouble understanding how any reasonable person can look at the scenario of this hiring, coupled with the resumes of the other finalists, and *not* think Mazza-Moriarty’s selection was a gift. Two years of teaching experience beats out a doctorate in education - plus experience in a IBO program, or 15 years as a principal? I don’t think so.

It is unfortunate that Springfield looks like it cannot get its act together. Apparently it can’t. Apparently we have learned nothing from the Keoughs of the past. And that is the real shame in this episode.