School Daze

Lambert Resigns

It was a surprise ending to Monday night’s School Committee meeting when School Committeewoman Samantha Lambert announced her resignation. After an emotional farewell, she informed us she will be moving out of Everett due to not being able to find housing within the city. Her colleagues made no response to her resignation and comments, and the meeting adjourned.

Tahiliani’s Suit Continues

Last week, a local news source, WGBH, stated in an article that Priya Tahiliani’s name has been cleared. Her lawyers state that an investigator found no evidence that she bullied employees. This investigator did not interview Everett school employees. If you talk to many school employees, they can provide many examples of intimidation and hostility by her and her bullies from Boston. These employees, and the others that have not come forward, are reluctant to do so in the fear of the internet trolls.

Tahiliani’s lawyers claim that the accusations against her were unfounded. The School Committee Attorney, Robert Galvin, rejected the characterizations of the results by Tahiliani and her lawyers. Quoting Tahiliani, “For me, there is no moving forward. For my family, there is no coming back from this. The harm that has been done is irreparable, and every day that you have allowed to pass without some resolution has been a day that I have struggled.” She fails to mention the harm she brought to the families of Everett during her tenure – the decline in MCAS Scores, the deplorable school conditions, the increased violence and the alienation of the Everett Public Schools staff, City Officials and parents.

The article criticized school employees who filed complaints against Tahiliani directly to the Human Resource Director at City Hall rather than to the School Department’s Human Resource Director, who was appointed by Tahiliani. Mayor Carlo DeMaria said the employees that filed the complaints feared approaching the School’s Human Resource Department because of her and Tahiliani’s administration’s handling of personnel.

Former School Committeewoman Samantha Lambert states in the article that the results should be made public because they were taxpayer funded. She does not understand that by making the results public, it would provide potentially unsafe conditions for all who made complaints. Would you want your name publicized for speaking against your supervisor?

There was another publicly funded investigation by the law firm of Clifford & Kenny, LLP, of Pembroke, Mass., that she (Lambert) did not want made public regarding a teacher, who was her neighbor and whose father was chairman of the School Committee at the time. The public is still waiting for action to be taken. The law firm recommended disciplinary action up to and including termination and for the superintendent and School Committee to refer the report on Jason Abruzzese to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office for further investigation and possible prosecution.

Also in the article, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Glenn Koocher, was part of Everett’s superintendent search six years ago, and said, “Everyone I was talking to said ‘we need to clean house.’” There was a determination by the then School Committee to hire an outsider. No Everett school employee or Everett resident was allowed to apply for the position of superintendent. All but two members of the School Committee that went along with this stipulation were defeated, including the chairman, who was defeated in the primary, which is highly unusual. The Everett voters knew this was a bad choice.

The article continues, saying that despite broadly positive performance reviews, the Everett School Committee voted not to renew her contract. The review shows she did not receive positive reviews – only satisfactory reviews. The then-School Committee members were being approached by unsatisfied parents throughout their time in office. They were also reading data provided by the Department of Education on the status of the district. The School Committee needed to take action on the information they were learning, and they did.

The article quotes Tom Scott, co-executive director of Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, who awarded Tahiliani a statewide award in 2022 for her work in Everett, which baffled many employees and residents at the time. The schools had continued to decline and had many disruptions during her tenure that she was unable to control. He stated that “the kids were at the center of almost every decision she was going to make.”

It has been found through e-mails that she and certain school personnel orchestrated a student walk out of Everett High School to protest at City Hall during school hours. She also advocated for student interns to get politically active during the last election until the state ethics commission stepped in, stating that it was unethical. These are not positive examples of decision making for our kids. You can see how, by these comments made by Glen Koocher and Tom Scott, how Mass. education has dropped from being the leader in education in the country.

Later in the article, Tom Scott states that “she is high quality superintendent material…eventually I think she will clearly land and she’ll do a very high-quality job in whatever position she takes.” He has failed to read the Department of Education Evaluation of the Boston Public Schools, dated March 2020, regarding her leadership of the English as a Second Language program, where they cite that students’ test scores declined each year until they removed her. It also states that she failed to provide equitable access to coherent, comprehensive and consistent services in the schools and classrooms for the students, along with multiple other failures. Her successor has shown improved scores. Also, he should review her failures as superintendent of the Everett Public Schools.

The article goes on to say that Tahiliani was the first superintendent of color in a district where the student body is majority non-white. This was true of the student body before she came to Everett, and the Everett Public Schools went from being a top performing School District to one on the brink of receivership.

They also state that the School Committee members who denied Tahiliani a new contract were mostly voted out in the 2023 election but failed to mention that the newly elected School Committee members voted not to reinstate the unqualified and inexperienced Tahiliani as the Superintendent of the Everett Public Schools. Just ask Melrose, Natick and Norwood – three municipalities that passed on her due to lack of qualifications and experience.