School Committee Hypocrisy Continues

~ Letter-to-the-Editor ~

Dear Editor,

  I watched the October 17 Everett School Committee meeting and was struck again by the hypocrisy of committee member Samantha Lambert regarding children who do not reside in Everett but are, nevertheless, attending Everett public schools.

  It was reported that Ms. Lambert’s landlord, a well-known former chairman of the Everett School Committee, has three grandchildren who do not reside in Everett and are, nevertheless, attending an Everett public elementary school.

  Instead of addressing and trying to rectify this particular objectionable situation, Ms. Lambert recommended that strict address enforcement begin in Grade 9. She said nothing about address enforcement in the elementary grades, where her landlord’s grandchildren seem to be in obvious violation.

  School Superintendent Tahiliani added to the hypocrisy, in my opinion, when she put on a slideshow on how she and her team are going to stiffen student residency requirements and the enforcement thereof. Under her plan, there are supposed to be more visits by attendance officers to the addresses provided by parents to verify that students actually reside where they say they do.

  Interestingly, the Superintendent made this presentation in the apparent knowledge that, one, she has hired two school attendance officers who are non-residents of Everett, and, two, one of these two non-resident attendance officers has enrolled his children in the Everett public schools. (Isn’t this something like having a member of the Everett police force who burglarizes local homes during his off-duty hours?)

  One can’t help but wonder if the Superintendent is ignoring this situation because of her friendship with the father of this non-resident attendance officer, who is none other than the aforementioned, well-known, former chairman of the Everett School Committee?

  During the October 17 committee meeting, no one brought up this former chairman’s other son, an Everett School Department employee who had been investigated by the law firm of Clifford and Kenny, LLP at the behest of a former school committee member. Clifford and Kenny recommended that this son’s school-issued work computer be turned over to the Middlesex County District Attorney for further investigation and that the son be suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation. Ultimately, the committee did not take any action against this individual.

Signed,

A concerned parent of children attending the English School,

Name withheld due to fear of retaliation against them.