HOLD ON TO YOUR WALLETS: JIV LAUNCHES ANOTHER SCHOOL ‘IMPROVEMENT’ PLAN
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEEKEND EDITION, AUG. 28 to 30, 2015) — Just how badly can they continue to screw up the Pittsfield Public School system? The PPS takes $102 million each year to operate. To that, add $144 million in borrowing — $20 million in outstanding loans for school renovations from earlier years and $121 million in upcoming obligations for the new, needless Taconic High School. Debt service on the $144 million in borrowing? Priceless.
The PPS mastermind has become only too familiar with all those who care about quality education. Supt. Jason “JIV” McCandless has proven to be the well-educated, high-priced dud members of the Lee school board warned us about. One member told THE PLANET that Lee gave JIV such a great recommendation because they couldn’t wait to get rid him.
JIV, Fife, and Pray for Strife
JIV and his deputy, Barney Fife — check that.
JIV and deputy superintendent Joe Curtis have dreamed up yet another “school improvement plan.” Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. Since Education Reform debuted in Massachusetts in 1993, it has achieved the miraculous. It has worsened what was then decreed a “crisis” in public education.
Those 22 years ago, legislators and executives panicked after loud complaints about the state’s public school system from three crucial sectors: higher education, the private sector, and parents. The first realized that far too many graduates were entering college and university without basic, freshman-level skills in reading, writing, and math. The second lamented that freshly minted high school graduates too often couldn’t handle the rigors of the marketplace. The third segment, parents, wondered why and how four years of “education” could leave their children with worthless diplomas.
Now, 22 years and countless billions later, colleges, business, and parents have the same grievances.
Admittedly, statewide results of Ed reform were uneven. Some districts embraced change, implemented it intelligently, and profited. Others, like Pittsfield, dragged their feet, refused to adopt rigorous curricula, and kept passing nearly everyone regardless of performance.
The Long, Gray Line
JIV has fit right in with a long, grey line of superintendent mediocrity. Name em: McNally, Travis, Darlington, Eberwein, JIV. These overpaid hacks can be recognized their unwillingness to admit problems, whitewash “bad news,” kiss up to The Suits, and be afraid to rock the boat. They are hired with one key element in mind: Will you play ball? IF the answer is “yes,” no amount of money is too much. JIV makes $200,000 in total compensation. Perhaps the best measure of JIV’s ineffectiveness is the more than $5 million he has lost the city from students leaving Pittsfield for other districts or for the BART charter school.
The Boring Broadsheet gushed that the new initiative “could be the most comprehensive and specific school improvement plan ever prepared for the city.” What does that say, exactly. What does “could” mean? If means, if course, that it also “could not.” That’s the type of spoon-fed lazy reporting that passes muster at The BB, a paper without sufficient editorial resources that must everyday fill another edition.
Part of the “improvement” plan is to make life hell for teachers, support staff, and all of the 600 employees of the city’s biggest, most expensive, and worst performing department outside of DPW.
Dusty, one of THE PLANET’s most prolific and astute commentators, put it well when he said:
“This sounds like someone has finally recognized the unmitigated disaster the schools are. And with that admission they are admitting that past school committees have failed in their duties, politicians have failed, taxpayer money has been grossly wasted and the kids have been sorely neglected.
“They may really care now or this may just be another vehicle to bloat the school budget even more. Which could it be? Remember, it’s Pittsfield, Ma., land of special interests.”
THE PLANET shall spare you the serpentine details of the overwrought, overly complex plan that looks like, smells like, talks like, and sounds like it was designed by a committee. We know teachers will hate it, but they will have no choice. Each one will have a min-drone following her every move. How do you think that will play out to improve the classroom atmosphere?
We thought so.
With that, we open The Comment Line. Have a great weekend, everybody.
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“Nor can you more judge woman’s thoughts by tears, / Than by her shadow what she wears.” — John Donne, “Twickenham Garden,” (1633).
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The views expressed in any comment section are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.
McNally was never superintendent.
Maybe he meant Noseworthy.
The Berkshire Eagle editorial also says this new initiative has a “genuine chance of success”.
And sadly that is as high as the bar gets in Pittsfield. To put this optimistic mindset in perspective you also have a “genuine chance” of getting hit by lightning on your left ear while jogging in a rainstorm. It could happen.
Reading, writing and arithmetic are not important. What is important is political correctness and making sure noone is offended. Tolerance toward homosexuals, transgenders, gay rights, black lives matter, accepting illegal aliens and a woman’s right to abort her baby are what is important.
Indoctrination instead of education. The all new Taconic will produce freshmorons, softmorons, juniormorons and seniormorons.
The taxpayers must pay for it all whether couples choose to have children or not. Everyone is responsible to indoctrinate the yoots to produce a future society of tolerance, away from the Constitution, The Bill of Rights and wave the rainbow flag.
They will spare no expense so that no child is left behind.
Grumpy Teachers alert …..More Work!!
Grief councilors cost money, but if there is savings at the PD, maybe there could be some cost cutting measures from the PSD, if we could just recover the money that was stolen from the prom and the police union that would be a good start.
John Barrett lays out platform seeking corner office in three way race for Mayor in North Adams.
This is glaringly missing in Pittsfield. Dysfunction!!
I bought the wrong issue of the Pittsfield Gazette so I’m not sure what happened when all 4 mayoral candidates got together the other day. It seems that the Pittsfield Gazette is the only local newspaper that is reporting this story. We are only weeks before the first vote in the mayoral race. You would think that all four candidates meeting together would be big news.
Apparently the media wasn’t invited. Jonathan Levine heard about the event so he covered it.
what kind of debate happens out of public and or media view? is that a debate?
Mike is right…This was not a public event and the media was not invited. Local unions typically request that the Mayoral or statewide office candidates appear before them and make their case for support of the membership.
Yes. Of course the unions don’t want the media there. That’s when the promises get made. They let Jonathan Levine in there because his newspaper has been reduced to fluff and nothing.
Southeast,
The kind of debate that happens out of public view, is the kind where candidates can tell the unions exactly what they want to hear without the fear of the rest of us who don’t belong to unions, to hear the promises made to get their voting bloc.
bingo
[REDACTED]
The problem with society today is that people just accept everything they are told. This is when everything goes from bad to worse. Dan V. has an extremely valid point. The suits in the schools know the schools are performing very poorly no matter how much money we give them and we are giving the Pittsfield schools a LOT of money each year. This is proof of what Dan V. and everyone here on the Planet has been saying all along. This isn’t an issue of money. It’s an issue of poor use of the money the schools do have. The money has been put toward higher salaries and not toward the basic mission of properly educating the students. If only the schools had been trying all along to learn to budget and to put the money where it would do the most good.
Pat
Absolutely…..Big Picture. The supporters of the self interest group call the watch dogs bitchers. See right through it.
right Pat, the school improvement plan will NOT be – lets all double down, spend an extra hour a day making sure we do things right – it will be $102 million is just a minimum starting figure.
the biggest improvement however would be to stop the chaos in the buildings – at PHS, the kids control the classrooms and stop passing kids who do not deserve to pass. this creates an atmosphere of “I am just here to take up space” on the part of the students. Reid and PHS have no discipline and the chaos is what has driven the motivated and highest performing 10% from the system.
At PHS the kids smoke dope all day at the skate park and outside the building. no one does anything because it may draw attention to things. well, the attention has been drawn – no one will fault you for a genuine attempt to fix the problem.
listen to your scanners starting on Tuesday. there will be a call for “presence” every day at 300 East St (PHS). of course now that the Planet has that – the lockdown crew may just assign two cruisers there daily.
It’s a dynamite stick.
The aprt about kids smoking dope at the skate park is correct. Every day. They go to class high and refuse to be taught. Cope, school officials, mayor, councilors all ignore it. Just another day in the PPS under Suptd. JIVE.
This is a problem that Mr. McCandless inherited. It’s been going on for years. When they didn’t have the skate park to go to they’d go behind the DMV building. Unfortunately many of these students will become part of the welfare class because they have no marketable skills.
Valenti. What did I write that you felt the need to delete it?
People I wrote that Dan bitches if the superintendent does nothing and he bitches if he tries to make changes. I ask should that have been deleted?
Dan please ban this guy. He adds nothing to the conversation
I am bitching too. The whole school system is a massive money sponge. The people who run the school system are getting much more benefit from it than the children they are supposed to be serving. That is immoral and disgusting.
Santanio Valdez is just another made up name from the multiple personality disorder posting here, trying to turn this site into an open sewer, just he did on topix.
This troll gets banned here under one name, then comes back posting under 10 more names. He is very easy to spot.
A true sociopath.
Xyz. So how many names do you write under?
I’m naming my next Child…Sand Float!
Gaetani will Sand Float Pittsfield and clean up politics just like he cleaned up the water in Pittsfield. We have the cleanest water on earth thanks to Gaetani and when he’s elected Mayor by the time he leaves office we will have the cleanest politics too,
Perhaps the only thing to do is force the suits by giving them less money. APPEAL your property tax assessment.
You can search online at the assessor’s website for valuations of homes in your neighborhood. Combine that with sales and listing info on a site like Zillow. I set up a notification that sends me an email when activity occurs. Many of the notices currently are showing dramatic decreases in sales prices, and homes still not selling.
I appealed last year with a result of a denial, they did not refute my analysis, only checked box that value/appraisal is accurate. I then took the appeal to the state level ($100 fee). That is still in the cue with a docket number.
The city abatement has no fee. If enough residents file abatements it will send a message to city hall. Since elected officials will not respond to the people, we need to do everything to make them, the assessor’s office, and the tax office lives as miserable as possible.
i would not be surprised to hear that as we discuss this abatement issue someone in city hall is drafting up the paperwork for an abatement fee.
You may be able to reduce your “donation”, though it might take hiring a lawyer, but government can’t be worn down. If they adjust their fraudulent assessments down, the tax rate is just adjusted up. They control all the money through force, and can recruit unlimited people to do any kind of dirty work. These bureaucrats are no different than those who worked for the 3rd Reich or the USSR
I agree with Santonio Valdez. Let the Superintendent do the job, see what initiatives are brought forward and then crucify. But you have to give him the chance. Quite frankly he seems to know where he’s going on a lot of initiatives for the students and we’ll see. As far as Chief Wynn goes, this officer could punch his ticket anywhere, considering the dynamics of the current force, please, no one could do a better job.Chief Czerinski is the other, great Chief in my book.
Are you Antonio?
Cut me some slack on Chief spelling. Sorry Bob!
Family illnesses are conveniently contagious for a mayoral candidate in court today. Everyone must get ill.
Evidently, Mayoral candidate Gaetanti didn’t like what Dan had to say about the road work. I believe Dan gave Mr. Gaetani a fair shot here and now the candidate is putting down a site he used often.
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_28719654/letter-anonymous-critics-should-be-ignored
They probably had to edit out all the capital letters.
Well it looks like the brother is taking one for the team. Threatening to shoot someone is a very serious charge?
Absolutely. As far as the mayoral candidate is concerned; When the going gets tough, the tough goes home sick. Definitely a ghost writer to the BB editor and obviously the same one with a couple of pseudonyms on here.
It doesn’t make sense?
Mr. Gaetani you are the height of hypocrisy, you asked candidates to not raise or spend money and take your idiodic pledge and then you criticize Dan Valenti the only news outlet on the planet earth that would give you coverage, and then beg the Pittsfield Gazette .75 a week and the Berkshire Eagle $1.25 a day to cover your hyperbole , bullshit and lies ? One sick candidate for sure. Thank God we have the Planet to give us the opportunity to post and be informed at no cost.
I am very upset about the letter that Mr. Gaetani wrote to the Berkshire Eagle. This was a site that allowed him to say whatever he wanted and he treats Dan and the Planet writers very badly. He just lost my vote. I will now vote for Ms. Walto since the other two candidates are terrible.
Hopefully Gaetani gets the help he needs with his mental health issues, I noticed a change in him when I bumped into him last Feb. He imploded and made a joke of himself and process, he lost what little credibility had, when you bite the hand that feeds you the dog will bite you back.
You’re right Ron, but your metaphor is terrible!
Up until that letter I was still going to vote for him. Now I will probably just write in Alfred E Neumans name. Four more years of garbage politics in Pittsfield pretty much guaranteed. Tyer can go ahead and rent out a place for her victory party. So sad.
Agreed.
Attacking the Planet using the Berkshire Eagle was like going to the enemy. Reminds me of Hanoi Jane going to North Viet Nam.
Gaetani lost my endorsement.
Pittsfield is screwed no matter how you slice it.
Everybody here who was going to vote for Gaetani should just now vote for Walto. There was a whole write-up about her in iberkshires. I agreed with everything she said except about the pot. She is all about jobs, growing the economy and less money to the schools. The BB is probably all excited about Gaetani turning on Dan V. Very sad. Go Walto!!!!
I bet the BB couldn’t wait to publish that letter. One candidate out of the way. I would love to see the actual letter he wrote. You know the BB edits the letters they get. They leave out sentences that can change the context of the letter.
Well count me in too to those who have switched from Gaetani to Walto. Its actually a funny letter going after DV because of his critisicm of city officials.
Gaetani has according to charges threatened to shoot and burn down the house of a city employee. How many times has he threatened to “crucify” city workers? What a phoney. The difference between DVs criticism and G’s tirades is that DV is intelligent, measured and presents facts …
Hanoi Jane may very well have been a patriot, not a traitor. She and her fellow protesters brought an end to the Vietnam War and saved countless lives, American and Vietnamese. As for Mr. Gaetani?
Is Neuman running?
Put it this way. No matter who wins Alfred might as well be in the corner office because we are all in for some pretty comical governing.
Dusty, remember the old days when the party presidential conventions actually took many rounds of votes, going into the wee hours of the morning, to get to a nomination? At 1 AM people would start casting votes for Donald Duck, Alfred E. neuman and even Mao Zedong!
Finally, the Planet readers see Gaetani for what he really is. Took y’all a long time but you finally got it. Except maybe for xyz!
He gives himself away every time.
Vote Walto for mayor of Pittsfield!!!! Go Walto!!!
I think Planet readers have ignored Walto mainly because we knew so little about her. After reading her iberkshires article, I am impressed. She seems very normal and has very conservative ideas. Gaetani was taking all of the attention of Planet readers because he was so over the top, kind of like Trump, but we have been ignoring this fourth candidate who is saying most of what we here at the Planet have been saying we want.
She is against the new Taconic. She is worried about he excessive spending and she wants to grow our local economy by job creation. I don’t like her idea of growing pot for medical marijuana at the PEDA site, but I agree with 99.9 percent of her ideas.
Planet readers, Walto is the answer to Pittsfield’s problems!!!
Growing pot for legal consumption. That gets my vote. Only not on the peda site. The plants would soak up too much pcb contaminates.
If they can have a methadone clinic handing out synthetic heroin like candy to people who walk around Pittsfield high on it, how much less harmless is pot?
Dan Valenti has yet to give his endorsement to any candidate. At the 11th hour he may have endorsed Gaetani but that is doubtful now. Some are thinking he will endorse Tyer. Dan Bianchi won by a narrow margin due to Dan Valenti’s endorsement.
Walto probably cannot beat Tyer or even Bianchi in all reality.
Tyer would be the best choice if she were not in bed with the GOB pushing a progress liberal agenda of tax and spend. It will just be Ruberto/Bianchi part 3 with a prettier face.
Anyone But Bianchi! Anyone!! The reason why Voting is so important . Yet people are indifferent and don’t exercise their right to Vote.
Gaetani made the exact same mistake Biachi made;
They both thought that Dan Valenti would blindly shill for them using this website.
I have a feeling Mr. Gaetani will hop on his yacht the SS Minnow and head to Gatetani’s Island with the professor after the election or maybe sooner. It is only a three hour tour, but you know the rest.
I thought he touched on some issues that are near and dear to the taxpayers, but his demeanor hurt him.
You couldn’t agree with Walto 99.9 percecent of the time, it’s mathematically impossibe.
GO! DONNA! GO!
This Neumann fella is an intriguing candidate!
There is no one running whom you can trust. No one.
Bianchi: turns into mayor lockdown: whoda thunk it?
Tyer: Abandoned her post as city councilor.
Gaetani: Now sides with the GOBs: betrays those who supported him.
Walto: When arrested for public intoxication she told the officer, “do you know who I am?”
If your going to write in someone, write in Dan Valenti.
Best option is to move out of the city of Pittsfield.
I wrote in Dan V. in the last election. We really need him to run. Wish he would!!! Maybe next time if the city isn’t in bankruptcy by that time.
Thanks, PAT. Appreciate the nod.
Write ins for non ballot candidates will not help defeat Bianchi. Real Candidate Votes are needed against him.
DONNA! DONNA!DONNA!
Campaign Slogan. Where’s Walto or OH oh Donna oh oh Donna.
Is Whitey Bulger available?
Something tells me he will continue to run things from the shadows as he has been.
He’s locked in to a previous commitment.
In Pittsfield, he might represent toward cleaner government.
DV could run a sticker campaign. I voted for him as a write in last time. He finished second with almost 80 votes!
If he ran a sticker campaign in Nov, who knows. Would you like to see DV run a sticker campaign? Maybe if enough of us say so he will. He is truly a man of the people.
I would vote for Dan, but my question is: is he a Pittsfield resident and a registered voter?
I don’t know if you need to be a registered voter to run – though it looks good. but I am pretty certain that you do need to have a residence here. I would imagine that both candidates would question a sticker campaign if they thought Dan did not live here.
Dan I could rent you the soon to be vacant apartment in my house!!
A person has to be a resident of the city to run for office. If I were foolish enough to attempt such a thing, I would definitely secure a Pittsfield address and register to vote there.
it would definitely NOT be foolish.
The Water Wizard… Good riddance! Completely blew what little credibility he had by his attack on Dan Valenti and The Planet in the bb. Vote for Waldo, Tyer or write in DV. Anybody but bianchi and water wizard.
Poor little 11 year old Hannah. No child should be trapped in such a life of darkness. Prayers for her soul.
When you Like a flower…you pluck it.
When you Love a flower….you water it daily.
That’s is Love…. A child deserves Love daily.
Well said, GIRL.
One Bourbon,One Scotch,One Beer!
Love George Thorogood! I Drink Alone and the rest.
Maybe Big Pappy will run, he’ll have some time off.
Lock Up, extended stay, four more years.
First time poster. Love the site. Been reading through back columns. Wow! Most impressive. Ironically I was prompted to check it out through Gaetani’s venomous letter the Eagle.
To answer Happy yes I would love Dan Valenti to mount a sticker campaign in the final. By then Gaetani and Walto will be out. Dan could turn the election head over heel.
So in a way Gaetani’s traitorous acts backfired drawing more attention to this web-site.
He tells everyone not to watch the planet TV or read here but that only makes people want to all the more.
Its a good thing he showed his true colors BEFORE the election. He’s only proven he can’t be trusted. His new found friends at the Berkshire Eagle will chew him up and spit him out.
Mr. Gaetani may need a few more electroshocks to recover from this before its over.
Stay tuned……. more entertainment to come.
@ Steve C. interesting perspective in local news and or online, it’s not hard to find people speaking words that are divisive. People tend to avoid listening to voices that don’t seem to fit with their perspective. Because of Gaetani’s letter though, a lot of people are talking about the election and making choices.
Mr. Gaetani put down PLANET readers for some not using their real names and saying we were spewing hate. Unbelievable. Just weeks previous he was praising PLANET readers on this site for challenging the powers that be in the city and was saying he understood why many did not want to use their real name due to the toxic political atmosphere in the city. I think he was bought out by the GOB’s. Its the only explanation for his completely turning his back on the PLANET. As for Donna Walto getting drunk one time and becoming feisty, as far as I know anyway it was only once, I would still be okay with voting for her even with that going against her. She would still be an improvement over the other candidates running for mayor.
He wasn’t bought out – his true colors just came through although alot of us saw through his BS from day one.
I think he was reminded that this site isn’t Planet Gaetani. Dan asked him to post his issues either on his Facebook campaign page (which I suggested several columns ago) or to start his own blog. I think the last straw was the column that garnered over 200 posts. Things got really testy and argumentative.
I don’t believe his argument is really with what Dan had to say about the Fenn St. paving job. He had already made his argument in a post. I think he was banned and decided to retaliate by writing the letter to the editor. “pemetina” even stopped posting to vote for Gaetani or watch his show once he stopped posting here.
Downtown
I agree with you. It was retaliation. He is all over the page. Total chaos and aggressive.
Pat I believe Mr. G has some issues, that is why he did a complete flip. My vote is for Walto, nothing to lose. After Bianchi and Tyer win I will write in a candidate.
Joe, I might just follow that path myself. I sure as heck ain’t gonna vote for Bianchi or Tyer.
I’m with you SOL. In my earlier posts I tried to tell the voters what Gaetani was all about but several of you chastised me. I am so glad that most of you see the light now that he has shown his true colors.
Gaetani is a marketing genius. If anything, he can continue to have free public marketing on his talk show, and show indifference to any of the candidates he disagrees with. I like what he’s doing.
I’d like to get back to the original message of DV’s column about the schools. With the school year beginning on Wednesday, I can say as a teacher that despite what the superintendent has publicly stated, we were not consulted in a collegial fashion about the so called improvement plan.
This plan has just made my job nearly impossible, since it will add hours of extra paperwork. It is part of the impending disaster looming in the PPS.
Thank you for this testimony, A. We can consider it “from the trenches.”
Question for all candidates: Would you be willing to participate in a debate with Dan Valenti as your moderator? And of course that is open to the public…possibly televised?
I hope I don’t appear close minded but I really have no interest in anything either Bianchi or Tyer have to say. I am not voting for either one and that is my final offer.
I never comment, but I can’t hide my disgust. While shopping at Staples today I watched three PPS teachers load up their carts to total $500 each for classroom supplies. That’s $1,500 charged to the district for just 3 classrooms! Seems a little excessive, particularly since it’s at my expense. You’re welcome.
Jake is going to surprise a lot of the naysayers. Give him a Chance!