PLANET BREAKS PITT$FIELD $CHOOLS’ BOMBSHELL: FIVE ‘LEVEL 5’ SCHOOLS FRAUDULENTLY LISTED AS ‘LEVEL 3’
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2016) — Here’s another secret Pittsfield Supt. of Schools Jason “Jake” JIV McCandless doesn’t want you to know. You can contact JIV for an official denial — we won’t bother because he’s been ordered not to talk to THE PLANET as the only game in town doing investigative work, there being too much to hide in the PSD … or can you say $9,000 theft of prom money as an inside job and cover up?
THE PLANET has it from an uber-authoritative source, preserved from retribution by anonymity, that five alleged Level 3 schools in Pittsfield “are in all honesty and in all reality at Level 5.” The State Education Department Board of Elementary and Secondary Education classifies schools in local districts on a 1 through 5 performance scale, with Level 1 the highest performing and Level 5 the lowest.
Those Level 5 schools in Pittsfield are Conte Community School, considered the worst school in the city; Morningside; and Crosby. The two high schools are believed to be the fourth and fifth Level 5 ignorance factories. Go to the state’s official listings, however, and you will find that all five schools are listed at Level 3. Meanwhile, the state is covertly supplying crutches to keep these schools on life support.
What’s going on here?
Send in the Receivers … But Wait …
First, you have to realize that at Level 5, a school has failed on all aspects of academic accountability as defined by a mutually agreed-upon set of goals, benchmarks, and timetables. Level 5 represents a determination by the state that left to local management, the affected school “will [not] make significant improvement.” At Level 5, the state sends in the receivers.
From the state’s education website:
School Turnaround Receivers are individuals or non-profit organizations that offer statewide education improvement services to manage and operate chronically underperforming (Level 5) schools. A Request for Information (RFI) is now posted to solicit information from individuals or non-profit organizations that may have the expertise, capacity, and interest in serving as a Level 5 receiver, should one or more schools be designated as Level 5.
For more information and to view the RFI, visit the posting on Massachusetts’ procurement system, COMMBUYS.
So THE PLANET repeats the question: What’s going on with five Pittsfield schools at Level 5 but being advertised as Level 3? The answer is two-fold: Money and politics.
MONEY
With deficits running between $750,000 and $1 billion, the state doesn’t have the resources to put these schools in receivership. Our source says “the state doesn’t have the money to take them over, so they’re trying to buy time by arbitrarily keeping them at Level 3. They’re really Fives but they stay Threes so they can ‘move the chains’. They want to keep these schools at Level 3 until they can figure out what to do.”
Then came the bombshell, which will be the first time Pittsfield taxpayers have heard it: “Secretary [of Education James] Peyser has people working with McCandless every week.” THE PLANET breaks this without feeling the need to point out its significance. At minimum, this information confirms the shell game that the Pittsfield Public School Department, its school committee, and its administration are running. THE PLANET has caught then, again, stealing from the cookie jar.
POLITICS
The superintendent is more than willing to accept state help for the job that he has failed to do, but of course he doesn’t want anyone to know about it. To know the information is to realize the state, in what we can call an educational mercy mission, is funneling unreported assistance. This further proves the Level 3-for-Level 5 masquerade now ongoing. JIV wants to wallpaper over the Level 5 schools that prove his managerial incompetence. He’s the ultimate “Pittsfield Super.” He knows that politics come before “The Children.”
The school committee just “rewarded” this unskilled bureaucrat with a new contract that will bring JIV about $1 million in total compensation. THE PLANET would fire him.
We invite Supt. McCandless to comment on our assertions. Go ahead, JIV. Tell us we have the story wrong.
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“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler Yeats
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The views expressed in the comment section or opinions published within the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI 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.
Class Dismissed!
Unfortunately, you can’t dismiss a class that isn’t even there. This story exposes in a new and undeniable way how the PSD under Mccandless and the present school committee cannot be trusted or believed on any statement of fact.
Limbo, believe I have that game,I’ll send it to you.
Check out the Atlanta cheating scandal. Nine people were convicted of rigging Test Scores and Three of the Administrators were sentenced to seven years.
yes, I remember that, everyone was shocked.
Well that would be one way of saving the city some money. Sent the top people to jail. Then file a civil lawsuit to get some money back that was so grossly paid to these people.
You could also go after their performance bonds for dereliction of duty and gross abuse of their fiduciary roles.
I wonder though if the mayor is in on this. Or the city council. Or the teachers or parents. And yet there are still people wondering why people like myself are so skeptical of Pittsfield politicians and political hacks and blood sucking department heads who cannibalize the system for their own good.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the children could file a class action lawsuit against the school system for incompetence, negligence and fraud? Where is the ACLU on this?
This is dispicable Dan Valenti. Everyone’s Salary should be linked to this failure… top to bottom… And… Pittsfield Residents….. the School Committee needs the Boot!!
SPAGIRL
You final sentence says it all.
It makes sense that parents who care are opting out of the pittsfield school system. That fact alone speaks volumes on this report. Overall though it directly points to the populace apathy, lack of effective family units aND the school department. This is not only a failure of the present it’s a failure of the past. Corrective measures will require drastic action and will require community wide support. It’s unfortunate that the children are the ones paying for these failures. Infusing tax dollars obviously hasn’t achieved sucess. This requires across the board people commitments to recreate a effective integrated, cost effective educational system that achieves results for the students on a timely basls.
I have often wondered why the honor roll lists are quite long. It makes me wonder what is required to make the honor roll. As mi pointed out those schools in Atlanta had great honor rolls.
Here’s how it works:
1. The honor rolls are a mile long because state mandates put pressure on a school to perform.
2. The district administration pressures individual schools to meet their marks.
3. The school administration at each school, in turn, put teachers in a vise to achieve scores at whatever the cost. That opens the door to all sorts of temptation, including fudging and cheating. The data coming from Pittsfield cannot be believed.
Dan How about the data from BCC? Can it be trusted?
PHS was classified as a level 3.5 according to Principal Bishop at faculty meetings. They were supposed to be level 4, but were granted that “3.5” by the state because they implemented some bullshit suggestions.
Have no doubt in your mind, the state SHOULD take over PPS and clean house. It’s the only way to get rid of the crappy teachers who are protected by tenure. Teachers would have to reapply for their jobs and if they suck (which trust me, a lot DO) they are gone.
Teacher union spends millions on the state level, only hope is to abolish public education
This is just one more deception the Pittsfield taxpayers are fed. And you were not supposed to find out. Thanks to Valenti you did. It is probably just the tip of the iceberg of what you don’t know about Pittsfield government.
If no city official or school dept employee addresses this you will know for sure that you have been lied to. Many more parents, finding out the schools are even worse than they thought, will be opting out of the McCandless smoke and mirror education plan.
Now we shall see the integrity of the Council members, School Committee and the Mayor. Will they come clean and openly and honestly answer the public’s questions? Or will they wrangle, dodge and creatively answer with mumbo-jumbo?
If the information is correct (I have no reason to believe it isn’t) it is imperative all the details come out and from the Mayor. This will be her test of leadership as well as a statement in action regarding her concern for the Children.
Just sayin
JOE
You are correct. The information I published today is real, it is accurate, and it is an honest assessment of what is going on with public education in Pittsfield right now.The council, school committee, school administration, mayor, and other can deny it. They can dismiss it. They can attack the messenger. But … But they can’t fake the reality, the proof of which is the quality of education at schools such as Conte, Morningside, and the like. Those on the inside know my information is true and good. Now, as you say, we have an Integrity Test. It’s known as the city budget, school side.
I hope Mayor Tyer will make a statement to the city of Pittsfield as how she hopes on correcting this problem, it seems that she needs the help of that state. She did not cause this mess but it would be nice if she acknowledges this mess and asks for help, that would be a sign of a good Mayor. It is also one way to save some money for Pittsfield. We need you NOW Mayor Tyer!
Maybe Pittsfield’s public schools are failing because over 650 students per academic year choice out to neighboring public school districts? Pittsfield = the Underclass! About 70 percent of Pittsfield residents live in or near poverty. All K – 6 Pittsfield public school students receive free school lunches due to the lack of living wage jobs in Pittsfield.
The lovely Linda Tyer will present her first municipal budget within the next 2 months. She will raise taxes and increase spending – most of which will go to the public school system. Pittsfield politics is failing the people of Pittsfield, just like the public school system in failing the poor children of Pittsfield!
– Jonathan Melle
The letter, below, makes a good point! That is, even wealthy communities, like the wealthy suburbs outside of Boston, cannot afford to run their municipal finances like Pittsfield politics runs its municipal finances. Pittsfield politics’ municipal finances are unsustainable!
– Jonathan Melle
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Letter: “School budget increases must end in Pittsfield”
The Berkshire Eagle, 5/2/2016
To the editor:
In reading the recent Eagle headline, it is clear the Pittsfield School Committee continues to ignore fiscal responsibility and the impact on the taxpayer by unanimously approving the new school budget.
Scott Eldridge’s perception that this is an income problem, not a “spending problem,” couldn’t be farther from the truth. With a shrinking taxpayer base, school committees all over the state are faced with the reality that you can no longer do business as usual and you must pool resources and reduce administrative costs, as the Adams-Cheshire school district has painfully but realistically determined.
The budget is now at $60 million and we have at least five people within the school district who make over $100,000. The superintendent makes approximately $157,000 a year managing a $60 million budget, but the mayor, who manages a budget twice that size with more employees, has a salary of under $100,000.
In response to Dan Elias’s argument for paying $73,000 a year for what is basically a truant officer position, getting kids to school is the responsibility of the parents and is the law in Massachusetts. In my view, this position is wildly overpaid for that responsibility.
I work for one of the largest employers in Berkshire County and there were years when we got no salary raises, but the school budgets continued to rise anyway because of rising costs that are passed on to the taxpayer. Every time the City Council or citizens try to push back and rein in this spending mind-set, cuts are made in sports, music, arts, and after-school activities that inflame the parents and put pressure on to reinstate these reductions.
Jake McCandless, by all accounts an outstanding superintendent, can show all the slides he wants about the average wages in the state and how we are below them, but that is irrelevant. We live in Berkshire County, and if you think you can get a better job near Boston because the salaries are higher, I urge you to seek that job.
I challenge the City Council, and in particular my Ward 3 Councilor Nicholas Caccamo, to review this budget and make cuts that do not remove teachers from the classroom, but pare down exorbitant salaries and outside services, and do not add positions funded by grants unless there is a planned revenue stream to support them.
I bought my house in 2007 and my taxes have gone up 35 percent in 10 years, and the school budget is the main driver. It is time to look at providing a quality education based on the taxpayer’s ability to pay, and not just keep passing along annual increases without concern about the impact to the community.
Carmen Simonelli, Pittsfield
I rarely read this blog, however, today’s column was brought to my attention and I felt a need to comment (with an exaggerated eye roll). A school district cannot “fudge” their performance level with the state. Performance levels are based on MCAS test scores. Plain and simple. Student growth is measured on year-to-year progress of the MCAS. Your quote “In all honesty and all reality a Level 5” is an OPINION of someone. AN OPINION! Do you have data to back this up? No you do not! I encourage everyone who feels a need to bash the school system and the hard-working teachers in Pittsfield to educate themselves with the state’s criteria for determining school levels. I can also tell you that no teacher in Pittsfield, or any district in Massachusetts, will be fudging test scores to make their school look better. Teacher evaluation is currently not tied to MCAS scores. In the future it may be…but currently that is not the case. So there is no motive for a teacher to fudge scores. They need their jobs, they need to provide for their families just like everyone else. I would appreciate it, Dan, if you would educate yourself on these issues before writing one-sided columns to encourage uneducated people to jump on your bandwagon.
FRANKLIN
Thanks for your feedback. Two points. First, as far as writing “one-sided columns,” I have tried, fruitlessly, to invite comment from every member of the school committee and the school administration. They have thus far refused. For instance, I have an open invitation for them to come on my TV show as guests, no appointment necessary. Not a peep or a shadow. That’s on them, not me. Second, you need to educate yourself on what is “fact” and what is “opinion.” I’ll stop the tutorial right there, except to say my source is impeccably informed, party to the most Inside on the schools’ “inside baseball,” and privy to all of the data coming from the city and state. Performance levels are based not just on MCAS scores (speaking ow which, how reliable are the scores being reported in Pittsfield?). From the State Dept. of Education: “A school is designated Level 5 when it has failed to improve as required by the goals, benchmarks, or timetable of its prior turnaround plan, or when the school has failed to make significant improvement and when conditions in the district make it unlikely that the school will make significant improvement unless it is placed in Level 5. Before a school is designated chronically underperforming by the Commissioner, a school must be designated underperforming (Level 4) in the state’s Framework for School Accountability and Assistance and fail to improve significantly.” One last point, I will invite you to come on my TV show and refute my information. Contact me privately at danvalenti@verizon.net. I shall be more than glad to host you.
Franklin,
I don’t believe this district or any district is placed into a level 5 category simply by MCAS scores. I have recently “educated” myself by reading the results of the reviews given to other districts in the Commonwealth. I have attached a link here for your reading enjoyment.
Please read the executive summary at least and the methodology, while test scores are incuded they are far from the sole determiner.
http://www.mass.gov/edu/docs/ese/accountability/district-reports/nolevel/2015-0277.pdf
just sayin
Franklin, my bad I forgot to include the enabling legislation.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter15/Section55A
Please follow the link it fully describes the duties of the review board.
regards
A school district is initially flagged as an underperforming school first by MCAS scores which show student growth. If students are not showing sufficient growth year-to-year and students are receiving less than proficient scores on their tests than that is a red flag to the state to look closer at that school. The state will step in and assess other areas of the school (as what happened with the Southbridge schools) when a school is not showing any growth towards meeting their goals. I’m not denying that we have poor performing schools in Pittsfield. But if we truly had level 5 schools the state would be taking these schools over. My guess is that these schools are showing progress towards their yearly goals.
Franklin,
Your statement is mostly correct however if you read the enabling legislation it clearly states the criteria for being selected for an audit to include randomness.
Relevant portion if you care not to read it in its entirety “…The office shall perform not less than 40 school district audits annually, not less than 75 per cent of which shall be in districts whose students achieve at low levels either in absolute terms or relative to districts that educate similar student populations. The remainder of the audits shall be divided equally among districts whose students achieve at high levels relative to districts that educate similar student populations and randomly selected districts.”
Please note in the objectives the third item mentioned is resultant of MCAS scores the first is the accuracy of reporting.
Relevant portion of M.G.L. chapter 15 Section 55A
“The office shall have the following duties relative to school district audits: (1) objectively review the accuracy of the school and district reports by conducting or contracting for periodic program and fiscal audits as necessary; (2) undertake inspections of schools, charter schools and school districts, including regional school districts, to evaluate efforts to improve and support the quality of instruction and administration; (3) review the district’s MCAS success plan, so-called, if any, submitted to the department pursuant to section 1I and evaluate the implementation of that plan; (4) review the district’s implementation of any MCAS grants received to develop or enhance academic support services for students scoring in level 1 or 2; (5) evaluate the alignment of curriculum and professional development plans with the state curriculum and assessments; (6) review the progress of overall student achievement and; (7) evaluate student performance, school and district management, overall district governance and any other areas deemed necessary by the office.”
Just Sayin
Ask Atlanta if teachers don’t fuge MCAS scores! Hard working my foot. Read their contract!! Most real hard working private sector people would consider teaching in Pittsfield a part time job.
OK…I am not questioning your diligence Dan, or the integrity of your source. Just want to get that out up front. What I would like to know is, is this the source’s opinion? Or is it an analysis based on empirical data? Anyone can say, “the schools suck much more than they or the state admits.” That is probably obvious. What I would like to see is the evidence, based on objective measures, that they are actually AT level 5, not level 3 as the district states. There have to be measures of specific metrics that determine a level 3 vs. level 5 school. A cover up truly exists if those metrics are truly showing level 5 while they are at level 3. Without the existence of the actual metrics and the rubric, there is no real cover up. What light can you shed on that? And again, I am not challenging you or your source, I just feel like the story is incomplete without some sort of empirical data. Thanks Dan.
MR G
Many thanks for your great questions. This is my source’s conclusion based on the most Inside of inside information. The objective measures won’t be made public, of course, because that would defeat the entire ruse. If you ask for the data, you will in all likelihood get the second set of books that show Level 3 performance. Trust me, my source is impeccable and beyond reproach. The empirical data from the real set of books is under lock and key. The important part is that we have blown open a story that does need to be vetted — honestly, fairly, and objectively. I will bet the house that if such an audit took place, it would definitely show Level 5. I appreciate the challenge. Your posts are among the best we receive, which refutes those who say I only publish those who agree with me. You have been a critic, sometimes agreeing with me and sometimes disagreeing. The point is, you do so with intelligence. What’s not to love about that?
Thanks Dan. That’s exactly right, and that’s what attracted me to this site in the first place. It is discussion, with opinions shared on both sides of any argument. There is nothing wrong with listening to, and considering a differing side of any discussion. Even when we disagree, as I have said with Pat, a poster here as well, I respect your forthrightness, your opinion, your right to express it and your usual willingness to back it up. Thanks again.
Mr. McCandless, the School Committee, and the Mayor need to show up. Silence is not acceptable.
But silence is just what you’re (were) going to receive.
I cant believe it for a long time know year after year we here about how bad the school system is. why is there no improvements, we keep poring money into the system and I just don’t heir of improvements that amount to much. Teachers after they been there for a while is there any thing in place to evaluate there performance? And is it done by people in Pittsfield school system or is it don’t by some one from out side. One thing is for sure building new schools is not the answer proper maintenance of the schools we have is. Pittsfield has always fallen short on this there answer is to tear things down.
The teacher evaluations are a joke. I had people in my department that were there for years that still had no idea how to put a portfolio together or collect data. Most teachers wait until the last minute and throw some junk in. As for observations, If the administrator liked you, you got leeway.
My co-workers knew they could get away with it and turned in half empty evaluations/teacher portfolios. Were told to finish them by next due date, still weren’t done and then at the final moment miraculously completed them.
Do that anywhere else and you’d be fired on the spot
Once they have tenure there is realistically very few ways to terminate them, regardless of how the evaluations go.
Thank for you information . I gess some real work needs to be done. Do you think it will change.
The fact that most of the teachers and school administrators send their children out of the Pittsfield school system tells you everything you need to know. Almost anyone who knows a Pittsfield teacher knows how they feel about it.
Please show us the facts that most teachers send thief kids to schools outside of Pittsfield . I hear this all the time but never see the facts. The teachers I know in Pittsfield send their kids to PSD.
I am quite sure they would rather keep quiet about it. Tricia never bragged about it either but she wanted no part of the Pittsfield school system if it involved her own children.
Tricia lives close to the Lenox line and her husband does or did teach at Monument Mountain. Perhaps that’s why they chose Lenox to be with their friends.
Or page 1 B section of the BB. Gold star in school rankings for Lenox schools. Get real Red, Lenox cannot get Tricia reelected, she has more “friends” in Pittsfield. I don’t begrudge her for sending her kids to a better school system, that is her right as a parent, but talking out of both ends by always saying how wonderful the PPS is and sending money out of it doesn’t jive for some.
Yes, perhaps that’s why. As long as were “perhapsing” perhaps she knows the Pittsfield schools are the dregs and wanted better for her children. All the while she talks about doing it for “the children” of Pitts.
Now we will find out if the new owners of the Berk Eagle are sincere about reporting the truth and not being guided by the special interests and politicians.
Righteeeooo. It would behoove them to make a good first impression. Sometimes people know when prominent folk do bad things and if it does not make the paper, well then, we will know they are co opted. selective reporting is one of the things that doomed the bird cage daily.
I think the public school system needs another way to evaluate the teachers. I don’t know how they can expect to have good teachers it they do have a good way of very evaluating their performance. Most professions have a way of seeing if they are performing up to a Standard
Tenure equals higher pay. Rating for under performance,equals lower pay.
Consolidate schools,pittsfield high is a sham,crosby has a horrible principle who never walked her building.
Hard to know what is factual and what is myth about todays topic. What
is factual is that -Mr. Gaetani HAS Sued the City over theeir lack of
giving the taxpayer a say on the THS PROJECT. He did this- at
considerable cost to himself. Also, he is at every City Council
Meeting- standing alone against the council and mayor and is the
Champion voice of the Taxpayer beyond any doubt. He alone, was the
only citizen Taxpayer to challenge the supt. and school committee
telling them to cut the administration by 2.7 million dollars at a
recent SC Meeting. Many of you who post here act like this man doesn’t
exist but you better understand- that he is the only individual trying
to help the Taxpayer. No one on this site has done anything- more-
than complain and complaining will accomplish nothing. What do you
think would happen to you if this Genius decided to tell you and all
the rest of the sheep in this city to go to hell? Think about it– you
are about to cut your own throat. Who will be the first to cut their
throat in response to this post? You can be certain- that he will be
at all meetings representing you, when he is home, in Pittsfield which
isn’t frequently. How many of you will be there with certainty? ALL OF
YOU HAVE A TRACK RECORD GRADE OF-F AND THE wIZ GETS A GRADE OF A
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GO WIZ
-F?