East Somerville school plans well received, Scott Brown’s ‘thick skull’ and more

By George P. Hassett

The Somerville School Committee met Monday, Sept. 20 with all members present and voting.

East Somerville Community School plans may be scaled back due to costs

The city’s plans to rebuild the East Somerville Community School, destroyed in a December 2007 fire, were well received by state officials, said School Superintendent Anthony Pierantozzi. Parts of the plan may have to be scaled back due to cost concerns but Pierantozzi said no academic programs por learning spaces will be reduced. He said new plans may limit stairwells or green space but not instructional space.

Ward Six School Committee member Paul Bockelman said, “It’s important to maintain costs but we want to fight for as good a school as possible.”

Rossetti: Shame on Scott Brown

Ward Seven School Committee member Mary Jo Rossetti had sharp words for Senator Scott Brown after Brown voted against a bill that would have cut taxes for teachers.

The School Committee sent two letters to Brown urging him to support the bill. Brown voted against the bill, which eventually passed.

“Nobody’s been able to get through his thick skull,”  Rossetti said of the state’s junior senator.

Somerville students held back less

Fewer Somerville students are being forced to repeat grades after school officials changed their approach to helping struggling students.

“We’ve abandoned the concept of students repeating the same grade as the only means of remediation,” Bockelman said.

Bockelman said boys are twice as likely to repeat grades as girls in Somerville schools.

Longtime school staff continue to contribute

Two administrators were introduced at this week’s meeting but neither is new to Somerville schools: new Argenziano School Principal Barbara O’Brien started in the Somerville school system in 1969 as a kindergarten teacher at the Prescott School, now the East Somerville Community School, and Zita Samuels, hired as the Title One director, worked in Somerville schools from 1971 to 1998.

Samuels said longtime staff is proof that Somerville schools are “a good place to work and a place where people care about people.”

O’Brien, who previously worked as assistant principal at the East Somerville Community School, said, “Our goal for this year is to have everyone in the school accept responsibility for every child’s success.”