Boston, MA
Editorial: Bad hires in Boston must end
The invoice to repair town faculty system is racking up numbers like a meter at a gasoline pump.
Letting Superintendent Brenda Cassellius go earlier than her contract is up will price taxpayers $314,000 for the exit price. (She earned $306,415 for the calendar 12 months 2021.) She heads out of city as of June 30.
The search agency is billing Boston $75,000 to assist recruit her substitute and now we’re being warned an interim superintendent might be wanted till the proper particular person is discovered.
The final interim superintendent — Laura Perille — earned $129,807 in 2019 and $119,230 in 2018.
She crammed in after Tommy Chang was let go in 2018 after gathering $149,117 in pay that 12 months and $301,465 in a buyout of his contract, in accordance with metropolis payroll data.
That’s roughly $1.4 million poorly spent.
If Cassellius was so unhealthy, why lengthen her contract? Why does Mayor Michelle Wu suppose metropolis residents have all this money to burn?
The place’s the outrage?
Weeks after taking workplace, Wu mentioned she needed somebody who would “hit the bottom working.” That’s now unsure as Cassellius heads out of city, her fats verify in her pocket, with Boston nonetheless wanting, almost definitely.
Any individual must say it: Sufficient!
Metropolis taxpayers deserve higher. Rent a stable candidate and work the faculties as if our future relies on it — as a result of it does.
Former Mayor Marty Walsh must take a success right here too for failing to show Tommy Chang right into a celebrity. All of the unhealthy hires are a humiliation.
Too typically public officers deal with taxpayers as inanimate objects. However simply go stand within the grocery retailer line or on the gasoline pump and also you’ll see the ache on individuals’s faces. This waste must cease.
Metropolis children deserve somebody who is aware of Boston and cares deeply in regards to the success of each pupil — and who will stick round for some time.
College students additionally want somebody who received’t politicize the place and put police again within the faculties. However, in fact, that’s actually as much as the mayor.
We urge Mayor Wu to take a step again and deal with the subsequent chief of the faculties as a co-CEO and work collectively to strengthen each classroom. The revolving door is getting outdated.
At Wednesday’s faculty committee assembly, search committee co-chair Pam Eddinger and faculty committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez mentioned an interim can be wanted. That’s unlucky, nevertheless it simply makes deciding on the subsequent chief extra important.
“All this turnover is destabilizing for college students and lecturers as a result of the superintendents serve on the whim of every new mayor, so the superintendents can by no means be right here lengthy sufficient to hold out their plans,” Lisa Inexperienced, president of the Boston Coalition for Training Fairness, informed the Herald. “We’re additionally paying out all this cash due to this technique.”
We agree. And we’re not the one ones watching.
Gov. Charlie Baker mentioned this previous week town it’s time to behave.
“Up to now the message from a lot of the legislators, metropolis councilors, faculty committee members, everyone has been, ‘Don’t put us in receivership,’” Baker mentioned throughout a radio interview. “OK, what then?”
Baker added everybody desires to see “a serious dedication from town to execute on a plan.” He went on to say “it’s not sufficient for individuals to say we don’t need receivership. It’s simply not. Folks have to really say what they may do to take care of the very actual and indeniable conclusions” state training officers identified that Boston was getting improper.
Discover a new superintendent and let that new rent keep and do the job.
Boston, MA
Karen Read analysis | What latest hearings say about coming retrial
No two trials are the same — and it appears that’ll be true for the high-profile Karen Read case as well.
Prosecutors have been working to keep several defense witnesses off the stand in the upcoming retrial over the killing of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
“It’s not surprising to me to at all that, with new lawyers on the case and fresh looks at the evidence, that they’re making a determination as to which pieces of evidence they think they have real chance of excluding,” NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne said.
The witnesses whom the prosecution moved to exclude from the case are a doctor whose expertise includes dog bites, a forensic expert who challenged the now infamous Google search, “hos long to die in the snow,” as well as two accident reconstruction experts whose testimony under cut the state’s version of how O’Keefe died.
Prosecutors in the Karen Read trial spent the day in court trying to discredit the expertise of the defense’s dog bite expert, Dr. Marie Russell, so she can’t testify in the retrial.
Follow NBC10 Boston:
https://instagram.com/nbc10boston
https://tiktok.com/@nbc10boston
https://facebook.com/NBC10Boston
Tweets by NBC10Boston
Judge Beverly Cannone will decide if the witnesses testify. She allowed them at the first trial and Coyne said it could create problems if she says no for the next trial.
“It does put her in a difficult point to be able to now reverse herself, and I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” he said.
Special Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan is now leading the state’s case, and he plans to cut down the number of witnesses while bringing a different style than the original lead prosecutor, Adam Lally.
“Hank’s approach is like an everyman’s approach,” said Coyne, who knows the experienced defense lawyer. “He’s understated. He’s very quick on his feet. I think he’ll be well received by the jury.”
Read’s team remains intact, but she said Tuesday outside one of the witness hearings that they’re taking a second look, too.
“We’re going to re-tool everything. Maybe something will stay similar but we’re gonna shuffle a lot of things around,” she said.
Much of this preparation could be moot if the state’s Supreme Judicial Court decides to throw out two of the charges against Read.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office says one of Karen Read’s key arguments has been “debunked” in a legal filing seeking to prevent testimony from a defense witness in the upcoming retrial.
Boston, MA
What are those giant pink inflatable sculptures in downtown Boston?
BOSTON – It’s a peculiar sight in downtown Boston: Giant pink people peering into restaurant windows and hanging out in alleyways.
These sculptures that are making their debut in the United States are called “Monsieur Rose” or “Mr. Pink” in English. It’s a new art installation designed to catch your attention and lift your spirits.
“These characters transform the streets into playful places and our daily travels into delightful, colorful journeys,” a website for the exhibit says.
“Cute-ism” art
Their collective name in French roughly translates to “cute-ism” from artist Philippe Katerine. The inflatable sculptures are part of this year’s Winteractive art walk.
Winteractive is the same event that brought floating clown heads to the city last year. The Downtown Boston Alliance says the reaction encouraged them to up the ante this year.
Changing people’s days
Michael Nichols with the Downtown Boston Alliance says the organization is exploring “different ways of using our downtown to have fun.”
“It is the darkest, drabbest time of year in Boston. It’s gray … just cold and bitter,” he said. “And pops of pink color, bubblegum pink dotting the downtown in now six different locations is changing people’s day.”
Mr. Pink is only the beginning of the experience – new installations will be added to the collection every day for the next week. On Thursday morning there was another eye-catching sight: A display that appeared to show a satellite or small spacecraft that had crashed onto the hood of a car.
Boston, MA
ICE blasts Boston: Feds say BPD refused 198 immigration detainer requests for ‘egregious crime’ in 2024, not 15
Federal authorities said the Boston Police Department refused to act on 198 immigration detainer requests last year, far exceeding the 15 reported by BPD’s commissioner, while blasting the city for jeopardizing “public safety and national security.”
-
Business1 week ago
These are the top 7 issues facing the struggling restaurant industry in 2025
-
Culture1 week ago
The 25 worst losses in college football history, including Baylor’s 2024 entry at Colorado
-
Sports1 week ago
The top out-of-contract players available as free transfers: Kimmich, De Bruyne, Van Dijk…
-
Politics1 week ago
New Orleans attacker had 'remote detonator' for explosives in French Quarter, Biden says
-
Politics7 days ago
Carter's judicial picks reshaped the federal bench across the country
-
Politics5 days ago
Who Are the Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
-
Health4 days ago
Ozempic ‘microdosing’ is the new weight-loss trend: Should you try it?
-
World1 week ago
Ivory Coast says French troops to leave country after decades