Fall River educators, students and school committee members want the state to cancel MCAS standardized testing at least for the current school year, saying it will add unnecessary anxiety for students and teachers in a year already fraught with stressful situations amid the pandemic.
“Students are just getting back to school. We’re just getting back in the groove. And to think that we will spend the next however many weeks prepping children to taking standardized tests after missing so much curriculum, it’s just unconscionable,” Rochelle Pettenati, who teaches art at the Doran Community School, said during a school committee meeting on Monday.
The Fall River School Committee criticized Superintendent Matthew Malone for unprofessional behavior on the job but commended his handling of the pandemic during his annual performance evaluation on Monday night.
“Moving forward, Dr. Malone must be a better leader, a better communicator and more mindful of his language, his conduct and his demeanor with the entire Fall River Public School community,” committee member Mimi Larrivee, who led the evaluation subcommittee, said as she read from the report.
The superintendent evaluation rubric comes from the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and gauges performance in areas including professional goals, student achievement, district improvement and adherence to standards around management, leadership and professional culture.
BOSTON The Massachusetts Secretary of State received a copy of an unredacted investigation report into allegations of staff harassment by Fall River School Superintendent Matt Malone on Wednesday to determine what, if any, portion of the document can be released to the public, according to the agency’s spokesperson.
“They have started the review and technically have 15 business days to complete a review and issue a determination,” said spokesperson Deb O’Malley.
The School Committee has so far denied a number of calls by both city councilors and the public to release the more than 25-page investigation conducted by an independent outside investigator who was hired in September when five current and former staff members filed complaints against Malone.
BOSTON The Massachusetts Secretary of State received a copy of an unredacted investigation report into allegations of staff harassment by Fall River School Superintendent Matt Malone on Wednesday to determine what, if any, portion of the document can be released to the public, according to the agency’s spokesperson.
“They have started the review and technically have 15 business days to complete a review and issue a determination,” said spokesperson Deb O’Malley.
The School Committee has so far denied a number of calls by both city councilors and the public to release the more than 25-page investigation conducted by an independent outside investigator who was hired in September when five current and former staff members filed complaints against Malone.
School Superintendent Malone should resign say some City Councilors
FALL RIVER City Council leadership is calling for the resignation of school Superintendent Matt Malone after an email was leaked last week from a former School Department administrator containing damning accusations regarding Malone’s behavior toward staff.
“I am taking the position that the leader of the School Department needs to be held to the same standards as any other city employee and any School Department employee and clearly he is not,” said City Council President Cliff Ponte, who has taken to social media with the call for Malone s resignation.
The council president’s assertion that Malone should resign a position he’s held going on four years comes after the email sent to School Committee members by Ann Dargon, the school department’s former assistant superintendent of student services and special education, three weeks after she resigned from the position in August.