Mayoral Candidates Talk Charter Schools, Next BPS Superintendent

Ten Boston mayoral candidates offered their opinions on the hiring of the next Boston Public Schools superintendent, as well as other education issues, during a public forum held Wednesday night.

Stand for Children hosted the forum at the Edward Brooke Charter School in Roslindale that had teachers and parents asking questions about expanding the school day, adding more charter schools to the system and how to prevent African American and Latino males from dropping out.

The candidates were separated into two groups and answered the same amount of questions with the same time limit. The candidates in attendance were: Felix Arroyo, John Barros, Dan Conley, John Connolly, Rob Consalvo, Charlotte Golar Richie, Mike Ross, Bill Walczak, Marty Walsh and Charles Yancey.

Below is a summary of the candidates' responses to some of the questions.

Question: Current Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson is retiring. What do you want in the next Boston Public Schools (BPS) school superintendent? 

John Barros said the next superintendent will need to show a proven track record of executing policies and needs to be a manager who plans to move needed resources into the schools.

Charlotte Golar Richie said she wants a superintendent "who will have a track record in an urban school district and can hit the ground running … I am a parent of two daughters who were educated in the Boston Public Schools at all levels." She said she knows the weaknesses and strengths of schools and wants a superintendent to "increase parental involvement by at least 10 percent if not more." 

Mike Ross said the next superintendent should be willing to work with unions, teachers and parents. "Someone who can engage the community at every level. I would be looking for the best urban superintendent in the country," he said. Ross was the first candidate to mention expanding the school day. Ross also called on the Boston School Committee to wait four to five months until a new mayor is decided, so the new superintendent will know his or her new boss. 

John Connolly said hiring a new superintendent will be the first important decision the new mayor will make and that he would like to get rid of "top-heavy administration" that "can't get kids arts and music every day." He said he wants a superintendent who is dedicated to each school having classes in art, music, physical education and humanities on a regular basis, not merely as extracurricular activities. 

Marty Walsh said he'd like English language learner (ELL) programs in all schools and special education (SPED) schools, and the next superintendent needs to be someone who will negotiate with unions. 

Dan Conley said he wants the next superintendent to be "open to innovation, someone who believes they don’t have all the answers." Conley said he'd like a goal-driven teacher training program and to build an "education pipeline" from preschool through high school. 

Rob Consalvo said he'd like the next superintendent to be a strong educator with a proven record of education and innovation, using best practices from around the city, state, country and beyond. 

Question: How do you see expanded learning time fitting into our schools? This question also asked how to turn around the 48 out of 127 BPS schools listed as Level 3 schools.

John Connolly, currently an at-large Boston city councilor and a former charter school teacher, said he would like to lengthen the learning day and allow principals to hire teachers regardless of seniority. 

Mike Ross, currently District 8's Boston city councilor, said Level 3 schools don't have the advanced education hours that Level 4 schools do. He said the teachers union and superintendent "need to get it done" to expand learning hours. "Reality is we failed. The school department failed. The school union failed. We failed. We missed on extending the day." Ross said he'd like music and arts to be added to the school day. 

Charlotte Golar Richie, a former state representative, said in regards to expanding the school day, "Are we talking about kids sitting in seats? Or are we talking about getting outside doing sports and music? That’s what parents want." She said she'd like individual school plans for expanding school days.

John Barros, who recently resigned from the Boston School Committee to run for mayor, said Level 3 schools need to get the same resources as Level 4 schools in order to be "turned around."

Question: Do you want to expand charter schools, and what specifically would you do to help that become a reality?

Bill Walczak, who founded the Codman Academy Charter School in Dorchester, said he supports charter and pilot schools but that there aren't enough Level 1 and 2 schools throughout the system. He said there needs to be strong leadership in each school and an extended school day.  

John Connolly said Boston is "trapped in a false debate" of charter versus other schools. He said if a school is good it should be replicated, that he would raise the cap on charter schools if "it's a working charter school" and that the city could have "more Hernandez schools." 

Mike Ross said that just because some charter schools are successful that doesn’t mean Boston should turn all schools into charter schools. "We have 21 or 22 charter schools. We need to find how many we need. Public education is a delicate ecosystem. One of the biggest knocks on charter schools is they are self-selected," he said. He suggested automatically holding people to the charter school closest to their home.  

Charlotte Golar Richie said that charter schools aren’t automatically created once approved, that funding needs to be raised for them and that school sites need to be located. She preferred to focus on working with schools already in the system.

John Barros said he'd like a single-application process for parents. He said, "There's no reason [a student] from East Boston should be here [in Roslindale]. It's not fair to the neighborhoods that don’t have enough seats." Barros said there are charter schools that want to go certain neighborhoods and that more help should be given to those schools.

Rob Consalvo said he doesn't support raising the charter cap.  

Dan Conley said he supports raising the charter school cap. He said people of color are doing better in charter schools and that the question isn't whether the charter cap should be raised but, "Why haven’t we done so already?" 

Marty Walsh said charter schools are part of the solution but "not the only solution."

Felix Arroyo said he is against raising the charter cap. He said more funding needs to go into current BPS schools, recalling that he and his wife spent thousands on her first classroom as a teacher because there were no supplies in the classroom for students. 

Click here to watch the entire forum on Stand for Children's website.