On July 22, less than a week after the principals letter was made public, Cassellius appeared, via Zoom, before the school committee to present a draft of BPSs reopening plan. But plans and strategies have to be tethered to reality, says one former BPS official, and that just doesnt include an imaginary train taking kids around a city to schools that dont exist.. The problem, Casselliuss critics alleged, was that it arrived too late and too light on details. Cassellius came to Boston less than a year before the pandemic began,. However, out of public view, their support was wavering. The plaintiffs are asking the court to prevent admissions decisions from being made under the new system and to prohibit the district from using a zip code system as a factor in future admissions decisions. Per her contract, Casselius must be paid a years base salary, or the rest of what she would have been paid, had she stayed until 2023, whichever is less. Brenda Cassellius, ESSA, Hue Hguyen, Minnesota Department of Education / 0 Comments, originally published by www.hometownsource.com, March 22, 2017http://hometownsource.com/2017/03/22/joe-nathan-column-mde-offers-great-opportunities-to-help-create-education-plans/ MDE offers great opportunities to help develop education plans Give Minnesota Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius and her colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Education some credit. She worked her way up from teacher to assistant principal to associate. Cassellius often describes her plans for reform as bold, which is also a good descriptor of Cassellius herself. The new schools, she said, would be built alongor on top of, it wasnt exactly clearthe Emerald Necklace, the winding park running through central Boston. There have even been rumblings that she may not last much longer in her position. The promotions left colleagues, and sometimes the promoted employees themselves, baffled. BOSTON (CBS) - Boston Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius is resigning at the end of the school year. That was after she already had two other meetings this morning. Together, we can create a more connected and informed world. Cassellius chats with the head chef, who shows her a color-coded calendar of the months meals. Cassellius took the top job in Boston eight months before the pandemic prompted a shift to remote learning that has since transmuted into staffing shortages, mask mandates and other complicated issues. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Woolhouse: The pandemic, I think it's been a very rough ride for her. The Boston School Committee has voted to confirm Brenda Cassellius a career educator who rose from paraprofessional to state commissioner, mostly in Minnesota as the next superintendent of. Cassellius, who was pursuing several jobs at the time, said she felt especially drawn to the Hub. Alexi is from Springfield, Massachusetts and attended college at Hofstra University in New York where she majored in journalism and Spanish. Thats my style, and I think people are getting used to that now. She said that ultimately it was not possible to close McKinley and Jackson/Mann before the 2019 school year began, but that if she could have done it, she would have. She even briefly served as a classroom teacher in January when roughly 1,200 teachers and staff members called out sick during the omicron surge. The move would have rendered Cassellius virtually a figurehead, still nominally in control of the district, but with many core responsibilities removed from her portfolio. We're seeing staff come back! But the lawsuit says the zip code quota system is wholly-irrational and states that it serves to disfavor Asian and White students by decreasing their numbers at the Boston Exam Schools while favoring Latino and African-American students by increasing their numbers., A Brighton parent and member of BPCAE said, My kids have to submit GPAs and with so many kids in this zip location I just feel that my kids, their chance will be limited to get into exam schools., The lawsuit states, The Students are being required to apply through a race-based process. September 8, 2018 Will new reporting & school support systems help students? Joe Nathan / 2018 Columns / Blue Ribbon Schools, Brenda Cassellius, Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota . BOSTON (WHDH) - Teachers and parents were left stunned on Tuesday when Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius mistakenly said certain students with high needs could return to. Was it the pandemic, which stalled Casselliuss agenda and turned her job into mission impossible? Current and former BPS officials came to believe that the root causes of Casselliuss scattershot ideas were her lack of attention to detail and short attention span. A new wave of trouble began with another of Casselliuss bold ideas, her so-called High School Redesign Plan. All rights reserved, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu unveiled Cassellius's impending departure in February, Still No Word on Reason Behind Boston School Superintendent's Departure, Boston Public Schools Superintendent to Resign, Even After Investigation, Stoneham Cop Hasn't Paid Dime of Rent to New Landlord, Rescuers Capture Bald Eagle Believed to Be Critically Sickened by Rat Poison, Here's How Shark Extinction Would Devastate the Ocean, Driver Describes Very Scary' Moments Trapped in Car After Crash Takes Down Power Lines in Stoneham. Everyone was going every which way without direction, without leadership., Meanwhile, the senior leadership ranks cleared out as incumbents defected (Casselliuss chief of staff left in complete and utter dismay, a current BPS official says) or were pushed to resign. Its a very bold vision, she said, to get people to stretch their thinking. Of her big ideas, she said, The good ones stick and the bad ones fall away. Brenda Cassellius, the head of BPS, has a vision for the future unlike any superintendent the city has ever encountered. And my hunch is . Midday, I say. The community was behind us, the mayors speech was inspiring, we had secured this new investment, and then, boom, here comes the plague.. They did not. And that's really taken up all the air in the room, so to speak. According to five current and former BPS officials, she often appeared to make snap decisions, seemingly without contemplating their ramifications. The warnings that a recession may occur continues but fears that it will happen in 2023 are fading. But they found her methods strange. The problem was the timeline: She wanted it done now, before the new school year began the following month. Before working with . Este botn muestra el tipo de bsqueda seleccionado. It was like out of a movie, the official says, like she was propping up the queen who you know is not up to the task., Briner said she did not recall this specific episode but that the comments sounded like something she would say to any colleague going through a difficult moment., In an interview in a BPS classroom, Cassellius dismissed her critics as disgruntled employees. The school committee approved her plan and Walsh agreed to the budget increase. COVID was an incredible challenge. Aaliyah Hodge, Birchview Elementary School, Brenda Cassellius, Catalina Anampa, Chris Williams, Daniel Sellers, DaVimci Academy of the ARts, Debra Lach, Denise Rodriguez, Denise Specht, Don Sinner, Ed Allies. Brenda Cassellius, who has been in charge since June 2019, says she will finish out the rest of the year but will resign in June. Tanisha Sullivan, president of Bostons NAACP chapter and a member of the districts exam schools working group had called the move a historic and positive, transformative mark on our city.. Back in Minneapolis, she served as an associate superintendent from 2007 to 2010, overseeing high school principals. Together, we've laid a stronger foundation upon which BPS can continue to build. She is too focused on big-picture plans, Bazile says, and she does not have the leadership tools to put in place policies that are going to make those plans actually occur in reality. It creates a level of desperation, Bazile adds, because we cant lose this generation., On the afternoon of November 13, I joined a Zoom call with Cassellius, her chief financial officer, her chief operations officer, and some of her favorite people in the district: her cabinet of student advisers. Brenda's parents have consistently encouraged her career goals. Get all the latest from Sanditon on GBH Passport, How one Brookline studio helps artists with disabilities thrive. That kind of knocked me down a peg. She picked herself up by reading every book I could find about the craft of leadership, she said. Parents have seen at least a decade of turmoil, as you said, with a revolving door of superintendents and interim superintendents. When Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius resigns at the end of the school year, she'll take with her hundreds of thousands of dollars from a separation agreement. School officials under Walsh tightly controlled the search process when Cassellius was hired and now the school committee says it wont divulge details of the separation agreement until next month. It is tradition for the President to recognize special guests during the State of the Union address each year. Her mother's name is unknown, as well as her father's. Brenda graduated from high school in Minnesota and went onto the University of Minnesota-Twin City, where she earned a bachelor's psychology degree. From the start, Walshs administration had hoped that Cassellius would restore stability to Bostons struggling school system. Cassellius has been Boston's school superintendent since July 2019. 2016 columns / She has always wanted to be a teacher and instruct pupils. Its unclear if Wu approved of the column but it could be viewed as a little shot at the mayor and school committee. For people with disabilities needing assistance with the Public Files, contact Glenn Heath at 617-300-3268. She even briefly served as a classroom teacher . Their children are Christian Michel, Charles Justice, and Ani Grace. Everythings smooth and working great. Then, almost speaking to herself, she adds, Because in my life, its not like that every day.. Cassellius was a former commissioner of education for the state of Minnesota, where she oversaw schools there for nine years. Cassellius and his partner Jason, as well as her three children, live quietly together. Cassellius had been on the job less than a year when schools closed, but I don't think Cassellius' response helped build trust among parents in the district. To some, the practical barriers to implementing the plan seemed nearly insurmountable. These nurses were the front line of fighting COVID. It began when the new superintendent came to town. 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