Monday, February 25, 2013
Public interviews are expected to take place next month.
The names of the people in the running to be Attleboro's next schools chief will be revealed at tonight's school committee meeting, Committee Chair Mike Tyler said. The Superintendent Search Committee members will make the announcement. Public interviews of the finalists and site visits will take place next month. The new superintendent is expected to be appointed in April, and the person will officially begin work July 1. Superintendent Pia Durkin is leaving after the end of the school year, her seventh in Attleboro. She never formally announced her resignation, but she also never publically requested a contract extension. Durkin is one of three finalists for the superintendent job in New Bedford. The city's daily newspaper, The Standard-…
Friday, February 15, 2013
Mike Tyler says it is an "injustice" to say city workers and contractors did an inadequate job during the cleanup.
For two full weekdays and two hours of a third day, Attleboro's public schools were closed as city workers and contractors removed snow on district property and the city's sidewalks in the aftermath of last week's blizzard. For many people, this was frustrating, and they expressed that frustration in emails to School Committee Chair Mike Tyler and by criticizing the recovery effort through various means, including on the comments section of Attleboro Patch and its Facebook page. Tyler, who had to work on the recovery effort in Rehoboth where he is the highway superintendent, gave advice to the critics during the closing minutes of the school committee meeting Wednesday: "Calm down a little bit." The school committee chair said he received …
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The school committee votes to hire the interim Director. Two school committee members not in attendance say they are disappointed a search was abandoned. A finalist for a job in Arlington, Marisa McCarthy has not decided if she will accept Attleboro's off
Interim Special Education Director Marisa McCarthy could have a long-term future in the Attleboro school district—if she wants it. The school committee voted 6-0 Wednesday to approve Superintendent Pia Durkin's request go grant McCarthy a three-year contract. However, McCarthy is one of two finalists for the same job in Arlington, and School Committee Chair Mike Tyler said she would not remove her name from consideration there. The decision to appoint McCarthy was a sudden departure from the previous plan to do a full search and accept applications. A job notice appears online with a Feb. 25 application deadline. Tyler said he re-convened the search committee last week to determine if its members favored giving the job to McCarthy. He …
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Ward 4 school committee representative would be seeking a third term.
- ELECTIONS
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Wednesday, February 13
It was a quiet Wednesday in the Election's Department office at Attleboro City Hall. While 10 people pulled papers Tuesday to begin possible campaigns for various city offices, Ward 4 school committee representative Brenda Furtado was the only person Wednesday to take the first step toward becoming an official candidate. Furtado was first elected to the school committee in 2009, when she ousted then-Ward 4 incumbent Jackie Romaniecki. She won a battle of incumbents two years ago against Helen Johnson, who had previously served as an at-large representative and decided to contest the Ward 4 race to prevent Furtado from running unopposed. At-large incumbent David Murphy is the only other person who has pulled papers for the school …
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Chair Mike Tyler plans to speak tonight about "unacceptable" events that occurred at the Monday meeting he did not attend. The vice chair, who ran the Monday meeting, disagrees with his analysis.
Attleboro residents have a chance to find out tonight what was learned through recent focus groups on the search for a school district superintendent. They also may be able to find out what School Committe Chair Mike Tyler believes should and should not happen at committee meetings. Tyler told Attleboro Patch earlier this week he was bothered by how the meeting on Monday was run in his absence by Vice Chair Brenda Furtado. Among the incidents he did not care for were comments made during open forum by school district parent Jen Crowder that included criticisms of Committee member David Murphy and Superintendent Pia Durkin (look for more information about Crowder's complaint on Patch later this week). Let Patch save you time. Get great …
Thursday, August 2, 2012
School district parent Jennifer Crowder says she will pursue further legal action against the school committee member.
The Attleboro Election Commission voted unanimously Thursday evening at City Hall to dismiss a residency complaint against School Committee member David Murphy. Jennifer Crowder, who filed the complaint, announced at the beginning of the hearing that she had accepted defeat. She said after the hearing that she would pursue other legal actions against Murphy. Although the complaint alleged Murphy was not a resident of Attleboro last year when he filed to run for office and when he was elected, the commission was only willing to consider whether he was a resident in mid-July of this year, which is when Crowder filed the complaint. For this reason, Crowder acknowledged Thursday evening that she could not win. This could just be the end of …
The school committee member who faces a residency hearing tonight calls the challenge against him "a transparent attempt to undo a decision rendered by the voters of Attleboro."
On the eve of a hearing challenging his Attleboro residency, School Committee member David Murphy released a number of documents to the media that he says prove "I was, I am and I will be a resident of 49 Pioneer Circle in Attleboro." [The documents are attached to this article.] The documents include driver's licenses dated from 1999 to the present containing the Attleboro address, various financial documents featuring the Attleboro address and signed affidavits stating he lives in Attleboro from three people: the head of the Democratic City Committee, a friend and his father. Also included in the packet is a vehicle registration dated May 14, 2012 that features the Attleboro address. Murphy wrote in a statement that when he was elected …
Thursday, July 26, 2012
A school district parent says Attleboro School Committee member David Murphy was not a resident when he was elected last fall. Murphy says this is not true. The commission likely won't even consider this issue.
The hearing on Attleboro School Committee member David Murphy's residency has been scheduled for next week on Thursday at 6 p.m. The session will take place in the City Council chambers at City Hall. The Election Commission voted unanimously last week to hold the hearing after accepting a complaint from school district parent Jennifer Crowder, who says Murphy was a resident of Boston, not Attleboro, last fall when he filed to run for office. However, Commission Chair Fran V. Hutton said last week that at the advice of the Secretary of State's office via a city solicitor, the four-member panel could only consider whether Murphy was an Attleboro resident on July 16, the date Crowder filed the complaint. Murphy told Attleboro Patch during the…
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Committee member David Murphy says he looks forward to "resolving this issue definitively."
There will be a hearing on the residency of Attleboro School Committee member David Murphy, but the Election Commission will not be considering the specific matter that school district parent Jennifer Crowder had requested. Commission Chair Fran V. Hutton said the panel would only consider whether Murphy was a resident on July 16, the day Crowder filed a complaint. Her complaint alleges Murphy was not a resident last fall when he filed to run for school committee. The four-member commission voted unanimously Thursday evening for a hearing. No date was set, but the hearing must take place before the Sept. 6 primary election. "Agreeing to a hearing does not mean we agree or disagree with the material which has been brought to us, but that it…
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
The Election Commission will meet Thursday at City Hall.
A notice was posted at City Hall on Tuesday for an Election Commission meeting with just three items on the agenda—roll call, "other business that may come forward" and a school district parent's allegation that School Committee member David Murphy was not an Attleboro resident when he was elected last fall. District parent Jennifer Crowder filed the complaint on Monday. A previous complaint was dismissed by the commission last week because it did not include all the features required for consideration. Crowder has alleged that Murphy was a resident of Boston when he was elected. Murphy says he rented an apartment in Boston, but maintains a permanent address in Attleboro. The meeting will take place at City Hall's Annex Conference Room, …
a worker
7:34 am on Monday, February 25, 2013
I certainly hope they decide to take the superintendent that we have here in Sterling Heights Michigan at Utica community schools. We have had enough of her here..She is systematically ruining a once very prestigious school district. Her ideas to outsource the support services here within our district was 1 of the biggest mistakes this school board has ever approved.might I suggest... if you ever… more ›