Superintendent: District's Agenda Could Be Compromised

Attleboro schools now have $200,000 less in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2012.

An open hearing on the Attleboro school district’s operating budget showed small changes from the previously proposed versions of the Fiscal Year 2012 budget, in the form of a $200,000 reduction. Those small changes, however, will have a big impact. Superintendent Pia Durkin discussed the changes during the School Committee's  budget meeting held Wednesday.  The change is due to reductions in projected health insurance costs for district employees due to a recent open enrollment period where district employees had the option of changing plans, Marc Furtado, the district’s business manager, said.  After these changes the proposed budget is $59.2 million, down from $59.4 million. The new figure represents a decrease of 0.89 percent from 2011…

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Attleboro's Superintendent Not Going to Lowell

Pia Durkin was not chosen for the position of Lowell superintendent.

Despite Attleboro Superintendent Pia Durkin's success with the Attleboro School District's "Journey Toward Excellence," her journey to a job running the Lowell School district has ended.  The Lowell School Committee tonight voted unanimously for another candidate for the job, Jean Franco. Franco was the number two in charge of Lowell Schools. Durkin was one of the five initially selected as candidates for the position. As of today, the committee had narrowed it down to two, Durkin and Franco.  “We had two very strong finalists in my mind,” Lowell School Committee Member Jackie Doherty said. "The final two were Durkin and Lowell’s current deputy superintendent Jean Franco, who has worked in Lowell for the past 15 years." Doherty noted that …

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Attleboro May Need a New Super; Hunt for New Middle School Vice Principals Ongoing

Pia Durkin will soon find out if she is packing her things and heading to Lowell.

On Thursday, Attleboro Superintendent Pia Durkin will learn whether she will be the next superintendent of Lowell schools. Durkin is one of five finalists for superintendent selected by the Lowell School Committee. If Durkin is selected and accepts the position, she will begin in her new role in July.  Durkin has been Attleboro's superintendent since 2006. She remains positive about her experience in Attleboro, despite the many clashes with the Attleboro School Committee, which included personal attacks over the social network, Facebook and a vote against the Attleboro School Department's (central administration) raises. Durkin did not blame any of the back and forth banter with the school committee as a reason for applying to the same …

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Harlem Wizards Take on the Attleboro All Stars

A group of Attleboro students, teachers and police officers competed against the traveling basketball entertainment team, Harlem Wizards, to raise funds for the Attleboro High School Class of 2012.

The Harlem Wizards may have defeated the Attleboro All Stars 100-71 to extend their winning streak to more than 2,800 games, but the Wizards humor and antics kept even the losing team laughing on the court. The Wizards, who are a traveling exhibition team along the line of the Harlem Globetrotters, entertained the crowd with flashy passes, ankle-breaking crossover moves and high-flying dunks. The team entertained the crowd with  their comedic antics, which included taunting the referees and flirtations with audience members. The idea to invite the team came from the class’s adviser, Alan Weintraub, who had actually played against the team years ago while teaching at another school.  Weintraub wanted this event to be something more than a …

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A total of 180 Reports of Bullying in Attleboro Schools

Attleboro School Committee receives an update on the number of bullying cases in Attleboro schools.

The Attleboro School Committee received an update during its meeting on Monday on the school’s new anti-bullying policy, which was implemented earlier in the year. In a report from Lisa Martiesian, the Director of Special Education and Student Services, there were a total of 180 reports of bullying in the Attleboro school district. The largest amount of reported incidents occurred in the high school and the fewest in the elementary schools, though Martiesian attributed the higher percentage of high school reports to its large size. Of the total 180 reports, 102 were found to be substantiated, 73 were unsubstantiated and five were not yet classified and are currently still being investigated. According to Martiesian, 73 percent of the …

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Chrys Swenson

9:55 am on Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The bullying policy is as long as a roll of toilet paper and not even as effective. It was made to protect teachers and administrators from having to make decisions using common sense and release the school district from liability. The first thing that should be done is a phone call to both parents and then a meeting set up with the parents & children to stop the behavior. If you as a parent have…   more ›

School Committee Meeting Turns Confrontational

Issues stemming from a previous meeting results in heated discussions between committee members and Superintendent Durkin.

The School Committee meeting turned confrontational on Monday as committee chairman Ray DiCiaccio began the meeting by addressing issues from the Oct. 4 meeting. DiCiaccio wanted to address what he called "a little spat" from the previous week between himself, the other members of the committee and Superintendent Pia Durkin. While the spat was about comments made on Facebook, the main issue stemmed from DiCaccio's removal of the Bi-County Collaborative (BICO) contract from the agenda. Superintendent Durkin took issue with the removal, though DiCiaccio defended his actions from the prior week by saying: "The policy states that the inclusion of items is at the discretion of the chair." DiCiaccio said that he felt that he had been "defied" by…