Mayor and Superintendent to Meet with Education Commissioner

Mayor Kimberley Driscoll and School Superintendent Dr. Stephen Russell are planning to meet next month with Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester to discuss the turn-around process for the and a critical report on the school.

The commissioner is scheduling a site visit to Salem in February.

On Thursday night, Russell said the report, which he has seen only in draft form, is based on a site visit conducted a year ago. Much has changed since that visit, including the state's designation of Bentley as a Level 4 low performing school, he said.

“We are moving forward. We do not want this report to cause a backlash in the community,” Driscoll said.

At a minimum, the superintendent would like for the report to include a preface that would give the background on what has happened at Bentley since the site visit. Russell proposed that the state issue the report as step one in the turn-around process and be followed by a step two.

Russell pointed out that key personnel involved with Bentley and the Salem schools have changed since the report was written. Also several of the state's site visit team are no longer with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, he said.

Bentley Turn-around Team to Visit Lowell School

The Bentley turn-around team Thursday held the second of six planned meetings to formulate a recommended plan of action to improve the school. It met with Dale Bishop, a support facilitator for the Department of Education, to discuss how to formulate the plan.

Bishop urged the team not to get mired down in education data, but to study the school from the 60,000 foot level.

He recommended that the team look at the success of a North Andover school that had similar challenges as Bentley. The Thompson Elementary School has shown significant student improvement, he said.

The Bentley team will tour the Murkland School in Lowell on Friday to study its turn-around program.

Russell said the team will help develop the Salem plan for turning the Bentley school around, but he plans to borrow ideas from successful schools like the North Andover school as a model for Bentley.

Level 4 Designation A Blessing in Disguise

Several members of the Bentley team said they are excited about the opportunity to use the Level 4 low-performing designation as a catalyst to changing the school and the school district for the better.

Gabrielle Montevecchi, a Bentley kindergarten teacher, said “it is a very exciting time” at Bentley. She praised the leadership at the school because it is “helping us step up our game.”

She blamed many of the problems on past decisions to eliminate the dual-language curriculum and cuts in the support staff.

Now with the Level 4 designation, she said she believes there will be more resources available to help the teachers.

Ed Mercier, another Bentley teacher, said he has had opportunities to leave the school. “I love this place. This is where I want to stay,” he said.

He believes that the adverse publicity about Bentley will “shine a light on the problems.” He believes that it will create “an opportunity to change the way we do things.”

He advocated for changing the 100-year-old teaching methods. “Just having me and a chalk board is not going to work,” he said.

Joyce Harrington, the teacher union president and teacher, agreed. “Bentley may be the catalyst for improving the whole district,” she said.