September 4, 2013
Dear Newton Community,
I am writing to give you an update on the first day of school and the community meeting that was held at Day Middle School last night. As you can imagine, many people remain stunned regarding the arrest of one of our teachers on child pornography charges last week.
I visited Day on two different occasions yesterday to check in with the administration and faculty and greet students. I am very pleased to tell you that it was an excellent opening at Day and I cannot say enough about the work that Principal Brian Turner and the entire Day faculty and staff did to ensure that the students had a positive experience on their first day. In the coming days, we will be certain to provide the necessary support to the Day Middle School students and staff as we recognize that individuals process upsetting information in various stages.
We also checked in with principals at other schools throughout the day and the consistent reports we received indicated that schools were functioning very well. I was not surprised to hear this news, as our crisis team worked diligently to ensure the faculty was prepared to address whatever concerns might arise. As we expected, an overwhelming majority of students wanted to focus on the excitement of starting a new school year, beginning their classes and reconnecting with their friends.
Last night, we had a community forum where parents and other residents had the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of me, the Newton Police and mental health experts. Clearly, the news of last Friday has the potential to erode public trust in our system and our goal last night was to assure the community that the Newton Public Schools remain safe, secure and fully capable of meeting both the academic and emotional needs of our children.
I appreciate how difficult it is to comprehend the alleged actions of a veteran employee who showed no signs of any inappropriate behavior nor was the recipient of any such complaints. As I said last night, in the coming weeks, we will not only continue to review the record of this employee, we will continue to ensure that our background checks, reference checks and employee complaint process are as thorough as possible.
Thank you very much for your understanding and support during a challenging start to the school year. Given the outpouring of goodwill that I have seen over the past several days, I feel confident that the year ahead will be a positive one.
Sincerely,
David
David A. Fleishman
Superintendent of Schools
Does NPS have a program. similar to corporate programs, where if you have a mental health, home-life, stress, addiction, etc., you can call a free number and get advice privately, without employer knowledge? It feels like this is similar to an addiction where a family member might use such a service to call and say they found illegal material on a home computer and don’t know what to do, or the offender them self might call and say the addiction is risking their livelihood and family life. There must be more we can offer
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) are commonly offered to the employees.
I wouldn’t be in favor for this type of service for parents in Newton. I think it is a fine line to ask the schools to fund and run an assistance program for parents. I hope the City of Newton uses EAP services for its employees. At the forum last night, the question was asked about who to call for what. Personal family crisis issues can be discussed with the student’s guidance counselor or school principal. Any incident at school reported by your son or daughter should be reported to the police.
The Newton Partnership http://thenewtonpartnership.org/ offers support groups, workshops, referral services.
JLF — The comment wasn’t about parents.
I misread your question to be about families, and I stand corrected. Yes, NPS and the City of Newton do offer this service:
http://www3.newton.k12.ma.us/hr/employee-assistance-program
Thanks JLF. I hope NPS leadership has had or will have a frank message to teachers and staff, letting them know that these arrests show first-hand, within their own school enterprise, the imperfects of us humans. And should they individually have something to discuss around the serious problem of child abuse and/or child pornography, that EAP is one place to call.
Having the *right* individual serve as a sort-of NPS omsbudsman for parent complaints might be useful. This would not have to be a new hire or dedicated role, rather a current NPS employee assigned this additional role. The key issue would be selecting the right person, as it’s a tricky role.