Superintendent David Fleishman will be staying in Newton until at least 2021, The TAB’s Laura Lovett reports.
“David has done an absolutely outstanding job leading the school system,” said School Committee Chairman Matt Hills. “He has significantly strengthened the academic program, instituted and grown Social Emotional Learning and mental health programs and all under serious financial constraints and under rapid enrollment [growth].”
This is a huge mistake. Matt Hills called Brian Turner an “excellent leader.” Look how that turned out. Newton is paying him a huge salary to do nothing at the Education Center.
Purely on an administrative level, I think Fleishman is a decent enough Superintendent. I have no qualms with how much he earns, or how he performs the core aspects of his job. But the plagiarism incident a couple of years ago made me realize he warranted closer scrutiny. And after he misled the public about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of lead in the drinking water at Burr, I lost all confidence in him.
I realize the guy you know is better than the guy you don’t know. He might “lead” the schools fine, but he has not done anything revolutionary.
I don’t feel like he has made any substantial changes for the amount of stress our high schoolers experience. I don’t feel like he has made any substantial changes about how three kids lost their lives in one year. I do feel like the principal (at my son’s school at the time) made more of a difference.
I feel like the plagiarism incident was wiped UNDER the rug very quickly and deserves to be discussed, especially since students in our schools have different rules applied to them.
He wasn’t a true leader to the students at Day Middle School last year. . . he defended the principal and left families in the dark about what actually happened.
He is adequate but not the best.