All candidates running for contested seats in the upcoming election were invited to submit a post in support of their candidacy to Village14. This is Paul Levy’s
I’d like to take this opportunity here on Village 14 to thank the many hundreds of parents who have spent time over the past 12 months talking with me about their hopes and aspirations for the Newton Schools. The families with whom I met were from all over Newton, from Crystal Lake to the Lake, from Chestnut Hill to Lower Falls, from Upper Falls to Auburndale. They represent a multitude of racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds and were from across the spectrum of wealth.
Their message, unsurprisingly, was that they all hoped for an environment in the schools that was attuned as much as possible to the specific academic and social and emotional needs of their children.
The other part of their message was that the leadership of the Newton Public Schools needed to do better to deliver this goal.
When I began this journey to join the School Committee, it was for two reasons: To give back to the community and to be present with the schools for the sake of all of our students, including my son who just started kindergarten at Bowen. I have 40 years of executive leadership serving the public (e.g., as CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and head of the MA Water Resources Authority during the Boston Harbor Cleanup). I thought this experience might prove useful to the School Committee in carrying out its important responsibilities—collective bargaining, budgeting, supervision of the superintendent, and policy formulation.
But the situation changed over the last year. Now the School Committee faces a new challenge on top of its regular jobs. It faces the challenge of the largest membership turnover in years—at least 4 new members out of 9, and maybe as many as 6 new members.
Thus, the School Committee must mold itself into a totally new organization, one in which collegiality reigns, for sure, but one that also welcomes civil and spirited debate and discourse over the many important matters that will come before it. For example, how will the members work together to effectively evaluate the performance of the superintendent—and, if necessary, to hire a new one? How will they cooperate in dealing constructively with the teachers union during contract and other negotiations? How will they come together to determine the appropriate balance between the pursuit of rigorous academic excellence and being attentive to the social and emotional needs of children?
It is clear that School Committee members will not only be expected to be conversant with regard to budgeting, collective bargaining, and the like, but will also need to have the temperament and experience to help their own body turn into an effective governing team for our schools. I believe I offer those attributes for this critical period in the School Committee’s evolution.
Over the last 40 years, I have served as a member of many boards—governmental, educational, institutional, non-profit and for-profit. These include the MA public utilities commission, the Newton Blue Ribbon Commission on municipal finance, and the regional electric power grid, ISO-New England. They include the boards of youth development and educational organizations like Newton Girls Soccer, Boston Area Youth Soccer, and MIT. Also non-profits like the Celebrity Series of Boston and the Newton-based environmental research Silent Spring Institute, and 2Life Communities, which builds and operates low-income senior housing in Newton and other communities.
Those who have served with me on these boards would say that my tenure on these bodies has been marked by collegiality, respect, team-building, and working with my colleagues to help deliver the best possible results for our constituencies—ranging from all of the citizens in Massachusetts to the residents of Newton to the children in our athletic programs.
I’m ready to do the same for the sake of our school children and our community. I ask for your vote before or on November 2. Please see more on my website, here. Thank you.
Thank you for running, Paul. We are lucky to have someone with your experience running for School Committee. Parents are frustrated with NPS and the School Committee, and your candidacy gives voice to their concerns most clearly.
We need to do better for our kids. We need change on the SC. Levy is an ideal candidate for change.
(Just don’t scrimp on teacher’s salaries, Paul. We want the best, and want to pay them accordingly. You don’t get the best being “competitive” with compensation.)
I was very happy to learn that we had two decent candidates running for the SC, being concerned that some recent alternatives may resurface. :)
In my consideration of the candidates, I wanted to see whose priorities my personal priorities better align with. I am concerned about school quality and creating opportunities for all kinds of learners, as I currently have a son in special education, and a son who is about 2 years ahead of the school curriculum. Paul has demonstrated that all this matters to him, too. He reached out to me to better understand special education programs in Newton, and has agreed with my concerns that needs of high-performing students are currently not addressed by the system. I also really appreciated his ability to engage with the community of physicians to lobby DESE on school reopenings.
I also want someone who can effectively hold our administration accountable for their decisions. I know not all SC members feel it’s their role, and I find that this attitude is how we went so horribly off track when planning for school reopening. I have often felt helpless watching the admin make decisions that made no sense, and I will appreciate someone who will be able to ask tough questions and hold the NPS admin to account for their decisions.
Sometimes it is easy to forget that NPS is a $250M+ complex enterprise that educates 11K+ future citizens and employees thousands of educations and other staff.
Everything is not OK with this organization. Late reopening following pandemic, reduced educational offerings are just two symptoms of the current system. Numbers could not be clear: Newton is at the bottom 10 in % of students in public schools (this is not good for the community or for teachers), mental health issues are high and rankings are down.
Paul Levy is just the right leader to help get us back on the right track! First, he actually acknowledges the problem, instead of considering it just as a “talking point”. Second, he had a proven track record of bringing people together to find creative solutions. He has done that as a CEO and a Board member or large complex organizations facing crisis. Also, during the pandemic, he organized 300 doctors to help convince DESE to reopen in-person learning. Finally, solutions are useless without execution. Paul knows metrics, action plan,s and accountability. He will bring that level of professional execution as our representative to NPS SC.
Since I started watching SC meetings, I was surprised almost all votes are 9-0 (exc Matt and Tamika 7-2). I think it is time to bring in a different kind of leader, with a different approach and a different way of thinking. We need diversity of thinking to find different solutions, take different actions that may lead to different and better outcomes.
Please join me in voting for Paul!
I think that the governance of Newton Public Schools at this time clearly needs the kind of broad thinking and experience in the nonprofit and governmental sectors that Paul Levy brings to a board role of this sort.
I especially appreciate his willingness to call ‘them as he sees them’ in order to make real improvements.
Very happy to support his candidacy for the Newton Schools Committee Board.
Paul is a true leader and we are lucky to have him running for School Committee. He has already proven his dedication to NPS, giving a lot of his time working locally and statewide toward getting schools back full-time last year. The past two years shined light on the flaws in our current leadership and has resulted in declines in enrollment, the percentage of families choosing public school, and school rankings. Paul’s work as a private citizen is an excellent preview of what is to come and why I believe he will contribute to fixing the problems.
I hope you will join me in voting for Paul, and I look forward to seeing him on the school committee.
@Paul Levy–
Thanks for running. Newton is fortunate to have someone with your experience as a candidate. I have two questions…
1.] Do you support the newly implemented later start times for Newton’s high schools?
2.] Do you believe tackle football is an appropriate sport for public high schools?
As a Newton public school parent who also works in business, I couldn’t believe someone with Paul’s business background and negotiating skills would consider contributing to our community by joining our school committee. You can read his website to get his resume but I’ll summarize by saying I appreciate that he understands the human element, the business side and the parenting side. He also has a child in NPS now which makes a huge difference because he’s right there with us. I’ve personally asked him what sets him apart from his opponent and he talked about his own experiences and how he’ll contribute. Paul listens. He’s a collaborator and a consensus builder. You don’t become a CEO of a large hospital by accident. When someone of his caliber offers to help out, you just have to thank him and that’s what I plan to do with my vote.
I’m going to try not to be redundant of other comments but I do want to address what I believe is the elephant in the room; for quite some time many parents and the public have been less than satisfied with the Superintendent’s performance. During the past school year, I believe that the teachers expressed a vote of no confidence in him. I don’t raise this to beat a dead horse, but while the superintendent’s contract may have been extended I do not read that as an endorsement of his performance. Rather, his performance simply must improve.
Paul Levy has a wealth of experience in evaluating top level executives and creating challenging and measurable performance metrics to hold them accountable. I know that the school committee does review the superintendent annually, and that no one person will be recreating the wheel. However, I do believe that Paul has the skills and experience to lean the committee towards establishing challenging but measurable goals, and a performance improvement plan for this superintendent.
And, as others have noted here, he has an abundance of experience serving on corporate boards including non-profit, educational, local, state and regional boards, and youth development organizations. Paul offers both well honed leadership skills along with the collaborative team building skills one seeks in a board member. And as the organization that is tasked with overseeing the budget, I suspect he is well acquainted with balance sheets and general accounting principles.
I concur that we are lucky to have an individual with such stellar qualifications willing to serve on the School Committee, and I hope you will join me in voting for Paul Levy for School Committee.
I know a lot of talk has been about has been about the NPS response to Covid. For the SC members who will be sworn in January, perhaps one of the most important decisions they will need to make during their term will be to select the next superintendent. I have no inside knowledge but I believe that this most recent contract for David Fleishman will be his last. Typically these searches can take a year which means that the upcoming school committee will need to, at the very least, initiate, a new superintendent search.
I am voting for PAUL LEVY for school committee! We need change on the school committee, and I believe Paul’s past experience is needed on the School Committee. Paul is a strong leader, and I hope others vote yes for Paul.
Paul has taken time to speak to my and my husband about his background.
We need his voice on the school committee!
The Newton Public Schools are too important not to have the most experienced and qualified individuals to serve on the School Committee.
Levy is just the kind of person that we need right now to take the NPS to the next level. He won’t be a rubber stamp, supports our teachers, and cares deeply about public education. He gets my vote.
Last night I wrote an email to my neighbors explaining why I am voting for Paul Levy. Some of my neighbors, who do not have school age children, asked me to provide more context. My lengthy email, replete with links and citations, dragged me down the memory lane of the fiasco that was the SC and NPS’ botched reopening plan.
SC meetings, tone-deaf responses, form over substance focus, self-congratulatory notes, NTA vote of “no confidence” in the superintendent and the request for him to resign, SC negotiating and immediately thereafter voting down the MOA resulting in NTA filing a charge of “prohibitive practice,” City Councilors offer of help and the following rejection, City Councilors open letter to SC and a dismissive response, Walensky, Jha, Newton medical community, group of parents working with Broad Institute to bring surveillance testing — rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected, providing a better than a satisfactory review for the superintendent and extending his contract by another 3 years.
Meanwhile, the children were struggling at home and watching their friends in the neighboring districts, one by one, return back to school.
I owe it to my children to vote for someone with the necessary competence and experience to make sure that they are never in the same helpless situation again. Status quo is no longer an option, well intentions do not rise to the occasion, sitting pretty and acting as a liaison between NPS/NTA/Parents is no longer enough.
Thank you, Paul, for stepping up to the plate and running for SC. Your vast business and board experience will translate well to this position. Also, thank you for all you did last year with DESE and advocating for full time in person learning! We will be lucky to have you!!
Paul Levy literally wrote the book on negotiation (“How to Negotiate Your First Job: 8 Steps that will create value for you and your new employer” and other titles). Who wouldn’t want those skills on the school committee? Schools are a critical piece of public infrastructure & public good. As such, there are numerous stakeholders who often want the same things but sometimes don’t, and negotiation is critical in those situations. And it’s an area where our school committee could use greater bench strength. Don’t just rubber stamp the superintendent’s decisions. Take the needs of our educators seriously, as they are the heart of our school system, but be able to balance those with other needs. We will need people who know how to work with complex budgets, and as others have mentioned, to lead a robust executive search if and when we seek out a new superintendent. This election therefore needs to optimize on skillset, and Paul Levy brings the skills we need. He has already shown it, in all the ways he’s worked to benefit our schools even as a private citizen.
As former head of Beth Israel Medical Center and other high profile public sector organizations, Paul Levy has the administrative expertise and vision to transform the Newton School Committee into a dynamic, congenial board that decisively improves Newton schools.
This thread is absolutely absurd. Good riddance to Newton if it elects Paul Levy to any office higher than dog-catcher.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2010/11/30/the-getaway/
https://www.boston.com/culture/health/2013/02/06/doctor-gets-7m-in-gender-bias-suit/
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/59146994add7b049342da966
https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/02/17/paul-levy-book
https://www.amazon.com/Blog-Held-Powerful-Union-America/dp/1482730774
Was thrilled when Paul announced his candidacy. To have someone of his caliber on the SC is all upside for Newton families. If was I not the first to donate to his campaign, I must have been top 20. If not for today’s Nor’easter I would have voted for him already.
#TeamLevy
By my count,
1415 Levy supporters on this thread, all buttwothree of whom explicitly cite his experience and record, and not a single one grapples with the $7 million that Beth Israel/Deaconess paid to settle claims of gender bias and retaliation by Levy and others.Levy has some
impeccableimpressive credentials. But, c’mon, you can’t just wish away that part of the package is some damning stuff that is highly relevant to his desired seat on the School Committee.How do you supporters reconcile your support with the settlement?
Are Newton’s kids’ futures worth putting on the school committee a guy of this caliber, but with gender issues in his past? Maybe. But, make the case.
Not happy with that part of Levy’s past, but I haven’t found a compelling reason to vote for Shawn either. This is a toughie for me.
Progressive Newton, isn’t Shawn Fitzgibbons on the board of Progressive Newton? I’m wondering who is posting on behalf of Progressive Newton.
Good catch MMQC on Progressive Newton connection.
https://progressivenewton.com/about/
MMQC and Newton Highlands Mom:
Doxxing is not acceptable behavior. And you are way off base. Just because someone takes the name Progressive Newton doesn’t mean they are actually part of the organization called Progressive Newton. I’m not connected to the Nabisco brand of cookies either. Shock of all shocks, I know.
People pick fake names for all sorts of reasons. Why would someone directly connected with Progressive Newton post under that name? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of trying to be anonymous? Couldn’t they just be someone progressive in Newton?
Fine to call out comments you don’t like, but once folks start doxxing, this community will go south quickly. Stop it. Also, you are likely wrong…
What??? How is that doxxing? I said I’m WONDERING who it is.
Doxxing would be outing their name or address. I’ve always liked you, Fig, but your response was really out of line. I’m allowed to wonder and say that I’m wondering. I did nothing to deserve the obviously false and harsh accusation of doxxing.
And FYI Fig:
“Doxxing is the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information about an individual or organization.”
I did nothing of the sort. How dare you say that I did.
Shawn’s place on Progressive Newton is public knowledge and something he’s proud of. Someone is posting under the name of that organization. Who exactly is being outed here?
Well now that you’ve riled me up and ruined my evening, good night.
@Progressive Newton-
Here we go with another poster who doesn’t know the difference between sexual HARASSMENT and a claim of discrimination in the workplace. There was no claim of harassment. Period. End of story.
@Sean -I’ll address you as well since you raised questions. As I’ve said elsewhere, the claims were primarily based between two significant assets of the hospital- one being a surgeon who was responsible for recruiting many talented surgeons snd the other was the head of anesthesia. Litigation lingered for some 5 years and the matter was resolved 2 years after Levy had moved on from the hospital. And generally, as the employer controls the purse, employer controls settlement.
And Sean, as a trained lawyer, you know that an allegation is nothing more than a claim made by one party against another or others. In this case there were claims that were made by a female doctor against a male doctor sounding in gender discrimination (hostile work environment may be more accurate). There was a claim that Paul Levy, as CEO of the hospital, failed to redress the female doctor’s complaints and ultimately demoted her, and there was a claim that the hospital was responsible ultimately as the employer.
None of these claims were proven in a court of law at trial. Instead, the parties opted to give up their claims in exchange for releases of liability in which they mutually agreed to give up any and all claims they ever had from time immortal. In exchange for waiving trial, agreeing that nobody was liable or at fault, that the plaintiff would essentially give up practicing medicine but retain her office – the hospital agreed to a lump sum pay out which I highly suspect also covered her 5 years worth of attorneys fees. Now for the plaintiff, if she went to trial and won her winnings would have been capped by charitable immunity- rather a drag because it is usually limited to $20,000. So, given that she used big law to represent her, I would anticipate that her share of the proceeds was anywhere from 30-50 percent but I strongly doubt it was anymore. Big law = big legal bills. A settlement means hospital avoids the expense of trial which is substantial, plus the cost of an appeal – sure to follow because whichever side loses has too much invested NOT to pursue an appeal. And settlement eliminates the greatest uncertainty of placing perhaps a life altering decision for the plaintiff into the hands of 12-14 complete strangers.
Trials are extraordinarily thrilling and jury’s are utterly unpredictable.
Well, Sean, since you asked, I will respond. Have I “grappled” with this? Yes, I have looked into what happened. Since it is a settlement where no one admitted any guilt/responsibility (or whatever the legal term is, I am sure Lisa or another lawyer here will correct me), I really don’t know what happened. I do suspect that some strong personalities and difficult relationships were involved. I am assuming Paul was trying to stay out of it. Should he have intervened? Probably, maybe… But, if you hold top executive posts for long enough, something like this is bound to happen – you might make a mistake like this. Like my physician husband always says, whether a doctor gets sued or not is just a matter of time. Ultimately, I look at Paul’s overall accomplishments, and this does not rise to the level of a red flag for me. What I do care about more than anything else are my kids and their schools. And the fact that Paul is willing to address MY particular concerns and use his impressive skills to help NPS regain its former glory is the reason why I am voting for him.
@Sean et al I posted this on another thread
A family member was involved in an employment (nothing discrimination or sexual harassment related) lawsuit. They and their new employer were sued by my relative’s former employer. Their new company covered legal costs. Even though the relative had their own lawyer who felt comfortable given time he would win the lawsuit, the new company pressured my relative to accept a settlement. The company did not want to drag it out any longer and just wanted to move forward, The lesson I learned from the up close experience is that in a lawsuit settlement you cannot always reach a conclusion as to what the truth is. Prior to this experience I would have made a very different judgment.
We need someone like Paul who has experience in complex issues on the School Committee. The whole way of thinking has been flawed and our kids have suffered (& our teachers as well). We need someone who will bring an analytical mindset to help define and acknowledge unintended negative consequences of plans that are presented so that they can be addressed rather than ignored. We need someone who will hold Fleishman and NPS Administrators accountable rather than just agreeing with everything they present. This will leads to a better outcome for our schools.
MMQC:
I’m sorry we are disagreeing, but in my view you crossed a line. Progressive Newton the organization has in no way connected itself with Progressive Newton the poster. You and Newton Highland Mom not only made a unknowable connection, but you then connected it to Shawn Fitzgibbons, a candidate for public office.
Progressive Newton wants to be anonymous. So do you, so do I. Wondering if he or she is somehow connected to Progressive Newton, wondering aloud if they are therefore connected to Shawn, and then posting the board list to Progressive Newton (that was Newton Highlands Mom, not you), attempts to draw out the true identity of the poster, and if nothing else, connects an organization to a controversial poster here with nothing other than a shared name.
Doing research on folks who want to be anonymous, connecting them to organizations and political candidates, is a form of doxxing in my view. Be as angry as you like. I stand by my request to stop the behavior. It doesn’t take posting the actual address and phone number to engage in doxxing behavior, and you are unfairly dragging Progressive Newton into it, just by “wondering”.
What’s to stop folks from emailing the entire board? Doesn’t that make it less likely that anonymous folks will post, knowing that someone may get angry and try and figure out where they volunteer, where they work?
Lisa,
“And Sean, as a trained lawyer, you know that an allegation is nothing more than a claim made by one party against another or others.”
And, I know that a settlement is nothing more than a calculation based on an evaluation of the available evidence and the likelihood of success at trial.
@Irene and Newton Highlands Mom- I learned as a young lawyer way back when I was starting out that there are always at least three sides to every case: There’s the plaintiff’s side, the Defendant’s side or there can be many defendants each with their own version, and somewhere – often someplace in the middle of this circle of humanity lies the truth.
And it’s not that each side is lying- it’s just their perspectives are shaded and they really have their own truths and their own memories that run like picture shows in their heads, but nobody sees the same picture show they do. People of good will and honesty can recount entirely different recollections of the same event. Extraordinary i think.
L.P.
Also, all of us are missing the points of these threads. Wasn’t it supposed to be about positive posts about our candidates? I’m sorry for my posts above, I’m a bit sensitive about trying to reveal anonymous posters and I forgot the purpose of the threads. (sorry for jumping on your post MMQC, I should have been less strident even if I don’t agree with what you did)
I still don’t understand how school committee races became the flash point for anger in our community. I don’t remember them being this heated in prior years.
Going to bed.
@Fignewtonville – the positive comments post was the one Jerry Reilly put up yesterday that no one commented on. Sigh.
Lisa, your fourth paragraph would give a headache to an aspirin.
“The plaintiff would essentially give up practicing medicine…” Huh? This statement makes absolutely no sense. The plaintiff, who is suing Beth Israel, Paul Levy, et al. for gender bias, is for some strange reason going to give up practicing medicine? I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s a typo of yours? Not that it even bears mentioning because it’s completely irrelevant, but Dr. Warfield continued seeing patients at the clinic that was named in her honor.
Also, that bit about the charitable immunity statute capping damages at $20k, in a case that was settled with a payment of $7mil to the plaintiff plus the renaming of a pain clinic in the plaintiff’s honor, completely undercuts your argument.
And the stuff about “I would anticipate that her share of the proceeds was anywhere from 30-50 percent but I strongly doubt it was anymore”…priceless.
Fig Similar to you I do value the ability to post under an anonymous name so my intent was not expose someone per se or to breach someone’s privacy. That just is not how I operate. I was just curious based on MMQC statement and googled which lead me to post what I did. I realize now how there is no way to make any definitive connection and so my link was unfair.
If any of the moderators want to pull that post please do so.
NHM, I shouldn’t have jumped on you both. I really don’t think they are connected. But I have no way of knowing either. Just having a bad night and sensitive to this issue. My apologies to you as well. Goodnight.
Paul claimed on his latest mailer that he was responsible for the reopening of the schools last year as a result of a letter from 300 doctors.
Here’s the timeline:
January 23, ABC News Article: “Elementary school students in Massachusetts may return to in-person learning five days a week by April, education officials said Tuesday. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley announced Tuesday morning that he plans to ask for the authority to reverse pandemic education changes in March….In his decision, Riley cited that COVID-19 cases have declined in the state, the vaccine rollout is well underway, the availability of pool testing for school districts and upcoming spring weather.”
January 28: Doctor’s letter sent to DESE about the reopening of schools.
The announcement that schools were reopening and more importantly, the real reasons why they would reopen, are laid out in a quote from Jeffrey Riley, the commissioner of DESE: vaccine rollout, and a decline in cases a week before the doctors’ letter arrived. These are the facts, and this is what troubles me about Mr. Levy’s candidacy. He is quick to claim full credit for the work of others. Many individuals and groups were working to get the kids back in school.
This isn’t collaborative in my book, and I’m concerned he’ll do the same on the school committee. At BIDMC, the board warned him repeatedly to stop what he was doing and he didn’t. I don’t see evidence that he’s established the kind of boundaries, the ability to work with others as equals, and share credit – and certainly not blame – when things go wrong.
Progressive Newton is not the organization – it’s just another anonymous poster.
Michael-
Since when do anesthesiologists see patients in their offices? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one longer than it took for them to get an informed consent from me. But yeah – she’s still seeing patients ok. As for “that stuff” about charitable immunity it caps damages, not what a nonprofit will pay in attorneys fees and expenses if they go to trial. Simple economics Michael. Trials are extremely expensive and five years of litigation- you’re damn right the plaintiff’s legal fees were easily several million bucks going into trial.
But, by all means, since your assessment differs kindly share the basis for your differing viewpoint; are you a big firm litigator? What’s your experience being on trial for multiple weeks against a huge corporate defendant and multiple employees? How did you handle the charitable immunity concerns? Have you ever successfully been awarded attorneys fees and how was your lodestar calculated? And finally, when can we expect you to move to Newton so you can have some “skin in the game” instead of just standing on the sidelines in – where was it again… ah yes… NEEDham … and sticking your fingers peoples business over here in … Newton-is-not-NEEDham.
@Sean,
I do need to correct one of my prior comments – I was mistaken with regard to the applicability of the charitable immunity cap as to the gender discrimination counts of the complaint. It would, however, still apply if the plaintiff were successful on any tort based counts (emotional distress, etc).
I’m a parent of former NPS students. We pulled our kids during the pandemic and are one of the 700 families now utilizing the local independent school system. We had issues with what we saw happening to NPS even before COVID. However, the first few months of remote learning brought more troubling issues with NPS to light and we were finally at our wits end.
Only one candidate in this race reached out to us to inquire about the factors that caused us to leave NPS and only one candidate reached out to ask what NPS was doing to try to bring us back to NPS (FYI – NPS never reached back out to us).
Paul will be one member of a committee, but based on my conversations with him do believe that he takes this role very seriously and cares about ensuring that NPS is on the right path and making the best decisions to benefit our community and our children. Not only am I confident that Paul can work with others, but given that this committee just extended a three year contract to to a poorly performing superintendent of schools, I strongly believe we need a voice who will challenge the committee. With his two older daughters, Paul has seen NPS performing at its best and now with his son in kindergarten, I believe that Paul is determined to work hard to get us back to that place.
It appears as though Paul’s detractors aren’t attacking whether he’s capable of doing a good job, but rather point to a lawsuit from ten years ago and claim that because the company settled on his behalf, he is disqualified from this position. If I look at the candidates today, only one appears to be going negative. To me the way someone behaves today speaks louder about their character.
Whether or not you agree with Paul, I think he has been much more accessible in his outreach to voters and wanting to hear their opinions than has Shawn. He seems to have a much better understanding of retail politics than does his opponent.
Paul’s best chances for victory rest with voters being similarly confused and uninformed about his past.
The $7mil gender bias lawsuit, in which Paul Levy was accused of doing nothing to address the problem when a female doctor complained about her mistreatment at the hands of a male doctor, instead defending the male doctor and demoting the female doctor via email, is extremely concerning but it’s just ONE troubling element of Paul’s past: https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/59146994add7b049342da966
Of additional concern is the COMPLETELY SEPARATE incident that preceded Paul’s $50,000 fine and his resignation and CEO, i.e. the inappropriate workplace relationship and the creation of a dubious paid position at BIDMC, as Eileen McNamara explained in her Boston Magazine article:
Not to mention the advisor-student relationship which should infuriate any father of daughters:
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2010/11/30/the-getaway/
Add to that Paul’s absurd defense that he suffered from a “common disease of CEO and other leaders,” who “know that they are doing their jobs well,” as he humbly claimed during a cringeworthy interview with Sasha Pfeiffer:
https://www.wbur.org/news/2012/02/17/paul-levy-book
…and you can only conclude that if Paul Levy wins this election, it will be because voters (especially women and any men who respect women) had no idea about his past. There are a disproportionate number of Trump-supporting chauvinistic males in this forum, but in the real world, not nearly enough to get Paul elected.
Michael, I would wager that almost none (perhaps zero) of Paul’s supporters on this page are Trump supporters. (As one of his supporters with a comment in the above thread, I can guarantee I am not a Trump supporter.) However, your kneejerk response to overgeneralize and denigrate your neighbors with whom you disagree, actually speaks volumes more about you than it does about Paul’s supporters. And again demonstrates, as said elsewhere in the comments, that Paul’s detractors/Shawn’s supporters deal only in the language of negative campaigning, while Paul’s supporters point clearly to what he has achieved in his career and for NPS.
I’ve talked with Paul several times about issues including the those involving the BIDMC settlement. I come out of those discussions convinced of his commitment to equity and opportunity for all.
To address what would be my major concern as a voter, I certainly do not see some sort blind spot regarding issues facing women (or any other group) in the workplace. In fact, I see plenty of evidence of just the opposite.
It’s natural to try and divine information from the $7M BIDMC settlement. But settlements that don’t go to trial are difficult to draw conclusions from, since there is no cross examination or production of evidence to inform us of the truth. It may be even harder in a “failure to act” kind of case. Worse, we can’t get closer to a full understanding of the situation because all parties are sworn to secrecy. Paul can’t present or defend his side of the story, which makes such circumstances ripe for political attacks that can’t be answered.
The fact that he’ll be one of a group of School Committee members provides just that much more insurance that any concerns people may have can’t impact policy. At the same time, as one of the group, he brings unique skills and experience to the table, as well as a long-time resident’s familiarity with our City.
As far as sharing credit and blame, I personally believe strongly in sharing credit because it’s the right thing to do and it helps keep people invested and involved. But it’s an election. Candidates are by definition going to self-promote. Paul says that he organized a letter from 300+ doctors that was “the centerpiece of the state’s decision to reopen schools.” If he’s bragging, at least he’s bragging about being collaborative.
I just want the School Committee and NPS to do more things that we are proud *to* brag about.
I’ve been staying out of this one but feel the need to address the last part of @Michael’s attack. It is not so uncommon for graduate advisor/advisee relationships to lead to long-lasting professional relationships and platonic friendships. Being part of a research team can be intense. You’re reaching for straws. I hope you are spending as much time worrying about your own town’s elections as you are attacking Newton candidates.
@Meredith, my “attack” was a verbatim passage from an article by Eileen McNamara – not sure if you’re from the area, but if you were and if you bothered to read the local newspapers you would know that Eileen McNamara is easily one of the best journalists this city has ever had – an excellent judge of character who chose her words very carefully. On the other hand, if you’ve never heard of Eileen McNamara, despite her 1997 Pulitzer, then you’re probably in the company of 95% of this forum’s participants.
I’m astonished that you’re able to read the McNamara piece in 2021 with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss it with trite comments like “being part of a research team can be intense.” The key paragraph in the piece obviously applies here and bears repeating, particularly in this forum where (as you know) a very small number of individuals went out of their way to suppress any scrutiny of Levy’s past for the first several weeks of the campaign:
Mike – Women often see things through a different lens and hear things with a different set of ears as a result of years of experiencing first hand implicit and explicit gender discrimination. He chose to speak with a man about his issues with women in the workplace. Doesn’t that resonate with you on some level?
@Michael – yes, I know who Ellen McNamara is and respect her. I have also been through three rounds of graduate school and work with people who all have graduate degrees. I did not mean “intense” in the way you seem to have taken it, but as a researcher for many decades I know how close members of a research team can get working together on a project, and how mentor/mentee (non-sexual) relationships can flourish. I am aware of Levy’s past, am not happy about aspects about it, but just because I respect McNamara doesn’t mean agree with every word she writes. I’m not denying that it turned out he had an inappropriate relationship. I’m saying that I wouldn’t see those words in the acknowledgements section of a thesis as necessarily meaning anything inappropriate, because I’ve seen similar from a straight female grad student about her straight female advisor/mentor.