Mayor Warren requests external review of School Committee practices

by | Feb 9, 2017 | Mayor's office, Newton, School Committee, Setti Warren | 9 comments

Newton Mayor Setti Warren is calling for an independent review of School Committee governance to ensure future committees “can operate effectively as a group” following the controversial handling of anti-Semitic incidents at F.A. Day Middle School, The TAB’s Jonathan Dame reports.

In an unusual move on Monday, Warren emailed the entire School Committee listing four actions he argued should be taken following a series of TAB stories about an outside investigator’s report on graffiti incidents at Day

Newton Schools spend $5K to fight state order to give docs to TAB

by | Jan 17, 2017 | School Committee, Schools | 23 comments

From Wicked Local Newton…

The Newton Public Schools has paid its private attorney well over $5,000 to repeatedly oppose the public release of an investigative report completed last school year on anti-Semitic incidents at F. A. Day Middle School, the TAB has learned.

The Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office has now four times ruled the district is not providing enough justification for its extensive

 
The item in question is an ad promoting an “essay contest” that appeared in the Newton TAB last week asking Newton North students to submit a 200 to 400 word essay on Israeli/ Palestinian peace AND to list the sources that led them to their conclusion. 
 
Prizes for the winning entries included hundreds of dollars in gift cards to “The Mall at Chestnut Hill”. The ad does not appear in the December 7 issue of the newspaper.
 
Joshua Resnek, the person whose email is in the ad, admitted that it was designed to unearth curriculum materials about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that are being taught at North.  He was sure to tell me that “there is nothing sinister, evil or vile” involved with