Salem School Committee Candidates Agree On Need To Improve

SALEM, MA — To say the past year has been turbulent for Salem Public Schools would be an understatement. The district is searching for a new superintendent, and Salem High School is on its third principal in six months. Parents and residents have even called for the removal of Mayor Kim Driscoll from the school committee, which she chairs.

So its not surprising that seven candidates are running for the three seats that are up for reelection. One of the incumbents, Kristine Wilson, is not seeking reelection but school committee members Jim Fleming and Mary Manning are going to have their hands full heading into Tuesday's preliminary election. That preliminary election will cut the field to six candidates, with the six top vote recipients appearing on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election.

In recent weeks, Salem Patch has been asking candidates in contested races to outline their positions on the issues. In the school committee race, the candidates all speak of the need to change and restore confidence in the school system (Manning and Jennifer Brown have not responded to requests for comment; you can click on a candidates name to see their complete profile on Salem Patch).

"There can be no informed decision-making without consistent stakeholder engagement," Beth Anne Cornell, one of the five challengers in the race, said. "This requires building structures that will outlast individual school committee members and superintendents. And it means moving away from reactive decision-making and toward proactive and informed strategic thinking.

Donna Fritz is running, in part, because she thinks the school system could do a better job of communicating with its stakeholders. She also thinks the school committee needs a clearer focus.

"There has been a lack of a clear, strategic focus and a supportive, collaborative culture modeled by senior leadership," Fritz said. "I would have liked the committee be more involved in creating and executing a strategy of doing a few things extremely well vs. the scatter-shot and reactive approach of the past."

Like all of the challengers in the race, Stephen Beauparlant didn't decide to run because he thought things were going well with the schools.

"Communication in Salem schools is ineffective and inconsistent from the very top to the bottom. The best way to fix this is through the development of honest, non-disaster-driven conversations. Trust needs to be built in the day-to-day outreach to all stakeholders," he said. "Then when hard discussions must happen, these stakeholders will recognize the honest intent behind this outreach instead of assuming it is damage control."

Kristin Pangallo points out that the school committee does not have any current parents of Salem Public Schools students.

"While not a failure of any one member, it is a problem that there are no parents of current Salem Public Schools students on the Committee," Pangallo said. "The turnover of every principal and the superintendent in the past few years also suggests that the committee could benefit from some new voices and viewpoints."

Fleming, the incumbent, didn't pull punches when he spoke about former Superintendent Margarita Ruiz, who resigned in April. He's worried that the district took two steps backward after some incremental steps forward.

"The District made substantial steps forward while completing the Accelerated Improvement Plan under the guidance from the Commonwealth," he said. "Unfortunately, this progress lost substantial momentum under the inept guidance of the last Superintendent of Schools and her leadership team. This loss of momentum must immediately be turned around."