
Summer 2014
there’s nothing in this issue about the federal trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two of his top aides, but that’s only because we’ve been reporting on the case extensively online at commonwealthmagazine.org. For those of you accustomed to reading just our quarterly print publication, the online coverage is worth checking out because(...)

Comeback kids
At Phoenix Charter Academy in Chelsea, former dropouts aim high
JAZZMIN HERNANDEZ DOESN’T fit anybody’s profile of a likely high school graduate, never mind a soon-to-be college student. When she was 10, she and her older brother spent two years in foster care as their mother battled drug addiction. By the time she was in high school, Hernandez was back home with her mom, but(...)

The hiring man
Sidestepping seniority and tenure rules, Boston principals such as William Thomas are hiring who they want.
WILLIAM THOMAS, THE headmaster at Charlestown High School, got to do something new this spring: He posted his job openings for next year and personally selected the teachers to fill them. The power to build his own team didn’t receive a lot of attention locally, but it was a revolutionary moment for the Boston Public(...)

Summer 2014 Editor’s note
Going deep on Probation
there’s nothing in this issue about the federal trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two of his top aides, but that’s only because we’ve been reporting on the case extensively online at commonwealthmagazine.org. For those of you accustomed to reading just our quarterly print publication, the online coverage is worth checking out because(...)

Union officials raise Great Wolf concerns
great wolf lodge, a newly refurbished resort and indoor water park in Fitchburg, opened to great fanfare in early June. Kim Schaefer, the company’s CEO and “Mama Wolf,” was on hand for the opening along with Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong. A few days later Cody Simpson, an Australian pop star and Dancing with the Stars(...)

State boosting rents for yacht, boat clubs
Harvard to pay $18,000
By Colman M. Herman
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state officials are trying to put their property management practices in order, preparing to charge 31 yacht and boat clubs more for the public lands they are leasing and possibly taking one deadbeat yacht club to court for failing to pay its long-overdue back rent. The new rental system, being phased in over the next(...)

Agency heads differ on expense reimbursements
By Colman M. Herman
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the people who run the state’s quasi-public agencies have very different philosophies about seeking reimbursement for the expenses they incur. Noting that “perceptions matter a lot,” Clark Ziegler, the executive director of the Mass Housing Partnership, says he is averse to conducting meetings with bankers, developers, and others over lunch or dinner. “When we schedule(...)

She’s fighting for a T pass she can’t use
Caroline Casey was one of 21 people arrested at a sit-in at the State Transportation building in June while advocating for a $10-a-month youth T pass for people age 12 to 21. The activists were protesting the Transportation Department’s lack of action on a youth pass pilot program, which they say Transportation Secretary Richard Davey(...)

Change agent
With her upset victory, incoming Massachusetts Teachers Association president Barbara Madeloni delivered a jolt to the education establishment
Had the leadership of the union sold out the members? That’s a baiting question. I think the union leadership has had a different understanding of the nature of what’s happening. The union leadership thought we could work with people around education reform as if we shared the same interests. The analysis that the membership responded(...)

Do Not Call
The list is leaking like a sieve, and Massachusetts residents are among those complaining the loudest
the federal trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry, once an effective deterrent to unwanted telemarketing calls, is now a toothless tiger. Telemarketing scam artists have found ways around the registry, as reflected in the rising number of complaints from angry consumers. Americans filed more than 3.7 million complaints about unwanted phone calls last year, more(...)
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