"Welcome to a Boston School Committee Meeting" brochure

Welcome to a meeting of the
Boston School Committee

Boston School Committee
26 Court Street, 4th Floor
Boston, MA 02108
617-635-9014 • Fax 617-635-9689
www.bostonpublicschools.org
Cover photo taken January 2, 2012
Standing, left to right: Claudio Martinez, John F. Barros,
Alfreda J. Harris, Mary Tamer, and Meg Campbell.
Seated left to right: Michael D. O’Neill, Carol R. Johnson,
Rev. Dr. Gregory G. Groover
Revised: July 2012

Boston Public Schools
Thomas M. Menino
Mayor of Boston
Boston School Committee
Rev. Gregory G. Groover, Sr., D.Min., Chair
Michael D. O’Neill, Vice-Chair
John F. Barros
Meg Campbell
Alfreda J. Harris
Claudio Martinez
Mary Tamer
Carol R. Johnson, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Our Mission
A
s the birthplace of public education in this nation, the
Boston Public Schools is committed to transforming
the lives of all children through exemplary teaching in a
world-class system of innovative, welcoming schools. We
partner with the community, families, and students to
develop in every learner the knowledge, skill, and character
to excel in college, career, and life.
The Boston Public Schools does not discriminate in its programs,
activities, facilities, employment, or educational opportunities on the
basis of race, color, age, disability, gender, religion, national origin, or
sexual orientation.

About the Boston School Committee
T
he Boston School Committee is the governing body of the
Boston Public Schools.
The School Committee is responsible for:
� defining the vision, mission, and goals of the Boston Public
Schools;
� establishing and monitoring the annual operating budget;
� hiring, managing, and evaluating the Superintendent; and
� setting and reviewing district policies and practices to
support student achievement.
Appointment of Members
T
he seven members of the School Committee are Boston
residents appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to serve
four-year staggered terms.
In November 1989, the citizens of Boston approved a non-binding
referendum to replace the existing 13-member elected School
Committee with a seven-member mayorally-appointed committee.
In July 1991, the governor and State Legislature signed a Home
Rule Petition submitted by the mayor and City Council enacting
legislation to create the appointed board. The first appointed School
Committee was sworn into office in January 1992. In a November
1996 referendum, voters chose to maintain the appointed School
Committee structure.
The mayor appoints members from a list of candidates
recommended by a 13-member Citizens Nominating Panel
composed of parents, teachers, principals, and representatives of
the business and higher education communities. Under the
legislation that established the appointed School Committee, “the
Mayor shall strive to appoint individuals who reflect the racial,
ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the city.

Meeting Schedule
T
he School Committee meets approximately twice per month
during the school year to adopt, review, and modify policies
and practices that support the sound operations of the Boston
Public Schools and that enhance teaching and learning and
improved student achievement. On the first Monday of the year,
the Committee holds its annual organizational meeting, at which
time the members elect a chair and vice-chair and determine the
meeting schedule for the upcoming calendar year.
All meetings are posted at least 48 hours in advance at the Office of
the City Clerk and at Boston Public Schools headquarters, 26 Court
Street, as well as the BPS web site, www.bostonpublicschools.org.
Most meetings are held on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. in the Edward
Winter Chambers, 26 Court Street, first floor. To confirm the date,
time, location, or agenda of any meeting, contact the School
Committee office.
Order of the Agenda
1. Call to Order
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Citations (optional)
4. Superintendent’s Report
5. Public Comment
6. Action Items (i.e., matters that require vote)
7. Reports
8. Public Comment (optional)
9. New Business
10. Adjournment

Rules for Public Comment
Each School Committee meeting features one public
comment period to begin immediately following the
Superintendent’s Oral Report, the length of which is
determined by the Chair.
The Chair has the discretion to allow for an additional
comment period immediately following the report
presentations.
Each speaker for public comment will have three minutes to
testify and shall be advised by the Executive Secretary when
one minute is remaining, followed by a 30 second warning.
If 20 or more speakers sign up to testify, time is reduced to
two minutes per individual.
Persons who require interpretation services will be allotted
an additional two minutes for testimony.
Large groups addressing the same topic are encouraged to
consolidate their remarks or select a spokesperson to
provide testimony.
Written testimony is appreciated and encouraged.
Speakers may not reassign their time to others.
Speakers must begin their remarks by stating their name and
affiliation. TV cameras will only record speakers who face
the committee.

Rules of Conduct
All attendees should be seated. No one will be admitted to
the Winter Chambers once capacity is reached. (Official
capacity, per the Fire Marshall, is 180).
Anyone who wishes to record or photograph the meeting
must first notify the Chair, who will then inform the public
(per Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, July 2010). Such
audio or video recording may not interfere with the
meeting.
If a person continues to disrupt the meeting after a clear
warning, the Chair has the authority to order that person to
leave. If the person does not leave, authorities may be called
(per Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, July 2010).
Any signage present must not prohibit the participation of
others. The Chair will use his/her discretion.
Executive Sessions
S
chool Committee meetings are conducted in accordance with
the state’s Open Meeting Law. All regular meetings are open to
the public.
The law also permits the convening of an executive session, a
portion of a meeting not open to the public. An executive session
can be held only to discuss certain matters, including but not limited
to collective bargaining and litigation strategy.
National Honors
Boston Public Schools
2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education
Best U.S. City School District
Boston School Committee
2004 Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE)
Award for Urban School Board Excellence

Members
Chair: Rev. Gregory G. Groover Sr., D. Min.,
was appointed pastor of the Historic Charles
Street A.M.E. Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts
in June 1994. As the president of the Black
Ministerial Alliance (BMA), he has been
instrumental in bringing together public school
officials, teachers, community leaders, parents and
the clergy in the planning and development of
Victory Generation, the BMA After School
Program. He also served on the BPS Student
Assignment Task Force (2004) and co-chaired the
Superintendent Search Committee that led to the
hiring of Dr. Carol Johnson. He serves on the
boards of the Boston Foundation, Boston Rising,
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children, YMCA of Greater Boston,
Boston Plan for Excellence, and Gordon College.
Rev. Groover is a resident of Roxbury and a
former BPS parent. He was first appointed to the
School Committee in 2007.
Vice-Chair: Michael D. O’Neill is senior vice
president of marketing and distribution of The
Savings Bank Life Insurance Company of
Massachusetts. A graduate of the Boston Public
Schools, Mr. O’Neill is the board chair for the
Boston Private Industry Council’s Youth Council
and a member of the Boston PIC Workforce
Development Committee. He is a former board
member of the BPS School-to-Career Planning
Committee and the Hyde Park High School
Academy of Finance. A resident of Charlestown,
Mr. O’Neill was appointed to the School
Committee in 2008.

John F. Barros has served as the Executive
Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood
Initiative since 2000. A native of Roxbury, Mr.
Barros attended the Boston Public Schools before
heading off to Dartmouth College. He is
currently a candidate for a master’s degree in
public policy at Tufts University and sits on
several boards, including the Boston Parent
Organizing Network, the Roxbury Master Plan
Strategic Oversight Committee, and the
Northeastern University Institute on Race and
Justice. He is also a member of the Boston School
Committee’s Task Force on English Language
Learners. The first Cape Verdean to serve on the
Boston School Committee, Mr. Barros was
appointed to the School Committee in 2010.
Meg Campbell is the founder and executive
director of the Codman Academy Charter Public
School in Dorchester. A former BPS teacher and
parent, she is the founding executive director of
Expeditionary Learning and former lecturer at
Harvard Graduate School of Education. She
served on the Boston Public Library's Compass
Committee developing principles to inform the
library's strategic plan and helped found the
Margarita Muñiz Academy, the city's first two-way
bilingual high school. An author, poet
and Harvard-Radcliffe graduate, she holds a
master’s degree in early and elementary education
from Wheelock College and a C.A.S. from
Harvard Graduate School of Education. A longtime
Dorchester resident, Ms. Campbell was
appointed to the School Committee in 2012.

Alfreda J. Harris is a living legend in the
neighborhoods of Boston. First appointed in
1993, Mrs. Harris is the longest serving member
of the School Committee. She is the former
deputy commissioner of the Boston Parks &
Recreation Department, the founder and former
director of the John A. Shelburne Community
Center in Roxbury, where the gymnasium is
named in her honor, and current chairperson of
the John A. Shelburne Community Council Inc.
She is also a founder of the Boston Neighborhood
Basketball League (BNBL) and the Boston
Shootout. A dedicated mentor to countless young
people, Mrs. Harris is the recipient of numerous
awards, including the Henry L. Shattuck Award
for Public Service, the National Basketball
Association’s Mannie Jackson Award, and the
Massachusetts Secondary Schools Athletic
Directors’ Association Distinguished Service
Award. In recognition of her outstanding career as
a women’s head basketball coach, Mrs. Harris was
inducted into the University of Massachusetts Hall
of Fame and the WCVB Good Sports Hall of
Fame. Mrs. Harris resides in Roslindale and is the
CEO of Legacy Consultants.
Claudio Martinez has served since 1998 as the
executive director of the Hyde Square Task Force,
an organization that builds the skills of inner-city
youth through innovative arts and cultural,
leadership, lifelong learning, economic
development, and community organizing
initiatives. The Hyde Square Task Force has
received numerous recognitions, including the
Coming Up Taller award, the nation's highest
honor for out-of-school arts and humanities

Martinez, Continued
programs given by the President’s Committee on
the Arts and Humanities, the Best Practice Award
in Teen Programming for Youth Leadership and
Achievement by Boston’s After School for All
Partnership, the City of Boston Innovations in
Education City Excellence Award. Mr. Martinez
has more than 20 years of managerial experience
in both the private and nonprofit sectors and has
served as an advisor to several governmental,
non-profit and transnational initiatives. As a
community organizer, neighborhood activist and
parent, he has been involved in Boston school
reform efforts for the last 20 years. He served as
co-chair of the Boston Parent Organizing
Network, City of Boston Election Advisory Task
Force and the Boston Schoolyard Initiative. Mr.
Martinez also sits on the Board of Directors of
The Boston Foundation, the Nellie Mae
Education Foundation, and Boston After School
and Beyond. He is a member of the inaugural
class of the Barr Foundation Fellows Program.
He was first appointed to the School Committee
in 2008.
Mary Tamer is a freelance writer and
communications professional with more than 20
years of experience in the educational sector. She
has written and edited articles for the Harvard
Graduate School of Education, the Harvard
School of Public Health, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and the MIT Sloan
School of Management. A lifelong Bostonian, Ms.
Tamer is a graduate of the Boston Public Schools
and has two children enrolled in the BPS. A
longtime school volunteer, she has tutored
children to enhance reading skills and facilitated
voter registration drives in a number of the city’s

Superintendent
Tamer, continued
high schools as part of her work with the League
of Women Voters of Boston. Ms. Tamer is also a
longtime volunteer and supporter of the Boston
Latin School Association, St. Jude’s Children’s
Research Hospital, and ReadBoston. She served
on the Superintendent's Search Committee in
2005-06 and is pursuing graduate studies at
Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Ms.
Tamer was appointed to the School Committee in
2010.
Carol R. Johnson, Ed.D., has been
superintendent of the Boston Public Schools since
August 2007. Dr. Johnson has devoted her career
to public education as a teacher, principal, and
administrator. She previously served as
superintendent of the Memphis (TN) City Schools
and Minneapolis (MN) Public Schools. She earned
a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from
Fisk University in Nashville, and master’s and
doctorate degrees from the University of
Minnesota. Nationally, Dr. Johnson serves on the
Board of Directors for the Council of the Great
City Schools, the Spencer Foundation Board, the
United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack
Valley Board, the Harvard University Urban
Superintendents’ Advisory Board. She previously
served on the College Board and serves as an
ex-officio board member for the Boston Plan for
Excellence.

Student Representative
Executive Secretary
Dan Chu is a senior at Boston Latin Academy
and an active member of the Boston Student
Advisory Council (BSAC) since grade 8 th , where
he is a proud member of the Working Group.
Dan Chu’s favorite projects have been Student to
Teacher Constructive Feedback and Teacher
Evaluation. He participated in the creation of the
Boston Public Schools’ Teacher Evaluation tool
that will be implemented in school year 2013-
2014. In addition to activism, Dan Chu takes a
great deal of joy in public speaking. He hopes to
blend this with the work he is currently doing to
one day become successful in politics.
As executive secretary, Elizabeth A. Sullivan
manages the School Committee office, maintains
the official records of all School Committee
proceedings, and coordinates the public comment
periods of School Committee meetings. Ms.
Sullivan formerly worked in the office of Mayor
Thomas M. Menino, first as a press aide and later
as Director of Speechwriting. She graduated magna
cum laude from Boston University with a bachelor
of science degree in journalism. A resident of
West Roxbury, she grew up in Roslindale and
graduated from Boston Latin School.

Notes
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Boston School Committee meetings
are broadcast live and re-broadcast
throughout the week on
Boston City TV
Comcast Channel 24 • RCN Channel 13
Mayor’s Office of Cable Communications
Thomas M. Menino, Mayor
Mike Lynch, Director
www.cityofboston.gov/cable/