BSO: Warwick's Past

It looks like Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Warwick really stepped in it on his way out the door. I'll leave the phony hyperbolic racial outrage to others, but the scandal does remind me of this intriguing entry about Warwick from The Diary of J. Wesley Miller. It describes a conversation Miller had with the legendary Springfield activist Eamon T. O'Sullivan about an award that Warwick and other principals received back in 1999 for improving test scores. It was the acclaim that Warwick received for allegedly improving the MCAS scores at Glenwood Elementary School that first catapulted Warwick on a glide path to his eventual Superintendent status. But was it based on fraud?

Eamon called and said he knows for a fact that brand new computers were carried off in their boxes at Sci-Tech when it opened. He heard that Principal Green was so disgusted with the theft and coverup that he left. Eamon also spoke with former Superintendent Tom Donahue who agreed that the system is playing games with the attendance figures but wouldn't comment on whether there is cheating on the MCAS tests. People tell Eamon that the schools cheat by doing "preparation reviews" where they basically tell the kids the answers in advance. "Even then," Eamon exclaimed, "the scores are abysmal!"

Eamon and Donahue also talked about the schools who recently received awards for improving student scores. Kensington Avenue was one of them and Eamon said their Principal Tim Beckworth is "a big blowhard." The principals at the other winning schools, Daniel Warwick of Glenwood and John Fitzgerald at Talmadge are "inside players" who go along with Dr. Negroni to get ahead. They also use their insider status to get their friends and relatives jobs in the school system. "Those who oppose Negroni get nothing."

Peter J. Negroni was the Superintendent of schools at the time. Later, O'Sullivan recounts a conversation he had with Deputy Chief Daniel Spellacy, who at that time was the second in command at the Springfield Police Department. His wife was a teacher in the Springfield Public Schools.

....Officer Spellacy's dad was a motorcycle cop who got killed chasing a robber. Spellacy's youngest son just got a $60,000 per year job with Raytheon, while another is with the Secret Service. Neither has been in the military. Eamon says Spellacy's wife teaches at Bowles and when she heard of the Principals at Kensington, Glenwood and Talmadge winning test improvement awards, she instantly exclaimed, "They're cheating!"

Judge for yourself.

Meanwhile, Northampton is a place where things don't always add up.