Dracut Forum

Last night, School Committee member Mike Miles made a motion to have members discuss the interim position with former Superintendent Elaine Espindle.
This was not to offer her the position, but to discuss whether she would be interested.
Member Bonnie Elie made a point that Espindle would be a great solution to filling the position, being local, [...]

School-board member accused of handpicking Golec replacement
By Erin Smith, esmith@lowellsun.com
DRACUT — School Committee members are accusing one of their own of quietly and illegally handpicking a replacement for embattled Dracut High School Vice Principal Hank Golec, who is facing allegations of breaching the school’s security system and misusing surveillance equipment.
Last night, School Committee member Bonnie [...]

The Sun has the story this morning. Its been floating around town all weekend.
Seems somebody used the security equipment at the high school to tape Coach Moore working with students this summer, sending the tape to the MIAA claiming to be a concerned parent. They then damaged the camera equipment.
Fact is, the coach is allowed [...]

With all the fun going on in the othe room, I decided to stick with the basics and attend the school committee meeting.
All in all, a quiet one. As the startup meeting for the school year, we heard presentations from the School Doctor and Steve Stone on preparing for medical events and how the schools [...]

The latest talk around the campfires this weekend was that the figures from the state that came to the town after the conference committee completed its job and the budget was sent on to the Governor to be signed showed another cut of $600,000 to Chapter 70 school aid.
Town Manager Dennis Piendak notified the school [...]

Tonite’s school committee meeting was highlighted by a long discussion of the proposed budget for the upcoming school year.
Ultimately, the board voted to accept the budget 3 to 2, with the two newest members, Bonnie Elie and Dr Mike McNamara voting against the budget.
The long discussion went very in depth on how Superintendent Mullin was [...]

By Bridget Scrimenti, Lowell Sun
While many Greater Lowell school districts have been forced to lay off hundreds of teachers, some say union concessions could have helped save jobs and eased painful budget cuts.
In Dracut, the teacher’s union refused to renegotiate its recent three-year contract to include a wage freeze for 2010, which would have [...]

By Michael Wurm , Sun Correspondent
DRACUT — About 15 mothers of students at the Campbell Elementary School packed the seats at the Dracut School Committee meeting last night to discuss the likely increase of class sizes at the school.
“We have great concern about class size,” resident Kim Tyler said. “That’s why we came tonight.” [...]

An anonymous email to the school district, copied to all the local press, brought down the camera’s of the local networks once again to the Town of Dracut schools.
Some “innocent mutual joking” during a study hall, after spreading as rumor though the students, was reported by a parent as innapropriate behavior and “teacher misconduct.”
The School [...]