HAVERHILL — Last night School Committee candidates debated some of the school system's most pressing issues: Sports fees for students, teacher pay raises, and lagging MCAS scores.
They sparred over the current School Committee's public feuding and poor image, and teachers' refusal to take a day off without pay when other city workers were making that sacrifice.
The six candidates faced off in a two-and-half-hour forum in the City Hall auditorium. The Eagle-Tribune and the Team Haverhill civic group cosponsored the event. The candidates are incumbents Joseph Bevilacqua and Kerry Fitzgerald, and challengers Raymond Sierpina, Paul Magliocchetti, Daniel DeRoche and Krystine Hetel. Three, four-year seats on the committee are up for grabs Nov. 3.
Split over teachers' raises
Sierpina, a retired longtime Haverhill elementary school principal, was the first to field a two-part question about the teachers union's refusal during the last school year to accept a one-day furlough to help save the city money during a financial crisis. The teachers refused to take the day off without pay at the same that many city workers were being forced to accept it.
The second part of the question asked the candidates whether they support giving teachers a pay raise. Sierpina, who finished first in the Sept. 15 preliminary election, supported the teachers on both matters.
"Everyone who does a good job deserves a raise," Sierpina said. "Money should be set aside for good employees who work hard," he said, adding that the city needs "to be competitive or we'll lose good employees."
Fitzgerald, who is on the two-person committee negotiating a new contract with the teachers union, staked out a different position.
"I was distressed the teachers refused the one-day furlough," said Fitzgerald, who finished sixth in the preliminary election. "It was disturbing because so many regular people have had to take furloughs at their jobs."
Fitzgerald said her negotiating committee has made little progress on a new contract with the teachers after more than a year of talks, and that the dispute is now being overseen by a mediator.
"If we had money, we'd give them raises, but we don't," Fitzgerald said, adding that she would be willing to offer the teachers a pay raise in exchange for health care concessions, but that the union has refused that as well.
A 'dysfunctional' School Committee?
Paul Magliocchetti, a lawyer with two children in city schools, said he believes the teachers do not trust Fitzgerald or the School Committee as a group. Magliocchetti sparred with Fitzgerald and took aim at the rest of the School Committee several times.
He emphatically answered "yes" to a question about whether the candidates agreed with a report by a state educational agency that the Haverhill School Committee is dysfunctional. Several times he insisted he would provide the leadership to "fix the committee" and help it win back the respect of the community.
"What's worse is that the people see chaos on the School Committee and it creates apathy in the community," said Magliocchetti, who finished third in the preliminary contest in his first run for public office.
Fitzgerald agreed the committee's public meetings are often are dysfunctional. But she said Mayor James Fiorentini is to blame because, as chairman of the committee, he is in charge of running the meetings. "The mayor lets it continue," Fitzgerald said.
Despite the public displays of dysfunction, Fitzgerald said she believes the committee gets "a lot done behind the scenes."
DeRoche, a civil engineer, said he wants to bring the spirit of cooperation and teamwork that he learned as an officer in the Army to the School Committee. He said his immediate focus would be on understanding the $55 million school budget.
"I'm good with numbers," he said. "I want to understand the budget so we can prioritize where we spend our money."
Arguing whether to combine city, school jobs
Bevilacqua, who finished second in the preliminary election, took the strongest position among the candidates on a question about consolidating school and city functions to save money. The School Committee recently approved proposals by the mayor to merge the school human resources and informational technology departments into City Hall, while previously rejecting a proposal to consolidate financial operations.
"This is an issue on which there is real difference among the candidates," said Bevilacqua, also president of the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce and former economic development director for Haverhill. "We should have done more consolidation and done it faster, except that some people on the School Committee are more concerned with protecting the bureaucracy of the central office than they are about saving taxpayer money and keeping teachers in the classroom."
Sierpina and Magliocchetti voiced reservations about the recent consolidations, suggesting they might favor reversing the human resources merger.
Bevilacqua said some people don't like him because he brings to light matters that school administrators would prefer to keep hidden, such as a secret high school electric bill he uncovered last year.
Find grant money, promote local schools
Hetel, a former city councilor and real estate investor, said the schools need to do a better job finding grants to bolster ailing budgets and develop creative solutions for improving student performance.
"Teachers have told me disruptive students are a real problem," said Hetel, who finished fifth in the preliminary. "Let's create a program to educate them out of the classroom. We don't have to do things in the normal way just because that's the way it's always been done."
She and other candidates said school leaders have to do a better job promoting the positives of the school system, such as slowly improving MCAS scores, the high school's classical academy with its advanced curriculum and the fact Haverhill High is one of only a few public schools in the state that offer Greek and Latin language courses.
Candidates: Time to cut sports fees
All the candidates said they find it upsetting that the schools have to charge students hundreds of dollars to play sports at the high school. While they all said they would try to control or lower the fees with fund-raising and by appealing to booster clubs, DeRoche declared, "I'll vote to eliminate sports fees."
"If you want someone new and less dramatic who will care and work hard to make a difference, vote for me," said DeRoche, also a member of the Team Haverhill civic group.
Two panelists — one from The Eagle-Tribune and one from Team Haverhill — asked questions, several of them submitted by the public. About 30 people attended the event. The forum was broadcast live by Haverhill Community Television and will be rebroadcast periodically on cable channel 9.
The Toastmasters Friendly Persuasion Club of Haverhill kept time at the forum. Carolyn Lumenello from the League of Women Voters was the moderator.
School Committee members are paid $5,000 a year.
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