To the editor:
For disclosure purposes Jim Scully is a friend. I met him years ago but we did not become friends until after his tenure as Lawrence's superintendent of schools. Our relationship was and is such that one day when his termination and the charge of "questionable spending" came up in conversation I could say, "Jim, bagpipes?"
His response spoke volumes about the affection and sense of responsibility he had for the students in the Lawrence school system. He explained that a major problem in the system was motivating students — building esprit de corps. He went on to say that the bagpipes, part of a music program, serviced that purpose, as did the skating and outward bound type programs.
Those programs and the purchase of laptop computers for School Committee members constituted the bulk of the "questionable spending." As far as the laptops are concerned, one cannot help but wonder if providing School Committee members with laptops was an effective way of introducing them to a technology — a technology that was revolutionizing the way information was being and would in the future be processed.
It is interesting to note that while Scully was superintendent all the elementary and middle schools were accredited. Is one to conclude that the skills necessary to assure those schools met the test were not available and used for the management of the high school? There is a reason that Lawrence has a new high school complex. The old building had outlived its usefulness, the principal reason the high school lost its accreditation.
Sunday's article stated that Scully's lawsuit was settled for $625,000 and his immediate successor never collected any money. Are we not to conclude that just maybe Scully's suit had merit.
There was never an accusation that Scully, a relative or friend benefited in any way from the "questionable spending." It appears that those charges applied to his successors have merit. For Sunday's article to paint Scully, Mae Gaskins and Wilfredo Laboy with the same brush is, at best, disingenuous. Actually, examining the facts one might conclude that Jim Scully's termination resulted in Lawrence having lost a dedicated superintendent who was capable of thinking "out of the box."
Ted Rademacher
Methuen
