Madison Park turnaround will take time, says the mayor Headmaster resigns

Days after the headmaster at Madison Park Vocational and Technical High School resigned, Mayor Martin Walsh praised the move, calling it “a step in the right direction.”

Added Walsh in a statement to the Reporter on Tuesday evening: “We’re only in the first days of this change and we recognize that we have much more work to do.”

The headmaster, Dr. Diane Ross Gary, tendered her resignation to Boston Public Schools superintendent John McDonough on Friday after more than a week of unrest among students over nonexistent and inadequate class scheduling.

For the first five days of the new school year, Madison Park students were not given their schedules. At the end of the fifth day, administrators distributed them, but many students cried foul, saying they were still mixed up.

Gary was in her second year as headmaster. Replacing her for the time being is Al Holland, the headmaster at Health Careers Academy from 2001 to 2008 before he retired. BPS spokesman Lee McGuire said an acting headmaster will be appointed “very soon” while the search goes on for a permanent replacement.

“Al Holland brings great perspective and experience, and will serve as an interim solution to guide Madison Park as we begin this transition period,” said the mayor.

Kellsi Pemberton, the Madison Park junior and Lower Mills resident who led last week’s 400-student protest and petition over the lack of schedules, told the Reporter that Holland stood outside the school Monday morning, welcoming students as they walked inside. “It made me feel that we actually have a caring headmaster,” she said.

Holland was involved in last week’s negotiations at Madison Park, including one with Kellsi and her mother Jeanne, who said that Holland was extremely sympathetic to their concerns in a sit-down meeting with administrators after students still had issues with schedules distributed the day before.

The story at the city’s only public vocational school took another turn on Saturday night as the BPS, in confirming that Gary had resigned on Friday night, added that she had not been certified by the state Department of Education to be a headmaster. McDonough only learned of that issue while he was preparing for his meeting with Gary on Friday in which he was going to ask for her resignation, said McGuire.

Although Gary had applied for certification with the state last August, “the required paperwork and next steps to support that application were never submitted,” McGuire said in a statement. “It is the responsibility of the educator to follow up with the Department of Education on the status of their certification application.”

McGuire added: “We should have followed up much sooner to confirm she had completed the process. It’s what we do for our teachers and we certainly should have done it in this case as well. We are taking steps right now to make sure that does not happen in the future.”

The student-led protest revealed the depth of trouble at Madison Park, although many, including Walsh, concede that the problems were a long-time coming. “We’ve been saying for months now that we need to make broad, sweeping changes at Madison Park,” Walsh said on Tuesday. Along with the scheduling issues for the students, Madison Park also introduced nearly 60 new teachers for the beginning of this school year, adding to the chaos and confusion of the first week.
In a monthly radio appearance on WGBH on Friday, Walsh fielded questions and calls from listeners, including Pemberton, who thanked the mayor for his continued support for the students. In turn, he invited the honors and ROTC student along with her family to meet him at that night’s football game between Madison Park High School and Dorchester Academy.

Pemberton, her mother Jeanne, and little brother leaned on the fence separating the fans from the playing field on Friday evening, waiting for the mayor. There did not appear to be any other parents at the game eager talk to the mayor about their concerns with the school. Jeanne Pemberton said she planned to start a Facebook page and email account for parents to communicate with each other because so few had been able to do so.

“I’m lucky because my schedule is flexible enough that I can take off work and be here for Kellsi,” she said. “But a lot of parents can’t. And we want to get them in the loop even if they can’t be there.”
It was after halftime when the mayor finally made it to the Boston Tech Academy field, walking through the crowd to greet the fans and take photos, including one with Kellsi, who did what any 16-year-old would do when meeting the mayor – turn shy and quiet. “It’s funny, she’s really never liked public speaking,” her mother said beforehand.

Pemberton and the mayor did not discuss anything substantial. The sun had set and it was getting cold in the stands, so the Pembertons returned to Lower Mills. The mayor stuck around, talking to players and coaches and witnessing two Madison Park touchdowns scored in the last quarter of the game.

“I just said to them, ‘Thank you for hanging in there and we’re going to continue to make your school better,’” Walsh told the Reporter on Friday night after he spoke with the players. “We’re going to have bumps in the road at Madison Park. We’re not going to be able to turn it around overnight.”

He continued: “You can’t compare Boston Latin and Madison Park today. My goal in the next couple years is that we’ll be comparing Madison Park to Boston Latin. Every young person that’s in high school in Boston, they should have an opportunity to get a good education and I’m going to make that happen.”


Subscribe to the Dorchester Reporter