After An Educator's Journey
Out of the classroom & into the universe
recent posts
about
Once upon a time, I taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Now I’m retired and working on new ventures.
Tag: Lowell
-
After attending rallies like yesterday’s No Kings (October 2025 version), the take-away is that there are a lot of like-minded people who are unhappy with the way things have been going. Here in Lowell, Massachusetts, a respectful crowd listened to speakers, music, and cheered and chanted. Afterwards the group wended their way from Boarding House…
-
It’s the last weekend in July, and for us, that means it’s time for Lowell’s celebration of diversity in music, food, and culture, Lowell Folk Festival. Adrien and I have been coming to Folk Festivals for decades. Even when we lived nearby, we’d come for a Saturday or Sunday of music and food. More recently,…
-
The Group Insurance Commission or GIC here in Massachusetts is at it again. Fellow public employees, active and retired, will recall last year’s efforts by the commission to bring health costs under control. I’d like to think attention was paid to questioning spiraling health care increases, particularly from pharmaceuticals, when the GIC set last year’s…
-
The Lowell High School project is, without a doubt, the biggest thing going in Lowell. I mainly stay out of the discussions about siting this project, mainly because, aside from being a taxpayer, I have very little skin in the game – no children/grandchildren in the school system. I do have an opinion, however, that…
-
My favorite weekend of the year is always the last weekend in July. The Lowell Folk Festival – a free (!) and frenetic amalgam of music, food, and culture – is worth planning around, which is, exactly what we do. Over the 31 years that the festival has been here, it seems to me it…
-
Today, May 23, is the “official” announcement of the federal budget proposal. “Official” because the numbers have been floating around in the ether for a while now. Within the proposal from the White House budget is the idea of cuts impacting education to the tune of $10.6 Billion less. Valerie Strauss from the Washington Post, has…
-
All Members present for both meetings. Budget Hearing, Part 3 Somehow in the flurry of budget activities over the last week I lost track of last night’s Budget Hearing which preceded the regular School Committee Meeting. So if you were hoping to add a public comment to the funding proposals, you are out of luck. …
-
Tuesday evening, I spoke before the City Council to encourage that body to meet with City of Lowell school administration before approving the budget that was before them. You read that correctly, I was advocating that the Council not approve the budget. Why? I don’t believe that the City’s contribution to the school budget adequately considers…
-
It’s budget time in Lowell and the predictions look a bit grim. I won’t second guess (most) of the reasoning behind proposed budget amounts, but I am dismayed that the belt tightening has been mind numbing. As a former educator in Lowell, even without children (or grandchildren) in the City Schools, I feel compelled to speak…
-
School Committee Meeting 05 April 2017 7 Members Present, Student representative: Cole Conlin Spotlight on Excellence & Permissions to Enter. Science and Engineering Fair. Bartlett Community Partnership School LHS Ice Hockey Team Public Hearing for Interdistrict Choice: No comments from the public. 2016-17 had 30 open slots, 15 were filled. Decision to continue…
After An Educator's Journey 