Was anyone else confused by the long and rambling Saturday Chat last week (Lowell Sun, Saturday, May 8, 2004)? Under the title "More Pressure Needed to Ensure Schools Succeed", Kendall Wallace compared the city manager's job performance with that of the superintendent, somewhat to the detriment of Dr. Baehr. His praise of the manager's ability to keep things running smoothly without raising taxes is undermined by his subsequent criticism of the school department. Obviously things aren't running as smoothly as he thinks.

After the budget cuts that the school system sustained last year, it seems disingenuous for Wallace to point a finger at Dr. Baehr because the high school will be facing a tough reaccredidation process in the fall. Dr. Baehr fought hard to keep the cuts to the high school at a minimum, but the city council refused to appropriate more money to the schools or raise taxes. The direct result of these actions is that Lowell High is significantly understaffed. Mr. Wallace pointed out that Brockton High has 55 administrators and 350 teachers. Lowell High has close to the same amount of students, but has 27 administrators to 275 teachers.

Mr. Wallace pointed out that "doing more with less reaches a point of no return", yet that is the way the schools have been expected to operate for the past two years.