Fred Fantini
2019 Candidate for Cambridge School Committee

Home address:
4 Canal Park
Cambridge MA 02141

Contact information:
Tel: 617-577-1755
e-mail: fredfan1@aol.com

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Background

• Master's Degree in Management with a specialized graduate certificate in Diversity from Cambridge College in May 1999
• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Finance from Bentley College
• Parent Advocacy Training from the Federation for Children with Special Needs
• Brings thirty years’ experience as a municipal finance professional as Deputy Treasurer for the Town of Arlington.
• Unique record of linking fiscal priorities, educational goals, and standards and measures of accountability in a strategic planning format.
• Experienced on both sides of the collective bargaining table representing management on the Cambridge School Committee and workers with labor as President of SEIU/NAGE local 113.
• Former Treasurer SEIU 888
• Served for thirty-six years as a member of the Cambridge School Committee.
• Sponsor Cambridge Little League-Major League Braves and All-Star team
• Sponsor Cambridge Girls Softball.
• Attends educational courses and conferences on a regular basis
• Recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the MA Association of School Committees (Nominated by Fellow School Committee Members in 2012), and was cited for “advocacy and courage during times of great change over 30 years of public service.”
• Elected three terms by colleagues to be its Vice-Chair

Anticipated Endorsements:
Greater Boston Labor Council, AFL-CIO
National Association of Governmental Employees (NAGE)
SEIU-Local 888-Working Together
Carpenters Local 40-Cambridge
General Construction Local 151-Cambridge
Plumbers and Gas Fitters Local 12-Boston
Bridge and Structural Iron Workers Union Local 7
MA and No. New England Laborers’ District Council
Cambridge Firefighters union

Top Priorities –
To continue our focus on our 2017-2020 District Plan which is showing progress on our five district goals and 7 district outcomes. You can view our district plan on our web site: https://www.cpsd.us/districtplan

Also, some of my personal interests will be:

• Expand vocational educational opportunities
• Increase our student’s ability to earn college credits while in high school
• Create a pipeline for paraprofessionals to get bachelor’s degree that will lead to teaching degrees at no or little cost.
• Explore with the Mayor ways to ensure community college is affordable to all students

Top Challenges Facing CPS today

Continue to Improve our Middle Schools
Ongoing support for the Upper Schools is essential to building a successful program in grades 6 through 8. It’s important we refine the Upper School program to meet the Innovation Agenda goal of a providing a superior academic and social experience for all students that prepares them for success in high school and post-secondary education. We need to continue to provide support and make investments in the areas that will enhance the success in our middle schools. Students enjoy attending schools with larger cohorts of students instead of the isolation that many experienced prior and the school system can provide enhanced offering in the visual and performing arts areas. The goal of having these middle schools racially balanced is also important to me. My goal is that every child leaving the middle school structure is ready to do rigorous work at CRLS.

Implementation of our approved three-year District Framework
This is the last school year of our current District Plan and we will be planning and developing a new District Plan. A process will need to be developed that allows for a lot of import from all our stakeholders. And given that we will have many newly elected school committee members this will be an exciting process. Well designed district plans will help keep the school committee focused on import goals.

Closing the Achievement Gap
While we have shown progress in closing the Achievement Gap will still need to make more progress. Our budgetary resources for the current budget have focused in on the neediest schools getting the resources they need. This translates into thirty-three new positions added, including more instructional aides, more math interventionists, more social workers to support this goal.

School Department Administration and Superintendent
With the adoption of a District Strategic Plan and its clarity about goals and objectives it’s a lot easier to hold administration and ourselves accountable. In addition, this school committee has taken seriously its obligation to evaluate the Superintendent of Schools on an annual basis to provide important feedback to him and by extension his leadership team as to our progress in key areas. Over the last few years school committee has been frustrated by the lack of progress in key academic areas-we expect more from the resources we provide. Our expectations are that Superintendent Salim will be bold in taking the necessary “action steps” to move our system.

School Department Budget and Capital needs
Strong relationships between the City Manager and City Council have allowed us to increase our general budgetary needs over the last few years to meet our growing needs. It’s unfortunate so much of our general fund dollars goes to support charter schools.

And in addition, the city has supported our capital needs which could reach half billion dollars over a ten-year period. We have a renovated high school, War Memorial athletic complex, built a state-of-the-art main branch of the public library, erected a new King and King Open Schools and are in planning process for a new Tobin school. We are providing our employees with top notch facilities in which to work and our students with the best climate to learn.

Of importance are older schools that also need attention paid to them. We continue to make repairs, replace boilers and roofs, install air conditioning units but a next phase of rebuilding and renovating these schools will be necessary.

Our current budget reflects an increase of close to 6% or over a 10 million dollar increase with some 59 positions being added. In the last three years we have added over 100 positions while other urban schools in Massachusetts are cutting their budgets.

Achievement Gaps, Meeting the needs of All Students
The persistence of an Achievement Gap still eludes us and requires a strong response from all stakeholders. Initiatives begun such as Response to Intervention, instructional coaches, significantly improved and targeted professional development, a strong curriculum plan, School Improvement Plans aligned with our District Strategic Plan all show great promise towards closing/eliminating the achievement gap. MCAS growth for our lowest performing students are showing promise but we must do better. Finally, our Superintendent needs to create a “sense of urgency” not panic that he wants the Achievement Gap eliminated as much as the school committee.

Meeting the Needs of Advanced Learners
I think we have a way to go in meeting the needs of Advance Learners. In school year 2013 the position of Academic Challenge Program Manager was created to oversee academic challenge and enrichment supports in the elementary and uppers schools. This position is currently unfilled (it’s being advertised again in hopes of getting a good match) and has many significant responsibilities including developing individual plans through the Subject Acceleration Protocol procedure for students, providing training programs for parents and being a contact person for parents. I recognize the frustration on the part of many families in this area and we must do better.

Controlled Choice, Student Assignment Policies
Our voluntary Controlled Choice plan stands out as a national model on how to integrate schools. The goal of making our schools balanced by Socio Economic Status is important to me as I believe strongly that the results are a stronger community and school system. School Choice works best when all schools are schools of excellence and the choice part is real. In this manner, all parents even though they may not get their first choice would remain satisfied. It’s important that all schools be in a continuous improvement mode, always striving for excellence.

As folks are aware, we have many choices in our system from Montessori school, three immersion schools, two extended day schools, schools that believe in project-based learning, schools that many chose because they live in the neighborhood, and schools that have a strong music program. It is our obligation to do a review of our elementary school program to see where improvement/changes need to be made.

I’ve been around since the start of our voluntary controlled choice plan and know the importance of children of all races and economic backgrounds learning and growing together. The schools are the center of a community and having our schools be diverse makes for a much stronger community.

Curriculum and programs
Our relatively new experienced Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction will oversee the three areas noted below. Her focus on strategic planning and implementation for curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development JK-12 will be critical to moving our system forward.

Elementary School
As one can see by visiting our schools, administrators, teachers, and specialists are working hard to create a special place for our children. Our elementary schools have many resources that most schools in Massachusetts do not. Parent Liaisons, full time Librarians, school based discretionary funds, assistant principals, innovative programs like Kodaly Music, a community engagement team, significant professional development and much more. And it goes without saying that a strong active parent community adds a lot of value to our schools.

Our elementary schools now are aligning their school improvement plans with that of the district to create alignment. The school system will also this year begin to review our elementary programs to ensure we are making progress with our students.

Our K-5 schools are much smaller, and strong leaders can manager them well. We are in a good place to make progress including closing the Achievement Gap.

Middle School Grades
Ongoing support for the Upper Schools is essential to building a successful program in grades 6 through 8. It’s important we refine the Upper School program in order to meet the Innovation Agenda goal of a providing a superior academic and social experience for all students that prepares them for success in high school and post-secondary education. We need to continue to provide support and make investments in areas that will enhance the success in our middle schools. Students enjoy attending schools with larger cohorts of students instead of the isolation that many experienced prior and the school system can provide enhanced offering in the visual and performing arts areas. The goal of having these middle schools racially balanced is also important to me. My goal is that every child leaves middle school ready to succeed at CRLS.

High School Grades
Our high school continues to be the showcase of our system with capable strong leadership with principal, Damon Smith, a great facility and campus, and very active community groups and strong community support. We continue to send students to the nation’s best colleges and universities and to careers that require two-year schools, apprenticeships, or other training. High school enrollment is increasing because of many students coming from private elementary schools want to attend CRLS in no small part because of excellence in instruction and high rates of college admissions to a thoroughly diverse range of institutions.

We can take pride in our Levelling Up program where all incoming ninth grades and now tenth graders are taking honors English Language Arts and History. This we hope will encourage our students to further challenge themselves by taking Advanced Placement Courses.

Language Immersion Programs
As someone who was on the committee 30 years when we started the Amigos program and was active in supporting the Ola and Mandarin Chinese immersion programs, I take great pride in having the vision to recognize the important of immersion programs long before they became popular.

We all know the educational research on how Immersion programs benefit all children and they are an important part in our School Choice system. We must continue to support our immersion programs, help schools promote the values of bilingual education, and in thoughtful ways talk about opportunities for more low-income children to attend them.

It’s important to note that I believe we have many excellent schools all throughout our city from Immersion Programs, to our Montessori program, our extended day schools, our schools that many consider neighborhood schools, and schools that believe in project-based learning. As I’ve mentioned above the success of our Controlled Choice System is based strongly on the notion that all schools must be excellent choices for parents. Given we have a consistent curriculum at each school I believe we are getting there.

Extended day programs
Cambridge offers many choices in our public schools two of which are extended day programs at the Fletcher Maynard Academy and the King School. Children go to school for 8 hours a day except Wednesday. Many parents favor a longer school day for their children. With more time, schools can be creative in scheduling and course offerings. For example, additional courses can be offered (Spanish at Fletcher Maynard), extended classes in all subjects including academics and Visual and Performing arts, more time for teachers to collaborate, etc.

Early Childhood Education
I think we all agree on the importance of early childhood education and the importance of providing high quality programs that are affordable. The city and school department are working jointly thru its original task force on Early Childhood Education now referred to as “Birth to Grade 3 Partnerships” to meet these goals. Some progress has been made in that slots for long income families has been made and coaches have been working with some preschool provides to ensure that programs are of high quality.

I believe the task force’s goal this year will be to work on a comprehensive plan that will involve the school department, city and preschool provides to provide a model that will support its goals. My sense is that the resulting recommendation will be a hybrid model as they figure out which of the three entities will serve which children.

It would be good to have another roundtable discussion with the City Council to see where progress stands.

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