Yes!!! PVRS has a new Superintendent!!

Congrats Jonathan Scagel, we looked into your history and are very happy with this choice. You have the Teachers, Students and Taxpayers backing you up. Your commitment and foresight for the love of our school is what PVRS  is so desperately in need of. So much has been lost, great teachers, our beloved Mike Duprey and Cathy HH, Mr. Mullin, ad so many others. Just like our paws that once stood bright when you drove into PVRS and are now gone, so was our spirit. I feel you will put life back into what has been lost and we will once again be the great school we once were in time.

As for you Pat and Young, and the rest of this SC  the destruction you allowed to our schools will not be forgotten. Your failure to not only do your jobs and due diligence on Miller is unforgivable. You were given proof of her abilities and you ignored not only us, but teachers and Administrators. You allowed careers to be destroyed and listened to lies because people spoke out against her. You betrayed our teachers and students and taxpayers. YOU and only you are to blame for this mess we are in. You will get yours at the next elections and it will be heard loud and strong. For that we will be back.

As for you Miller, your destruction ends here. We will not allow you to destroy another school and will speak out every chance we get. Hopefully the State will also see you for what you are and stop you as well. We are strong we will come back stronger than ever. Our job here is done your gone.You cannot leave fast enough.

Again, Jonathan Scagel thank you for taking  this step, it won't be easy you have to deal with a incompetent SC but, just remember we have your back. Now, let the healing begin!!

                                              WE ARE THE PANTHERS






NORTHFIELD — Jonathan Scagel will be the interim superintendent of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District. He starts in July with a one-year contract that can be extended for another year.
Scagel has been a teacher at Pioneer Valley Regional School for a year, and has 24 years of prior experience working in various teaching and administrative positions, he said. He is the youngest of the four candidates interviewed by the School Committee on Tuesday night, and the only one without experience as a superintendent. The other candidates were Bob Clancy, principal at Pearl Rhodes Elementary School in Leyden and Bernardston Elementary School; Robert Gazda, a former superintendent and principal of the Gilbert School, a private school for grades 7-12 in Winstead, Conn. and Suzanne Scallion, a former superintendent for Westfield public schools from 2011 until her retirement in 2016.
“I can see what a great place this school is. I know we’re in a little bit of trouble right now, but I can see the potential,” Scagel said to the School Committee. “I can see the passion. I can hear it from the School Committee members, from the taxpayers. They want something better for this district and I feel that I can get us there. I feel that I have the leadership ability. I’m a strong leader. I’m a creative, effective leader that has a vision for Pioneer. I feel that I can inspire the taxpayers, you (the School Committee), the community members, the parents, the families and most importantly, the students to achieve that vision, because they deserve it.”
The School Committee did not disregard Scagel’s lack of experience as a superintendent, especially as it would relate to the difficult decisions that the interim superintendent will almost definitely have to make in the coming year to cut staff, programs or both. Scagel’s familiarity with the staff of Pioneer Valley Regional School, some committee members said, could be a double-edged sword.
“It’s hard to ask someone to cut a friend’s job,” Chairwoman Pat Shearer warned.

But all committee members were impressed by Scagel’s enthusiasm and his unorthodox ideas, like installing solar panels on the school buildings, working with local and national businesses to sponsor technology purchases and building renovations and hiring a grant writer whose salary would come directly out of the grants he or she obtains for the district.
Just as important as Scagel’s apparent capability, the committee said, is his familiarity with the district and the inner workings of the school.
“We need somebody from within because healing comes from within,” said committee member Jim Bell, who coaches track at Pioneer Valley Regional School.
“I really want the passion and the energy and the youthfulness,” said committee member John Rodgers. “I can take that over experience any day.”
Contact Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261 ext. 261.

Congrats John

Congrats John ... Make PVRs proud. Our new superintendent.

How DARE you David Young

How dare you David Young respond to this woman in this manner. You and the rest of this dead horse board work for US and you answer to us. We voted you in and we and will vote you out.
Do your jobs? You haven't done your jobs in 3 years, you allowed Miller to run rampant and destroy our schools. You allowed teachers careers to be destroyed who were loyal and the best for these kids to be fired because they spoke out against Miller and you! How dare you speak to anyone this way. Ken Mullen is 100 % correct this SC is totally dysfunctional and let us just go over your incompetent email. ( Which I am not so sure you were allowed to write without the rest of the SC involved) But, they will know now.


Teacher Ken Mullen was quoted (Recorder) saying of the School Committee dysfunction, “We need to start exchanging ideas, making connections, coming up with solutions, instead of pointing out problems”. I agree. The School Committee needs to do this. We need to stop taking up valuable meeting time with a continued public comment.WHAT! The public who pay these taxes has every right to speak up and it is your job to listen. We need to deliberate as a body without having ideas opposed by the audience at every turn. We will never do our best four hours into a meeting. Let the committee meet. It is the inaction that comes of heeding every of the public’s admonition not to cut, not to RIF, not to change that got us here.NO, Miller got us here and your inability to listen to the public who warned you of her destruction from day one! Don't you dare put your dysfunctions on us when it was your job to be in control and you haven't been in 3 years! When we heed the public we generate unrealistic paper budgets that can’t obtain. Again WHAT!!!!!! You allowed a new building that cost more than was affordable and than had to be removed costing, even more, unrealistic raises for a first time principal, VP, ASST Superintendent and Superintendent..to name a few and let us not forget a no teacher classroom program.   We under budget expenses and we make rosy revenue assumptions. Doing so we fail our mission. The time for hearings is over. ( YOU CANNOT STOP OPEN MEETINGS AND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD.
My second point is, I think it better that we pick our own poison. From that view I find the message from Chairman Shearer to the committee and many who have written us troubling, “We will only do what the state agencies force the district to do to climb our of the financial hole we are in.” Gads! I bet she meant to assure folk that we are not going to go overboard, we aren’t going to overreact. It sounds too much like what got us here: blind faith, hopeful optimism, denial. We twelve are in this together. Lets work through it, compromise, and get the job done of making and ranking cuts. From there we can seek more funds, track the next year and free up funds we prudently reserved for Unemployment, Health Insurance, Special Needs as we prove we have a doable budget. We can’t risk more losses. Lets be the stewards we were elected to be. WE DID ALLOW YOU TO BE THE STEWARDS YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO BE AND HERE WE ARE. YOUR  INCOMPETENT AND THE FACTS HAVE SPOKEN FOR THEMSELVES.
Kind regards,
David Young



http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/advisory/cm1115gov.html

To the members of the PVRSD School Committee,
I write to you as a current parent of a student within the PVRS district as well as a concerned citizen and would like to pose several questions to the committee, as well as express my deep concern as it pertains to the upcoming interview and selection process regarding the position of Superintendent.
I ask the committee as a whole, what the process entails for interviewing candidates? Is there a standardized interview/selection committee formed when interviewing each candidate and is the said committee using standardized interview questions, so as there is equality and the ability for appropriate comparison of each candidate. Also, is there a rubric to determine your assessment of the candidates during the interview/selection process?
As a citizen/parent that is employed full time, I ask your reasoning for holding the upcoming Superintendent interviews, that are scheduled to begin at 3:45pm, when this is a time when the majority of the community cannot attend this meeting and am concerned that this time was intentionally chosen in order to reduce the amount of citizens able to observe the interviews and minimize the transparency between the committee and citizens during the course of the selection process.
Regarding the amount of time allotted for the interviews, I am interested in knowing why all but one candidate would be provided thirty minutes for an interview, while one candidate is being provided 45 minutes, as it is outlined on the posted meeting agenda.
Lastly, I would like to express my deep concern regarding the fact that this is not the first attempt on the committee’s part to interview selected candidates, and would like to stress the importance of selecting a candidate who is true to the students and community of PVRSD, who is competent and is able to think “outside of the box” to help improve the current state of the district and feel that all of the candidates, EXCEPT for Jon Scagel, would not only create additional stress on the current situation at PVRSD, but have a public history of creating undue stress, executed decisions with negative financial implications, and have lacked complete transparency, while serving other educational districts or in varying educational roles. I respectfully ask that each of you understand the much of the community’s preferred candidate, being Jon Scagel, and take into consideration that as our elected officials you have the ability to create tremendous positive change while collaborating with your community to ensure that moving forward, our students can be educated without compromising the future quality of their education.
Thank you in advance for your time and attention.
Respectfully,
Kristen M. Gonzalez
Reply:
Teacher Ken Mullen was quoted (Recorder) saying of the School Committee dysfunction, “We need to start exchanging ideas, making connections, coming up with solutions, instead of pointing out problems”. I agree. The School Committee needs to do this. We need to stop taking up valuable meeting time with continued public comment. We need to deliberate as a body without having ideas opposed by the audience at every turn. We will never do our best four hours into a meeting. Let the committee meet. It is the inaction that comes of heeding every of the public’s admonition not to cut, not to RIF, not to change that got us here. When we heed the public we generate unrealistic paper budgets that can’t obtain. We underbudget expenses and we make rosy revenue assumptions. Doing so we fail our mission. The time for hearings is over.
My second point is, I think it better that we pick our own poison. From that view I find the message from Chairman Shearer to the committee and many who have written us troubling, “We will only do what the state agencies force the district to do to climb our of the financial hole we are in.” Gads! I bet she meant to assure folk that we are not going to go overboard, we aren’t going to overreact. It sounds too much like what got us here: blind faith, hopeful optimism, denial. We twelve are in this together. Lets work through it, compromise, and get the job done of making and ranking cuts. From there we can seek more funds, track the next year and free up funds we prudently reserved for Unemployment, Health Insurance, Special Needs as we prove we have a doable budget. We can’t risk more losses. Lets be the stewards we were elected to be.
Kind regards,
David Young

                                            WE ARE THE PANTHERS AND WE FIGHT