Worcester Blog Comments On Vecchia, School Committee And Southbridge

Ken O’Brien

Turtleboysports.com is a blog in Worcester that covers a wide range of issues.

Yesterday they printed an article about Councilor Albert Vecchia’s fingering of the Southbridge School Committee. Here is their take on that as well as a few other things in Southbridge.

Whenever I look at the crooks and spinsters who run Worcester’s government and think to myself, “It can’t get much worse than this,” I always read some story about Southbridge and realize it could definitely be worse. As much of a shitshow as our School Committee is, at least we don’t have city councilors showing up for SC meetings just to give them all the middle finger. 

At the same time, I kind of wish we did. Our City Council isn’t half the joke that our SC is. Yes, there are some ding-dongs on there like Father Sarai Rivera, Dicky Rushton, and Mayor Mushmouth. But at the end of the day they voted 9-2 to pass the pro-police resolution because ultimately they haven’t all gotten completely into bed with the Circlejerk.

But the School Committee in the Woo is a completely different story. They’re the ones who keep giving Melinda Boone, possibly the worst superintendent in world history, new contracts. She is the Rick Porcello of education and our SC is filled with Larry Luccino’s and Ben Cherington’s of the world. Seriously though, I wish we had a City Councilor who wasn’t afraid to show up at a School Committee meeting and give Tracy Novick the finger.

As for Southbridge restructuring their schools, none of this matters. Because at the end of the day, it’s still Southbridge, so the schools are fucked either way. The teachers and principals can only play the hand they’re dealt.

Honestly though, Southbridge is a bizarre town. It used be a swanky village in southern Worcester County, and it still has a lot of really nice houses. But as usual, as soon as the welfare office opened up – POW – it all went to hell. Next thing you know Worcester and Webster’s finest are making the move to Southbridge for the cheaper rent.

They have a shit ton of school choice kids in that town who end up going to Quaboag, or Tantasqua, or Shepherd Hill. And can you blame them? If you’re a normal kid in Southbridge High School you can’t possibly have the All-American high school experience you were promised on Saved by the Bell. There’s a serious lack of clubs and student organizations when compared to other high schools, and the sports teams at Southbridge are basically as bad as you get. I’m not kidding when I say that a 13-0 route in any sport is a pretty standard score when the Pioneers come to town.

It’s a school where teachers are going to have to deal with disciplinary issues they’d never see in one of the neighboring towns. And thanks to the brilliant people who run our state government, the school’s hands are tied when it comes to suspending kids.

So yea, my take on the restructure thing is that it doesn’t matter. Southbridge will still be Southbridge. But what I do like is the sass that Councilor Alber Vecchia brought to the table. Apparently they thought they were going to lose that vote going into the meeting, but then a couple members changed their vote at the last minute.

So he got a little carried away and gave Chairwoman Lauren C. McLoughlin the finger. Big deal. If you’re her you gotta brush that one off. Your side lost, his side won. Losers don’t get to decide how winners get to celebrate. It’s his right to rub it in your face. If you can’t deal with that then you shouldn’t be in office. That’s just politics 101. But instead of taking it in stride she went and cried to the police to have the winner taken out of the meeting.

Oh well, at the end of the day Vecchia is a winner, McLoughlin’s a loser, and Southbridge is still royally fucked. 

P.S. We went to the DOJ meeting the other night which centered around how to find ways to get more minority representation in the local government. Well here’s a screen shot of the audience from that meeting in Southbridge:

As you can see, almost everyone who showed up to this meeting and is actively engaged in their local government, is white. But Southbridge is far from a white-washed town. Here’s the enrollment data in their schools:

See that right there? That’s the fucking problem in a nutshell. Over half of Southbridge High School is latino, but does 52% of that audience look like they speak spanish? The hippies will whine and call this racist because they refuse to confront reality. The reason there is a lack of minority representation in the government isn’t because the city is doing anything wrong, or voting isn’t accesible, or the littany of excuses we hard on Monday night. The reason we don’t have representative government racially speaking is because the level of “I don’t give a fuck” is too high in some of these particular communities. Any hippie who denies is denying reality and therefore preventing progress. The easiest way to start getting more diversity in your elected officials is that a more diverse constituency has to start showing up to meetings and they have to start voting. Boom. Racism fixed.

Sometimes it’s very revealing to see ourselves as we are seen by others.