Mark McCarthy appointed to fill vacant school committee seat in Chicopee

The article below is based off of a transcript and an LLM generated summary of the Nov 18 meeting of the Chicopee City Council and School Committee. Please email 6.g.9.d.6.g.9.d@gmail.com if you believe any information presented is not accurate.

I'm aware there are ways to make better images with stable diffusion than what I'm posting here but I kinda like the shitty ones better.


[Model: hf.co/bartowski/SuperNova-Medius-GGUF:Q6_K_L  / Temperature 0]

[Transcript length: 02hr 48 min / 21,719 words / 28,597 tokens]

Mark McCarthy appointed to fill vacant school committee seat in Chicopee
By Jonathan Gerhardson on November 20, 2024.

Chicopee, MA-- Mark McCarthy was appointed to the Chicopee School Committee on Nov. 18,  at a joint meeting of the Chicopee City Council and School Committee. He fills a seat left vacant by Chet Szetela, who retired in October.

McCarthy will serve as an at-large representative of the School Committee in a term ending Dec. 2025.

Update: In a statement to The Skynet Times, McCarthy said he intends to seek election to a full term on the school committee if he "feels like he can continue to contribute."

There were 11 candidates being considered to fill the seat, and after several rounds of eliminations, McCarthy won with a final vote of 14 to 8 against candidate Jason Fay.

The candidates for the role were: [note: some names are spelled incorrectly, I will update with correct spellings once I confirm them]
Joel McAuliffe
Mark McCarthy
Jessica Avery
Terry Thibault (referred to as Terry Tebow in some parts of the transcript)
Christopher Acevedo
Jason Fay
Omar Irizarry
Yvette Toodle (referred to as Yvette Tuttle and Yvette Herre in different parts of the transcript)
Rafael Nazario
James Tannhauser Jr.
Felicita Cintron

At the meeting, McCarthy said the following in support of his candidacy:

"My son is in his second year of pre-K at Szetela Early Childhood Center. Last year, I served as vice president of the PTO there and have recently volunteered to support Principal Reed as a member of their school council.

I'd like to share with you my hopes, my qualifications, and my commitments. I hope that we can contribute to better outcomes for students, including those often identified as under-served, like those from low-income families, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities. Dr. Ware has called the goal of his vision building equity and excellence for all, a theme I embrace. I hope that teachers and administrators in Chicopee feel appreciated and supported so that we are a district known in the region for high teacher retention and job satisfaction. I hope that the recent removal of the MCAS graduation requirement will re-calibrate educational power dynamics toward the local level. I believe that the state and federal government are important partners that can support districts, but I have concerns about the ways that politics shape educational policy and reform.

I hope that when we strive for excellence for our students, that we do so through the professionalization of teachers, not the enrichment of curriculum publishers. I'm not a licensed teacher in Massachusetts. I'm a literacy teacher educator.

I teach teachers how to teach kids to read. I spend time in public schools as a supervisor of student teachers, partnering with principals and mentor teachers to develop those student teachers into great teachers. I've also been a part of recent  DESE [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] grant-funded literacy initiatives and consortia, and I saw from the October 2nd meeting that our district is working with Bay Path in a similar function.

Inherent in the work of teacher education is the assumption that we can make schools and teachers better. The desire for improvement is not an indictment of public schooling. Amidst all of the hard work, innovative instruction, community collaborations, in the midst of all the great work our schools do, there are places to get better.

It's both and, not either or. We are doing well, and we can get better. That's a stance taken by the greatest educators I know.

I'm also a literacy researcher. Literacy is central to the work of schools, and literacy outcomes are becoming a larger part of school accountability. Literacy research is diverse, and there is not universal agreement within the field, but there are strong currents in the national dialogue, state-level policies, and curricular materials.

I also understand some of the ways that educational research can be taken up to meet political ends that do not prioritize the best interests of students. I can provide an academic perspective. I acknowledge the distinction between an appointment and an election.

I would enter into this role with the full humility of someone who has not undergone the experience of a campaign, nor received the mandate of a popular vote. I commit to earning your confidence, and that of the residents of Chicopee, and the stakeholders in Chicopee Public Schools. I'm committed to putting students' learning first, while acknowledging that teacher well-being is central to supporting their learning.

As we crystallize the vision of our district, I'm hopeful that creativity and innovation may light our way. I'm committed to using my time in this role as an advocate for the promise of what education can be when local governments assert their right to empower teachers, represent communities in the curriculum, and center the values that tie us to one another. Dr. Ware is off to a strong start, and I want to serve Chicopee in this committee in helping him craft and enact the vision that leads us to excellence and equity for all. Thank you."