Parents Sound Off On Plan To Close School In Salem

SALEM, MA -- Parents, students and teachers accused Salem Public Schools Superintendent Margarita Ruiz with targeting a mostly Hispanic community with her plan to close the Nathaniel Bowditch School at the end of the school year. At a forum Monday night, just one person spoke in defense of the plan.

Under the plan, Bowditch's sixth, seventh and eight graders would move to the Collins Middle School next year. School district staff would work with families to place Bowditch elementary students in new schools. The school building would become the new home of the Horace Mann Labortory School, which is currently located in what Mayor Kim Driscoll described as a "substandard" facility on the campus of Salem State University.

"Here we are tonight, still wondering why the students are the problem," retired Bowditch teacher Peggy Fucillo said according to the Salem News, which first reported this story. "Are their lives so insignificant that their school is closing because of them? Moving them to different schools like pawns on a chess board will help solve the problem, so geography is the answer? I don't think so."

Throughout the process, Ruiz has said the decision is part of an effort to "end segregation" at the school, which has a large percentage of Hispanic students and low-income families. The school has consistently failed to meet state performance goals. In a press release earlier this month, the school district elaborated on those comments, noting the city had fallen short in its efforts to implement a 2013 plan to improve performance at the school. Under that plan, students in the Sheltered Immersion program were transferred to Bowditch, where they were to have received additional support for students who were learning English.

But on Monday, speakers said the plan was doing the exact opposite of what Ruiz intended.

"You're targeting our Spanish community at Bowditch, and every family at the Bowditch school," said Bowditch teacher Diana Vargas. "The district is creating a discrimination problem with this decision. The only families being affected by this process are the families of the Nathaniel Bowditch school, and nobody else."

More on this story: School System Failed Bowditch Students: Letter To The Editor(02/12/2018)

For more on this story, see the Salem News. Subscribe to Salem Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo of Salem Public Schools Superintendent Margarita Ruiz.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).