Peabody High - ON WARNING

So the accreditation report from the New England Association of
Schools and Colleges on Peabody High was released last night. And it wasn't all good.

Here is the link for the Salem News story.

The School Committee and City Hall are all abuzz with indignation over such a report. Well... too bad. The Mayor's claim that the association members "aren't qualified" because they are not architects rings hollow... I mean neither is he so how would he know?

Now, the News is only reporting the BAD (it is the Salem News after all and they rarely have a good word to say concerning Peabody). Some good points were listed as well, but the focus will be on the WARNING STATUS and the bad stuff. Lets take a look at what was reported...

From the story:
In the letter by NEASC's Pamela Gray-Bennett, school officials were asked to submit a "Special Progress Report" by Nov. 1 of next year. She asked them to indicate how the school had addressed a number of the problems, like...

• the lack of adequate textbooks,
• teacher turnover,
• and built-in collaboration time for teachers.

Lack of textbooks? This is a direct school budget issue. Either there is not enough money for these books, or someone isn't properly spending the money on the correct priorities.
Teacher Turnover? This is pretty much a direct result of the pay inequity of Peabody teachers compared with the surrounding communities... which is again tied directly to the school budget.
Too little Collaboration Time? Well... this is just a bad policy decision based on too much to do in too little time - maybe more teachers would help make there be more time for these important tasks?

So what do you think of this situation?