Dorchester BOE votes to terminate alternative education contract

CAMBRIDGE — Following a tense discussion, the Dorchester County Board of Education voted to terminate its three-year contract with Vision Quest, an alternative education program for district high schoolers that has been met with criticism from residents since it was approved in September.

Board member Chris Wheedleton, who voted against approving the contract in September, made the motion at a board meeting Thursday to terminate the contract for convenience. Along with Wheedleton, board members Talibah Chikwendu and Sheri Hubbard voted in favor of terminating the contract. Board Vice President Susan Morgan voted against termination, and board President Mike Diaz abstained from the vote and stayed silent during the discussion, as his wife is employed at Vision Quest.

According to the contract, either party can terminate the agreement by providing written notice at least 180 days before the termination date. Under the agreement, Dorchester County Public Schools paid Vision Quest $93,363 per month for:

In-school services — such as pyscho-educational groups, anger management and conflict resolution — for up to 10 students at any given time.Voluntary off-campus educational and behavioral support services at Vision Quest’s Morningstar Youth Academy facility in Woolford for up to 16 students at any given time.Family functional therapy services for up to 10 DCPS families at any given time.

Over three years, this would have cost the district over $3.3 million.

Before the vote, Wheedleton said he had multiple conversations with constituents about Vision Quest. He said the contract should be terminated because it is “fiscally irresponsible” and he believes Vision Quest has violated its contract with DCPS by not providing monthly reports.

“I, as a board member, have only seen two reports this year on progress,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think those reports have actually demonstrated progress.

Wheedleton said he believes there needs to be alternative education options for students, but this current agreement is not in the district’s best interest.

Morgan — who said she had been to Morningstar Youth Academy in Woolford and talked with parents of the students in the program — asked Wheedleton if he had visited the facility. He said he had not because that is not his job as a board member.

Morgan said there were seven district students who graduated this year that wouldn’t have if they had “stayed on the path they were on.”

“You have no idea what would have happened to those students if they had been in our schools supported by another program,” Wheedleton said in response.

Morgan said DCPS has tried other alternative education programs that have been unsuccessful. She said the school system won’t have enough time to put another program in place before school starts in the fall.

Wheedleton said he believes the district’s executive team has time to form a new agreement for an alternative education program.

“It’s a three-year contract,” Morgan said. “And if you want to break the contract and you think you have the reasons, then you’ve made the vote.”

Chikwendu said she didn’t believe the Vision Quest contract is in the best interest of DCPS students. She said she has based that on information from people who have gone to the facility, from people who have seen the program inside schools and from the Vision Quest reports that the schools have received.

Hubbard said she voted to terminate the contract due to the “numerous, numerous complaints” she has received about Vision Quest as well as a conversation she had with a former Vision Quest staff member about the conditions.

LOOKING AHEAD

This vote comes 10 days after the Board of Education voted to approve the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget. At that meeting, the board acknowledged the challenges of passing a balanced budget and interim Superintendent Jymil Thompson talked about the “fiscal cliff” that is coming with COVID-19-related funding nearing an end.

Wheedleton, who was not at the meeting due to a work conflict, said he was shocked when he found out the budget had been voted on. Wheedleton brought this up at the meeting Thursday, calling out board leadership, revealing fractures within the board.

“I’m now convinced, after a year on the board, that one of the biggest challenges in DCPS, if not the biggest, is this board,” he said. “I am part of that, so I am partly to blame. I have failed in bringing people together, and I need to be part of whatever solutions we find.”

Wheedleton said he hates to have to make statements like this.

“This does not feel collaborative, and it feels divisive,” he said. “But this experience and the culture of this board currently matches that.”

Thompson, whose four-year superintendent contract beginning July 1 was unanimously approved at the start of the meeting, asked that everyone work together.

“Because if this is the reality, if we don’t get better, if we don’t work together, we’re going to still be sitting at 23 in five years,” he said. “That’s a guarantee.”

Since becoming interim superintendent in March, Thompson has talked about the need to increase the district’s ranking up from 23rd in the state. At the meeting, he said the district will be using the hashtag #23nomore this year.

Thompson talked about the importance of seeing one’s role in the district as bigger than themself.

“I’ll say it 1,000 times,” he said. “I’m the superintendent, but the job’s not about me. It’s much bigger. And that’s what I want to keep the focus on, the most important people. And that’s our kids.”