Methuen Mayor D.J. Beauregard appeared on Spanish Language radio last week as a guest of “Despierta Lawrence Radio” on Power 102.9 with hosts Lissy Rivas, John Rigal, and Gaby Robles where he was hit with some tough questions he isn’t used to being confronted with.
For most of the one-hour interview Beauregard was concise and seemed to answer most of the questions, including blaming parents and not the teachers and educators in the Methuen Schools for the fact that kids can’t read as well as getting really vague when confronted with the fact that teachers are pushing the concept of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” yet 94% of the teachers are White women despite more than 50% of the students in Methuen are Latino.
“We are in a period right now where we have an acting superintendent and ultimately in Massachusetts it’s a superintendent of schools [in charge of that].
That position is really critical in terms of the school district itself and casting vision for the district. And given the fact that we are in between superintendents right now is presenting our city with a very unique opportunity to achieve significant change by the way of the fact that we are talking about increasing diversity in our schools by way of hiring more diverse representative educators.”
“People in Methuen should be able to communicate with people in their local government who speak their language. When we talk about municipal services, if we are not able to communicate with our residents, then we are not able to provide them with the services that they expect and deserve.”
“Look at our City Council right now. You’ve seen the election of people like City Council Chair Nelly Soto and Councilor Patricia Valley and I think this is critical for our residents to be able to have elected officials and people making decisions in our city are people who are truly representative of Methuen.”
“So, we have a lot of work to do, but we are making progress and it’s important to draw attention to the progress that’s being made.”
[EDITORS NOTE: Beauregard did not support Neily Soto and actively campaigned against Patricia Valley.]
Beauregard added that the selection process of choosing a new superintendent of schools was lengthy, but added that he was hoping for more “calm” on the committee as that process begins to take place.
When asked why the schools were graduating 85.6% of the kids even though 70% of kids in Methuen cannot read at grade level, Beauregard had no real answers and seemed uninterested in holding educators accountable, instead blaming parents and didn’t even hint at measures of accountability for educators who are clearly not getting the job done.
BLAMING PARENTS
“I think that literacy is a major problem and it is not unique to Methuen. I read a story in the Boston Globe recently that about a third of seniors in the Boston Public Schools are not on track to graduate. So, you see this across the commonwealth when it comes to educational progress. I think what makes Methuen unique is how we address this problem. I’m somebody who believes that literacy and the abilities to read is a school issue but it’s also an issue that doesn’t start and end with the schools. I think it’s a community issue just like bullying. I think that’s really important but it’s an issue that starts at home.”
“Something I’ve tried to do with my own child is from the very moment she was born is that we started reading one children’s book to her every night. I think things like that build a culture of literacy and I think it’s important for us to encourage parents in our community to read to your children. Because ultimately the skills that they build at home in that context will equip them for success when they go to school.”
Beauregard said he wants to start a literacy partnership like Haverhill which is modeled after the successful behavioral promise program.
“The thinking is to bring all of these stakeholders together to ensure that literacy is a community wide initiative and I’m going to say the same thing about bullying. One of the issues that our most recent school audit found was that bullying is one of the top issues in our schools.”
“I think that’s something that also starts at home. Well, let’s just say if you have a child in the schools that uses foul language. They may hear that from a classmate. They also might be hearing that at home. They might hear it from social media. They might hear it from the movies and content that they watch and those behaviors are learned. We do need to address that but it also has to be addressed at home.”
“So, I have an unpopular opinion. I think we need to follow Australia’s lead, and we should ban social media for children under the age of 16 years old.”
When asked about what he was doing to reach out to help Latino businesses, Beauregard said he actually has a plan for that and said that rumors that he doesn’t like Latinos were “lies made up by my political opponents” though he would not say who those evil, lying, political opponents were.
“Rumors about me being racist are lies by political opponents. I am someone who believes that diversity is our strength, and I am committed to ensuring our government does a better job representing our wonderful Hispanic community.”
“I am also committed to fighting for them and doing everything I can to meet the needs of Methuen’s Hispanic community.”
SPANISH SPEAKING BUILDING INSPECTOR ON THE WAY
“Something I am including in the next budget is funding for an additional building inspector. We need a Spanish-speaking building inspector. We have so many Spanish-speaking residents of our city who have ideas and dreams of starting new businesses and providing an ADU for a loved one on their property (an ADU is an accessory dwelling unit like an in-law apartment) and hey need to be able to go to City Hall and get help and have an advocate who will ensure that they are able to turn their ideas into realities.
ELIMINATING BUSINESS REGISTRATION FEES
Host Gaby Robles asked what the mayor was doing to help businesses become more affordable in Methuen?
“We have one of the most competitive commercial tax rates in the region, which is very helpful. Something that we’re going to be doing in the coming months as we are going to be eliminating new business registration fees in the city.
Of course, when people want to renew them, they would pay. But at least to get the new businesses off the ground we’re eliminating those fees and thankfully with the help of people like City Council Chairman Neily Soto and Counselor Valley and the entire city council, we are now bringing on a new economic development coordinator in our city.”
“This person will live and breathe small businesses in Methuen where their role would be to go out and actively recruit small businesses to come to Methuen – businesses of all size actually. This person would be here to serve our existing business community and this is going to be the person who – whenever an entrepreneur comes to City Hall with an idea and a vision – is going to be the person who says ‘I’ve got you’ rather than having entrepreneurs bounce from office to office.
This will be the one person who will guide them and help them navigate what is often viewed as a complex bureaucracy in City Hall.
“So there are things that I’m committed to doing to make sure that the government works for our businesses.” ◊