The office of State Senator Nick Collins issued a press release on Tuesday announcing a meeting regarding the state of the Oliver Hazard Perry School. He would be joined by City Councilor Ed Flynn and State Representative David Biele to discuss with the school community concerns of questionable leadership and a controversial Hispanic Heritage Month bulletin board hung on campus.

“We have heard a significant volume of calls from both new and returning parents over the last week to 10 days, beginning with the concerns around the display of communist dictators on the school bulletin board,” said Collins. “This meeting is not just about the bulletin board but about deeper concerns with recent decisions and changes.”

The board depicted Cuban President Fidel Castro, Argentine revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, and Argentine President Juan Perón alongside other notable Hispanic figures. It was not an original creation of the school but a $5 prefab sold by an Algeria-based company, Little Star Learners. 

BPS Operations Leader Courtney Kinney confirmed the board had been taken down prior to the meeting and that Superintendent Mary Skipper was in agreement that its being up in the first place was a “huge mistake.”

Parents were not happy with the posters. They were even less pleased that the issue had reached an audience outside of just parental concerns.

“I’m not super happy about [the posters], but my kid’s not in danger from seeing Fidel Castro on the board. I was legitimately worried that there was physical risk to our kids,” said a parent.

“This Hispanic heritage month display was an unfortunate mistake,” said another. “It’s very unfortunate that some of those images are now being disseminated to online right-wing tabloid blogs that are painting our school and our community in a terrible light and, frankly, probably putting a dangerous target on our school community’s back.”

One such tabloid, Mass Daily News, accused principal Brendan McGrath of “pushing leftist propaganda into classrooms,” and shared the Zoom link to their own audience of 50,000+ readers. Comments on their post included “This is what they do, teachers are the enemy,” and “you’re going to start a war you won’t win,” among other politically charged responses. 

It was requested that the three representatives release an official statement clarifying the situation and confirming that the posters had been removed.

Collins responded by stating that he would be happy to release a statement once Perry and BPS had confirmed the signage was removed. “This is something that they’re responsible for. So we can clearly state that we’re glad to see this has come down and that it’s ended, but the school, I think, has to state that as well,” he said.

This did not reassure parents. “We’re scared for our kids in our school yard, like from crazy people in the community, because this caused an alarming reaction among a lot of people out there. So [a parent] asking you guys to put something out there, I think, is really important,” one said. “The people who brought this to the forefront are missing the point of everything here. We now put our school and our children in jeopardy. We didn’t need this.”

The specifics of the broader leadership issues remained nebulous, with only hearsay and uncorroborated reports from Judith Nee, a retired Perry School teacher. 

“For you folks looking for a list of items, this meeting would not be called if there wasn’t concern among the staff. It’s a very dicey area, and there is such a thing as retaliation,” said Nee. “Be grateful that somehow the word got out that there’s apparently a lot going on in there that’s undermining morale, that will eventually undermine test scores.”

She raised a variety of concerns, including the removal of the school motto, teachers being “spied on,” and scheduling changes that created a hectic learning environment.

Collins added that an anonymous source had alleged that experienced teachers who were viewed as “threats” to McGrath had been put up for review, and that the environment within the school was dictator-like.

Collins, Biele, and Flynn plan to meet with the Superintendent, principal, and teachers to take a tour of the school next week.