E. Loretta Roach

This series documents the activities of Citywide Educational Coalition's executive staff, including project development; fundraising and resource development; relations with the Boston School Committee, the Boston Teachers Union, and the Boston Public Schools; organizational restructuring; strategic planning; parent organizing and training; and education and school reform. Also documented are the relationships with the Coalitions' court appointed councils and with local educational reform organizations, such as the Massachusetts Advocacy Center, Coalition for School Reform, Institute for Responsive Education, the Boston Coalition, and Critical Friends. In addition, the Coalition's efforts to engage citizen participation in public education policy are also documented.

Records include agendas; budgets; proposals; grants and contracts; and correspondence from Judge Arthur W. Garrity, Jr., Boston Public School Superintendents, School Committee members, funders, outside organizations, project directors, and board members. Also included are job descriptions, staff lists and meeting minutes, organizational charts, personnel policies, and project progress reports. Located throughout this series are project descriptions, reports, and proposals. See Series 4, Projects Office, for one complete group.

A. Mary Ellen Smith (5.5 cubic ft.), 1972- Jan 1979, includes correspondence to and from Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr.; Boston Public School Superintendents, School Committee members, and local government officials, and meeting minutes of the Citywide Coordinating Council, the Citywide Parent's Advisory Council, and the Citywide Parents Council. Material from the Boston Public Schools concerning specific issues, such as the budget, school closings, and transportation includes annotations, notes, a publication by the Coalition, and original correspondence. Also found here are the minutes of the meetings Citywide Educational Coalition held prior to its incorporation and a detailed description of the Information and Resource Center.

This subseries also documents the organization Restore Our Alienable Rights to Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr.'s desegregation order. Records include Restore Our Alienable Rights meeting notices and minutes, and newspaper clippings.

B. Marvin Shapiro (.5 cubic ft.), 1979-1980, includes correspondence and grants and contracts relating to the planning and development of Basic Skills Projects among other topics.

C. Ellen Guiney (3.5 cubic ft.), 1981-1988, includes correspondence to and from Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr., the Boston Teacher's Union, members of the Boston School Committee, and local government officials. Also included are meeting minutes of the Citywide Parents Council and the Teacher Preparation Task Force and Citizens Information Project records, which document the Coalition's efforts to involve voters in public education policy making. Material from the Boston Public Schools concerning such issues as the Boston Education Plan, student assignment, the Unified Facilities Plan, school governance initiatives, and school closings include Coalition publications, annotations, notes, and original correspondence.

D. Paula Georges (2.5 cubic ft.), 1988-1992, includes correspondence and meeting minutes of the Citywide Parent's Council and the Boston Collaborative. Material from the Boston Public Schools and the Boston School Committee concerning such issues as school-based management, superintendent search, budget, and truancy contains annotations, meeting notes, and original correspondence.

E. Loretta Roach (6 cubic ft.), 1993-1999, includes correspondence from Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr., planning documents of the 0-8 Coalition, and meeting minutes of the Citywide Parent's Council and Critical Friends. Also included are Board of Directors meeting minutes from 1992-1998, which were retained for their annotations; meeting minutes and planning notes for the 21st Century Schools project grant; and correspondence from consultant Natalie Ammarell. Material from the Boston Public Schools concerning such issues as charter school reform, school violence, and accreditation contain annotations, meeting notes, and original correspondence. Meeting minutes from the School Committee were retained because they contain a Coalition publication, annotations, correspondence, and accompanying notes.

F. Tiffany Roach (0.5 cubic), 1999-2001, includes correspondence.

Of special interest are records regarding the Boston Education Alliance, which provide documentation of the meetings and activities of the group of citizens concerned with education reform prior to the formation of Citywide Educational Coalition (Box 3); and Citywide Coalition's meeting minutes prior to incorporation, which document its early planning strategies, and the ways in which to involve the community in the process of selecting a new Superintendent (Box 4). Also of special interest Citywide Parents Council, the Racial / Ethnic Parents Council, the Community District Council, and the Citywide Coordinating Council records, which document their relationship with the Coalition (Boxes 3-6, FF6/D9); and Education Renewal, Inc., which provided the start up funds for the Coalition (Box 6). Records documenting the training all staff received for desegregation intervention work, including harassment reports, telephone logs from the Rumor Control Center, and busing incident reports are also present (Box 5).

Of interest is the Coordinator's Handbook, which explains Chapters 636 and 766 and Title 1, and provides information about the court appointed parents councils, including their by-laws (Box 7); the Education and Training Cooperative records, which describe the role of the Racial / Ethnic Councils (Box 4); and the anti-busing literature, which was collected by Coalition staff members who attended the meetings held by the group Restore Our Alienated Rights (Box 3 and 26). Also of interest are the reports entitled Desegregating the Boston Public Schools: A Crisis in Civic Responsibility, The Impact of Three Community Organizations on School Desegregation in Boston, 1975-1976, and Reflections on School Desegregation: Boston's Community Leader's Speak Out (Boxes 6 and 7), which analyze desegregation from different perspectives. The VHS recording of the Coalition's 25th anniversary fundraising event entitled "CWEC Forum" includes a panel discussion of the history of desegregation in the Boston Public Schools. Panelists include Mayor Thomas Menino, Superintendent of Schools Thomas Payzant, and Ellen Guiney. Parents United, the newsletter from the Citywide Parents' Advisory Council and the Intouch newsletter published by the Citywide Parents Council provide background on the work of the court appointed councils (FF6/ D9 and Box 25).