Crimson Tide softball set for first pitch

Everett High School Head Coach Stacy Schiavo (above) is entering her 25th season at the helm for Crimson Tide softball.

Will open season Monday against Malden

By Lorenzo Recupero

Under the tutelage of longtime head coach Stacy Schiavo, who has dedicated a quarter century of service to her alma mater, the Lady Tide have evolved into a perennial playoff team.

With a combined 11 returning starters and letterman from a season ago, a head coach with 25 years experience, and the hunger to win more than a league title, the Everett High School Lady Tide are looking sharp heading into the 2023 softball season.

After missing out on three consecutive playoff trips prior to 2018, since then the Tide have made several postseason runs, emerging as one of the definitive forces of Eastern Massachusetts HS softball.

Relying on a upperclassman-led squad this year, coach Schiavo and the Tide are working to start the season with an opening day win against rival Malden High School.

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From week to week, meeting to meeting with rarely a dull moment

By Josh Resnek

Last week, the big news about Everett was the lawsuit filed by embattled Superintendent of School Priya Tahiliani in federal court against the mayor, several school committee members and the city itself.

The claims: racism, sexism and discrimination with a dash of retaliation claims as well.

Her lawsuit alleges the mayor and others want her gone – and not because of incompetence, but rather, because of racism.

As a woman of color, she is fighting back after the city refused to discuss renewing her contract which runs out in 2024.

At a city council committee meeting last week, the chief and only matter up for discussion keyed in on the federal probe against the city into racism now ongoing by the US Attorney’s office and the Justice Department.

Witnesses will shortly be interviewed by the government, it was learned. Those witnesses will be present and former members of the government and city officials.

The city was seeking another $250,000 for funding to pay for legal fees being accrued as a result of the federal probe. By all appearances, those fees stood at $500,000 already paid and another bill for $98,000 due, and as much as $50,000 a month in new legal fees to likely be generated until June.

In other words, by June, the money paid for legal fees for the federal probe will total $250,000.

Paying the $98,000 bill was put off by the city council until a two week period passes.

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The effects of COVID

The changes to our society caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down our lives for longer than a year, continue to reverberate.

Public school students appear to have suffered losses considered so great that there is no coming back.

This is evidenced by so many school teachers dropping out of the public school education field, and the need for so many teachers at a time of crying need.

The pandemic ruined the school lives of millions of children across the nation and the world.

Taken away from them were activities, socialization programs and even public and well attended graduations.

Teaching, for many months, was accomplished, if you want to call it that, by zoom or on computers and smaller laptops – hardly the best solution to the problem of moving on during a time when nearly everything public about our lives was shut down.

Nothing replaces the teacher doing their things inside a classroom where everyone can presumably learn in person, every day for years until successful graduation.

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Overcrowding and a new high school

We reported last week that efforts to getting a new high school on the gas burner with the state agency responsible for such things is looking very slim.

Everett is seeking a new high school that is estimated to cost $500 to $550 million, a gargantuan sum of money for any community let alone Everett.

Actually, a new high school approved by the state is looking almost impossibly unlikely, given the lack of funding by the state for new facilities such as high schools, and their spiraling costs.

As we reported last week, the state might possibly pay about 50% of the total cost of a new Everett High School.

This would leave the city $250 million short of paying the bill for a new high school. Where would that come from?

The taxpayers.

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Thank you Councilor Smith

When a $98,000 legal bill was presented to be paid by the city council last week at a meeting of the Ways and Means Committee, Councilor Stephanie Smith showed real spine in tabling the motion.

“If you do that, the bill won’t be paid and it is due,” said a clerk of the city council to the committee members.

After a great deal of back and forth, Smith was adamant.

She said she was tabling the motion until she received the information she was asking for regarding the federal probe into racism now ongoing.

Despite the protests of the clerk, Smith did not budge.

“The law firm can wait two weeks,” she said.

Councilor Darren Costa agreed.

He said he didn’t like voting on measures about which he didn’t know anything.

Both councilors asked for information regarding the probe. Smith wants some sort of explanation from the law firm representing the city or from the US Attorney’s office detailing whatever it is they can detail about an investigation that remains shrouded by a vail of protection.

The US Attorney’s office does not publicly reveal particulars about investigations it is conducting.

In this case, it has been quiet about the probe.

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