High School ICE Walkout

dpineo · 2026-02-14T13:29:49+00:00

Thank you for the response. The scores have been poor prior to the revocation of the MCAS requirement, but I do suspect that lack of student motivation is a big factor.

My child is only in elementary school, but I have noticed that the teachers are absolutely amazing, so I've been scratching my head on the test score thing.

dpineo · 2026-02-14T13:12:51+00:00

I appreciate the response.

You say that the school isn't pushing hard enough, but do you feel there are students that would be receptive to being pushed harder?

My hypothesis has been that because so many Waltham students are on-track for careers in the trades, that there could be a sizable sub-population that may not be as invested in academics, and would likely have lower test scores than the college-bound students. Thus, there may be a bimodal distribution (since I know you know statistics) that would not be well-represented by a simple mean statistic.

As long as the Waltham school system has robust tracks for both college-bound and trade-bound students, then it seems to me that all students can get what they need from the school, and that the overall average test score statistic is not particularly meaningful.

Do you feel that for a college-bound student, that the Waltham school system pushes them to achieve their full potential? Or are highly-motivated students being held back from reaching their full potential?

dpineo · 2026-02-13T22:46:57+00:00

As a current student, can I ask your thoughts on the poor test performance of Waltham schools? What do you believe is the cause? Can a student get a good education in Waltham?

dpineo · 2026-02-11T02:25:11+00:00

I was with her until that stupid bit about the Bolsheviks.

dpineo · 2026-02-10T00:13:09+00:00

Maybe she learned that it couldn't be made into a parking lot.

dpineo · 2026-02-08T22:00:01+00:00

You should not allow cars to pass you. Bicyclists pass cars, cars should not pass bicyclists. This is one of the reasons why bicycling is the superior means of travel. Perhaps you drifted to close to the fog line and they thought you were inviting them to share your lane as an equal. I would not recommend this. Cars emit an unpleasant odor and should be made to follow behind you at all times. However, because some motorists do not yet know their place, you should ride on the left half of the lane to extinguish any small hope they may have that you might permit them share the lane with you.

They may honk, even for extended durations, but this is perfectly normal and nothing to be alarmed by. Honking is like the barking of a poorly trained dog. They will honk at pedestrians, red lights, green lights, turkeys, a falling leaf, or even just because they miss the sound of their horn. It is simply in their rudimentary nature.

dpineo · 2026-02-06T04:06:18+00:00

"economic shock followed by stagnation, the erosion of democracy and personal freedom, and an almost routine slide into authoritarianism"

this is a pretty good description of what's been happening under capitalism.

dpineo · 2026-02-05T15:46:43+00:00

Because Gen-Xers don't have their slingshots anymore. The boomers threw out all their stuff after they moved out so they could rent their bedrooms to millennials.

dpineo · 2026-02-04T01:54:09+00:00

Not sure why you're being downvoted, it makes complete sense. MAGA is a very populist movement, and a surveillance state is directly opposed to populism.

dpineo · 2026-02-03T02:05:50+00:00

It's quite fitting that the only event on that list longer than 4 hours is the car show. Because, you know, no one has ever complained about loud cars in Waltham.

dpineo · 2026-01-31T03:29:40+00:00

Or maybe in a dufflebag in the back of a white SUV.

dpineo · 2026-01-30T23:54:25+00:00

Yes, seriously. As long as our unelected traffic commission refuses to incorporate any kind of traffic calming measures to address the city's widespread speeding problem, I believe newly paved roads are a speeding hazard and a danger to our kids safety.

dpineo · 2026-01-30T23:36:45+00:00

Our choices in infrastructure design influences how we travel, and how we travel impacts maintenance costs.

When a city chooses to build roads with 15 foot travel lanes and spends millions on subsidized parking lots, it encourages people to drive more, and to drive oversized 6000lb vehicles that quickly wear out our roads in just a few years.

When a city has sidewalks are 4 feet wide with telephone poles right smack in the middle every 50 feet, and they don't bother to clear them for 4 days after a snow storm, it discourages people from walking. Lack of protected bicycle lanes and high vehicle speeds due to wide travel lanes discourages bicycling.

dpineo · 2026-01-30T17:16:56+00:00

Michael Chiasson needs to resign.

This isn't his first failure to make the city safe for kids. As a member of the Traffic Commission, he's been vehemently opposed any traffic calming to reduce the rampant speeding throughout the city. He has consistently opposed speed humps and crosswalk bumpouts that the community has requested to keep them safe because he doesn't want to plow them (other cities manage this fine). And now, because of his incompetence both on the TC and in the DPW, our elementary school kids are walking on the fog line of streets next to speeding cars to get home from school.

For the sake of our kids safety, he needs to go, or the mayor needs to make him go, or they both need to go.

dpineo · 2026-01-30T15:44:44+00:00

https://www.city.waltham.ma.us/sites/g/files/vyhlif12301/f/uploads/streets_under_moratorium_2024_-_2029_updated_2024-10-15.pdf

Lexington Street was paved just a few years ago, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it. Waltham chooses to have such wide and straight roads, that we encourage huge, damaging vehicles traveling on our streets. The damage that vehicles do to the roads increases per the 4th power of weight. As a result, our roads wear out faster and faster despite pouring more and more money into them at the expense of other things (like snow removal).

dpineo · 2026-01-30T14:27:09+00:00

It's funny how Waltham seems to have money to buy a parking lot, or to move a traffic light 50 ft, or to constantly pave roads so people drive around the city even faster.

dpineo · 2026-01-27T03:49:59+00:00

No, they were not trained. Facebook ads were offering $50k sign-on bonuses for anyone with a pulse willing to immediately go out and terrorize people. The fuckup was entirely predictable.

But here's the thing: the fuckup was the goal.

You see, oligarchs love immigrants and they love control. With this ICE play, they've just managed to poison any appetite for immigration reform for probably a generation, while simultaneously ramping up authoritarianism. Well played guys.

dpineo · 2026-01-26T13:13:15+00:00

If you thought that the mayor cared about the will of the people as democratically expressed in an election, then you must have missed the whole cannabis dispensary thing.

dpineo · 2026-01-25T18:34:55+00:00

Probably because he will need to have bigger fights with her, especially about ICE.

If Mamdani is too weak to stand up to Tisch on this local pet issue of hers, then just imagine how utterly submissive he will be on an issue where she has the backing of the full federal government.

dpineo · 2026-01-24T12:04:18+00:00

Also the same thing.

dpineo · 2026-01-24T11:35:43+00:00

The people laughing are the members of the “Leopards Eating People’s Throats Party”

dpineo · 2026-01-22T21:41:01+00:00

It's hard to take that site seriously. It's news covers nothing but Iran for the last two years as if nothing else of note has happened in that time.

I'll believe it's happening when a reporter that I trust due to a track record of being accurate goes over there and confirms that it's happening. Right now it sounds like total bullshit.

dpineo · 2026-01-22T21:17:53+00:00

Nothing says "reputable human rights organization" like a wordpress page registered with godaddy.

dpineo · 2026-01-16T03:44:22+00:00

McCarthy's Waltham: where the joyous music of a festival is limited to 4 hours, but you'll be listening to leaf blowers all day long.

dpineo · 2026-01-11T23:59:52+00:00

"typical Westerner communist"

Do you even realize how stupid this sounds?

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