On October 15th, we learned that principal Purnima DeMorais of the Harmony Grove (formerly Woodrow Wilson) Elementary School had tendered her resignation. It was announced that she would be leaving by the end of the month, the SOURCE reported that she is headed to work next in the Tewksbury Public School system. But did she really really resign because she wanted to, did she resign to avoid being fired?
DISCLAIMER: The information below in the gray boxes come from anonymous sources, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it. None of the tips below are verified and none of the tips below should be consider factual.
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Tip #1:
Harmony Grove principal has been being investigated by HR since the spring. She hired her son in law last year as an interventionist during remote learning, he did not show up for meetings or classes, or went to a class, turned his video and microphone off and would not respond. No one knew it was her son in law (some found out later) and staff did not understand why she would not replace him so there could be a real interventionist to support the HG students. Her first year she hired her daughter, who did not come more than a few times but stayed in the position for months “on medical leave”.
She also retaliated against staff for just doing their jobs, including advocating for students. She also hired a special yoga friend to lead staff meetings and other after school sessions that no one attended but she kept hiring him.
She also lied about some data.
There’s more to uncover but those are some highlights.
-Anonymous
Submitted 10/15/21, 9:44 PM
DISCLAIMER: The information in this gray box comes from anonymous an anonymous source. It was submitted via our 100% Anonymous Tip System, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it.
Tip #2:
She fires people who are good. The new LANGUAGE LEARNER COACH invited Purnima to her wedding. She and the former vice principal would scream at each other. CVR data for the past few years has been fake. Walked in my room 1 time this year. Never walked in 1 time last year. Moves people around to try to get them to quit. Our school is failing! Threatens people. Has an inner circle that protects her. Hired a ESL coach with a K-2 teaching license only. Hired a Literacy coach who admitted she doesn’t know the curriculum. Packed the focus groups at our last state visit with twachers without professional status who were afraid to speak up. She put moles in the other groups. Many staff have gone to HR about her. The principal has been out of the building more than in since school started. She hired family members who did not do their job.
-Anonymous
Submitted 10/15/21, 10:04 PM
DISCLAIMER: The information in this gray box comes from anonymous an anonymous source. It was submitted via our 100% Anonymous Tip System, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it.
Tip #3:
Why does Daniel’s Table And JFS not host events at Harmony Grove anymore? Why were staff members called to Human Resources? Why have the scores plummeted since she has been there? Why do people do her work for her? Why did she miss PD last Friday? Why do we not have a PTO? Why has central office protected her for so long? Why did she hire coaches with no experience?
-Anonymous
Submitted 10/15/21, 10:27 PM
DISCLAIMER: The information in this gray box comes from anonymous an anonymous source. It was submitted via our 100% Anonymous Tip System, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it.
Tip #4:
Scott Hayes isn’t wrong about Harmony Grove. PIC is filling that school with newcomers first, several grades have already received 3-8 newcomers into their SEI classes this year alone.
The DL programs are full so newcomers go into SEI classrooms and learn in English.
They are placing newcomers at HG because HG has the most support, by most support there are two Language coaches— one that does not even have an ESL certification and could not teach in the position she herself is coaching and the other was ineffective as an ESL teacher and is a personal friend of the (leaving) principal. There are also ESL teachers that have been hired with NO prior ESL experience.
The new literacy coach at HG has no experience in working with ELs, and her lack of knowledge in teaching literacy is clear, than and her other lacking skills, even she admits she hasn’t looked at the curriculum yet, over a month into the job. The previous ESL coach remained in the role without actually going in classrooms for his three years and never having a single coaching cycle with any teachers. Maybe we’re fortunate for that, because he became physically aggressive with those that disagreed with him, yet he stayed on the job.
The Dual Language program is supposed to be comprised of 1/3 native English speakers, 1/3 bilingual students and 1/3 Portuguese speakers. It is 90% comprised of native Portuguese speakers and the program is completely failing. Students actually do not have an English literacy block in the DL program, it’s embedded in to the short science/social studies block, the data shows that is NOT WORKING. Especially in primary grades, students need explicit instruction in literacy, in both languages in a DL program not just in Portuguese, the MCAS and ACCESS tests are in English.
Do not let anyone blame the pandemic for the low numbers. The numbers have been on a downward trend for years. There are major issues that continue to be unaddressed and have gotten much worse after four rounds of principal DeMorais hiring family and friends, hiring bad candidates out of ignorance or laziness and creating an inner circle of staff that do not do their jobs but do her job for her, lie for her and support her in fishing numbers.
Harmony Grove needs real curriculum, that is research based to be successful with ELLs structured and systematic. Harmony Grove needs qualified people in all positions.
Newcomers are brilliant and an asset to our district, however when they first arrive they need a lot of support with translation, social emotional support for transitioning to a new country and culture (and possibly dealing with trauma from the journey). Shame on Framingham Public Schools for not spreading out newcomers, all schools in the district have SEI classrooms, newcomers aren’t getting anything special at Harmony Grove, other than less strong English language models.
Harmony Grove is supposedly an IB school, there is a wonderful IB coach that is extremely limited by district support. An integral part of IB is teaching interdisciplinary, making the big ideas connect though all content. However, the context of the big ideas come from the science or social studies units. Ideally, the students would be fully immersed in that unit and the big ideas, unfortunately, despite many requests to teach one unit at a time to reinforce the big ideas and increase exposure to content related vocabulary within a unit, FPS has said HG must alternate one week of science then one week of social studies, therefore being immersed in two units simultaneously. That is not IB, there’s no focus on big ideas, two separate things can not be done well at the same time. It would be very easy for the district to show support for IB by allowing HG to teach one unit at a time rather than two at a time alternating weekly. They have not done this, they pay for the IB label but aren’t actually supporting the core values of IB.
It’s time to make Harmony Grove shine, there are amazing, passionate brilliant students and teachers there just waiting to thrive with the right leader, curriculum, and support from the top down. A flawed DL program, a fake IB program, coaches lacking knowledge, a major influx of newcomers inequitably being sent to one school, inappropriate or nonexistent teaching materials. These problems can and should be fixed, now is the time.
-Anonymous
Submitted 10/17/21, 6:53 AM
DISCLAIMER: The information in this gray box comes from anonymous an anonymous source. It was submitted via our 100% Anonymous Tip System, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it.
Tip #5:
This person did not even know the names of her teachers, let alone the students. She never left her office and never engaged with the students. No idea how she fooled the administration… On second thought….. She sure could put on a good show when they were around..
-A Teacher
Submitted 10/17/21, 4:58 PM
DISCLAIMER: The information in this gray box comes from anonymous an anonymous source. It was submitted via our 100% Anonymous Tip System, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it.
Tip #6:
Good luck Tewksbury, Principal Purnima has gone completely crazy!! She sent her whole staff a wild email full of anger and lies in response to discovering the truth coming out on FU. The easiest lie to spot? That the students know who she is, sorry lady you were NOT on the playground, at lunch or in classrooms unless it was a 1 minute CVR or a media photo op. Farewell! Goodbye!!! We’re so glad you were “heavily recruited” by Tewksbury. 
-Good Luck Tewksbury
Submitted 10/20/21, 6:59 AM
DISCLAIMER: The information in this gray box comes from anonymous an anonymous source. It was submitted via our 100% Anonymous Tip System, and therefore should be considered non-newsworthy and should only be considered the opinion of the anonymous tipster who submitted it.
I don’t know I people needs to be so toxic.
You can express yourself concern, opinions and tonight’s but respecting people?
Why these writers don’t show and give a name or face for each tip?!
Let’s talks like an adult instead bring a coward behind the FU?!
She is a compulsive lier and covers her tracks very carefully. She has been forced to resign from all schools she has worked in the past. I have heard that she was accused of lying and mismanaging school funds from her school in the past. Good Riddance !! She is not worthy of being an educator.
I am resident of Ashland and belong to Indian community here and associated with local HINDU temple here. She is outright liar and does not have good reputation with local INDIAN community. She has changed her last name after getting remarried to avoid embarrassments. She floats her credentials and is an impressive speaker. BUT SHE HAS INTERGRITY ISSUES. I request school committee to thoroughly check her credentials about her past jobs and why she was forced to quit and he education and so called Doctorate degree?
Purnima Demorais is currently the Principal at Quabbin Regional Middle and High School a.k.a the high school I’m going to. Ever since she started working at Quabbin Regional Middle and High School the energy has been completely different. We act like like crazy kids but when she walks by we go quiet. Like nobody likes her.
I go to Quabbin. She is awful. I have never gotton a grade below a 90 and only get in trouble if its something somebody said I did even though I did not. All the teachers love me. Same with my older sophmore brother. We never complain about teachers, but she is anti-white, hates us for no reason, and does not follow up with her “talks” she has with our classes. She has made it so that there are so many security cameras. There is almost one above every locker and it is starting to feel like we are in prison. Sure , you need some, but she has been using our school funds for just camera’s, if you look aroun the school, half the lockers are broken, we have not enough teachers, and some rooms need to be updated majorly. Go ahead and look at the locker rooms. The showeres don’t work, the curtains have been broken, so girls have been bringing tape to keep the curtains up. The roof has a big leak so we have put a bucket out. She is wasting our money. Teachers have even been hinting that they do not like her. She walks into a happy class,learning and laughing and the class goes dead silent. Some kids get really nervous and a girl in my class started sobbing. At her “talk” with our class, she said “I do not like the level of the diversity at Quabbin.” and “She expected us to have major changes in our school. ” Instead, the only major change is bad. Will Mr.Devine please come back already???
She has a bad track record on all schools she has worked. No one cares and hire her and then get burned.