During the last LSC meeting Dr. Latham presented Certificates of Academic Excellence to two students from each of the three high schools in Lynn. After reading off a litany of accomplishments from each of the well deserving students, Dr. Latham laughingly remarked that these individuals should be doing her job. These accomplishments included very high GPA's, Latin Awards, and Soccer accomplishments. Heck one girl had to hobble up on crutches from a basketball injury to claim her certificate.
Some of the girls listed their babysitting experience as part of their resume. Dr. Latham laughingly tried to drum up business for the girls. I am sure she was sincere and confident about her ability to persuade people to follow her advice, she was fresh off her victory, convincing the Personnel Sub-committee of her need for a new Deputy Superintendent.
You would think after hearing of all that these students were able to accomplish, she would have been too embarrassed to bring her need for help up to the full committee but she was able to get sympathy from 5 members to help reduce her burden overseeing 5 failing schools. Only LSC members Starbard and Coppola refused invitations to the pity party. I'm just saying....
I also attended that School committee meeting and I was proud & very happy with the numerous students who have achieved in the Lynn Public Schools. However, I had to wonder how many could have achieved but were some how left behind. The "No Child Left Behind" moto of the Department of Education.....well unfortunately, if we do not start taking a stand and holding people accountable in our Public School systems...the only ones that will be left behind will be our children. Our children are our future and we need to assist them in the best way possible to achieve their full potential and goals. This is easy to say but hard to accomplish when some schools are under staffed, lack resources, need more training and are continually under the gun to teach to the MCAS. Yet, we still have failing schools in Lynn.
ReplyDeleteI am not trying to blame anyone, but what I am asking is what can we do to make this right? We are setting our teachers, children and families up for failure. We provide schools with little to no resources, we take away teachers, and we expect our children to do well.....some children will do well, but most will not. Hence, the issue at hand currently in our schools. How do we fix it?
I feel that unless you have an personal investment (ie. your child, you are a teacher etc.) then you really have no investment in our Lynn Public Schools succeeding....But we all should have personal interest in our schools doing well. We all pay high taxes and most of your taxes go to our Public Schools system...it is true that SPED also comes with alot of money, but we have guidelines and strings that come with that money...but not our tax money....they use that the way they want! Think about that for awhile!
Dolores DiFillipo
Parent, Educator and Taxpayer
The "strings" attached to at least half the school budget are attached to Lynn city government. There is where the accountability starts.
ReplyDeleteThe only incumbent SC member that will be getting my vote is Rick. The rest should be ashamed of themselves.
ReplyDeleteAlso Stanley, I think you should blog about the giant loop hole, that the entire City of Lynn is slipping through, in No Child Left Behind. NCLB gives students "Required School Choice" if their neighborhood school is failing (NCLB had different standard for failing -that is why their number is much higher then the five schools we always hear about). All of our elementary schools (except Sisson, Aborn and Tracy), every single one of our middle schools and LVTI have to provide their students Required School Choice - except there is no place for all of these students to go because NCLB only allows the students to select another non-failing school IN THEIR DISTRICT. Are we going to send all of our elementary kids to Sisson, Aborn and Tracy? I guess our middle school children are S.O.L because there isn't a middle school in Lynn (except KIPP) that isn't failing. And what about our vocational kids? Where are they going to go? Boils my blood and our children, the children of Lynn, are being left behind. We are allowing our futures to be left behind.
As far as I am concerned, the vote on the creation of a new deputy superintendent's position spoke volumes about where the LSC member's placed our children on their priority list. Only Rick and Donna make the grade. Let the chips (or votes) fall where they may.
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