Thursday night's LSC meeting was full of rather controversial decisions, issues and stuff. Packed into that boring Personnel sub-committee meeting was a rather dubious decision. It seems that Dr. Latham, last years Lynn Journal "Woman of the Year" claims to be in need of another Deputy Superintendent. The current workload of administering our 26 or so schools (5 of which are failing) is too much.
There is no doubt it is a formidable task but so is being a parent and I don't get to add an extra parent just because I feel overwhelmed sometimes. The LSC members on the sub-committee are as follows: Donna Coppola - chair, Maria Carrasco, and Patricia Capano.
The proposal seemed to be going down to defeat in the sub-committee, which meant it would not be brought before the whole committee. The battle lined up like this, Donna Coppola was against it and Patricia Capano argued for it. Maria Carrasco appeared to be leaning towards voting no. However after repeatably offering her opinion that the matter should be brought up before the full committee for discussion. At this point, Maria succumbed to the bullying tactics of Capano and voted to bring the matter before the whole committee.
When it did come up before there wasn't much discussion. The vote to post the position was quickly taken and not surprisingly the measure past with Patricia Capano, Vinnie Spirito, John Ford, and Maria Carrasco voting in favor of the addition, while Donna Coppola and Rick Starbard voting no.
Dr. Latham offered testimony that she thought she could cover at least half of the new position's salary with "grant" money. he failed to be specific about where this grant money would come from. In lieu of some unspecified "grant" monies she was sure she could cover it with the current school budget.
Really? We have overcrowded classrooms, 5 failing schools (Level 3 or 4), and physical plant problems at most if not all our city's schools..How could the superintendent have extra money squirreled away? Must be because she used to be a math teacher. Numbers are probably more favorable to her than most of us that have to pay our bills.
If they let her hire a new Deputy Super - then they all should be impeached. How many Librarians could we hire with what the new Deputy's salary would be? How many Reading Specialists? Come on.
ReplyDeleteCall and voice your opinion, write letters. Get others to join you. You are preaching to the choir here. Numbers, ie-votes, are all they understand.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I had the pleasure of meeting you, Stanley Wotring at last years School Committee meeting when the budget was passed just days before school started.....I also just attended the last school committee meeting. I do have to say that I was not surprised with the voting. I am however very surprised at the thought of School Grant monies being used for another Deputy Super ($150-165,000) per year not including all the perks that go with the title and position. Our schools/educators are in need of more educators (teachers), supplies, support and training. We need to support our educators and provide them with the best equipment possible so that our children will benefit. Our children are expected to pass the MCAS, this becomes very difficult without the proper tools to do so. It is also important to honor the Grant and use the money for what the Grant says.....or the Schools lose the opportunity in the future of obtaining the Grant again. So, we need to become more familiar with the terms of the said Grant that the Super Latham wants to use and see if she can use it for the sole purpose of hiring another Deputy Super. I am just saying....
ReplyDeleteDolores DiFillipo
Parent& Educator
(My child currently attends the Lynn Public Schools).
Delores,
ReplyDeleteThe pleasure has been mine. However we actually go back further, I was at the debate between the school committee candidates when you ran for the school committee. Also I think I saw your name associate with the COACH program at Shoemaker. I've been waiting on your input on these issues I know you are passionate about. We can not just let Superintendent Latham have her way with this unfettered. I will continue asking questions.