LET'S LEARN WHY ALL THOSE MINORS COME UNACCOMPANIED

Juan Gonzalez (not our local Lynn Juan Gonzalez) Puerto Rican revolutionary and acclaimed author is coming to Lynn's Breed Middle School on January 11, 2015 from 2-5 to introduce and answer questions about his film Harvest of Empire. I have enclosed the flier (Spanish/English). The event is free and will be simultaneously interpreted.  Mr Gonzalez hosts a program called Democracy Now! and is the author and producer of the film we are showing. Harvest of Empire, which won a Sundance Film award in 2014- is about why people immigrate to the US from Latin American countries. Can you spread the word at your organization  and even make a commitment on numbers of attendees? We will have a labor lawyer attend to answer questions about immigration (DAPA) after the event.
-- 

Carly McClain, New Lynn Organizing Director

Office (781) 595-2538

Cell (617) 276-5528

Fax 781.595.8770

www.newlynncoalition.org

-- 

FACE FORWARD

It feels good that this year LPS finally listened to me a little bit. After screaming countless times and calling for them to jon the modern world and start using FACEBOOK to communicate with the masses pointing out the positive ways both MARSHALL and PICKERING had used social media to pass info along. This year DR. LATHAM credited DR. WU for developing the LPS page.

Well, WU has had a WINNER. They have had several current and GREAT posts using great stories, photos, and videos. It has helped to create some positive buzz. Now I am not saying I was an attempt not saying it was an attempt to counteract the WATCH but......in the end onl the results matter.

So for 2015....

how about.......

the WOTRING WING?

I mean, how's that going? I never can tell from those monthly updates that keep being put in somebody's file.

Lynn Youth Soccer

Winter Indoor Registration Deadline

Wednesday 12/31/14

ALL GROUPS NEED PLAYERS AND COACHES ! ! !

Winter Indoor is played at Breed Middle School, Upper & Lower Gyms

Starting Friday January 9, 2015

U8 & U10 teams play Friday Nights, 6:00pm-9:00pm

U6 & U12 teams play Saturday Mornings, 9:00am-12:00pm

Register now @ www.lynnyouthsoccer.org

** Please note any SPECIAL REQUESTS when registering **

PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO GET COAL IN STOCKING

Baker names James Peyser education secretary - The Boston Globe

Governor-elect Charlie Baker Tuesday named James A. Peyser, a charter school advocate and former chairman of the state Board of Education, as his secretary...

BOSTONGLOBE.COM

WATCH WANES TEMPORARILY

I apologize for my recent lack of poetry production. my pinched nerve in my neck has turned out to be stenosis in three vertebrae. A shot of cortisone has been ordered so I'll be throwing passes for scores again shortly. Call me PEYTON, another neck warrior. Maybe that analogy/comparison explains why I am a thorn in LPS's own "Tom Brady'.

Looks as if PICKERING is gearing up for MOCK TRIAL. Me I gearing up for the real thing next Tuesday. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

My own CONTINUING EDUCATION.

Lynn Youth Soccer

Winter & Spring Registration Open

Winter Indoor is played at Breed Middle School, Upper & Lower Gyms

Starting Friday January 9, 2015

U8 & U10 teams play Friday Nights, 6:00pm-9:00pm

U6 & U12 teams play Saturday Mornings, 9:00am-12:00pm

Players & Coaches Needed

Register now @ www.lynnyouthsoccer.org

** Please note any SPECIAL REQUESTS when registering **

Spring Outdoor Registration is also open for Travel & Intramural

ABBORN PUTTING ON XMAS SHOW

Aborn Elementary School

3 hrs · East Lynn, MA · 

This coming Friday is the Aborn Holiday Show at the Bethany Church. The featured performers include the students in grades K, 1, 2, the Aborn Chorus, and the band. The entertainment begins at 1:00. Hope to see you there.

PICKERING'S SEASONAL ACTIVITIES

Holiday Week Activities 12/15 - 12/23. All proceeds go to charity
Ongoing events: Mistletoe Mama $1, Guess the Kisses $.10, Vote for Scrooge $.10 
Mon: Pajama Pants Day - students pay $1 to wear (appropriate) pajama pants
Tue: Red & Green Day - wear red and green
Wed: Bells & Bows Day - Students can purchase bells & bows outside auditorium before school for $.50
Fri: Hat Day - Students pay $1 to wear a hat of their choice (appropriate)
Mon: Honor Roll Breakfast
Tue: Ugly Sweater Day; Door Decorating Contest.pickering's season

CAN YOU SAY RAH?

STEPHANIE MCCLLELAND has been named the Winter Cheerleading Coach at CLASSICAL HIGH SCHOOL. Now that's something to cheer about.

EVERYBODY GET LOUD!

SURE TO BE A HIT WITH THE DAWGS!

Congratulations to ERICA RICHARD for being nameed the NEW
Girls Varsity Softball Coach at LYNN ENGLISH HIGHSCHOOL!

BACK DOOR PATTI

I couldn't believe my ears. I mean. I didn't think she would try it that way but sure enough she must have been feeling adventurous, politically, I am talking about. All of a sudden she is concerned about volunteers being ACCIDENTLY branded with labels from the anti-discrimination polcy. Maybe she was concerned that CATHOLIC CHARITIES could very well soon face the SAME ban or LPS becomes vulnerable to its own DISCRIMINATION lawsuit for treating different minorities differently.

NOW CHUCK NOW, HE IS PRETTY CONSERVATIVE IN HIS LIBERALNESS.

He's no fool I tell you, not even for a lawyer. He has taken a position and it is his MISSION.He said he would not support any policy that did not tie individual volunteers with their sending body - like GORDON COLLEGE for example. Funny CHUCK portrays himself as the CHAMPION OF GAY CIVIL RIGHTS. He even said if it was any other minority, say CATHOLIC that every school committee member would vote to prohibit a relationship with anyone from their sending institution.

Well CHUCKles, uh the head of CATHOLIC CHARITIES signed the same WAIVER REQUEST that would allow them to discriminate just like GORDON. If you are sincere in the protection of civil rights and not just a political opportunist then you must post haste call for the severance of all ties with ANY SENDING institiution that ASKS, only asks, mind you, to discriminate.

Instead CHUCK continues to ADVISE TO PATRONIZE.

LBGT YOU'VE BEEN PUNKED.

Being a CATHOLIC LAY minister could it be that PATTI has seen the light and there's more than one color in this RAINBOW.

SOME EARLY STOCKING STUFFERS

Rick Starbard, Lynn School Committee added 4 new photos — at Lynn Vocational Technical School Lynn Vocational Technical School.

10 mins · 

Everyone busy stacking 40,000 brand new books to be distributed at LVTI tomorrow to all that want them. Books for all ages. Teachers are welcome from 8-9. The public is welcome after 9. Tons if Disney books available among others. All are no charge thanks to the Lynn Teachers Union and the First Book program. Please share.

Stanley Wotring

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CONSPIRACY AGAINST COMMUNITY?

Here I was wanting to go to last night's LSC meeting but since I had an MRI the next day and with my back being the way it has been lately I didn't feel like BEGGING for a ride. No problem I thought, I'll just watch on TV, my couch is comfy, warm, and close to my computer.

Imagine my surprise when I found NO sound when DAVID GASS appeared with MIKE DONOVAN before the BUILDING AND GROUNDS subcommittee to talk about.........Well I don't really know because there was NO SOUND - INTERESTING! I would guess it was about the FORD INTERNATIONAL GARDEN cause later I did hear some comment about waiiting on building for the NEW principal. Who knows what was said, I guess  anyone who could READ LIPS.

THEN......

there was that LPOBE rally, HA,HA,HA. I am SURE they had something to say at OPEN MIC but once again.....silence. I tried watching on-line. Shucks I didn't even see them. They must have had a lot to say cause the meeting started late. Maybe I had TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES but if I was a PARANOID POET, I might get these PERSECUTION delusions. 

A FAIR SHARE

Aborn Elementary School

55 mins · 

The Annual Aborn Holiday Fair is tomorrow. Make sure your child brings in their money and shopping lists that were sent home last week.Thank you to the PTO and the parents who volunteered to set up everything.

LOOK WHO'S COMING TO DINNER

Lynn Parents Organizing for a Better Education

19 hours ago

Press Advisory
***For immediate release***

Thursday, December 11, 6:30pm
100 Bennett St. Lynn

LYNN PARENTS DEMAND MORE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, STAND UP TO UNDERFUNDING & UNDER-REPRESENTATION

Contact: Lissy Romanow – (508) 259-1001

Photo opportunities: Community speak-out & press conference, School Committee meeting

On Thursday, December 11, a large group of concerned parents and community residents from across the City of Lynn will confront the School Committee to demand the restoration of the community school at Ford Elementary School. The community school at Ford has, like other community schools, strived to meet the basic physical, mental, and emotional needs of students and their families to close the “achievement gap” between low-income students and their wealthier counterparts. The families who depended on Ford’s after-school programs, comprehensive tutoring, and adult education classes were not consulted or informed in the process of cancelling the various programs and services suddenly absent in the wake of principal Dr. Claire Crane’s recent retirement.

A movement toward community schools is gaining momentum throughout the U.S.: New York City recently announced its decision to make a third of New York City Public Schools community schools, and the Boston Alliance for Educational Justice has begun a campaign to transition all Boston Public Schools into community schools.

The parents and residents planning to speak out Thursday night (organized by Lynn Parents Organizing For A Better Education, a project of the grassroots organization Neighbor to Neighbor) at the City’s final School Committee meeting of the year have a clear message: take our schools a step forward into the 21st century—not a step back. Demanding inclusion in decision-making and the full restoration of the community school, Ford parents—many of whom are Latino—are standing up to under-representation in City government which has only grown more stark since the closing of a polling location in the Highlands neighborhood (where the Ford School is located) and the re-drawing of precinct lines, leading some residents to accuse the City of gerrymandering.

The primary barrier to restoring the community school at Ford, Lynn administrators have said, is funding. Due to Mayor Judith Kennedy’s public claims earlier this year that refugees from Central America were straining the City budget, there is an erroneous perception that immigrants are the cause of cuts to departments throughout the City. Research by the Reclaim Our Schools coalition (of which LPOBE is part) in Lynn indicates that revenue in Lynn is on par with other gateway cities—but information released this week by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education indicates that Lynn Public Schools were the most underfunded in the state of Massachusetts last year, at 91% of the state required minimum for net school spending. The $16 million dollars which the City owed to its schools not only would have covered the 400 refugees who became students in Lynn last year—it also could have provided Extended Day programming to roughly 10,000 students, or Summer Learning for 11,100 students (see 2-page document attached). As it is, the City now faces a penalty from the state, threatening to take even more resources away from Lynn’s low-income students and students of color who, as a result, continue to sit on the wrong side of the “achievement gap.”

Given that community schools depend more on federal grants and partnerships with non-profits than City funding, community schools are well within the City’s reach—particularly if it funds the schools at 100% of the legal minimum. Districts with similar demographics have fully funded their schools and implemented the community school model, through partnerships with community-based organizations and educational institutions, and through federal and state grants which fund additional time for learning.

Ford Elementary School’s students are 29% English Language Learners, and 93% are low-income. Research indicates that poverty creates certain conditions for students that make it more difficult to learn (housing instability, financial stressors, exposure to violence, less outside academic activities like trips to the library or zoo, lack of mental/physical health care access, higher rates of domestic violence, etc.).

Stanley Wotring

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN EDUCATION IS NOT IMPORTANT

Does the adult standing have a whip in his hand? Thank God there are child labor laws now.

I Support Coal Miners

"Breaker Boys" like these used to sift out impurities by hand.

We've come a long way since those times.

Lynn Teachers Union

NUMBERS GAME

Think about we spend the LEAST but according to SOME calculations we TOP the list in terms of MCAS, AYP, CPI, or maybe just  IOU's. Anyway, looks like money doesn't matter the most.

An Education Blog

6 hrs · Edited · 

Commissioner's District Net School Spending Percentages, FY14:

-Boston: 113%
-Brockton: 95.6%
-Fall River: 97.1%
-Holyoke: 95.9%
-Lawrence: 100.8%
-Lowell: 96.6%
-Lynn: 91.2%
-New Bedford: 98.3%
-Springfield: 100%
-Worcester: 99.3%*

*Under Review

Source: MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

LOOK WHERE OUR LEADERS HAVE LED

An Education Blog

5 hrs · Edited · 

An updated DESE report puts Lynn at 91.2% of required net school spending in fiscal year (FY) 2014 or ~$16 million under NSS. This was the lowest percentage of NSS in the state for FY14.

Current figures also put Lynn at 93.8% of NSS in FY15 or ~$11 million under NSS.

Source: MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

EDUCATION MATTERS TO SOME

Although I can't claim to have written below, I can however agree with it!

5:57pm Dec 9 It doesn't look like Lynn contributed on the Vision for Education for Gateway cities but goals and information for Lynn and other Massachusetts gateway cities need to make education the centerpiece of their growth and renewal strategy. www.massinc.org www.massinc.org

OUT OF BUDGET,OUT OF MIND

Residential property tax bill to rise in Lynn

More taxes you will pay

But it's because the economy's good they say

So it should be no surprise

That they will rise.

Phew, I'm glad lt wasn't the new school

Used as a convient tool

For the rise to blame.

Still, out of pocket just the same.

Even so, I bet remains a debate

On the real reason for the new tax rate.

When home values go down

High taxes stay around.

SEASONS LEARNING

An old friend and one of the best writers I know did this WONDERFUL little story abot a business in the NEXT town over back home that makes me PROUD I came from where I did.

Jeff Toquinto FAMILY, FRIEND VISITING FOR CHRISTMAS THAT'S A VET? If so, and they need a place to stay, here's a deal too good to pass up. Free lodging on Christmas eve and Christmas day. This is a great offer.

http://bit.ly/1wyK2iH

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WHY THE FORD GARDEN SHOULD REMAIN OPEN

Stanley Wotring

THURSDAY'S LSC MEETING SET

I am ready, now is everyone SET for ACTION?

Lynn Parents Organizing for a Better Education shared a link.

22 hours ago · Edited

The next Lynn School Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 11th at 7pm. Building & Grounds and Policy Sub-Committee meetings will precede the regular meeting starting at 6:15pm; an open mike session will be held at 6:45pm.

Don't forget our community action at this week's school committee meeting:https://www.facebook.com/events/1509885322599524/

www.lynnschools.org

www.lynnschools.org

http://www.lynnschools.org/documents/school_committee/2014_notices/school_committee_dec_11_2014_615pm.pdf

GARDENS, GRANTS, AND GOSSIP

You know me I am not one to either start or listen to RUMOURS but....... thi does kind of BEG the question just what has LPS's GRANT WRITER done? Uh... the FULL-TIME one, the one LPS pays a nice salary to. What has she done to justify her salary? Oh yeah while you're at it let's ask the same-time, how about an ACCOUNTING of that PART-TIME PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PERSON that CHUCK PUSHED for?

12:18am Dec 7 While rumors of ending the Ford garden, three Lowell elementary schools will have similar gardens through a $100,000 grant. US grant to bring Lowell students closer to the farm - The Boston Globe www.bostonglobe.com The Lowell public school system has been awarded a $100,000 federal grant to coordinate a project de...

NEW SHERIFF TO MOUNT MUSTANGS

Marshall Middle School to welcome new principal

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the interviews for this important position and with my back like it is now I have not been traveling too many streets to pick up some words.  Hopefully a good choice was made, I can think of 92 MILLION reasons.

With the PROPOSED LPOBE ACTION FOR COMMUNITY SCHOOL ACTION for this Thursday's LSC meeting, looks like it may be an informative introduction!

BRIGHT DAWGS

English High

16 mins · 

English High juniors Jake DeFillipo and Ariana Severance
earn perfect MCAS scores.