CONGRATULATIONS, BUT.........

	The superintendent is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Mary Panagopoulos as the newPRINCIPAL of the Sewell-Anderson Elementary School. Effective July 1, 2015, Ms. Panagopoulos will replace Ms. Patricia Mallett who willRETIRE at the end of the school year after serving the Lynn Public Schools for over 40 years, the last nine as the principal of Sewell-Anderson School.

Ms. Panagopoulos, a Lynn resident and graduate of the Lynn Public Schools, is also a seasoned Lynn Educator with over 30 years of experience.  She began her career as a teacher of students with special needs and has served at Connery, Drewicz, Harrington, Ingalls, Shoemaker, and Tracy.  She is currently the Curriculum and Instruction teacher at the Drewicz Elementary School.  At Drewicz she serves as the MCAS coordinator, a member of the instructional leadership team, the Student Study Team coordinator and as acting principal.  For the past three years she has served as the coordinator of the Lynn Public Schools Tutorial in Place summer program, a collaborative summer program with outside agencies, private home day-care providers and the Lynn Public School Department. Over her years in education she has developed excellent relationships throughout the Lynn Public Schools and with our community partners.

Ms. Panagopoulos received a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Lesley College, and aMASTER OF Education degree from Salem State College.  She holds licenses with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in elementary education, moderate special needs and elementary school administration; and she is a certified Wilson reading instructor and a trained Safety-care Behavioral Safety specialist.  She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to support differentiated instruction for all students and is dedicated and motivated to continue the excellent academic successes seen at the Sewell-Anderson Commendation School.

Not to take away anything from MS.P but why is it too leave a GAP in service for 2500 or so LPS SPECIAL NEEDS students but we got to rush to fill a Principal's position?  Of course I'm talking about the fact that the DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL NEEDS is retiring next month and there has been no interest, publicly anyway, in filling that position?

The LSC doesn't even meet in the summer. There are rumours out there of some sort of restructuring so a back door appointment of someone who got froze out of the DEPUTY'S job because of the unexpected addition of the DOCTORAL requirement. But as you all know, I am not one to spread gossip.

Well anyway, I hope I'm wrong so that the RIGHT thing can be done!