Lynn schools preparing for DOE review

LYNN – A year of various reviews and audits has been successful for the Lynn Public Schools thus far, but administrators must prepare for one final test this May when the Department of Education (DOE) will conduct a routine review of the department’s special programs.Members of the state’s top education office will visit Lynn Public Schools the week of May 21 to conduct a review of specific offerings and state-required programs such as special education, English as a Second Language (ESL), Title 1 programs, Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, Civil Rights Methods of Administration and vocational and technical education.The DOE conducts reviews of every school department on a staggered five-year schedule, with Lynn’s last review taking place in 2003.Superintendent Nicholas Kostan said that, unlike the audit conducted by the Office of Educational and Quality Assurance (EQA) in 2007 that measured the effectiveness of the department as a whole, the DOE’s visit is more of an opportunity for state education leaders to make suggestions that will enhance the city’s special programs.”They will be coming up here for four or five days, they do it every five years and it is just our turn this year,” said Kostan. “They look at the programs and they make recommendations if they feel a certain program may need some tweaking. It helps us out because it is good to get another set of eyes looking at things.”A team of DOE representatives will review individual student record keeping and program procedures, and will interview teachers, administrators and parents.Any member of the public may request to be interviewed by the team via telephone if they have a specific issue they would like to address, or feel that their input would be helpful to the review.Kostan will receive an executive summary and detailed report of the DOE’s findings in each program area that will describe the implementation status of each program requirement.In areas that the DOE finds are not implemented properly, the district must propose corrective actions to bring those programs into compliance with statutes and regulations.The EQA audit included a more comprehensive review of the district, where representatives conducted visits to every school looking for an overall indication of how the department was run.Kostan recently announced that the audit was so successful that the EQA has removed the Lynn Public Schools from its warning list.In addition, rising MCAS scores and greater accountability within the department resulted in the DOE upgrading Lynn’s status to “priority 2” in November of 2007, making it the only large, urban school district in the state to be taken off of commissioner’s warning status.Any member of the public who would like to be interviewed during the DOE’s upcoming review can leave a name and phone number with Kostan’s office by calling 781-593-1680 no later than May 9, or contact the DOE directly at 781-338-3701. A member of the visiting team will contact each person desiring an interview within two weeks after the completion of the onsite portion of the review.