School Committee wants answers about redistricting

LYNN – The start of school has been hectic for School Committee members in Lynn as they continue to field phone calls from parents of elementary school students who are upset about where their children are attending school and why.
Now the board is looking for some clarification on the city’s redistricting of neighborhood schools, and is hoping to get parents, the committee and the Parent Information Center (PIC) on the same page.
Every student in Lynn is assigned to a neighborhood elementary school and must apply for a transfer if they wish to attend a different school that is considered out of district. Factors such as class size and racial balance go in to the city’s decision, and most families are placed on waiting lists for transfers prior to the start of school.
With the closure of the Fallon and Washington elementary schools in June, the School Department was forced to re-district the city and assign some students to new neighborhood schools this fall, which has upset parents and caused confusion amidst all of the changes.
After a week of fielding phone calls and an opening day that committee member Donna Coppola called the worst she could ever remember, committee members are requesting that School Department Attorney John Mihos explain the factors in deciding where a child goes to school, including a complicated desegregation plan, so that they can better inform parents of their options.
“What we need is clarification because we get these phone calls from parents and I need to know if the recommendations I am making are correct,” said Committee Vice Chair Patricia Capano. “You get into issues as to why student A is in one school and student B is in another. I want to at least try and give an understanding of what our policies are.”
Both Capano and Coppola said they have heard form parents who are upset that two of their children are attending different schools, and others who say PIC has been less than helpful with the whole process.
In most cases, the School Department tries to keep siblings together, but when parents want a student to attend an out-of-district school, there are no guarantees. Now that class sizes have increased with budget cuts and school closings, it has become more difficult to make room for out-of-district students.
“If you have a sibling in third grade, typically they try to keep the students together (if another child enters kindergarten or tries to transfer to the same school). Every parent wants their kids together and you can understand that,” said Capano. “In the past when a kindergarten class had 18 students, adding a 19th wasn’t a big deal. But now with budget cuts classes have 24 or 25 kids, and you can’t afford to add another student.”
Coppola places some of the blame on PIC, which she says often gives conflicting information to some parents.
“I have some parents that come in to PIC and they are told one thing, that their child can attend this school and will be put on a waiting list, and then they speak to a different person that says ?oh, you can’t attend that school. You can’t do that,'” she said. “It needs to be clear. We need to sit down and look at this because not everybody is on the same page.”
In most cases, PIC ends up working with school principals to make the situation better for families and is usually able to make the situation work, but Coppola feels it should be a smooth process from the beginning and would like to make sure that everyone in the School Department knows the policies and can help parents properly.
“It is very discouraging, it is like sometimes the right doesn’t know what the left is doing,” she said. “The sad part is that in the end it all works out, but it just causes so much anxiety for these parents through the whole month of August. Imagine having to try and take time off from work and go to the PIC four times, sitting in the hallway hoping to make eye contact with someone there, and then your getting different information from everyone