Parents input debated by Lynn School Committee

LYNN – A lack of parent turnout at School Committee meetings has sparked a debate over whether to bring back public participation to the agenda, something that could ultimately lead to televised meetings.One of the committee’s newest members, Maria Carrasco, requested last Thursday that a parent’s “open mic” time be added to the bi-weekly agenda in an effort to convince more parents that the committee is there to serve their needs.Thursday’s meeting featured the usual sparse audience members; teacher’s union representatives, city hall employees and whomever happened to be on the agenda – but no parents. In fact, even when the School Committee was discussing closing the Washington and Fallon schools last spring, only a few parents turned out for the meetings, and were frustrated because they could not speak to the committee.Carrasco’s hypothesis is that parents no longer have an interest in coming to the meetings because they are not given an opportunity to talk.”There are not many people that come to hear what we are talking about. If people had the opportunity to express their opinions, we could give them at least two or three minutes to come talk,” she said. “Maybe we will have more interest in what we are doing. Parents need to be more involved in what we do.”Other School Committee members were reluctant to add public speaking time to the agenda, noting that the committee used to set aside 15 minutes before every meeting for that purpose, but rarely had takers.Committee Vice Chair Patricia Capano said the problem in the past was that many School Committee members needed to know if they were going to show up early for a meeting because of scheduling conflicts and became frustrated at the lack of participation.She said the opportunity to speak to the committee is still there, but must be scheduled in advance of the meeting.”We have sat here many times when no one would come,” she said. “What we need is a heads up if you want to come in. It is there, but if a group wants to come in they need to schedule it with (School Committee Secretary Tom Iarrobino) so we know to come in at 6:30 or 6:45.”Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. is opposed to having a public comment section on the agenda for several reasons, including time issues, and says if Carrasco wants to get the message out to parents, the committee should consider televising meetings.”If she (Carrasco) or anyone else thinks we need more transparency then the TV or some other sort of media would be a better way of doing it rather than having an open mic,” he said. “If someone wants to set up an open meeting session beforehand that is fine, but I do not support it during the agenda.”Other communities such as Peabody have public comment time built into the School Committee agenda and often have a small population of parents that speak at the meetings.Many issues, such as the annual budget, are subject to public hearing where any registered Lynn voter can come speak in favor or against the decision on the docket. At last year’s budget public hearing there were no parents spoke either in favor or against the spending plan.