Lynn schools prepare for ’10 budget

LYNN – As the heavily hyped fiscal year 2010 budget negotiations creep closer the Lynn School Committee is ready to hunker down and crunch some numbers to avoid potentially disastrous cuts.The committee as a whole began the process of figuratively searching between the district’s couch cushions Thursday night with a brief examination of the city’s middle schools, an area that Vice Chair Patricia Capano feels could be more efficient.Capano called for Superintendent Nicholas Kostan and his staff to examine the efficiency of the middle schools over the next six weeks, with a specific focus on the cluster-style schedule and district wide curriculum.Unlike the high schools, which run on a rotating seven period schedule, middle schools are broken up into clusters with one long block where a specific subject is covered for a longer period of time each day.Capano feels that the long block may not be the best use of students’ and teachers’ time, and switching to a schedule more like those at the high school level could help save money as well.”I think we should put together some sort of task force or a subcommittee to look at our middle school concept. Ask ourselves, are clusters the way to go?” she said. “I am of no capability to make that decision, but I want to make sure we are being efficient at the middle school level. I am looking to see if the cluster model works. If we take long blocks away would it increase the learning time for students?”Other areas of concern for Capano included MCAS scores, which have been in an annual decline in grades 6-8, and a curriculum that doesn’t match up between the city’s four middle schools.Superintendent Nicholas Kostan agreed to oversee the study, but said the district’s struggles with the MCAS scores are not unique as they mirror state trends in recent years.”It was reported recently by the education commissioner that 75 percent of middle schools in the state are in some sort of MCAS status, whether it be corrective action or needs improvement,” he said. “So I think that is something that we have to look at throughout the state, not just here in Lynn, why are middle school kids doing so poorly?”Kostan said that the district’s curriculum and textbooks are the same at all of the middle schools, but it is up to each principal and teacher to decide how that is applied.Capano said her goal is to learn more about the middle school model used in the city and find out what is working efficiently and what needs to be changed before the school committee is asked to look at cutting jobs or programs to save money.”I think we have to be sure of the efficiency before we go into the classroom and start cutting,” she said. “I am looking for efficiency in every area. I don’t want to open up the blue book and simply say ‘ok, this school has three aides and eight math teachers, let’s cut four because this school over here already has six math teachers,’ we need a better vision to handle what is coming.”Capano’s issues are the first of many to be discussed in the coming months as the economy continues to wreak havoc on the state and city budgets. To prepare, committee members agreed to begin meeting as a whole 30 minutes before the start of regularly scheduled meetings beginning after the first of the year.”I think it would be wise,” said Mayor and Committee Chair Edward J. Clancy Jr. “Once we start getting numbers early in the year, it will be wise to begin looking at the budget as soon as possible.”