LTVI officials label criticism in DOE audit ‘constructive’

LYNN – Administrators from Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute along with the Special Education Department told the School Committee Thursday they were using a recent Department of Elementary and Secondary Education audit as “constructive criticism” and are moving forward with plans to improve.The School Committee met with LVTI Director James Ridley, SPED Director Cheryl Menino and Director of Health Curriculum Denis Thompson to discuss a variety of issues contained in the DOE’s Coordinated Program Review of the district conducted last year.The committee first received the report in late December, but requested the special meeting once they had time to review the findings.The district was required to respond to the problems in the report and outline efforts to improve, something that Superintendent Catherine Latham said had been done with plans of action having been approved or submitted to the DOE for review.In the report, LVTI faced heavy criticism for its shop conditions, facilities and even alleged civil-rights violations as DOE officials claimed SPED and non-English speaking students are not given the same opportunities as traditional students at the school.In addressing questions from committee members, Director James Ridley, who was hired last February to correct many of the same problems contained in the report, said that he and his staff have undertaken several efforts since the report was released this summer to make improvements.Ridley said that all safety issues have been taken care of and that federal grant money was in the pipeline to begin improving outdated facilities, although those improvements would come slowly as funding allows.”We did get some Perkins money to update the shops and that is ongoing,” he said. “But we have to prioritize depending on the money that we get.”At the academic level, Ridley says he has met with many of his faculty and staff to review the school’s admission policy and shop curriculum, and is in the process of implementing more MCAS preparation programs.The school has also started using a new computer program called Career Cruising to help students identify a career path that will fit their interest.Committee members grilled Ridley in several areas on the report, but seemed satisfied that the director and his staff were doing their best to move the school forward, and reminded the public that Ridley has only been at the school a short time and has already made significant changes.”While on paper things aren’t right, Mr. Ridley has only been at the school less than a year and when he got there there were a lot more problems than a broken sink in the cosmetology shop,” said committee member Jeff Newhall. “I believe that Mr. Ridley and the staff at Tech are going in the right direction and I urge people to be a little bit more patient.”For Menino, much of the criticism of the SPED department surrounded facilities and the inclusion of SPED students in the same programs as traditional students. The director said she took the criticism in the report as a way to identify where they can continue to improve, and said all areas in the report are in the process of being addressed.Menino addressed alleged discrimination of SPED students at Tech by pointing out that, while many SPED students do not participate in vocational shops, they do have their own vocational programs such as the Life Skills program which provides “realistic and creative” opportunities.Some SPED students also work at the Sacred Heart food pantry as part of a work study program.Both Ridley and Menino pointed to budget cuts as a primary reason for problems such as a lack of interpreters for non-English speaking students and a lack of supervision as students pass between buildings at Tech, and said they were looking at prioritizing staffing to improve those problems.In the end, committee members seemed satisfied that the new administration was working with department heads to improve the situation and offered support for bo