Education Secretary highlights reading day at Lynn’s Harrington

LYNN – State Secretary of Education Paul Reveille highlighted a long list of local personalities and community leaders at the Harrington Elementary School’s annual Community Reading Day Friday.Reveille, who was in town to visit KIPP Academy Lynn and the Harrington School, joined Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr., Superintendent Catherine Latham and guests from The Daily Item, Boston Globe and the police and fire departments.Other readers included former Mayor Thomas Costin, Daily Item President and Publisher Peter H. Gamage and Rep. Lori Ehrlich.Starstruck and excited at the variety of guests, students led readers to and from the school’s library, where event organizer and Library Media Specialist Carole Shutzer handed out pre-made packets for each classroom containing a few books, some tips for making conversation with elementary school students and some small gifts to hand out.”It is just a great way for people to come in and see the school,” said Shutzer. “And the kids get really excited for it.”Principal Michael Molnar, who is in his first year at the school, praised Shutzer for her efforts in bringing the popular event to the school for another year and for making sure that the library is a thriving place for students.”This is my first year so I didn’t really know what to expect, but what a fantastic job Carole has done with this,” he said. “It is nice to see people from all over the community coming in to see our school.”Reveille was appointed secretary by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008, after serving as Chairman of the Board of Education. He is a top lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and serves as president of the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, an independent policy organization dedicated to the improvement of Pre-K-12 public education.He made his first visit to the school for the reading event, something that Molnar says is encouraging coming from the state level.”It is good to see people from the Department of Education here,” he said. “It is good that they can come see the school and put a face to everything, rather than just seeing us on a piece of paper.”Reveille’s trip to Lynn is part of an overall effort by the secretary to visit as many of the state’s school districts as possible in a time when budget problems and new policy mean big changes in many areas.”It is both informative and inspiring for us to be out in the the field and to talk to people, not only about what we are doing, but what they are doing as educators,” he said.