Youth, citizen groups get mayor’s attention

LYNN – With the economy ravaging the city’s non-profit and youth organizations, Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. is meeting with area activist groups to answer questions about school and program closings this summer.Clancy attended an Essex County Community Organization youth community action meeting last Wednesday and plans to attend a Highlands Coalition meeting tonight to discuss the upcoming closure of the Ford School Annex, as well as other issues.Several hundred people attended the ECCO meeting at St. Stephen’s Church, discussing youth violence and after school-program issues with Clancy.Attendees expressed concern that the city is losing much of the violence-prevention funding from the state next year, leaving high-risk youth with few positive choices.State Sen. Thomas McGee and state Rep. Steven Walsh also attended the meeting and vowed to work with ECCO to preserve this funding, although cuts still appear likely.”I was invited to and I attended a meeting with ECCO last week, as I always try to do when these organizations invite me, if they give me enough notice I like to go and answer the questions they have,” said Clancy. “The challenge is that many of them expect ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers on some things and I can’t give that. There were a lot of answers and questions, most of which were well-intentioned. It was a good dialogue.”One request ECCO made to Clancy was to commit 10 percent of any new local option taxes to community groups, but the Mayor called that proposal premature, given that the state has not passed any local action laws.In light of the almost inevitable closing of the Ford Annex, sliced from the hemorrhaging School Department budget next year, many community organizations in the city have been worried that this may lessen the reach of the full-service community school model.The full-service community school is where schools are open for parent and community involvement, programs, and education for students and adults after school and evenings.ECCO offered a proposal to the mayor, for him to pledge his support to community groups that wish to work with the School Department to expand this model, something Clancy strongly agreed to.”They are interested in exploring community schools, and I agree that, if we can keep the buildings open, those schools are a good thing,” he said, referencing community programs throughout the city. “But we will see how that goes.”ECCO representatives said overall it was a good meeting.”Clancy showed that he was supportive of full-service community schools,” said Community Organizer Alex Heimann. “Our hope is that we can work with the School Department to begin building the framework with many of our schools, so that when the economy begins to recover, Lynn Schools could become pioneers of parent and community involvement in education.”