Lynn officials table Ford Annex plan

LYNN – The School Committee Tuesday tabled a motion to re-open and relocate the Ford School Annex to Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, but not before school administrators, the teacher’s union and the superintendent spoke against it.LVTI Director James Ridley spoke first, saying the move is a “bad idea on a lot of levels,” and mixing middle school and high school kids would create “180 chances for something to happen.”Lynn Teachers Union President Alice Gunning agreed and said she felt that all stakeholders should have been included in discussion during the planning phase.School Committee member Donna Coppola made a motion to table the discussion of the plan, originally presented by Ford Principal Claire Crane at a Finance Subcommittee meeting on April 15.That motion failed, however, once Mayor and School Committee Chairman Judith Flanagan Kennedy – tardy due to a family obligation – came in and took up the discussion.Coppola then explained that the members of the Finance Sub-Committee had voted to move the presentation to the full School Committee to discuss, though Crane was not asked to present her plan to the full committee Tuesday.Superintendent of Schools Catherine Latham said she had not been informed of or invited to the meetings regarding the plan to reopen the Ford Annex. She said she agreed to request information about the plan to further advise Kennedy on how feasible the plan would be.”Just to make things clear, the meetings are in the Highlands,” Coppola said. “The people in that community want their old Ford Annex back. It is something that they happen to like. They’re a strong community up there. Their hearts were broken when (the Ford Annex) disappeared. They want it back. They like the small feel to it. If somebody asks me if I want to come to a meeting at the Highlands and listen to people who have stories about why they want it back, I am open to listening to them.”Latham said that while she did not doubt that Coppola spoke to many impassioned people, she is not finding the same response from the Highland community.”When I first put forward the fact that as a financial decision we’ve got to close the Ford Annex, to this date I have not received nor have I ever received one phone call from one parent from the Ford School. Never,” Latham said.School Committee member Rick Starbard said a small group of concerned community members met with the Highland Coalition and that it was not a School Committee Meeting. He mentioned that himself, Coppola and Maria Carrasco are regularly invited to and attend the meetings.”As elected members of the community, and elected by them, and we did voice support that we said we would explore the possibilities,” Starbard said. “We would never, never go along with a proposal that would cost the city millions of dollars. But if there was a way that we could successfully make this happen, at little to no cost to us, it would be a no-brainer. We are not stupid people. But we are people that meet with that community and said we would see what we could do. As I said before, we were only exploring the possibilities, we were not trying to eliminate anybody, we weren’t doing anything slight of hand, we were just exploring.”Vice-Chairman Patricia Capano said she did not understand how they expected to keep a community school together when they are traveling up to three miles a day to a building that is not their own, and while she would like to give the community their wish, she is obligated to examine the union implications and finances.”I don’t have the personal pull or the glory to narrowly sit with one particular group, because any group could sit in front of me, have a wish list and I could explore that thought,” she said. “That would be immature for my vote and it would be irresponsible for my fiscal responsibility. It is my job to know that that blue budget that comes out, in two inches, is serving 28 schools and 13,000 students,” Capano said.To round off the discussion, Latham gav