Lynn super under fire for request

LYNN – The decision by a majority of the School Committee to allow Superintendent Catherine Latham to hire a second deputy superintendent – at a price-tag that’s expected to be more than $100,000 – has left some elected officials angry and frustrated.School Committee member Donna Coppola, who was one of just two members to vote against Lat-ham’s request, believes the superintendent should have addressed more pressing needs if she was going to spend that kind of money.”She claims we’re down 10 very important jobs and I think the jobs she mentioned need to be filled before hiring a second deputy superintendent,” Coppola said. “One is the coordinator of the science curriculum. Why doesn’t the Lynn public schools have a science curriculum person?”Coppola also pointed to the timing of Latham’s decision, coming less than five months before the start of the new fiscal year.”We’re halfway through the year and she (Latham) could not say where she was going to get the money,” Coppola said. “She said, ‘We’ll find it.'”For the rest of the committee to fill a $100,000-plus job that’s going to need a $50,000 confidential secretary, what in the world is everything thinking?”Latham defended her decision to hire a second deputy superintendent, saying the amount of paperwork school district officials must fill out to win and retain grants – along with meeting state and federal reporting requirements – is enormous and growing.”We are the fifth largest school district in the state and we have lost at least 10 administrative positions over the past two years,” Latham said. “We’ve analyzed the administrative set-ups of similar sized districts and we are low when compared to them.”Latham said she did not yet know exactly what the new deputy superintendent would do, but some of his or her responsibilities will include evaluating school principals, handling contacts from principals and the public and helping with the paperwork needed to keep the grant money the school district receives.She said she does not know exactly what the salary will be for the new deputy superintendent, but part of it will be paid through an entitlement grant – which the district gets every year – and the rest will have to be absorbed by the operating budget.School Committee member Vincent Spirito, a former teacher and school principal in Lynn, said the amount of work Latham and the current deputy superintendent are asked to do is simply too much for them to handle.”In the past we’ve always had two deputes,” Spirito said. “The work right now is too overwhelming for just one deputy to do ? The superintendent is all over the place, she’s doing a million jobs at once.”Spirito said he doesn’t think Latham had decided the exact salary for the second deputy superintendent, but believes it will be in the “$115,000-$130,000 range, depending on experience.”The school district previously had two deputy superintendents, but lost one when the School Committee promoted Latham, who was then a deputy superintendent, he said.Spirito voted to give Latham the authority to hire the new deputy superintendent. The only two committee members who voted no were Coppola and Richard Starbard.Starbard, a former teacher, shared Coppola’s concern about the hiring, both because it comes past the middle of the fiscal year and also because he believes any money spent should go first toward employees who have direct impact on city students.”We’re over halfway through the school year so I was a little bit disturbed when we talked about the funding for it and the superintendent said, ‘I’m pretty sure we can find the money.’ If we had that money available, why didn’t we hire the librarians back?” he asked.Starbard said several elementary schools are operating without librarians because of budget cuts.He noted that Latham was told there would only be one deputy superintendent when she was promoted to superintendent.Spending money on such a big salary right before the budget process for next fiscal year begins is