Swampscott board gives school super high marks

SWAMPSCOTT – The School Committee criticized Superintendent Lynne Celli’s “misstep” in not allowing the media to attend meetings on Swampscott High School’s Chemical Health Policy, but otherwise had only high praise for the superintendent in an evaluation of her first year.”Dr. Celli is a very intelligent, thoughtful and kind person determined to make a positive impact,” School Committee Chair Jacqueline Kinney wrote in an evaluation that summarized reviews by each individual School Committee member.Kinney said Celli has quickly moved to “resolve issues that will not be solved in just a year.”Celli said she was “not really sure what they meant by that,” in response to the School Committee’s criticism of her “misstep from the media-relations perspective” in not allowing the media to attend parents’ meetings about the Chemical Health Policy. “We tried to be inclusive when we thought we should be and include the parents when appropriate. There’s been so much going on with that, it’s been a six-month process and a lot of things were going on.”But overall, Celli said she was “very happy” with the evaluation.”I’m very grateful to the committee for recognizing the work of the leadership team and the teachers. It’s not just the one person, it’s the managers and everybody,” Celli said. “They rose to the challenge, they really did. I’m totally indebted to the team, I think we did a lot of great things this year.”The evaluation was presented Wednesday night at the final School Committee meeting with members Glenn Paster and Maureen Thomsen, whose terms expire at the April 26 election, but who wanted to participate in the evaluation. The evaluation was based on Celli’s overall achievement on three key areas: curriculum, leadership and communications.Kinney praised Celli’s overall achievements in making early strides to reverse problems such as uneven academic achievement and a decline in trust from parents concerning the schools. She also praised Celli’s openness to union concerns as helping mending relations with the Swampscott teacher’s union and Celli’s action in hiring Principal Layne Millington.In the leadership category, Kinney praised Celli for establishing a “clear chair of command,” but also allowing collaborative leadership.