Officials cut ribbon on new KIPP building in Lynn

LYNN – As students filtered through their day inside Lynn KIPP Academy Thursday, city and state officials along with several dozen stakeholders watched outside as blue ribbon stretched across the front doors was cut with an impossibly large pair of scissors.”It is a very rare moment in life when you see a belief play out like you’re seeing today,” said KIPP Academy Lynn founder Josh Zoia, who helped wield the scissors.View a photo gallery.Zoia, who is now superintendent of schools for KIPP New York, was on hand for the official opening of the new school. He was joined by school personnel, a handful of “Kippsters” or students, as well as Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, state Sen. Thomas McGee, state Rep. Steven Walsh, along with his aide and School Committee member John Ford, School Committee member Maria Carrasco, Councilor at large Hong Net, Police Chief Kevin Coppinger and Fire Chief Dennis Carmody.Zoia, who became emotional during his speech, said one phrase kept coming back to him as he thought about the new school, “believing is seeing.”If we didn’t believe this would happen we wouldn’t be here now,” he said.Perched atop High Rock Street in the Highlands section of Lynn the 68,000 square foot, two-story academy has been in session for about four weeks, according to High School Principal Drea DeAngelo. The building replaces what Executive Director for KIPP Massachusetts Caleb Dolan called a couple of “grimy classrooms” and a couple of old module classrooms on Bessom Street.In the new space there is a middle school and high school wing, smart boards, science labs, a library with a sweeping view of downtown Lynn, the ocean and the Boston skyline, and there is a gym.”I love the gym,” said DeAngelo, who spent five years teaching kids to play basketball in the cold parking lot of Holy Family Church, the school’s former home.Mike Kendall, chairman of the board of KIPP Massachusetts, said the celebration was not about a new building. The building is just another tool in the hands of educators to make sure their 588 students get to and through college.Secretary of Education Paul Reville called the school officials and students lucky. He said he is proud of what KIPP has achieved.”It’s exactly what we had in mind when we passed the Achievement Gap Act of 2010,” he said. “You seized the opportunity.”The act allowed the best charter schools to grow and expand. He urged the school to continue to grow but to do so carefully, and said that the governor and the Department of Education were 100 percent behind them.Mitchell Chester, commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, threw down a challenge for Dolan and Kennedy. He said in the past charter schools and traditional public schools have operated in separate silos but he would like to see them work together to develop a hybrid program.”Let’s capitalize on what you do so well,” he said.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].