Retired teacher seeks seat on Lynn School Committee

LYNN – Lorraine Gately closed out a 33-year teaching career in June but said she isn’t ready to walk away from education just yet, so she is running for School Committee.”I really can’t walk away,” she said. “I just want to do more than be in the classroom. I want to try and help the district.”Gately toyed with nursing and organic farming before taking a job as a substitute teacher in 1978.”That is when I realized I wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “And I really wanted to be a teacher in Lynn.”Unfortunately she ran into Proposition 21/2, which went into effect in 1982 and resulted in hundreds of layoffs. Gately, who was born and raised in Lynn, said she ended up working in Chelsea, Haverhill and as a substitute before landing a job in Lynn in 1988.The science teacher said she loves teaching but wanted to get out before she passed her prime, but she isn’t prepared to retire completely.”Serving on the School Committee will give me the opportunity to put all my experience to good work for the benefit of all students, families, teachers and staff,” she said.She also admitted that teaching was wearing her out.The two-time cancer survivor said she noticed over the last two years that by the end of the school year she was exhausted. Ironically, once she decided to retire, that energy came back twofold, she added.”I have way too much energy now,” she said with a laugh. “It’s like the old Lorraine Gately is back.”Gately graduated from Lynn English High School in 1972 and earned an associate’s degree at North Shore Community College followed by a bachelor’s at Goddard College in Vermont. She also holds a master’s in education from Cambridge College.She spent the vast majority of her teaching career as a middle school science teacher, the last six years at Pickering Middle School.She has also been a team leader in the Gateway to Engineering and Technology Education project at the Museum of Science, and strengthening the science curriculum, particularly at the middle-school level, is a priority, she said.Gately, whose son, Michael, also graduated from Lynn English, said opening up communication between the superintendent, the School Committee and the public, and focusing on upgrading the quality of the city’s school buildings are also priorities. She called the upcoming vote for a new Marshall Middle School critical.”The Marshall project is the most important issue that has come up in the school district in many years,” Gately said. “Not only will it cost the city less for a new building than to repair the existing one.”Voters will get a chance to hear Gately argue why she deserves a spot during the Lynn Community Association’s School Committee Candidates Forum Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. at Congregation Ahabat Sholom on Ocean Street.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].