Kennedy, Phelan spar on schools

LYNN – The Lynn Teachers Union’s Candidates for Mayor Forum on Monday night started on a light note when Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy won the coin toss for the order of opening statements.Her challenger, City Council President Tim Phelan, chuckled and said, “She seems to be winning a lot of things lately.”The joke, referring to Kennedy’s better than 1,200-vote victory in last week’s preliminary election, set the mood for the forum, moderated by David Angelli, a Lynn teacher for 19 years. The candidates appeared relaxed and from a pair of armchairs on stage at Breed Middle School, offered a congenial exchange on school-related issues.”I think my opponent has a really good slogan that he’s been using, ?Believe in Lynn,'” Kennedy said. “I do believe in Lynn and more importantly I believe in public schools.”Phelan took to heart criticism from earlier debates and spent more time detailing his vision for the schools. He presented two ideas that he said were his and only his, using a piece of city owned property on Route 1 as a funding mechanism for school buildings and introducing year round Pre-K.Both Kennedy and Phelan spoke about the need for new schools or in some cases renovated schools, but Phelan said funding would eventually become an issue. If elected he said he would propose that the city sell, lease or develop the Route 1 site and put the money generated into a dedicated account earmarked to fund school building repairs and projects.”If it’s worth what people have been saying I believe we could do a substantial amount of work on the interest alone,” he said.Kennedy said she is aware of the property and has walked it but would not sell it in a down economy. She said there is a developer interested in building a mini-mall and would need the property for an easement, although she said she couldn’t promise all the funding would go toward the schools.Phelan said Kennedy can claim to know about the land but she certainly never spoke of it.”No one talked about it until I brought it up at a previous debate,” he said.When asked about meeting parental demands for Pre-K, Kennedy said finding room for additional programs has long been an issue but Phelan called that a cop out.”To me that’s not good enough,” he said. “We have the space, we don’t have the time.”Phelan said the one time of year they have both time and space for additional Pre-K programs is in the summer and if elected he would institute summer Pre-K programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.”It’s an option, it’s thinking outside the box and it would pay dividends,” he said.The pair mixed it up over funding numbers and budget predictions that Phelan said could result in financial penalties for the city.”I didn’t invent anything new,” Kennedy said referring to her budget practices. “This is how it’s been done since long before I became mayor and we’re not in danger of any penalties. It’s simply not going to happen.”When asked for their top three priorities to strengthen the schools, Phelan listed creating more prep and collaboration time for teachers, growing parental/community engagement and introducing technology like intervention software or software that would allow teachers to put lessons online. Kennedy’s priorities included school safety, parental involvement and flexibility aimed at longer learning time or a longer school day.Elementary school teacher Sheila O’Neil said she thought Kennedy did a better job when it came to discussing charter schools, how state funding, to the tune of $8.5 million is diverted away from Lynn Public Schools and why many students end up back in LPS. However, Kennedy struck a nerve when she said, “good teachers will put assignments online.” She was talking about how to engage parents in student work but O’Neil called it an insult.”Does that make me a good teacher because I put my lesson plan online?” she asked. “Does it mean I follow my lesson plan?”She also said she thought Phelan offered a lot more information.”He seems to understand what the