Coalition meets to spread vision for Lynn schools

LYNN – Parents, educators, several School Committee members and students came out Monday to start a conversation that Lynn Teachers Union President Brant Duncan hopes will turn into a movement that will result in a better public school system.”This is not an indictment of our schools,” Duncan told a crowd of about 75 people. “This is to advocate for our schools.”The Reclaim Our Schools Coalition has been meeting for several months, Duncan said. Monday the group held a rally at the Lynn Museum and Historical Society to share its “vision for great Lynn Public Schools.” Duncan said the vision was developed by a small group of people, and he’s aware it won’t be all things to all people, but he believes it’s a good place to start a conversation.Public school teacher Miriam Fusco emceed the event that brought together a half dozen organizations, like the teachers union, Lynn Parents Organizing for Better Education, the North Shore Labor Council and the Student Immigration Movement, under the Reclaim Our Schools umbrella.Reclaim Our Schools is a national movement made up of parents, caregivers, students and community members focused on creating a better life for children “through a system of publicly funded, equitable and democratically controlled public schools.”Fusco said two main problems stand in the way of Lynn being a world-class school system: lack of adequate funding and too much standardized testing.Classical High School teacher Phil McQueen said he is not against testing to determine student achievement. However, if the results of the testing affect a student’s ability to graduate or punishes a school that doesn’t hit a projected achievement level because it has students who have just moved into the city and do not speak the language, then “it’s just plain wrong.”He also pointed out that the two weeks leading up the test are essentially lost to test prep, which leads to stress and anxiety for both student and teacher, and seven days of learning are lost to the test itself.The question that needs to be asked is if it’s worth it, he said.Kathy Asuncion from the Student Immigrant Movement spoke of the need to guide undocumented students through the school system while parent Traci L’talian spoke on the need to be your child’s advocate.L’talian’s son spent first and second grade struggling and falling further and further behind in a class of 33 students. Then she and a handful of parents lobbied hard and got the class split into a more manageable size.”I appreciate that my son is able to be in a class of 16 students, and I think every child deserves a class of 16 students,” she said.Not everything focused on what the school system is doing wrong.Kindergarten teacher Leslie Cole and bilingual social worker Laura McGaughey-Marquez praised the school for moving forward with all-day kindergarten and supporting social workers in the schools.Jason Jimenez also praised the school department for taking a chance on his hip-hop-based anti-bullying/suicide awareness program, Music Motivates Me.Lynn Parents Organizing for Better Education shared the coalition’s vision, which includes clean, safe, well-equipped school buildings that meet multiple student and community needs and provide opportunities for collaboration. The vision also includes culturally rich programs, smaller class sizes, differentiated instruction, well-funded tutoring programs and provisions to meet the needs of English language learners and special education students. Full-day kindergarten, adequate recess for all students, school nurses in every building, fair disciplinary policies and a full-time social worker in each school round out the wish list.Parents and educators also put out a call for “authentic parent engagement.”Duncan asked those at the meeting to fill out a pledge card that would, among other things, alert them when there were meetings regarding the Reclaim Our Schools Coalition as well as PTOs.”I’m hoping people will sign up for community meetings and PTO