Lynn school spending fix near

LYNN – Disagreements over a state school spending formula, which threatened to cost the city $7 million in reduced education aid, could be resolved as soon as June.State Sen. Thomas M. McGee said legislators will build on a plan already mapped out by state Rep. Robert Fennell to bring Lynn and other communities in line with state net spending calculations.”I anticipate the administration is supportive and the governor will sign it. Bob (Fennell) did a great job,” McGee said.The state’s top education official warned in a February letter that the city had dropped $8.5 million below the state’s minimum local school spending requirements. Lack of action on the shortfall, wrote Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, could result in a $300,000 fine and a $7 million reduction in state aid to schools.Fennell revealed the initial solution to the spending problem in April when he outlined his work with Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo to ease Lynn’s spending obligation by allowing the city to begin counting retired teacher health insurance costs as part of the complicated state spending formula.McGee, on Monday, said that plan is duplicated in the state Senate budget for the spending year that begins July 1.”We’ve been working in the Senate awhile,” he said.The legislative solution to the net spending problem also sets aside the state penalty Chester cited in his letter. The plan allows the city to gradually begin counting retired teacher health insurance costs over four years, beginning in 2015. The insurance calculation will have to be reviewed by state officials.”It’s what the city is looking for. It still means the city needs to meet net spending requirements under the law,” McGee said.Even before Fennell announced a solution to the shortfall, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy directed city officials to draw up a list of school repair projects to be counted under net school spending calculations. That list currently totals almost $4 million in work approved by the City Council to be paid for with transfers from the city’s free cash account. The money includes $1 million worth of new school textbooks to be purchased by June 30.”Significant investments are going to be made in the schools,” said Council President Daniel Cahill.Money is being spent on school books even as students use more than 2,600 iPads now available in schools to learn in their classrooms. The tablets allow students and teachers to communicate quickly on school lessons and help teachers to tailor instruction to meet students’ needs.”IPads are transforming the way students learn,” said Lynn Schools Curriculum and Instruction Assistant Director Shannon Stevens.Stevens said students skilled in iPads end up teaching other students and even instruct teachers in computer-aided learning.”Students are highly engaged when it comes to that technology: They would much rather have that iPad out than a piece of paper,” Stevens said.