Meeting scheduled for Drewicz kindergarten relocation plan

LYNN – Drewicz School parents are expected to learn Wednesday night about school administration plans to ease a classroom space crunch by sending kindergartners slated to enter the school next year to the Commercial Street early childhood center.?Their children will be joining Tracy, Brickett and Ford students,” School Superintendent Catherine Latham said.Latham said the West Lynn school?s parents received notes inviting them to the June 18 meeting at 7 p.m. in the Hood Street school.Drewicz is the fourth elementary school in two years to face a space shortage severe enough to prompt Latham to find alternate space for incoming kindergartners. The early childhood center opened in 90 Commercial St. last September with 250 Tracy, Brickett and Ford School kindergartners enrolled.?It?s a difficult move. Beyond next year, we need to look at some serious space needs. We need another elementary school,” Latham said.Current Drewicz kindergarten class sizes range from 27 to 30 students, according to School Department enrollment statistics. Latham said the class sizes mirror a steady increase in the numbers of kindergarten, first grade and second grade students attending Lynn public schools.Each of these grades averaged about 900 students annually, Latham said to School Committee members on Thursday, before enrollment growth during the last several years pushed grade sizes up to 1,300 students.?That?s going to create a serious problem,” she said.Latham said new students moving into the city, including children of refugees from other countries, are contributing to the enrollment expansion. She cited state statistics in pointing out how Lynn outpaces other Massachusetts cities, including Boston, as a resettlement destination.Reports from the State Office of Refugees and Immigrants, provided by Latham, project 202 refugees will arrive in the city throughout the last half of this year.Almost half of the refugees will be from Iraq with others coming from Africa, Burma and Afghanistan. According to the reports, the refugees have been approved for resettlement in the United States.?The U.S. State Department and Voluntary Agencies determine whether their first U.S. placement will be in (Ma)ssachusetts,” the report stated.Latham said resettlement reports also show that the number of people coming to the city from other nations is growing significantly every year with 54 arriving in 2011; 329 in 2012; 302 in 2013 and 538 projected to arrive this year.?This is greatly affecting our enrollment numbers,” she said.