Colleges reaching out to fill Gordon gap

LYNN – Less than a week after the School Committee cut ties with Gordon College over hiring practices, other area colleges expressed interest, according to a School Department spokesman, in reaching out to local students.?Local institutions contacted us immediately on Friday. The superintendent received communication from two offering their services,” committee secretary Thomas Iarrobino said.North Shore Community College spokeswoman Linda Brantley confirmed school representatives contacted Superintendent Catherine Latham “to help in any way we can.”?The college already has a ton of relationships with the Lynn school system,” Brantley said.Gordon representatives tried unsuccessfully to persuade School Committee members last Thursday to continue allowing students at the Wenham college to mentor and gain teaching experience with local public school students.Committee members voted 4-3 to break ties with Gordon, citing Gordon President Michael Lindsay?s July decision to sign a letter seeking “a religious exemption” from a federal non-discrimination order.Lindsay, in a message posted on the college website, stated he signed the letter “to affirm the College?s support of the underlying issue of religious liberty, including the right of faith-based institutions to set and adhere to standards which derive from our shared framework of faith?”School department attorney John Mihos said Gordon representatives have not contacted the school department since the vote. Although Gordon and the department do not have contracts in place, Mihos said the vote means Gordon students “won?t be able to access the Lynn school system.”Gordon supporters attending last Thursday?s meeting pointed to the college as the only higher learning institution working with local public schools. Iarrobino said that statement is correct and said 12 Gordon student teachers worked last year with local students and eight were scheduled to do so during this school year.But committee member Donna Coppola said Gordon students are also involved in after school and night school programs and forged relationships with local organizations. She is encouraged by interest among other colleges? interest in the schools but wonders if they can make their presence known in Lynn the way Gordon did.?They came in and set up an office on Munroe Street,” she said.Iarrobino did not name the two colleges in contact with Superintendent Catherine Latham but Salem State University spokesman Thomas Torello said Salem students earning education degrees already gain teaching experience in Lynn schools.?The relationship is there,” Torello said.