Lynn schools turn to Y to help address enrollment crunch

LYNN – School Superintendent Catherine Latham has sounded the alarm about a growing high school space shortage, prompting local educators to turn to the Lynn YMCA for help.?We are in preliminary discussion with the folks at the YMCA to utilize significant classroom and adjunct space for the upcoming school years,” said School Committee Secretary Thomas Iarrobino.YMCA President Bruce Macdonald confirmed space discussions with school officials, but said no “definite plans” have taken shape, and the School Department and YMCA have not signed a space use agreement.School enrollments have increased by more than 400 students since March 2014, when School Department enrollment reports listed 15,137 students attending local public schools.High school enrollments have increased between March 2014 and last month, with Classical growing from 1,505 to 1,617 students; and Lynn Vocational Technical Institute increasing enrollment from 677 to 784 students.High schools are emerging as an enrollment flash point after top educators focused on elementary school enrollment concerns and a growing number of Guatemalan youths, classified by the federal government as “unaccompanied minors,” entering local schools.According to school enrollment reports, Guatemalan youths represented the single largest group of students to enter local schools from other countries with 241 coming into local schools in the 2014 school year and 157 entering schools in the first month of the current school year.Latham, with the School Committee?s approval in 2013, redirected kindergartners bound for Tracy, Brickett and Ford schools to a new Early Childhood Center on Commercial Street in order to reduce 30-plus student class sizes in those schools.The city is building a new Marshall Middle School and is starting the planning process for a new Pickering Middle School, but Iarrobino said discussions on carving out YMCA space for high school classrooms will be part of spring and summertime school budget discussions.