LYNN — Some School Committee members are opposed to a proposal from Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler that would require kindergarten teachers to obtain an English as a Second Language (ESL) license in order to teach in the Lynn Public Schools.
Tutwiler floated the plan to the personnel subcommittee of the school board last Thursday night, and said that, if approved, the move would focus on addressing the needs of kindergarten students.
He asked the subcommittee to consider requiring any incoming kindergarten teachers to have an ESL license and for existing kindergarten teachers to participate in a two-year program to obtain a license, with support from the district.
Tutwiler said he anticipated the proposal would result in a contentious meeting, which turned out to be the case, with subcommittee members immediately arguing against the plan.
School Committee member Lorraine Gately said the proposal was “like a slap in the face.”
“Our kindergarten teachers need to get certified again even though they are certified in what they do now and are great at it,” said Gately. ”Why don’t we just hire what we need?”
According to Rania Caldwell, the school district’s director of English Language Learner Education, there are not enough ESL teachers out there to hire what they need.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE) reportedly cited Lynn schools on its Structured English Immersion endorsement and program structure in elementary service time.
Caldwell said the district does not spend enough time providing ESL support for English language learner (ELL) students.
“ESL needs to be reimagined with students in our school,” she said. “We are not providing enough service for our students, which is, in turn, not allowing them to have that rapid acquisition.”
According to data presented by Assistant Director of English Language Learner Education Amanda Campbell, 77 percent of kindergarten students in 2021 spoke a language other than English, with 64 percent of them identifying Spanish as a home language.
She explained that there was an increase in the population of English language learners (ELLs) since the 2017-18 school year, shifting from 19.8 percent to 31.8 percent.
“This data gives us the kind of foundation that we need to set in order for them to make both linguistic growth and academic growth,” she said. “The current elementary model is not providing the support and services that our students need to be successful.”
She also stated that in five years, identified ELLs in kindergarten have moved from 29 percent to 68 percent.
With this data and input from DESE, Caldwell said that a corrective action plan was approved by DESE, and the Lynn Public Schools (LPS) will begin submitting monthly progress reports describing the progress of that plan next year.
School Committee vice chair Donna Coppola expressed her frustration regarding the timeliness of the proposal. She said she didn’t understand why the plan wasn’t brought before the School Committee before it was sent to DESE for approval.
School Committee member Michael Satterwhite agreed, saying that the committee as a whole should have known about the ongoing issue.
Many School Committee members highlighted the inconvenience of the plan for teachers, saying that after teachers were informed, committee members received numerous calls.
However, Tutwiler remained passionate and supportive of the plan, saying that the district needs to focus its effort on meeting the needs of all students.
“I believe the best school districts shift and evolve with their student body,” he said. “The failure of districts and schools to evolve with the student body puts them at the bottom of the list.”
Caldwell explained that students receive 15 to 30 minutes of ESL service each day, while DESE recommends 45 to 90 minutes.
“The current system is treating ELL as a minority, when they are the majority,” she said.
The new model states that kindergarten teachers will provide both shelter content and English language development.
“Our focus is kindergarten,” Caldwell said. “We have the opportunity to alter that trend line.”
Gately acknowledged the data, holding a copy of the report to her computer screen, but passionately argued that teachers should not have to go spend more hours going through more certifications.
Tutwiler pushed back in support of the new model, stating that LPS and his own values include “love the student, teachers and the craft of teaching, none more than, but in that order.”
He said that LPS has a responsibility to the 70 percent of students who are English learners and whose needs are not being met.
“Match up our actions with our core values,” Tutwiler said.
The vote resulted in a 3-3 tie among the full committee (Mayor Thomas M. McGee, Jared Nicholson and Satterwhite voted in favor of the plan; Gately, Coppola, and Brian Castellanos voted against it; and John Ford was absent) so the proposition will return to the subcommittee at a future date.
