LYNN — Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Tutwiler told the School Committee Thursday night that he will be consulting with his team to craft a stakeholder-process input plan for an amendment to the Lynn Public Schools’ Student Opportunity Act Plan.
The plan to re-engage with stakeholders comes after Gov. Charlie Baker submitted a $48.5-billion, state-budget plan for the fiscal year 2023 to the legislature on Jan 26.
The proposed budget includes a $485-million increase to school aid under Chapter 70 of the Massachusetts General Law, which would fulfill commitments to the Student Opportunity Act.
“A lot has happened since we first launched this process of gathering input and creating our Student Opportunity Act,” Tutwiler said. “What the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is recommending is to acknowledge that a lot has happened and to get a sense for if our original plan is still relevant or if that is what our stakeholders think we should be doing.”
Tutwiler told the committee he will present the opinions and thoughts of the stakeholders during their next meeting scheduled for Feb. 24. The stakeholders include members of the Lynn community, including parents of the district’s students.
“We’re going to be thoughtful about how we get feedback from the community,” he said. “We are going to come back to this space and share what the people are thinking and feeling about these funds.”
The Student Opportunity Act was signed into law by Baker in November 2019. The law gives low-income school districts with English-language learners and special-education students $1.5 billion in funds over seven years.
As part of the law, school districts draft a three-year plan for allocating the funds. In the spring of 2021, Lynn Public Schools wrote its Student Opportunity Act Plan 2021-23, which spent approximately $12.84 million in its first year to add technology at the elementary level, hire 35 new social workers and improve student achievement overall.
School districts are to submit any additional amendments to their plans to the state by April 1. Tutwiler assured the committee that even with amendments, the original framework of the plan will remain intact.
“The plan is to not throw away that old Student Opportunity Act Plan,” he said. “That reflects people’s thinking on what this district needs.”
Additionally, Tutwiler said another agenda item for his team and the School Committee is to join the Student Opportunity Act funds with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III funds.
The ESSER III funds are from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which helps meet students’ academic and mental-health needs related to COVID-19 and keeps schools open. The School Committee approved the allocations of the funds on Oct. 3, 2021.
Tutwiler said the purpose of “marrying” the funds is to ensure the two types of funds are used for similar purposes related to helping students.
“We want to ensure the funding streams aren’t moving in the opposite direction,” Tutwiler said. “We want to make sure that they are moving in the same direction and complement each other.”
