At the end of his first year in office, Mayor Jared Nicholson sat down with The Item’s editorial board to discuss his administration’s achievements in 2022. This is the first of a several-part series.
By Anthony Cammalleri
Tasked with overcrowded schools, the aftermath of COVID -19 lockdowns and former Superintendent of Schools Patrick Tutwiler’s resignation, Nicholson’s first year in office brought challenges but also significant improvements to the school district.
In December, the New Pickering School Building Committee selected Magnolia Park as the site for the new 1,100-pupil Pickering Middle School.
The new school is expected to rebalance students from Breed Middle School and Thurgood Marshall Middle School, both of which are estimated to be about 200 students over capacity.
“We clearly don’t have enough classroom space, so we’re going to keep pushing to keep adding it. Pickering is a great example. We’re doubling the capacity of that middle school,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson added that after initial plans to build a new Pickering were voted down during a special election in 2017, the committee had to be thoughtful and transparent during the site selection process, holding public meetings and hearings to garner community feedback.
“We’re cognizant of the fact that the last effort to build a new Pickering didn’t go for it. And so we’ve been trying to be really careful and thoughtful to and transparent to bring people along,” Nicholson said.
The city expects the new Pickering Middle School to open in the fall of 2026. More immediately, the city secured more than $3.3 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding this year to construct six modular classrooms at Lynn English High School before fall.
“That project [Pickering] is still a few years away from opening, so we’re taking steps in the meantime to add classroom capacity. These modular classrooms that we’ve ordered with some of our federal funds should be ready in the fall,” Nicholson said.
Even with the new Pickering project and modular classroom projects underway, Nicholson said the city is still searching for school space. He said it’s planning to conduct a facilities assessment to determine the quantitative and qualitative needs of Lynn’s school buildings.
“We’re scouring the city for other classroom space, and I think we have some opportunities to open some pre-K classrooms as well. It still won’t be enough. One of the top issues facing our city is the state of our school buildings, both that they are out of date and in poor condition, but also that there’s not enough of them,” Nicholson said.
Lynn Public Schools partnered with North Shore Community College (NSCC) to create a first-of-its-kind early college program for Lynn high school students. The program allows high school students to earn college credits at a new high school on NSCC’s campus.
Nicholson pointed to this as one of the school district’s major victories in 2022.
“We opened a brand new high school on the campus of North Shore Community College, which is something that has been in the works for a while,” Nicholson said. “It’s going to be a terrific program for those students to get college credits while they’re high school students.”
Lynn’s partnership with NSCC, Nicholson said, will be crucial in the city’s plan to expand workforce development by expanding the life sciences curriculum in the school district.
“I think a big part of the next steps around tracking the innovation economy is the workforce development piece, and North Shore Community College is a key stakeholder there. We would love to see them have the ability to make the investment in the city to create the necessary lab space to support life science growth,” Nicholson said.
“The strategy there will ultimately include the career pathways where you can steer people to the sort of entry level jobs and build the support so that they can continue to advance on a pathway. That effort certainly starts in the public schools,” he added.
As Lynn students return from two years off of in-person learning, Nicholson said the city is committed to creating extracurricular learning opportunities to help the district recover academically.
“The pandemic had a huge impact on our students’ learning, and it’s going to take some time to regain progress in learning and that momentum,” Nicholson said. “We’ve been investing in support outside the classroom — for additional after-school, summer-learning type programs — and we’ll continue to do everything we can to try to catch folks up.”
Nicholson added that he was hopeful that Evonne Alvarez, who was hired as school superintendent in December, will be a tremendous asset for the school district.
“I think she’s got great vision. She’s going to be a great communicator with a lot of energy and passion. We’re just thrilled to be working with her,” Nicholson said.
