To the editor:
Over the last couple of weeks, the School Committee has received approximately 40 emails from parents with a number of concerns. These concerns include the direction of the schools, the performance and agenda of the superintendent, the curriculum being approved and implemented, and perhaps most importantly why the teacher morale is so low and some teachers, staff, and a principal have recently abruptly quit due to their unhappiness with Superintendent Vogel. The reasons for these departures are being given under the guise of retirement or personal reasons but the truth is their unhappiness with Ms. Vogel and level of support from the School Committee. The blanket response from the School Committee was essentially that these concerns are unfounded and that everything is fine. This committee has continuously been dismissive and dishonest with the public and it needs to stop.
Everything is not fine, you have many parents contacting you telling you things are not fine, you have received a letter from the Lynnfield Teachers Association president telling you things are not fine, why aren’t you listening? Any pushback or questioning of this committee has been met with hostility and disrespect. When questioned why the committee took the extraordinary measure of giving Ms. Vogel a raise outside of a contract renewal year, the response from committee chair Mr. Sjoberg was 1.) That the town administrator was recently given a raise and they made Ms. Vogel’s pay equal to his. It should be noted that Mr. Dolan’s raise was given during contract renewal negotiations and I have yet to figure out why Mr. Sjoberg thinks the salary of the town administrator has anything to do with the salary of the superintendent. 2.) A “market adjustment” was cited to bring her salary in-line with other superintendents in the state. You would think taking such a measure while also claiming a budget shortfall would be for a job extremely well done, but with so many parents unhappy and the teachers so unhappy, why did the committee think it was necessary to give the raise unprompted? The committee stated the thought process behind their decision was with so many superintendent positions open in the state they were afraid she would leave and that this would bring continuity to the schools. It seems completely lost on the committee that many residents, teachers and staff would have been just fine if Ms. Vogel decided to take an opportunity somewhere else.
Jim Crawford
Lynnfield
