LYNN — At Thursday night’s School Committee meeting, Superintendent Molly Cohen presented some of the district’s key accomplishments in 2025, highlighted by a significant expansion in pre-K seats.
“Our team continues to advance several transformative programs aligned to our strategic goals,” Cohen stated as she began the presentation to the Committee and to Mayor Jared C. Nicholson.
Lynn Public Schools have experienced a substantial expansion in Pre-k seating, with a 52% increase from 460 to 693. The meeting room celebrated with applause as they acknowledged the collective effort towards growth that will make a positive impact on families and young learners across the district.
“We have created a task force that is collaborating with the mayor’s office on a Pre-K ecosystem analysis to continue this important work for many Lynn families,” Cohen added.
The Committee took the time to express its gratitude to Jacqueline Gallo, the director of Early Learning in Lynn Public Schools, as well as to the Superintendent’s fellow, Shinghi Mustasa, who is overseeing that task force.
The achievements are not limited to pre-K students. The Multilingual Education Department (MLE) has implemented a district-wide ESL professional learning hub. The department has partnered with WestEd, a nonprofit educational research and developmental agency while also utilizing English learner grant funding. With that, MLE has launched a quality teaching program for English learners (QETL).
“QETL is a research-based professional learning approach that strengthens content-based instruction from multilingual learners,” Deputy Superintendent Lori Gallivan said.
This initiative supports educators in delivering high-quality, fair instruction that benefits all English learners and all students.
The MLE department has also implemented another program called Flashlight 360. It began in the 2024-25 school year across all secondary schools. This program will support multilingual learners by strengthening speaking and writing skills. It will track the students’ development for the students’ personalized feedback, and also for the school to keep track of.
“During the first year of implementation, LPS saw an improvement in the speaking and writing domains of the secondary level,” Gallivan noted.
Deputy Superintendent Julie Louf presented another program titled Read and Write, which is a collaboration between the MLE and the Special Education Department. It is a literacy software and extension to help users, especially those with learning disabilities, to improve learning comprehension, writing, and research skills. All students in Lynn Public Schools will have access to this on their devices.
Lastly, the Career and Technical Education Department (CTE) applications for environmental sciences at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute have been approved, as well as business technology at English and Classical.
The Innovation Department, led by Dr. Shannon Gardner, is working with Principal Chris Norkun and the City Arts and Sciences Academy on innovation pathways and advanced manufacturing in information and computer science.
The Innovation Department is also expanding its work-based learning opportunity through its partnership with the Lynn Community Health Center, where students are able to work on a blood pressure monitoring project. The two-year program allows students to network and prepare for the types of jobs that they could be interested in within that field. The partnership will create 70 additional seats.
The School Committee did not fail to acknowledge the hard work of its team members. They recognized Yeimi Colon, Nichole Hagstrom, Aura Martinez, and Debbie Moral. All four of those inspiring women have dedicated their time to supporting the Lynn Public Schools.
“It’s very exciting updates,” Nicholson said. “Thank you to all the educators and families who make it possible.”
