LYNN — Newly appointed Superintendent of Schools Dr. Molly Cohen said stabilizing the district through trust, belonging, and a stronger instructional core guided her during her interim period as superintendent.
In developing the FY27 school budget, Cohen was able to close a $7.5 million gap with no layoffs. With Student Opportunity Act funding ending this year, next year’s budget figures to be another formidable challenge.
“We had a really serious budget constraint this year, and we are looking at another year of a pretty tricky budget, because the Student Opportunity Act is ending, and so, being able to prioritize with less is really complicated,” Cohen said.
The Massachusetts Student Opportunity Act, formally known as Chapter 132 of the Acts of 2019, aims to ensure that all students within the Commonwealth have access to high-quality opportunities in the classroom.
Still, the budget put forward for the next fiscal year was “one accomplishment that I’m really proud of,” said Cohen. “As early as November, we worked with all stakeholders around what the process was. We had guiding principles that were derived from our vision, our mission, and the core values that we had all established together.
“We had hearings and forums where people could share their ideas, where it was a very iterative process, and so the budget we put forward really represents the leadership from all levels, and I anticipate even though it will be a difficult year next year, we’ll do the same thing, and we’ll continue to work with people,” she added.
Cohen was officially appointed superintendent at a meeting of the School Committee on June 11. Before that, she served as interim since October 16, 2025.
“I am so appreciative and privileged to officially be in the role,” she said. “But during that interim time, I was always in service to the long-term goals.”
Cohen said her decisions in leading the district are guided by a strategic plan that prioritizes goals set by the district, all aimed at making Lynn one of the highest-performing urban districts in the Commonwealth.
During her interim period as superintendent, Cohen focused on developing a district-wide instructional core, which she said will continue to be developed in the future.
She said the district has homed in on four areas of focus in the instructional core. “All of our professional development is going to be aligned with that,” she said, “so that teachers in Lynn can say, ‘This is how we instruct, this is how it’s defined in Lynn Public Schools,’ and it involves leveraging cultural and linguistic responsiveness and high-quality instructional materials, and students doing the thinking and the learning and the talking.”
Cohen said this centers on “high expectations on our students and providing space for them to productively struggle and show what they know.”
As a part of Cohen’s work as interim superintendent, she surveyed every employee in Lynn Public Schools on the four areas she focused on during this time: stability, relationships, belonging, and instruction, where she received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback, she said, with nearly 80 percent favorability across the district.
Before serving as interim superintendent, she served as deputy superintendent since 2022.
Cohen is a 21-year veteran of Lynn Public Schools and has served as a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, principal, and executive director of curriculum and instruction.
Cohen, who is proficient in Spanish, recently earned a doctorate from UMass Lowell. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont and master’s degrees from Simmons University and Salem State University. She earned a certificate in Educational Leadership from the Lynch Leadership Academy at Boston College Carroll School of Management.
