LYNNFIELD — It’s been a month since a racial slur was found inside the bathroom at Lynnfield High School, and since then, the School Committee has prioritized addressing concerns and matters of safety and inclusivity as well as ways to move forward.
This was a point of emphasis in a presentation made by Dr. Darnisa Amante-Jackson at a School Committee meeting in late June, of which she shared her findings and recommendations from her independent review of LPS.
Now, Lynnfield residents and community members will have a chance to ask Amante-Jackson and ask questions to her directly in a follow up Q&A session on July 20 at 6 p.m. on Zoom.
The School Committee recently shared the upcoming event on its Facebook page, as well as a direct link to a questions submission form. The session, which the post emphasized is “not a School Committee meeting or a meeting of any other public body,” will serve as a pivotal next step in continuing that dialogue.
“It is an opportunity for members of our community to hear directly from Dr. Amante-Jackson regarding the findings and recommendations contained in her report,” Superintendent of Schools Tom Geary wrote in the post.
Geary also included Amante-Jackson’s full 111-page report, which goes even more in-depth on what was mentioned in her earlier presentation. It includes a clear and concise breakdown on the district’s successes and the areas still in need of improvement.
“This review identified a district with strong academic performance, dedicated educators, engaged families, and a community deeply invested in student success,” her report states. “Publicly available district data demonstrate consistently high graduation rates, strong attendance, stable enrollment, and exceptionally low rates of exclusionary discipline. These indicators reflect a district that is performing well by traditional measures.
“However, the review also found that stakeholder experiences frequently diverged from these positive performance indicators.”
She then goes on to mention the opportunities to strengthen trust, communication, belonging organizational consistency, transparency, incident response, predictability, and continuous learning.
“Taken together, these findings point to a central conclusion: Lynnfield’s greatest opportunity is not improving academic performance,” she added. “It is strengthening the organizational systems that allow trust, communication, belonging, and accountability to be experienced consistently throughout the district.”
Those looking for further explanation and insight from the session with Amante-Jackson can submit questions to her directly by Friday via the form link.
“I encourage everyone with an interest in this work to review the attached report and to join us on July 20th,” Geary said.
