To the editor:
The last few months have been an embarrassment for the Town of Lynnfield and the once-great school system we had. Although it appears Ms. Vogel is on her way out, the problem runs deeper than just her. In recent weeks, I’ve had many former teachers who quit due to Ms. Vogel’s leadership style reach out to me and they’ve all said the same thing, it’s not just the superintendent, it’s the lack of leadership and accountability from the School Committee that has led to this. The committee has put us in a horrendous spot and the exit negotiations with Ms. Vogel will likely end in a large payout.
The committee has so far taken minimal responsibility for all of this and continues to use the excuse “this really caught us by surprise,” which in no way is an acceptable answer. If they were even paying a little bit of attention to the teachers, staff, and residents, this would have been easily avoidable. It comes down to three choices, they either buried their heads in the sand, knew about the issues and just didn’t care, or are incompetent, it’s very possible it’s all of the above. This group should not be the ones to handle exit negotiations with Vogel and they absolutely should not be the ones in charge of the next search for a replacement.
This is a formal request that the school board’s members resign from their positions within the next two weeks, particularly Rich Sjoberg, Jamie Hayman, Stacy Dahlstedt and Phil McQueen. In my opinion, Kate DePrizio deserves to stay on. Has she made some mistakes, yes, but she seems to be the only one on the board capable of openly admitting to those mistakes, reaching out to the community, and having the courage to stand up to the rest of the board and call them out publicly for their lack of transparency and general disrespect to the residents.
If the members do not resign within a timely manner, there is a plan in place and a group of people who are prepared to start the recall process. Rich Sjoberg and Jamie Hayman will be top of the list. The residents fighting this are mostly a group of parents with jobs, kids, and busy days, I can assure this is not what we want to spend our time doing. I’m hoping the members of the committee can show some humility and step down instead of continually forcing us to go to great lengths to get anything done.
Jimmy Crawford
