To the editor:
Shame on every one of the individuals in Lynnfield that are denigrating the unbelievable work that was done by the entire School Committee. I look at the people that are the most vocal and they have never done a single thing to make Lynnfield a better place to live. Like so many malcontents in Lynnfield, they are motivated by not getting their way. As Lynnfield slides down this slippery slope, the residents of Lynnfield need to examine the motivation and background of the individuals that are leading this charge.
And the list of individual accomplishments by every one of the current and past School Committee members is long and loaded. There is so much to this story that the public will never know. The efforts of this committee to redirect the educational process in Lynnfield as the elementary schools slide from their prestigious position of a couple of years ago (same School Committee, with one exception). They oversaw a superintendent that was trying to move the educational process in Lynnfield forward, and while she may have lacked the correct management touch for the Lynnfield environment, her interests were to put students’ needs and education as her first priority. They supported an administrative leadership team that were simply trying to make teachers live up to the terms of their contract. They supported a new high school principal that came from the #2 ranked high school in the state and was surprised that Lynnfield High School was stuck in the 20th century. They negotiated a contract with the LTA that was fair to both the Town and the teachers leaving Lynnfield teachers with the second highest pay in Essex County (average teacher salary more than $96,000 per year [DOE 2021 school year]) with only a 2% – 2% – 2% increase for taxpayers to fund. And they were attempting to work with the LTA to resolve morale issues prior to the mysterious public release of the letter written by the LTA.
I think it is interesting that all these problems exist within the system and suddenly come to light, but they can apparently all be solved by opening up the contract and renegotiating more preparation and planning time and more money for the teachers. This for a group of people (and I have a lot of respect for many teachers) that work 185 days a year and their workday is less than eight hours, but they need more prep time during that workday to prepare, etc. At the same time, they complain that they aren’t being paid like professionals. This entire effort by the teachers is right out of the current Massachusetts Teachers Association playbook on labor union activism. Just look at what happened in Andover and North Andover and what is currently happening in Wakefield. This issue is not unique to Lynnfield.
That the School Committee had the temerity to do what they felt was the right thing for the students and district and the intestinal fortitude to say no to a handful of parents, resulted in a massive and targeted smear campaign organized by a small group, facilitated by keyboard warriors on social media and the print press that is beholden to a few public officials for their news. And off they went destroying hard built reputations and trashing years of hard work on behalf of the Lynnfield community.
My question is what have you done to make Lynnfield better… NOTHING.
The average Lynnfield resident should be concerned about this effort. They should be concerned about the demise of our schools and property values if some of these people are elected or appointed to any position of responsibility in Lynnfield. Residents should worry about people that barely made it through high school who now want to lead the effort on the educational process in Lynnfield.
Arthur Bourque
