It doesn’t take a detective to figure out why parents choose Lynnfield as the community to raise their children in. There might be a couple or two who settle on the town for its proximity to Boston (or MarketStreet), but for most families, the only two words that move the needle are “school” and “system.” Niche.com recently listed Lynnfield Public Schools as one of the 25 best districts in the state.
Yet something has gone awry in the district. Parents speaking at the last two School Committee meetings have been highly critical of the district’s superintendent, Kristen Vogel, and the committee. They were concerned about the many principals and assistant principals who have left or tried to leave during Vogel’s tenure, midcycle raises Vogel and assistant superintendents received as teacher positions in the district were cut, class sizes, and general transparency problems regarding the district’s budget.
It isn’t just the parents who are concerned, either. Last month, Lynnfield Teachers Association President Alexandria Cellucci wrote a letter to Vogel and Committee Chair Rich Sjoberg on behalf of the association. She described district teachers being overworked and having to implement new curriculum without sufficient guidance as teacher, interventionist, and tutor positions were cut. When raises are being doled out for administrators at the same time, it is demoralizing.
What is most alarming, though, are the issues Committee member Kate DePrizio mentioned in a long Facebook post on Nov. 17. DePrizio, courageously, did not hold back and decried a “culture of ‘compliance’” in the district.
“To speak out, rock the boat, to advocate for needs is often deemed ‘insubordinate’ and unfortunately, the character of staff members is often maligned when they do speak up,” she wrote.
Hostile and dismissive reactions to the genuine concerns of the district’s educators are extremely disturbing. This kind of retaliation has a chilling effect and can prevent teachers and other staff members from voicing real problems they face. What this will ultimately lead to is a districtwide silence about any issues at hand, allowing them to go unchecked and unremedied.
School committees sometimes focus on superintendents as the key to district success and the solution to problems in the schools. To be sure, they play important roles in guiding school districts and providing needed leadership. However, the superintendent has to rely on educators for a comprehensive picture of what is happening in the district. It is the teachers, not the superintendent, who are in the trenches with the students each day, and it is the teachers who truly understand the needs of their district. It doesn’t matter if you have the best superintendent in the country — if they aren’t getting a clear picture of what is happening on the ground from the educators, they might as well not even be there.
At the most recent School Committee meeting on Nov. 28, member Jamie Hayman finally addressed the need to change the district’s culture. He acknowledged that his job is really about making sure the district has the best teachers possible. At this point, the scale of the problem has become too big to ignore. The district cannot afford to lose quality educators and acquire a reputation that will make it difficult to attract excellent teachers.
Restoring mutual respect between Lynnfield Public Schools’ teachers and administration is not going to be a quick process. It is going to take a lot of open and frank discussions, but the first step should be for district leaders to seriously hear and respond to teachers’ grievances. If the administration trusts them with the education of Lynnfield’s students, it also has to be willing to take their feedback seriously.
Stuart Foster is The Weekly News’ opinion editor.
