Raising Money Tomorrow!

Hey everyone.  Come out and help support my candidacy for Lynn School Committee.  We're having a fundraiser at Old Tyme Italian Cuisine 612 Boston St  Lynn, MA 01905 tomorrow, Tuesday August 13th, from 6pm-9pm.  Invite your friends, family, kids, neighbors, anyone you know who would like to see a positive change in the Lynn Schools.

I know this conflicts with the City Council meeting on the new Marshall School (and Jesse Jaeger's birthday), but you can do both.  You know you want to.

Reading Is Fundamental or N2N Question #5

Neighbor to Neighbor wants to know how we will staff our libraries.  Here's what I said.  

5. The majority of the public schools lack a library and/or librarian. What will you do to change this?

a. First and foremost, we need to focus on teaching our kids to read. A child learns to read, then reads to learn.  Currently Lynn's 3rd grade reading proficiency rate, per the 2012 MCAS, is 41% with scores ranging from 25% at Harrington to 76% at Sisson. Let's staff our libraries next.  I would like to fund a practice based, scientifically proven, peer reviewed, structured, sequential, phonological approach to reading and spelling, such as the Wilson Reading System and have this program available district wide.  The Superintendent has hired a public relations firm to combat blogs like Stanley Wotring's. We are not in need of PR firms. We are in need of reading specialists.    

b. Reach out to the community. Ask for volunteers from the PTA, Church Groups, retired teachers, School Improvement Council Members, and local businesses to man our schools’ libraries.

c. Plan a reward trip for children whose parents volunteer in the library a specific number of days in a school year.

d. Organize frequent trips to the Lynn Public Library.

e. Look into creating a mobile library to service all the elementary schools and alternate this with trips to the Lynn Public Library.

f.  Investigate reading specific grants like Holyoke's $100,000 grant:  “Reading is Power: Holyoke Can Do It.”

Stats taken from http://uneducacion.blogspot.com/2013/03/lynns-3rd-grade-reading-proficiency.html and http://uneducacion.blogspot.com/2013/03/lynn-3rd-grade-reading-proficiency-rates_4.html 

Italicized portions added after questions were submitted to N2N.  

A question from the audience.

Stacey Devendorfasks:

"Hi Melissa. 

I was wondering if you can offer clarification on items a and c?"

Stacey is referring to Neighbor to Neighbor question #4: "What is your plan to raise revenue for the schools to be able to provide after school and summer programming?" 

And my answers:  "a.  I plan to partner with The City Council and propose that non-owner-occupied, multi-family homes be treated as businesses and be taxed as such," and "c.  I plan to partner with The City Council in proposing a rental tax."

Sure Stacey, I'd love to tell you what I'm thinking. 

First, I know that the School Committee has no purview over taxation in the city.  This is the City Council's jurisdiction.    

Second, our schools are in desperate need of funding.  

Third, Harrington and Connery were able to make improvements, in part, due to the 1.1 million dollars they received in "turn around" funding.  They received this money because they "failed" and were deemed a Level 4 school.  

Fourth, our schools shouldn't have to fail in order to receive the money they need in order to be successful.

SO, where will we get this extra cash?  Lynn already gets the highest amount of funding from the State possible and the majority of our city tax dollars go to make the city run.

This got me thinking.

The Lynn Public Schools teach to kids that come from all different walks of life.  Some kids come from homes that their parents own, some kids live in apartment buildings, we have some kids who are homeless and some kids live in "non-owner occupied multi-family homes" which is a two-family, or greater, home in which the owner or landlord does not also reside.  

These properties are income generating for the owner, just like a business would be.  I would propose that the School Committee partner with the City Council and urge them to pass ordinances that would tax these properties like businesses with the revenue earmarked for direct services and materials for our students and not administrative salaries.

I grew up in upstate NY, and we had a School Tax.  Every residence, whether it contained children or not, whether is was a rental property or a single family home, paid a tax to fund the schools.  My answer "c." falls along the same lines.  That a tax be created for all rental properties. These rental properties contain multiple families that send their children to the public schools, except the renters themselves are not paying any tax, like the homeowners are, for this service.  A tax for all rental properties would create a more fair an equitable base in which to pull funding from.  Again I would propose that the School Committee partner with the City Council and urge them to pass ordinances that would tax these rental properties with the revenue earmarked for direct services and materials for our students and not administrative salaries. 

These two solutions will create an income base that will be shouldered by the community as a whole. We all share the load.  

Keeping the math simple, imagine the rental tax is $100 per rental unit and we had 1000 rental units, this would generate an extra $100,000 for the schools.  How many rental units does Lynn have?   

     

Its All About The Benjamins or N2N Question #4

Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) wanted to know where I would look for the money to fund after-school programs.  After looking at our current models (Ford, etc.) and investigating solutions that have not been proposed yet - this is how I answered.  

4. What is your plan to raise revenue for the schools to be able to provide after school and summer programming?

a.       I plan to partner with The City Council and propose that non-owner-occupied, multi-family homes be treated as businesses and be taxed as such.

b.      I plan to partner with The City Council to organize Lynn parents to advocate for funding for Lynn on the State and Federal levels.

c.       I plan to partner with The City Council in proposing a rental tax.

d.      Presently Lynn contains a free after-school program for children eight years old and older at the Boys and Girls Club.  Transportation is provided from every elementary school, except Ford and Drewicz.  Expanding the number of schools that can participate in this service could alleviate some of the need for after-school programming with little monetary investment.

e.       I plan to expand our grants department and pursue more private funding, as the Ford School did with private partnerships.

f.       I will review redundant administrative positions, as well as exorbitant administrative salaries.

g.      I expect to have to eliminate one teaching position per school to fund after school programming, similar to how Dr. Crane did at the Ford School.

h.      I hope to provide incentives and rewards for students who come to school every day and on time.

i.     I will look for volunteers from local businesses and the community at large (PTA, SIC, Churches) to help staff summer programming.

j.     I hope to establish Substantially Separate, Special Education, Therapeutic Day Schools and market them to communities, outside of Lynn, that currently lack them.

Italicized section added after questions were submitted to Neighbor to Neighbor.  

Didn't have time to post yesterday but....I WAS IN THE PAPER!!!

If you haven't had a chance to read the article, check it out here: Romaniello running to bring change to schools or if you've used up all your Item views for the month (Cleo) read it below.

Romaniello running to bring change to school committee

·          

LYNN — 

School Committee candidate Melissa Romaniello can sum up her reason for running in one word: change.  “I want to bring change,” she said. “I’m tired of parents always being on the losing end.”

Romaniello is a familiar face in the district. She often attends School Committee hearings and she, along with two other parents, led the charge to force the School Committee, in 2012, to hold a public hearing regarding Superintendent Catherine Latham’s job. This was despite the fact the committee had already renewed Latham’s contract.

Despite what could be seen as a contentious relationship, Romaniello said she has worked with Latham numerous times advocating for her own children as well as on behalf of others and she is confident they could work together if she were elected.

“Every time I’ve worked with her I’ve achieved my goal,” she said.

That said, Romaniello also said her hope is that once Latham’s contract is up in roughly three years, the School Committee would let her go, post the job and do a nationwide search for a new superintendent.

Married with three children, Romaniello has lived in Lynn for seven years, owns a home and readily admits two of her children attend KIPP Academy, the charter school located in The Highlands. Her youngest attends Drewicz but the older two were not getting the kind of education they needed in the public schools, she said.

“Honestly I wish KIPP didn’t have to exist,” Romaniello said. “I wish Lynn schools were good enough that I didn’t have to reach out to find what I needed somewhere else.”

When asked what is her biggest concern regarding the school system, after some pause, she said reading.

One of her sons is dyslexic and when he attended Sewell-Anderson he received every intervention plan the school had “but they still couldn’t teach him to read,” she said. Romaniello said only 40 percent of the district’s third graders are proficient in reading, which she finds unacceptable.

“We’re failing out kids in the third grade,” she said.

Her second largest concern is that parents do not feel welcome or involved enough in their children’s schools, she said. She pointed to the recent decision to bus kindergarten students from several schools to an early childhood center to be located inside the Lynn Tech annex. It was a move that outraged many parents but Romaniello said she believes that once they see how much room the schools will have as a result of the busing they will understand why it had to happen

“What they did wrong was the didn’t involve the parents in the process enough,” she said.

She said the School Department failed to give parents enough notice about the situation and when it held a public hearing the School Committee was unresponsive.

“When parents went to voice their opinion, you could see them thinking, ‘oh here come those Ford School parents,’ … they kind of shunned them, totally dismissing their opinions and concerns,” she said. “If we can teach kids to read and stop dismissing parents, we can take care of the rest.”

She also believes there will be no real change in the school district until Latham is removed or retires.

Latham has arguably the most important job in the city, is the highest paid city employee and single-handedly is in control of how the schools perform by virtue that she hires principals, yet the schools are failing, Romaniello said.

Latham likes to tout the fact that Lynn is the top among the state’s urban school districts.

“I understand why she says that,” Romaniello said. “We’re the best of the worst, but we’re not anymore. We’re like seventh now.”

Until the district has a new superintendent residents will never see an improvement in home values “Because our schools are not good enough to attract people here.”

She hopes that by adding her to a board that includes incumbent Rick Starbard, Maria Carrasco and Donna Coppola, she will be able to help create some real change.

“I’m doing a very un-Lynn thing,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to ask people to support Maria and Donna. We need them and I want to let Lynn know that they need them.”

Voters can get a chance to meet Romaniello when she holds her first fund raiser at Old Tyme Italian Restaurant on Boston Street, Tuesday, Aug. 13, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Fundraiser Time!!!

Booked my first fundraiser!  Old Tyme Italian Restaurant, 612 Boston St., Lynn, on August 13th from 6pm-9pm.  Yeah it's about raising money but they have wicked good food too!  Invite everyone you know!

I had to admit that I don't get the Item.

I have more good news!  Just completed an interview with Chris Stevens, Lynn Item.  Now I know all the candidates do it, but this was my first candidacy related interview with a newspaper.  I had to admit to Chris that I don't get the Item (I used to read it on-line but now they charge) when I asked when the interview would be published.  She said sometime at the beginning of next week - so keep your eyes peeled.  And will someone tell me when it's out?

Got a date!

You heard it here first!  Neighbor to Neighbor asked me out!  To an interview, that is.

"LPOBE [Lynn Parents Organizing for Better Education] is doing the interview in their capacity as volunteers of Neighbor to Neighbor.  Given LPOBE members' deep involvement in local educational issues, N2N leaders decided to have LPOBE do the interview with you [she means me] and then submit a final recommendation to the N2N board regarding endorsement."

I'm wicked excited and I hope they endorse me!  Keep your fingers crossed!

This one is for you, Stan.

3. What have you done to advocate issues concerning our schools?

            A. What was the issue?

            B. How did you push for it?

            C. When?

A.  Rather than renew the superintendent's contract, I advocated for the position to be publicly posted and I campaigned for the search for a new Superintendent to begin. 

B.  Stanley Wotring, School Committee Candidate, received an anonymous tip that a Public Hearing could occur if we received 150 certified signatures.  The vote could be reopened and we could have a public hearing. Stanley and I spent the next month working with some other concerned citizens to advocate that a search begin, for a Superintendent, on a national level, to find the best fit for Lynn, someone with a proven track record of turning around failing districts.

This included hours of collecting signatures, meeting with parents and citizens of Lynn and hearing their concerns, educating the public on what issues were currently negatively affecting our schools and how the right person for Superintendent could change that.  

C.  This was approximately two years ago, when the Superintendent’s contract was up for renegotiation.

I have done a considerable amount of advocacy for parents of children with special education needs, but that was advocating for individuals and not the schools globally.  

*Italicized sections were not included in my original response to Neighbor to Neighbor.  Writing is iterative, isn't it Stan?  

Neighbor to Neighbor asks some great questions. Here is their second one.

Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) followed their first question up with this: What is your vision of a better quality public education for the children of Lynn?  What would you do to help improve our city’s schools?

Here is what I said:

"My vision of a better quality public education begins with schools that tirelessly teach children to read.  As a society, we learn to read, then we read to learn.  Literacy is the greatest tool we can provide our children.  Second, I would want to see new, bright, colorful, safe learning centers that our community can take pride in and that inspire our children.  I want to see schools that are open late and on the weekends, providing classes in everything from English as a Second Language to Fiscal Responsibility to Healthy Family Cooking. I’d like to see schools that prepare our children fully for the secondary education of their choice.  I’d like to see schools that every member of our community can access, regardless of disability or language spoken.  I want Lynn to have schools that other communities would fight to place their children in.  And I think we can do it, together. 

            As a school committee member, I would be in a unique situation to help improve our city’s schools because I am not beholden to anyone.  I do not have any family members employed by Lynn Public Schools and I am not sponsored by any special interest groups. In addition, I have no further political interest.  I am not going to run for City Councilor or Mayor.  I believe Lynn’s greatest worth and greatest area of need are the schools.  I want to be the parents’ voice, an ally to the parents and families of Lynn."

Why I'm running.

Neighbor to Neighbor or N2N asked why I was running for School Committee and here is what I said.

"I am running because I recognize the need for change and I want to be a voice for change.  I want to be the voice for the parents of children who attend the Lynn Public Schools.  I have direct experience with the Lynn Public Schools through my children: My oldest two attended the Lynn Public Schools for four years each, and my youngest--a member of the class of 2023--currently attends Drewicz. 

That’s not the only reason I am running.  As a parent, it has been really hard for me, over the last four years, to watch our school committee members advocate so hard for the families, children, and teachers of Lynn and not be successful. They try to make positive changes for our school department but are often on the losing end of a 3-4 vote.  I want to be their fourth vote.

I want to make sure that parents have a voice in the education of their children and that they are heard and listened to. I want parents to know and feel that they matter and that their contributions are welcomed and appreciated. "