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

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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.