By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield Teachers Association’s two leaders criticized the School Committee during a July 10 meeting.

LTA Vice President Nicole Hawes recalled that the teachers’ union presented a resolution to a prior incarnation of the School Committee last December that declared the district in a “crisis” that needs to be addressed.

“Teachers and paraprofessionals shared their personal experiences, as did family members of Lynnfield Public Schools’ students,” said Hawes. “At the meeting and after it, both School Committee and community members expressed concern about the fact they had no idea that things were as bad as they were.”

Hawes said the LTA hosted a question-and-answer session last spring with four of the candidates running for School Committee in the April Town Election.

“At this meeting, we shared many of our concerns and the issues that needed to be addressed from our perspective,” said Hawes. “We also admitted that we didn’t feel comfortable sharing these concerns with School Committee members because we had not had a relationship with Central Office administration or School Committee that gave us the confidence to reach out and share our realities with them. Throughout the Q&A meeting and at its closing, we expressed and reiterated our hope for what came next. We wanted a School Committee that was committed to full transparency and open communication. Each candidate agreed that those two things were both reasonable and necessary to allow us to build a more collaborative relationship.”

After Hawes watched the School Committee’s June 27 meeting, she said she was “both shocked and disappointed that members had been researching and drafting policies that would take affect for the 2024-2025 school year.”

“This School Committee did not make any attempt to engage all of the (LTA) members during this process,” said Hawes. “We have valuable insight about how these policies will impact our students and our schools. We have knowledge and experience that we can share to help develop these policies in a way that makes sense for the school community.”

LTA President Alex Cellucci agreed.

“Even though the School Committee sets policy, educators must carry out policy and can provide valuable insight into how decisions can affect students and learning,” said Cellucci. “The LTA is asking the School Committee to gather teacher input on policy before establishing it. The LTA is not opposing the current policy proposals, but rather trying to create best practices in our district’s move toward being more transparent in its decision-making.”   

Hawes said the School Committee has not reached out to the LTA to “ask for feedback about the changes in the district during the second half of the school year or in preparation for the upcoming school year.”

“The reason why people were so surprised to hear about the teachers’ discontent with the district was that we did not feel welcome to discuss these issues openly,” said Hawes. “The lack of transparency and the lack of communication we are again experiencing is quite familiar with us.”

Hawes said the LTA was “not given the opportunity to provide feedback” about former Superintendent Kristen Vogel’s job performance. She said the same was true before the School Committee’s vote to appoint Interim Superintendent Tom Geary as the next leader of Lynnfield Public Schools (see separate story).

“It seems as though as we are making the decision to appoint the next superintendent, we have not been given that opportunity either,” said Hawes. “We generally want to foster an environment that would allow us to work together to restore faith in the school district and to allow learning alone to be the primary focus for all of us. All we can hope for now is that you are willing to do the work that is necessary to repair what was and continues to be broken.”

Chair Kate DePrizio said the School Committee has “openly solicited feedback” from teachers and principals about different initiatives such as policy changes.

“We are doing that individually and collectively,” said DePrizio. “We have made our superintendent accessible and have offered coffees at various times. We have made ourselves open and accessible in every way, and are ready for feedback.”

DePrizio recalled that the LTA opposed the School Committee’s decision to eliminate the Lynnfield High School library media specialist position during the fiscal year 2025 budget process earlier this year. She said cutting the position was a “very divisive issue” that was “handled openly.”

“I find it troubling that your perspective is so varied from all of the opportunities we have presented this entire time,” said DePrizio. “We love our teachers, individually and collectively. This is a group of people who are doing the right things for our teachers and our students all the time. That is at the forefront of every decision we make. We are here, but open communication is a two-way street. You have to come to us as well. We hope that you will continue to reach out with specific concerns and we would be happy to meet with you.”

Hawes said the School Committee did not reach out to her or her colleagues about the teachers’ union’s concerns.

Cellucci also criticized School Committee members Jim Dillon and Jenny Sheehan for comments they made during a discussion about appointing Geary as permanent superintendent during the June 27 meeting.

“One of the justifications given for this as Mr. Dillon stated, was ‘If Tom remains a one-year leader, the attitude could just be we’ll just wait it out,’ referring to the LTA’s position on collective bargaining,” said Cellucci.  “Ms. Sheehan also followed up with the ‘we can just ride it out’ sentiment, again referencing that this would be the LTA’s position on collective bargaining. This is tantamount to accusing our union of bad faith bargaining. I have been a member of every bargaining team since 2012, and I can assure we have never bargained in bad faith or intentionally stalled bargaining in any way. While I know some members of this School Committee have yet to engage in bargaining with the LTA, several of you have bargained with the LTA previously.  It was disheartening to hear these statements made not once but twice, and also to not hear them countered by other members of this committee. Such comments lead to feeling unsupported at best and character assassination at worst.”

Cellucci said the LTA’s resolution last December requested that the School Committee and teachers’ union reopen the current contract and engage in collective bargaining even though the three-year pact had yet to expire.   

“We were informed by Superintendent Geary that it was not the wish of the School Committee to engage in bargaining,” said Cellucci. “I can assure you we have not been stalling.”

Dillon said he and the rest of the School Committee believe that “the LTA will bargain in good faith” and that “Lynnfield has great teachers.”

“You can be bargaining in good faith, but still not settling,” said Dillon. “The hope we all have is collective bargaining will go really well, but we could still be bargaining a year from now. That is why some of us feel we should keep Tom as superintendent for a couple of years rather than potentially bringing in a new superintendent next July. It could be problematic from my point of view.”

Sheehan apologized for the “ride it out” comment she made during the June 27 meeting.

“I want to say sorry because that was not my intention,” said Sheehan. “The conversation from my perspective was about how long things take. Even if we are bargaining in good faith, it could take a year.”

While Cellucci said she “understood” Dillon and Sheehan’s viewpoints, she reiterated that it is not the LTA’s intention to “stall bargaining intentionally or to drag it out because that would be bargaining in bad faith.”

“We would never intentionally do that because it is not in the best interest of our members or it is not in the best interest of our students,” said Cellucci.

DePrizio said the School Committee does not believe the LTA would bargain in bad faith.

“No one meant to be disrespectful to the union or to you,” said DePrizio.

Cellucci said she was surprised that the School Committee was considering appointing Geary as permanent superintendent after she recently told him that she would be interested in serving on a superintendent search committee. She also criticized Dillon for another comment he made at the June 27 meeting when he said Geary’s goals for the district would be considered “only paper tigers” if he had a one-year contract.

“For us, our role has always been to be respectful of whoever sits in the seat,” said Cellucci. “We would never regard they are in the seat for one year or three years as a paper tiger. It was quite shocking to hear that.”

Cellucci also said there were “several references made that praised running the operations of the district as a business” during the School Committee’s June 27 meeting.

“Prior to starting my career in education, I worked in health care for many years,” said Cellucci. “I can tell you that working as a clinician under leadership who ran health care like a business was one of my greatest frustrations with health care, as the business model often came at the expense of my patients. I would ask you to always put the education of our students first and foremost and to involve educators as experts throughout the decision-making process and to consider that as we move forward because a business model is not always what is best when thinking about the education model.”

Cellucci encourged the School Committee to “collect input from educators and parents” moving forward.

“The LTA believes that maintaining a conversation between administration, School Committee, families and educators will result in improved learning and working environments,” said Cellucci.