By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The School Committee approved the proposed $30.8 million fiscal year 2025 operating budget in a 3-2 vote on April 3.
The $30,806,245 budget for the next fiscal year represents a 3.9 percent increase over FY24’s $29,656,549 appropriation.
In the wake of school nurses and several health care professionals raising concerns about the district only having four nurses during the School Committee’s recent public hearing about the proposed FY25 operating budget, Interim Superintendent Tom Geary said he was able to add a floating nurse position into next year’s spending plan.
“After doing my own research, I feel like this is a setup that can work,” said Geary. “It addresses the administrative load, but it also addresses the need to have nurses on site in the schools. We receive a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health every year that totals about $50,000. We are going to allocate about $40,000 of that to this position going forward. The other dollars that will be allocated will be adjustments within the budget that will add up to the total salary that needs to be covered.”
School Committee Chair Kate DePrizio noted that the floating nurse position “will not change the overall budget.”
The proposed school budget for FY25 still doesn’t reinstate Nurse Coordinator Toni Rebelo’s position.
School Committee Vice Chair Jamie Hayman proposed that a Huckleberry Hill School fourth grade teacher be cut from the proposed budget and reallocate those funds to keep Lynnfield High School library media specialist Janice Alpert’s position. There are currently 96 third-graders enrolled in five classrooms at Huckleberry Hill School, and five fourth grade classes will be offered next year.
“In fourth grade, our class size guideline is 20 to 24 students,” said Hayman. “Ninety-six would put us at four classes at the top end, which is still well within the guidelines. I am all for small class sizes, but it’s a way to reallocate something that is needed, which in my opinion would be doing another year of the LHS media center specialist while we figure out that position.”
School Committee member Jim Dillon said having four fourth grade classes each having 24 students does not take into account any potential move-ins. He said Huckleberry Hill School Principal Melissa Wyland informed him that she is “pretty confident there will be additional move-ins at that grade.”
“Melissa also pointed out there is a lot of need in that grade,” said Dillon. “Right now with five classes, there would be 19 students in each class. I don’t feel it would be responsible to have the four classes with 24 when there are so many high-need students in the third grade at Huckleberry. I understand what you are saying Jamie, but it would make high-need elementary classes more unmanageable. It would have a big impact on those kids’ education.”
School Committee member Phil McQueen said he had been “wrestling” with the proposed FY25 school budget over the last several weeks.
“For the six years I have been on the School Committee, the thing that has been most important to me is equitable outcomes for all of our students,” said McQueen. “I feel that high school students are not being taken into account from an equity perspective. They will not be getting everything they need in their very important high school years if we remove the library media specialist. I feel that the elementary schools and the middle school are getting everything we could possibly give them, but I don’t feel we are giving the high school students everything we could possibly give them.”
McQueen also noted there have been a number of teaching positions cut at LHS over the last several years.
“From my perspective as a high school educator, I really don’t see how we can take out the heart and soul of that school, which seems like what the library is with the library media specialist in it,” said McQueen.
School Committee member Tim Doyle said he supported keeping the Huckleberry Hill School fourth grade teacher in the budget and not replacing it with the library media specialist.
“I feel that the lower class sizes take precedent at this time,” said Doyle.
DePrizio agreed.
“I would still err on the side of caution with class size as well,” said DePrizio. “In full disclosure, that is my third grade daughter’s grade. I am very familiar with that grade from just being in the school and speaking to Melissa at length. That grade was our kindergartners on Zoom during COVID, and has quite bit of need with placement and with additional emotional needs that are quite pressing.”
DePrizio said the fifth fourth grade teacher will also be needed during the 2025-2026 academic year due to existing class sizes in second grade.
“We would be taking something from the budget and would have to put it back next year because we will need it based on class size,” said DePrizio.
Hayman echoed McQueen’s viewpoint that “all of the cuts the last few years have come at the high school.”
“I think that is detrimental to the kids,” said Hayman. “You can say kids need the most help at the elementary schools, but I would argue the stakes are higher at the high school. There are kids we are sending off into either college or the world, and the stress is higher at the high school. I think it comes down to personal priorities at a certain point. If we can stay within our guidelines, my priority would be the mental health of our high school students.”
While Dillon said he understood Hayman’s perspective, he said his eighth grade and high school teaching experience taught him that students need more academic support when they are in elementary school.
“A lot of times when students are struggling with reading below grade level and are struggling with math, it creates challenges as they move up into the higher grades,” said Dillon. “If you can address those things at the elementary level with reasonable class sizes, I think that is something that would be a big advantage for kids. It might reduce a lot of problems children might run into moving forward.”
DePrizio said she has the same concerns as Hayman about the mental health challenges high school students are experiencing.
“While I am not moved by the library media specialist, I think if you were presenting to me the need for a mental health professional, I think that would be a different conversation,” said DePrizio. “I think espousing that we are addressing mental health in a meaningful way through the library media specialist, especially when we know the needs at the high school are so big, to me is irresponsible because mental health is absolutely that important. If we were having a discussion about appointing a counselor or a school psychologist, I think that would be a very different conversation.”
McQueen recalled that the Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that 65 percent of high school students reported having at least one teacher or adult in LHS to talk to about a problem.
“There are so few kids at the high school who have an adult they can relate to,” said McQueen. “That is something that needs to be worked on systemically and culturally at the high school. My argument is taking out a solid support from the heart of the building and then trying to retrofit everything is not a good idea. The role of guidance and having teachers be mentors is something that needs to be done. I am not saying the library media specialist provides mental health support for everybody, but I don’t think removing someone who is a rock in a storm for these students is a good idea.”
Hayman said he does not believe LHS needs more clinicians to address students’ mental health needs.
“At any age, there is a place where a child is just comfortable,” said Hayman. “We have heard over and over that place is the library. It’s about having that place and that person, and it’s not about providing more clinicians to talk to.”
Doyle recalled that a number of LHS Class of 2015 and Class of 2018 graduates urged the school board to keep the library media specialist at the high school. He did not recall a large number of current students advocating to keep the library media specialist position.
Hayman said Student Council President Keely Briggs spoke on behalf of the student body while urging school officials to keep the library media specialist position. He said there were other high school students who advocated for keeping Janice Alpert’s job as well.
Dillon said having 24 or more students in four fourth grade classes instead of having five classes with 19 or 20 students would “significantly damage the chances of acquiring a good education in fourth grade if you kept those class sizes that big.”
Hayman recalled that the School Committee discussed revising the class size policy last fall.
“I think we are setting a very dangerous precedent right now,” said Hayman. “If we are going to have a limit and we are pressed for money and we can fit within those guidelines, we are setting the precedent that we are comfortable with going under the minimum recommendation. That is a hard precedent to overcome. I think it is the wrong decision.”
After the discussion, DePrizio made a motion to approve the FY24 operating budget that included the fifth Huckleberry Hill fourth grade teacher, which was seconded by Dillon. DePrizio, Dillon and Doyle voted in favor of the recommended spending plan. Hayman and McQueen voted no.
The School Committee unanimously approved the $225,000 capital budget for FY25. The capital budget includes $125,000 for technology expenses and $100,000 to have the seats in Lynnfield High School’s auditorium reupholstered.
