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Lynn Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy.
It’s summertime and the living is easy. That said, Lynn’s City Council and School Committee have taken a decidedly relaxed approach this summer to filling two crucial jobs.
To be fair, councilors are moving ahead with hiring a deputy election commissioner. But the battle between councilors and Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy over funding the $73,000 job this year should have ended in a truce months ago.
The primary election is less than a month away to be followed two months later by the final election featuring the contest for president. Kennedy says the city can’t afford to hire a deputy commissioner. City Clerk Mary Audley has warned anyone who will listen that the increasingly complicated election process justifies hiring someone to specifically oversee election preparations. This warning from a dedicated city official should be reason enough for Kennedy and the council to come to a meeting of the minds on a deputy commissioner.
This same call to action is one that committee members should have heeded well before last Thursday when they finally set the stage for hiring a new School Department administrator of special education.
The administrator’s job is one of the most important in the department with responsibility over programs spread throughout local public schools. The administrator also oversees millions of dollars in placements for special needs students in specialized programs outside the city.
Instead of debating the merits and drawbacks of requiring or preferring a doctorate as part of the administrator hiring process, the committee should have moved full steam ahead in the late spring and June toward hiring a new administrator.
Committee members need to step back and reacquaint themselves with the committee’s sole function: hiring a qualified and competent superintendent. Superintendent Dr. Catherine Latham meets both of those standards and Lynn parents would be better served if the committee followed Latham’s lead on important school decisions.
