LYNNFIELD — The School Committee received an update from the District School Committee representative for Lynnfield, Gary Hathaway, regarding the Essex Tech admissions policy.
“This all started about five or six months ago when the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education informed us that all career technical and education schools are going to have to go to a lottery system for their admissions,” Hathaway said.
The admissions team went over the numbers, which are based on historical data on how many kids have been going from each community. Proposal one came up with the number 14 for Lynnfield.
“We then had a meeting at the Larkin… The meeting was over, and our director of admissions walked up to our table where there were four or five of us from the School Committee and handed us a letter from Peabody, Salem, Beverly, and Danvers, basically saying ‘We, the four largest communities, choose to force the other 13 smaller communities to make the decisions that we don’t want to have to make,’” he said.
Hathaway said the admissions committee got together once more to come up with a revised number, proposal number two, which Hathaway stated was either 26 or 27.
Proposal three came up with the number 23, and though there was a proposal four, the subcommittee voted to take proposal three.
“I think it’s a horrendous decision to make everybody use a lottery. Some of the specifics are if you have 27 or fewer unexcused absences, you can get in the lottery. At 28, they won’t let you in. Basically, you can miss five weeks out of the school year, and you’re still going to qualify,” he said.
Hathaway said they don’t know anything else in the disciplinary area right now.
Hathaway stated that this year there were 49 applicants, last year there were 38, and the year before that 28.
“Even at 23 (spots), there’s still going to be 26 families that their kids are not going to be able to go,” Hathaway said. “Unfortunately, the solution to the problem is not having the state force this on everybody else. The state should be building more of these schools to give kids a better chance to get out and become productive members of society.”
Committee Chair Kristen Elworthy asked whether all the students who apply are Lynnfield Middle School students, or whether it includes students with Lynnfield residency who may attend other schools.
“I think it was 44 from the middle school. There was one from Higgins, one from Galvin, Shore Country Day School,” Hathaway said.
Superintendent Tom Geary said there were a few charter students who applied, and he believes 43 students from the middle school were among the 49 applicants.
Committee member Jamie Hayman asked what the admission policy looked like before the lottery, to which Hathaway said it was an application process, and representatives were sent out to all the middle schools to interview kids. He noted that the interview was around 40% of the grade.
“We’ve determined that there’s going to be kids who are not going to test really well, but who are going to just have a way with horses or have an aptitude for plumbing. They weren’t rigid about how they did it in the past. They had criteria that they had worked on year after year after year to get the best kids… the kids that wanted to be there,” Hathaway said.
Vice Chair Jim Dillon pointed out that if students miss more than five weeks of school or have disciplinary issues, they can still attend Lynnfield High School, noting that Essex Tech is still a public school.
“I don’t see why Essex Tech is in a special exalted position and these terms. I don’t get it. Like any other public taxpayer-funded high school, and they have the advantage of kids who apply to go there, I think they should have the same responsibility to children that all of our public high schools that are taxpayer-funded have: to educate whoever walks in the front doors of this school. And I think that should be their philosophy and approach to the kids that go there, just like it’s ours and every other public high school,” he said.
Committee member Kate DePrizio asked if there was any discussion on how this would be reviewed and evaluated at some point. Hathaway said he’s sure the administration will review it, but that it is a done deal.
“My only hope is that people in the State House will realize this is not a very good option and force DESE to back down and let the schools do it a different way, a more equitable way,” he said.
Committee member Kim Baker Donahue asked why the larger schools, like Peabody, wanted fewer students eligible for the lottery.
“I’m not exactly sure what Peabody’s reasoning is, but I do believe they are offering some vocational courses now,” Hathaway said.
Elworthy clarified during the meeting that this was not a part of the Lynnfield Public Schools budget, but a line item in the town budget.
“We’re not looking at our budget in the sense of saying that this line item in our budget is changing. Although we have been made aware by the town that they’re trying to recoup some of the cost from Essex Tech from our budget, essentially from this increase,” she said.
Elworthy then asked Hathaway if a Lynnfield student who left Essex Tech would have their spot go to another Lynnfield student. Hathaway was unsure, though he stated in the past there was a waitlist, though he was unsure if it was community-specific.
Geary said that though he doesn’t have this year’s enrollment numbers, last year there were 36 Lynnfield students at Essex Tech across all four grades. If they average the next few years using the new lottery number, there will be about 92 Lynnfield students.
“That is over a million dollar increase over four years, is what the state is throwing at us… It’s a substantial sum of money that the town is dealing with and will continue to deal with,” he said.
Elworthy noted that the town pays tuition per student, which is just under $20,000 this year.
“I want to be clear. I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but Essex Tech is a part of our public school system, and it’s an important part of our public school system, and one that our students absolutely should have access to. There’s always that tension when there’s a budgetary hit, and you have to figure out how to balance that as well as some of the other issues that you brought up with any change,” she said.
Elworthy emphasized that it is an important opportunity for students to have.