On Monday, June 9, Lorraine Gately announced she would be running for re-election to the Lynn school committee. In her speech to a large crowd of supporters she reflected on the past two years on the committee and the progress that has been made in buildings and grounds facilities. She explained the many transformative facilities decisions that were coordinated to provide new opportunities and reduce overcrowding in the middle and high schools.
First and foremost is the Pickering Middle School (PMS) Building project. As building and grounds chair she sits on the PMS building committee during monthly meetings. She thanked Mayor Nicholson, Danya Smith, Superintendent Dr. Alvarez and Deputy Superintendent Ruggerio who have all worked hard towards seeing the project through to completion predicted for the Fall of 2027. She mentioned that “nothing is perfect, every project has glitches but with the oversight of Mike Donovan our Director of Capital Projects and Lynne Stapleton our Chief Manager of Operation” she was optimistic that the building will be done on time.
Second is the Virginia Barton Life Skills Academy that opened up in March 0f 2025. She shared that students who moved there from Lynn Tech are doing well in their new home, as told to her by a parent recently. The new academy led to space opening up at Lynn Tech, allowing for newer shops and an increase in the number of students being able to attend LVTI. This will lower numbers in both of the large overcrowded high schools, LCHS and LEHS.
Third is the Frederick Douglas Collegiate Academy expansion as it moves into its fourth year. The NSCC space for FDCA was a small leased space and there was little room for increased expansion. Fortunately, the five story Eastern Bank across the street from NSCC decided to sell their property. The Mayor, Superintendent and Ms.Gately all agreed about the need for the space that the Eastern Bank had to offer. So last August the Mayor figured out a way to purchase the building while freeing up the costs of all the leases our district had to spend yearly. It was decided to move Frederick Douglas Collegiate Academy to the much larger Eastern Bank space. Then the Mayor’s office Policy Director, Danya Smith, and LPS Innovation Director Dr. Shannon Gardner worked in collaboration to attain a generous $2 million dollar grant from the Eastern Bank Foundation to outfit the new space for an opening in Fall of 2025. The amount of students able to attend Frederick Douglass increased, further enabling a decrease of numbers at our overcrowded, large high schools.
Fourth major change is at Fecteau Leary which is being transformed to a state-of-the art new 6-12 school, City Arts and Sciences Academy (CASA). The LPS Innovation Department formed a pathway project based school that a lot of people in the community are looking forward to seeing their children attend. The current 37 therapeutic students at Fecteau Leary will move to Frederick Douglas Academy in the fall of 2025, allowing new pathways to college. While the remaining 63 students will remain at the newly named Harold Durgin Success Academy which will move to Eastern Bank in Fall 2026. Then each year the enrollment will increase in 9th grade and middle school which will decrease the number of students at Classical, English and also the middle schools. The superintendent also increased enrollment to the Discovery Middle School at LVTI for the Fall of 2026.
Fifth, with the change of the Administration Building personnel moving to Eastern bank, there will be additional preschool classrooms opening at Bennett St. for this Fall 2025.
Ms. Gately closed by highlighting how important all these projects have been to solve the overcrowding that has developed over the years. She praised the collaborative work that was done to accomplish these moves and thanked the Mayor, Superintendent, School Committee Members and City Council for supporting the many changes needed to improve LPS facilities. “Our students deserve quality buildings whether we are renovating an old building to state-of-the-art remodeling or we build brand new buildings” as chair of building and grounds subcommittee she stated, “My job is never done. We have to move onto our aging elementary schools, some of which are over or approaching 100 years old. I want to be part of the team that moves LPS forward. So when you go to the polls on election day please consider me for one of your six votes.”