At a recent meeting, more residents from Lynnfield spoke against the School Committee’s proposal to eliminate the Lynnfield High School library media specialist position, currently held by Janice Alpert, due to budget constraints.
Katianne Williams, Lynnfield resident and a librarian for the Wakefield Public Schools, said that librarians like Alpert, who are approachable and proficient in teaching 21st-century skills, are needed by students who want to go into the STEM fields.
“Librarians like Ms. Alpert are exactly what young women who don’t see themselves as STEM kids need in order to build confidence and to see that there is a place and a need for students like them in STEM,” Williams said. “It’s such a loss, and this is one of the reasons I’m so devastated by this decision.”
Williams also said that in many nearby areas that have library media specialists, all except one, ranked above Lynnfield High School on Boston Magazine’s 2023 Best Public High Schools list.
School Committee member Phil McQueen expressed concerns about what could happen if Alpert does not stay at LHS.
“I think that the library media specialist, Janice, fulfills a vital role at the school,” McQueen said. “And I keep on coming back to the Youth Behavior Risk Survey where students don’t feel that they have an adult in the building…and that concerns me greatly.”
Darlene Kumar, a Lynnfield resident with children in the district, asked the School Committee to listen to the high school students who have expressed support toward keeping the media center specialist position.
“I’m imploring you to listen to the high school kids,” Kumar said. “They’re tired, they’re struggling, they’re telling you that the library is a space for them to go. She (Alpert) finds space for them.”
School Committee member Kate DePrizio then responded to concerns, explaining how the programs under Alpert’s supervision, such as the LHS Helpdesk which currently involves six students, and MakerSpace, can function even if the position were to be eliminated.
“(Helpdesk) can still be supervised by a paraprofessional, and they still interact with Heather Koleszar, who is in our tech department,” DePrizio said. “So even if that number were to grow exponentially, I think we’re completely appropriately staffed there and their needs will absolutely be met to have that carry on. As far as the MakerSpace and talking with Principal Puglisi, that is fairly self-sustained.”
DePrizio also believes that the curation of books can be taken care of by the English department and that the school still has access to many databases.
DePrizio also said that her budget priority will ultimately be keeping a classroom teacher.
“We’re the governing body that has to make hard decisions, and this is a hard decision,” DePrizio said. “And we need to own how hard it is. Ultimately though, I think if this is coming down to this position, or a teacher, I would not be moved, it would be the (classroom) teacher every time.”
School Committee member Timothy Doyle said that reducing class sizes should be the priority overall.
“I’m moved about everything I’ve heard about Ms. Alpert, and what she’s done at the high school,” Doyle said. “But what we need to recognize is that we have tremendous class sizes, or a big influx of students coming in at the elementary level, and we need to keep those class sizes down.”
Doyle said that based on feedback from administrators, they’ve identified the media center specialist position as a spot to reduce to fund smaller class sizes at the elementary level.
