LYNN — Mayor Jared Nicholson, Superintendent of Lynn Public Schools (LPS) Dr. Evonne Alvarez, and President of Lynn Teachers Union Sheila O’Neil testified to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) on Tuesday against KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School’s latest attempt at expansion.

KIPP Lynn Charter School submitted an application to BESE at the end of September to expand the maximum enrollment from 1,586 to 2,947. The expansion would result in a budget cut of approximately $24 million annually for LPS, which equals 20 percent of the district’s total budget.

The Monday after KIPP Lynn submitted the application, LPS staff members across eight public schools gathered outside their respective facilities for a stand-out protest opposing KIPP Lynn’s potential expansion.

On Nov. 1, Alvarez, Nicholson, and O’Neil sent a letter to Russell Johnston, acting commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), to argue that KIPP Lynn is not a “proven provider” according to the Commonwealth’s statute and regulations.

KIPP Lynn’s expansion would place Lynn above the nine percent school spending (NSS) cap, which is why KIPP Lynn must be deemed a proven provider to be awarded the expansion, according to the letter.

The letter also provided a table that showed KIPP Lynn’s scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) in 2022, 2023, and 2024 were below the statewide average.

Similar to the Nov. 1 letter, Alvarez’s comments on Tuesday to BESE at its meeting at Holyoke High School focused on the proven provider criteria and did not address the broader question of whether KIPP Lynn’s expansion request should be approved based on other guidelines.

“KIPP Lynn fails to meet the threshold of academic success as defined in Massachusetts charter school regulations. The regulations require proficiency levels and growth measures on MCAS or equivalent assessments that are comparable to statewide averages for all students and targeted subgroups over a three-year period. KIPP Lynn’s performance falls significantly short of this benchmark,” Alvarez said.

She referenced MCAS scores again in her comments and also cited the disparity between KIPP Lynn’s and LPS’ diversity among its students – 15.1 percent of KIPP Lynn students are English Learners, compared to 43.4 percent in LPS.

Designating KIPP Lynn as a proven provider, despite the data, would “set a troubling precedent” and would “suggest that academic success and equitable service to all student populations are no longer the cornerstones of Massachusetts charter school standards,” Alvarez said.

“I urge you to uphold the proven provider criteria as required by the statute. The data demands it, and our students deserve it,” Alvarez concluded.

The proposed seats are available because of learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, but would “undermine” the intended impact of the Student Opportunity Act, Nicholson said to BESE on Tuesday in opposition to KIPP Lynn’s expansion.

He acknowledged the availability of seats is required by state charter laws, but further argued KIPP Lynn does not qualify as a proven provider.

Nicholson cited social media videos KIPP Lynn posted on Oct. 7 and 8. He identified two “false narratives” put forward by KIPP Lynn’s leadership in the videos, claiming that their students “reflect the beautiful and vibrant diversity of the City of Lynn,” and that their lottery system is “truly blind.”

Nicholson shared the results from KIPP Lynn’s lottery last year, citing the charter school accepted 1.7 percent of English Learners, in comparison to English Learners being 23.8 percent of LPS’ population.

“The lottery itself may be blind, but clearly sign-up is not,” Nicholson concluded. “We are proud of the fact that the Lynn Public Schools welcomes all students from all backgrounds at all times of year, and feel we need to point this out when irresponsible comparisons are made.”

O’Neil, who has been a LPS teacher for 32 years, said she has attended and testified at several hearings in regard to KIPP Lynn’s various expansion applications over the years and said the testimonies “only created a greater division in our community.”

She agreed with the data Nicholson and Alvarez provided to prove KIPP Lynn is not a proven provider and is not eligible for an expansion.

Students at LPS and KIPP Lynn are all Lynn students, O’Neil emphasized.

“The educators of LPS respect the students and staff at KIPP Lynn and applaud their hard work. This expansion application and the necessity of combatting the false narrative creates a further divide in our city,” she said. “Commissioner Johnston has the power to end this fissure in our community.”

“If this expansion effort is allowed, it would cause irrevocable damage to Lynn’s public schools, which educate all children. At the end of the day, Lynn Public School students and KIPP students are both students of Lynn and should not be pitted against one another,” O’Neil said in a press release issued Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we’ve been put in a position where we have to combat false and divisive narratives from those supporting this effort at a time when we should all be focused on supporting our students and getting back to pre-pandemic learning levels.”