By JON BAKER

LINCOLN  —  Back in early July, Schools Superintendent Georgia Fortunato believed the beginning of this school year would be easier than her first, just 12 months ago. She had filled each teaching position that had been vacated by retirement, move, transfer and the like.

As always for one in her position, though, obstacles soon followed.
“We had everyone in place on July 10, and I thought, ‘I’m going to have an easier summer,’” Fortunato grinned Thursday afternoon. “But, just a couple of weeks ago, I lost a high school chemistry teacher, a long-term substitute English teacher, a long-term speech and language pathologist and a .6 (part-time) science teacher. I had to go back to square one.”
That’s OK with Fortunato, however. When classes open Tuesday morning for those in grades K-9 (Wednesday for grades 10-12), she promised everything and everybody will be in place, with new looks in all eight of the town’s schools.
“I’m really excited about it,” she said. “I’m still looking for a chemistry teacher, that long-term English sub and substitute speech pathologist — not to mention an elementary school special educator — but we’re ready nonetheless. We can’t wait for the doors to open on Sept. 2, and for the kids to step through them. They’re going to start quite a journey.
“My hopes for the students this year are these: I want each to be able to enter any school he or she is attending and be offered an exemplary education, one that will prepare all of them not only for the following year but also the rest of their lives.”
The new school year actually began on Wednesday morning, when Fortunato conducted the usual teachers/staff orientation. Just 24 hours later, she spoke during the annual “Professional Development” session — not only for faculty and administrators but also secretaries, janitors and “everyone involved in the Lincoln school community.”
She introduced her staff, including Director of Curriculum Melanie Smith; Business Department manager Lori Miller; Director of Student Services Maryann Struble; Director of Non-Instructional Operations Angelo Mencucci; Information Technology specialist Mark Gadbois; Human Resources coordinator Eric Banville; and Superintendent of Schools secretary Kathryn Wilson.
She also recognized officials of the two unions — the Lincoln Teacher’s Association and Local 94 — who earlier this summer ironed out a new contract with the school department’s negotiating board.
She also announced three new principals, including William Skitt at Central Elementary; Jeannine Magliocco at Lonsdale Elementary; and Marc Cobb, who will become the assistant principal at the high school as veteran administrator Kevin McNamara takes the lead role.
To explain her goals for her 600-member staff, Fortunato referred to the famed last lecture of Dr. Randy Pausch. In that lecture, the former Carnegie-Mellen University professor, who had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, reflected on his personal journey.
“Camaraderie, respect and tolerance are but a few of the traits that are necessary to create a true learning community for all,” she wrote. “The core of the educational experience for our students is, of course, you — all of you, not just some of us. We are the Lincoln School Department, and we all bring a wealth of talent, expertise and commitment that is second to none!”
“We’re expecting about 3,300 students to be in our system, though we have parents enrolling their children every day; even (Thursday), we had a few registrants,” Fortunato said. “Last year, we had about 3,500, but it fluctuates every year, and here’s why: We have students leaving for private schools, and those returning from such schools, and then people move away, and others move in.”
Those children will be in for a variety of changes at all eight institutions, including 133 new computers.
In a span of 90 days since June’s last day of classes, Mencucci and his staff have made dozens of capital improvements, at a cost of $352,000. At the top of the list: The revamping of two new pre-school special-education rooms at Northern Early Learning Center.
“The last time we had work done on those two classrooms came when the school was built in 1972,” Fortunato said. “How they’ve been modernized is amazing.”
Other improvements include the removal of LHS hallway carpets, replaced by vinyl tiles; multi-speck paint on walls; new energy-efficient lighting (which uses one-third less electricity); repainting of all hallway lockers; “polyurethaning” of the main and old middle-school gymnasium floors and some doors; and a new main gym divider, a strong vinyl-and-net curtain with a length of about 74 feet.
“We also were successful in negotiating the two union contracts, and in order to set the tone for some of the concessions that were made, the administrative team decided to set an example,” Fortunato said. “Administrators now will have an increase in their co-share for medical, and it moves from 10.5 percent to 15 percent, and that’s effective right now. We’re putting our money where are mouth is. For me, I used to pay about $67 every two weeks, and now it’s $100.
“For teachers, that doesn’t become official until the last year of the contract, in 2011,” she added. “We also agreed to eliminate our five ‘family illness days.’ We asked the unions to give them up, so the administrators did, too.
“Like I said, we’re all in this together.”