My evaluation of Dr. Monárrez

All of the evaluations are here.

 Overall comments: 

PROFICIENT

The Worcester School Committee seeks an experienced,
educational leader who is a strategic thinker,
who will champion the district’s need for education equity,
and who has demonstrated a track record of superior educational management.

So opened the brochure the Worcester School Committee shared last year in our search for a new superintendent. In re-reading the brochure in preparation for this evaluation, I continue to be astounded at how well Dr. Monárrez is precisely what and who is described therein. That the community, speaking through the Committee, knew what the district needed is borne out by the work of this past year. 

Dr. Monárrez began her analysis of the district from literally the moment she set foot in Worcester last April, and she has not ceased evaluating and then working to meet those needs since then. Her heart is for children and for the staff that support them, but she knows well that heart is not enough. Systems are needed to ensure that children’s needs are met consistently and with fidelity; she has worked tirelessly to create and sustain them. 

A wise district leader doesn’t work alone; she quickly and insightfully evaluated district leadership and made appointments to ensure excellence is not siloed but shared.

Schools are the places where the work happens, but that work cannot happen without support; she has moved Worcester’s schools from individual entities towards a school system that functions to support students as a whole. 

The district alone cannot do this work; she has ceaselessly worked to renew lapsed partnerships, to create new ones, and to establish the positions and systems to continue them. 

Families are our children’s first schools; she has brought families to the table, and this year, created structures to ensure that families are in fact, as well as in theory, partners with schools in the education of their children.  

Where excellence existed, she has sought it out, learned from it, and elevated it. Where excellence has been lacking, she has noted it, made changes as needed, and created systems to support new directions. 

This first year was not without challenges and missteps; the coming years will be about building systems capacity, monitoring the systems put in place, and making adjustments as needed. As the Committee’s position description said, we sought a leader with an “ability to acknowledge and learn from mistakes.” I have no doubt that we have found that, as well. It is in that spirit that the following evaluation is submitted. 

Student Goal. By June 30, 2023 an inclusive learning environment for WPS staff, families and scholars will be established and/or strengthened through the development of district level documents. Supervision & Evaluation Guidebook, SSAC at a Glance (I-D Evaluation; IV-C Communications)

MET

I agree wholeheartedly that the time not only Dr. Monárrez, but the Cabinet, spent with the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council was one of the strengths of this year. Far from the busy work that too often has been Potemkin village of student voice, students had real say in the development of district policy and priorities. I hope that we on the School Committee can uphold our part of this work in the coming year, with our mandated meetings with our own advisory, and consistent ex officio presence and participation.

While the line between the Supervision and Evaluation Guidebook and the “inclusive learning environment” of this goal is not direct–appropriate evaluation supports inclusive classroom and school environments– it is a thoughtful document that certainly provides the districtwide standard procedures necessary to ensure the Worcester Public Schools are moving forward as a school district, rather than a district of schools. That has been, as quickly noted by Dr. Monárrez even before her arrival,  among the most urgent needs of the district. The implementation of this document at the school level, through the work of principals and district support and accountability of that work, will be where we see this document impact students and their learning. The implementation of systems across the district to ensure our students are receiving the education they are constitutionally guaranteed from teachers and staff who are receiving the support they need to make that happen will be the true test of this and the other groundwork of this past year.

Professional Goal: By June 30, 2023 participation in New Superintendent Induction Program (NSIP) year 1 will have been completed with all required projects submitted. Entry Plan Findings (IV-A Commitment to High Standards)

MET

We are told one should begin as one means to continue, and the enormous amount of listening and learning Dr. Monárrez did, particularly this fall, is an auspicious beginning of her superintendency. One concern with new leadership is that new ideas and plans will simply be implemented without a taking stock of where the district–and its people!--are; the listening and learning sessions, and the processing that was then done with the Cabinet and the School Committee, instead founded this work on the community. This input now forming the basis of the updated strategic plan ensures that this value is upheld, and that it was time well-spent for all.

One of Dr. Monárrez’s great personal strengths, in my view, is her warm connection with people. I hope that her time with people–with WPS staff, with families, with students, with community members, and with those outside of Worcester–will be prioritized as she continues in leadership. Those direct connections matter a great deal. 

District Goal: By June 30, 2023 collaboratively develop WPS handbooks and guiding documents to improve district systems in the topics of portrait of a graduate, student wellness and support and family and community engagement with equitable fiscal resource allocation to support implementation. Vision of a Learner, Spark, Health and Wellness Roadmap, F&C Engagement Framework, FY24 Budget (IV-E Shared Vision; II-A Environment; III-A F&C Engagement )

SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS

(Note that I have added the budget here, which was originally part of the documentation; I think it’s necessary for equitable resource allocation discussions.)

I appreciate that carefully considering and then committing in writing the district’s intentions with regard to teaching and learning, wellness, and family and community interaction has been prioritized this highly. To put it into writing is the first step. 

The Family and Community Engagement Framework is written as a series of intentions; how that then is implemented is something that is both the challenge and the reward. I look forward to seeing how the administration moves into actual operation under this framework. 

The Wellness Roadmap starts where we are, setting particular goals moving forward. As some have both policy and budgetary implications, those would be well to be deliberated, edited as necessary, before having some degree of Committee adoption. In both of the cases above, giving the Committee earlier insight into the work, who was involved in it, and how it was being developed would be both appreciated and useful. 

Taking the work that had gone into what was Portrait of a Graduate, reviewing, doing further outreach and research, and then revamping into the Vision of a Learner was both necessary and wise. It is a very different document than the draft with which we started. The Vision of a Learner sets out our expectations of one who learns in the Worcester Public Schools; as such, the draft presented here warrants further review and deliberation before a formal adoption by the Committee. 

Both in the final page of the Vision of a Graduate and in the nascent SPARK plan, there is a conflict between the indicators set out–in particular, Shared Vision and Family and Community Engagement–and process. The “future ready” focus, both here and elsewhere, is a top-down creation, not a shared vision created through community, family, and district engagement. As this otherwise is such a strength in Dr. Monárrez’s leadership–from the listening and learning sessions, to the Superintendent Student Advisory, to both teacher and family council creations, to the attention paid within the revision of the strategic plan–I believe that this is about a sense of urgency overcoming the experienced wisdom that calls for necessary process. As discussed during the budget hearings, the intentions are positive, and the outcomes may even be what many agree are needed; this administration, though, must be faithful and consistent in making changes “with” not “to.” 

I very much appreciated that this year’s public budget deliberation with the Committee opened with a spring discussion of what the intention is for all schools. In my years on the Committee, that is the first time I have seen such intentionality in framing allocations, and if our commitment is indeed to all learners, that naturally has to begin with and spring from the budget. I look forward to that being a shared discussion to which the Committee comes prepared, such that we are setting shared budget goals from the outset of budget planning. 

Standard I: Instructional Leadership (with a focus on I-D Evaluation)

On the table in Dr. Monárrez’s office in San Bernardino was written a sentence that I subsequently have seen reappear in her office in Worcester: “It’s all about the children and the adults that serve them.” The work at the district level from budget to assessment to transportation to evaluation all is done in the service of ensuring students in our classrooms are supported in their learning. 

The relative ease with which we–finally!--were able to adopt a new elementary curriculum is of a piece with this focus on the classroom. The right thing for students was to change the curriculum; that then was the recommendation of the administration. This is an enormous and welcome change. 

The two parts I am less certain about within this standard is the use of assessments and the use of data in making decisions. This may be due to simply not seeing it, but that itself is a concern. While I have no wish to make the state accountability system the end of our work–it is not–it is a part of the environment in which we operate, and we, as the district governance team, do need to be clear on where we fall within it and how we are functioning in response. 

Creating the structural supports needed to continue to improve the work in the classroom is, in Dr. Monárrez’s leadership, the very reason for the district work. Continued capacity building of leadership at both school and district levels, and ongoing monitoring of those systems to ensure the ongoing support of the classroom will be the work in this standard moving forward.

The creation of the Supervision and Evaluation Guidebook, then, is of a piece with the ongoing systemic work of improving what goes on in our classrooms. The work with district principals, the recreation of actual quadrant leadership, the creation of the teacher advisory, the implementation of wraparound coordinators in every school: so much of the work this year has been focused on how that work in the classroom gets supported and gets better.

 

Standard II: Management and Operations (with a focus on II-A Environment)

The already strong operational management this year were able to re-engage with the work of the rest of the district, and the district is showing signs of working as a functional whole, rather than individual buildings with little common relation. That is the result of Dr. Monárrez’s central systems work of creating and of leading a team that works together rather than simply individually. It does so ethically, and within the laws, regulations, and policies under which the district is to operate, and it does so systematically, so that issues are dealt with in a timely fashion and not repeatedly. 

Dr. Monárrez’s choices of people in positions has served the district well in many cases. Dr. Yeu Kue leading a revitalized Human Resources department warrants particular note in a department that, when ignored, creates enormous negative consequences. Dr. Kue has worked the district out from a backlog, and has created new systems and relationships all with what appears an indefatigable positive perspective. The hiring practices of the district, with a continued equity lens, have already been undergoing examination; that will need to continue to be work going forward.. Dr. Marie Morse leading the work of teaching and learning with a heart for children and having been in the parent, teacher, principal, and district leader seat is another excellent example among, as I note, many others.

I’d be remiss in discussing operations without noting the excellent incorporation of district-operated transportation this year. While the planning work was completed before Dr. Monárrez arrived, she did not hesitate in taking on the leadership of a district undergoing such a transformation. Recognizing the leadership already in place as knowing what it was doing, she had faith in their work, and the resulting transformation in our district’s transportation system is so profound as to be, ironically, unremarked upon. 

The audits forthcoming on school security and safety, on special education, on the multilingual department will no doubt indicate upcoming work within this standard, in ensuring we are meeting our legal and moral obligations to students and staff moving forward. 

The focus indicator of “environment” here represents one of the things I have personally found most reassuring of Dr. Monárrez’s leadership: she gets it on buildings. From one of her first days in Worcester incorporating a tour of Burncoat High School to her moving us to state advocacy on facilities, she understands that where our students learn and where our staff works matters. I appreciate the working relationship she is establishing with City Manager Batista in moving to create a facilities master plan that ends our history of ignoring anything past a planned rebuilt Burncoat. I look forward to results from that as well as work at the state level. 

Standard III: Family and Communication Engagement (with a focus on III-A Engagement)

Engagement with the community has been, from the beginning of her leadership in Worcester, a centerpiece of Dr. Monárrez’s superintendency. The Family and Community Engagement Framework presented as evidence outlines a clear vision of this standard: empowered caregivers, welcoming environments, and strong partnerships. It incorporates the engagement, shared responsibility, and two-way communication of the indicators of the standard. As noted elsewhere, this is a guiding document, which has yet to be made operational, and the proof of course will be in that. 

One improvement to be made is in ensuring that communication at the district level sends out the most basic of needed family information (calendars, access to school food, summer reading, back to school processes) rather than focusing simply on the “news” of the district as capacity is built in this office. Our families do depend on social media, among other systems, for that communication, and we need to be certain we don’t neglect necessary information even as we pursue telling our story. I am also closely watching for various ways there will be for our families to talk back to the district. My hope is that this coming year, this will include a commitment to school site councils as active, fully-functional, representative bodies at each school to include student, family, staff, and community voice in school-level decision making. 

There has already been a revolution in the final indicator of this standard: this time, for the first time in years, families have had clear lines of access to those who can work on concerns systematically, rather than as one-off one-time issues. This is very much about the additional administrative staff in modified or additional positions that were gaping holes under prior management. This is no longer the case. Who gets what concern is something we all (including the Committee) should work on as we look to next year, but it no longer is a mystery or one in which there is no answer at all. Additionally, not only are solutions systemic (so as not to deal with the same issue over and over), but the siloes of prior management are also broken down, so solutions are created across departments and divisions as needed. As I said, this is revolutionary, and it is, from a day-to-day work of the district, among the most crucial changes implemented by Dr. Monárrez. 

Standard IV: Professional Culture (with a focus on IV-A Commitment to High Standards and IV-C Communication and IV-E Shared Vision)

If there is a standard that is a hallmark of Dr. Monárrez’s leadership, it is this one. The creation and maintenance of a professional culture for the adults in the Worcester Public Schools in the pursuit of an excellent education system is what she is about. From before she even officially began her time in Worcester, the change in tone has been palpable.

 This begins with high standards for herself, and in turn, administrators, teachers, and staff, such that high expectations can be held for our students: the pursuit of a shared vision that is culturally proficient in which every student is supported and feels that they belong in a school in which they can pursue an excellent education. Those high standards are, however, not held in isolation: professional development is something she models on her own, with the Cabinet, with administrators, and (for the first time in a long time!) with the School Committee. That professional development with the School Committee was a condition of her contract with us speaks to how important she knows this to be; I want us to similarly keep our commitment to her in our own actions, and in the support across the district. 

I look forward in particular within this standard to continued work on cultural proficiency across the district, with new leadership within the diversity office. This is the work of the entire district, starting with the School Committee and Superintendent’s team, and we will need to recommit to it. I also look forward to how creating and updating a shared vision rolls out as we update the strategic plan. 

I have been ongoingly impressed at Dr. Monárrez’s management of conflict, in many cases by ensuring issues never rise to that level through intervention, through ongoing meetings and conversations, through creating and supporting processes; it is not accidental that the Worcester School Committee, for example, is hearing fewer grievances than we were in the past.