Thus, here, with my particular gratitude to the Worcester Public Library for having Worcester Telegram & Gazette archives, to whomever scanned decades of Worcester City Council manuals, and to L.H. Larned, whomever you are, are the past seventy-five plus years of Worcester superintendent transitions.
You will of course have seen local news that she's been hired by Orange Unified School District in California. The reporting from the California end can be found here. As that says:
Orange Unified School District serves approximately 26,000 students in the cities of Orange, Villa Park, Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, along with unincorporated areas of Orange County.
The district has 42 sites and cites its enrollment demographics as 57.7% Hispanic, 23.7% White, 9.9% Asian, 2.3% Filipino, and 1.3% Black/African-American (2022).
I will let what I said stand on its own regarding Dr. Monárrez, but I'm seeing some questions come up that are pretty straightforward "how does the superintendency in Massachusetts and elsewhere work?" questions, so let's look at those. As always, I post this in my personal capacity.
I'll add to this if I see more.
Is three years "short" for a superintendency?
Not really. This is actually a somewhat difficult thing to nail down, but frequently, it's said that city superintendents on average have a tenure of between 3 and 5 years, with a 2018 look from the Broad Center coming in a bit higher.
While Worcester isn't among the 100 largest school districts, it has more in common with those districts than we do with our neighbors.
Is this an unusual time for such an announcement to happen?
No, this is exactly when a lot of these announcements happen, for the simple reason that it is when a lot of hiring happens. In fact, we're about at the anniversary of Dr. Monárrez being appointed.
Does the district now need a superintendent?
Yes, districts in Massachusetts are required to have a superintendent.
Does there have to be a search?
No, there is no requirement that searches be conducted before an appointment.
What are the requirements of the school committee appointing a superintendent?
They have to conduct the vote in a properly posted public session, and they have to appoint someone who either holds or is eligible to hold a licensure for superintendent in Massachusetts.
Is there anyone who cannot be appointed?
Yes, because a school committee member cannot be a teacher or a superintendent in the district in which they are on the committee, a superintendent cannot be a member of their own school committee, per MGL Ch. 71, sec. 52.
Also, one cannot be a member of the appointing authority and apply for a position, under the conflict of interest laws (MGL Ch. 268A).
And while the Board of Ed continues question selection, some Worcester news...
Dear Worcester Public Schools Community,
I am writing to you with mixed emotion. After deep reflection, I have accepted a Superintendent position in California and will step down as Superintendent of Worcester Public Schools at the end of June 2025. I have come from this decision taking into account the needs of my family. As many of you know, my husband, Jesus, is retired, and this next chapter in our lives will allow us to spend more time together with our family and friends in our home state of California.
Serving as your superintendent has been an incredible honor. Over the past three years, under our guiding mantra—from here, anywhere… together—we have made meaningful progress toward greater equity and opportunity for our scholars. We have strengthened specialized programming options, expanded inclusionary practices, and remained steadfast in keeping scholars in school. We have fostered a safer, more welcoming environment for both students and staff, bolstered by robust safety training and a deepened sense of belonging in part through our school-based culture and climate teams. Our youngest scholars are reading at the highest level since my arrival.
We have transformed how we engage with families and the community, ensuring that communication is clear, accessible, and inclusive. With the successful rollout of our five-year strategic plan, Our Promise to the Future, we have built a strong foundation for the district’s continued growth. Our creation of the quadrant teams have brought district staff closer to schools, strengthening connections between educators and children. We celebrated the opening of the new Doherty Memorial High School and launched the long-awaited Burncoat High School construction project. And over the past three years, we have doubled the annual funding toward facilities and school safety, from $8.2 million to $16.6 million.
Most importantly, we have lifted the voices of those we serve. The Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee, Family and Community Engagement Roundtable, and Educator Advisory Council have provided essential perspectives in shaping our work. Our collaboration with the Educational Association of Worcester has resulted in a stronger partnership and a significant reduction in staff grievances. And with the launch of Vision of a Learner, we have set a clear path for what it means to be future-ready upon graduation.
Through it all, the greatest privilege of my time here has been elevating the brilliance of our scholars. Their achievements, creativity, and resilience inspire me daily.
I have informed members of the Worcester School Committee, including Mayor Joseph M. Petty, along with my WPS Cabinet team and key stakeholders of my decision. I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition. I have made myself available to discuss the transition plan and offer my support to the School Committee in any way necessary.
I extend my deepest gratitude to the Worcester School Committee members along with many local and state elected officials, our city and state leaders, our dedicated educators and staff, our families, and our many community partners for your support and commitment to our scholars. I am confident that the momentum we have built together will carry Worcester Public Schools forward to even greater success.
As we look to the future, I encourage everyone to remain on a journey of excellence embracing this quote. “Excellence can be obtained if you ... care more than others think is wise; ... risk more than others think is safe; . . . dream more than others think is practical; ... expect more than others think is possible.” I want to share my deep appreciation and love for the families, staff and community members of WPS who practice this mindset each and every day.
With appreciation,
Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Worcester Public Schools
So much to post, so little time. Some WPS notes in the meantime:
To the extent that we have a superintendent evaluation season in Massachusetts, it is superintendent evaluation season in Massachusetts1, and so a few words on it, with a note or two for my fellow Worcester residents, as our school committee has to turn in their individual evaluations to Mayor Petty by the end of this week; those then are put together into a single composite evaluation.
As we've been saying around these parts since last fall, the major issue with this year's state budget on school funding is the inflation factor in the foundation budget, and Tuesday, MassBudget released their crunching of the numbers alongside some analysis of what the Governor and Legislature's failure to correct means for all of us.
The two most recent fiscal years, FY 2023 and FY 2024, had levels of inflation that exceeded the cap, reaching roughly 7 percent and 8 percent. In each of these years, the Commonwealth operated with the capped maximum of 4.5 percent, leading to a gap of roughly 6 percentage points collectively over two years.8 As it stands, the current formula is shortchanging the value of the SOA reforms relative to the cost growth now being incurred by Massachusetts schools, contributing to budgetary challenges and shortfalls. Two hundred and nineteen school districts are slated to receive less funding for the coming year than they would with a complete inflation adjustment, an issue that will carry into future allocations and imperil services for students until it is addressed. The average funding gap from unaddressed inflation for these districts is $2.1 million, but the amounts vary greatly across districts – with a maximum of over $28 million in Springfield to just $19,000 in Eastham and Rochester.
They've published a spreadsheet which runs three things:
The first scenario tracks the state aid that would have occurred without passage of the SOA; the second looks at the SOA if it continues to be implemented as it has been so far; and the third demonstrates what funding levels would be if the past two years of missed inflation was fully incorporated into the formula.
Not surprisingly, Worcester, at over $25 million, has the second largest gap in the state. That amount, of course, would have more than eliminated Worcester's budget gap for FY25.
As part of the release, there was a press conference at which Worcester figured prominently: you can read the T&G here, MassLive here, and let me know if you want to read State House News. Via MassLive:
For Melissa Verdier, president of the Educational Association of Worcester, this year’s budget deficit is the worst she has seen in her over 20 years in the Worcester public schools.
“I’ve never seen this kind of crisis in our budget, or not one that affected so many,” Verdier said at press conference on Tuesday.
In Worcester, around 300 people are being laid off out of a workforce of 5,000 people, including classroom teachers, administrators and non-instructional staff, according to Worcester superintendent Rachel Monárrez.
Unless there is an 11th hour action in conference committee--which seems highly unlikely, as neither chamber took action on inflation in their own budget passage--it seems we've lost this year.
And those staff. And what that represents to our kids.
Every city and town shall annually provide an amount of money sufficient for the support of the public schools as required by this chapter, provided however, that no city or town shall be required to provide more money for the support of the public schools than is appropriated by vote of the legislative body of the city or town. In acting on appropriations for educational costs, the city or town appropriating body shall vote on the total amount of the appropriations requested and shall not allocate appropriations among accounts or place any restriction on such appropriations. The superintendent of schools in any city or town may address the local appropriating authority prior to any action on the school budget as recommended by the school committee notwithstanding his place of residence. The city or town appropriating body may make nonbinding monetary recommendations to increase or decrease certain items allocating such appropriations.The vote of the legislative body of a city or town shall establish the total appropriation for the support of the public schools, but may not limit the authority of the school committee to determine expenditures within the total appropriation.
And also, of course, the city charter in section 5-2 says:
The city council may, by majority vote, make appropriations for the purposes recommended and may reduce or reject any amount recommended in the annual budget, but except on recommendation of the city manager, shall not increase any amount in or the total of the annual budget, nor add thereto any amount for a purpose not included therein, except as provided in section thirty-three of chapter forty-four of the General Laws.
There are very few questions the Council has purview to ask, and very little they can do, and that's even if they funded schools appropriately!
So when I say I don't know why we do this: I really don't know why this is what is done!
And this is not the first time I have said this.
The report of the superintendent starts on page 6 of the tonight's agenda (different than how they've been doing it). This is tonight's report; the meeting, public side, starts at 5:30 (ish).
The district shared a video of Dr. Monárrez speaking about the budget yesterday.
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| Please enjoy these daffodils from my walk from work in Boston. |
While school in Worcester was cancelled, the meeting was not; my meeting was, so I got to this one in person to find that the balcony now has some who are interested in good governance of the district attending in person to keep an eye on things. Excellent. Let me know if you're coming; I'm bringing snacks.
The agenda is here. The video of the meeting is here.
It's budget season, which means I am all over the state, so I'll do catch up on these as I can; I wasn't at this one and I can't make the next two, either, so they'll be coming later. Do note that the Committee meets this Thursday; the report of the Superintendent is on special education.
The March 21 agenda is here; the video of the meeting is here. The report of the superintendent on future ready pathways is here.
Note that prior to the public session, there was an executive session on two worker compensation issues and negotiations with the Mass Nurses Association.
The consent agenda was passed.
The Burncoat High School spirit team was recognized.
By now, if you are the family of a Worcester Public Schools student or a staff member, you will have read the letter sent from Dr. Monárrez earlier this week regarding the FY25 budget and had a bit of a chance for it to sink in. If you haven't read it, I include the letter in full below at the end.
You may also well have seen headlines from all over the state about school budgets facing real hardships this year.
Let's first note that it is not new information that the Worcester Public Schools are facing a budget gap. As noted in the links in the superintendent's letter (blogged about here), the district has noted the $22M budget gap since the release of the Governor's budget. We knew of the issue with the inflation budget as far back as the fall.
There is a danger we run into this time of year, of the relative scope of the budget and budget issues being difficult to grasp. This isn't true exclusively of Worcester, but it is as true of Worcester as elsewhere. While, as noted, the gap is 4.4% of the WPS operating budget, that is a significant amount of money.
This raises two related issues:
The agenda is here. The report of the superintendent is here. The video of the meeting is here.
The National Anthem was sung by City View Elementary School's chorus.
The consent agenda passed as proposed.
Yes, it's taking me about a week to get to these. It's budget season...
Hey, do note that due to this being a Leap Year and February having five Thursdays, there is NOT a Worcester School Committee meeting Thursday; you can have this week off. There is, however, a Teaching, Learning, and Student Success meeting on Monday at 5 pm.
The February 15th agenda can be found here; the video is here.
...and if I let these get too far away from me, we'll never catch up!
The agenda is here; the video is here.
Please note the important takeaways from the FY25 budget presentation here. I managed to catch just the second half of WEC's FY25 forum this past week, in which Mr. Allen replicated his presentation, and I was concerned that the questions didn't seem to be those stemming from a $22M budget gap. Let's start to get ourselves into that mode, folks.
And as a reminder, here's the advocacy at the state level:
The Worcester School Committee had their first business meeting of the new term (and new makeup) on January 18.
While I noted the change in the budget bottom line settled at the meeting (also noted by the T&G), it seems clear that this Committee where keeping the record straight is going to be necessary, and, while I do want to recommend you take a look at Bill Shaner's piece on last week, I think keeping track of what's going on will be helpful (and the tracking was kinda shaky in this meeting, to be honest, with roll calls consistently out of order and reported incorrectly more than once).
As always, I'm not going to pretend here to be anything other than what and who I am, writing as a citizen of the city, so you can read with that in mind. The commentary is largely in italics.
Last night was a LOT, and with two members having commitments as parents and it being the mayoral holiday rounds, we ran part of the Committee with just a quorum, which is unusual!
That's why, oh committee watchers, I was chairing; in the absence of both the chair and the vice-chair, the senior member chairs (and then hands off sequentially, which is why Molly McCullough chaired when I was speaking).
Also, it appears the T&G is going to do a terrible job covering this meeting, so I guess it's up to us again.
You may have seen that WPS has updated their school safety protocols.
(This actually happened, as families and staff may remember, back in the spring, but it didn't get the same public side launch.)
It delineates what we expect staff and students to do in various situations that happen in schools:
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