WORCESTER—The Worcester Public Schools’ superintendent is “one to watch,” officially.
Rachel H. Monárrez, Ph.D., has been named one of 25 “Superintendents to Watch” by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) for her “ongoing commitment to communications and community engagement,” according to an announcement.
This honor is awarded to superintendents who have fewer than five years in the role, who are implementing technology to enhance family communication, who integrate communication goals and strategies as part of the district’s strategic plan, and who have an active, visible involvement in the district’s communications efforts.
“Congratulations to Dr. Monárrez for this well-deserved recognition,” said Mayor Joseph Petty, who is also the chair of the Worcester School Committee, in a statement. “Since Dr. Monárrez placed a greater emphasis on communications, more people are seeing the great things happening in our schools every single day and they are receiving important information.”
During her first year as superintendent in the 2022-23 year, Monárrez identified “communications and ongoing engagement” as a key theme during her listening and learning tour. Additionally, “family and community engagement,” which includes communications, was listed as one of the six key priorities for WPS in the draft five-year WPS Strategic Plan that was presented to the School Committee this month.
The process of drafting the strategic plan included several workshops with input from community members. Dr. Monárrez regularly engages with the community on X (formerly known as Twitter), and regularly holds public listening sessions, said the announcement. She will soon announce details about her first annual “State of WPS” event that is being planned for late January.
“I’m humbled and honored to receive this recognition alongside these distinguished leaders from around the nation,” Monárrez said in a statement. “When we put two-way communications and engagement at the forefront of our work, it shows that we are committed to meeting families where they are. Greater communication leads to increased family engagement, and ultimately better outcomes for scholars.”
Over the past year, WPS said that it has increased its use of social media with a focus on student and staff accomplishments, launched weekly messages to families about upcoming events, created a system to support principals with crisis communications, established a dedicated person to respond to requests from the news media, better utilized Worcester Educational Access Television to showcase news from schools, begun a project to launch a new district website in 2024, and has begun a phased implementation of ParentSquare, a two-way parent-school communications platform that supports caregivers in more than 100 languages.
WPS has also launched a Family and Community Engagement Round Table of parents and caregivers, and the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council of high school students, who give direct feedback to the superintendent. The district also expanded the hiring of wraparound coordinators for every school to help connect families to community resources. Additionally, last summer WPS held a multilingual “back to school” event specifically for non-English speaking families – many of whom were recent refugees – to help familiarize them with our schools.
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