WORCESTER—Asserting that the work of her administration’s first two years was “developing a strong structural framework,” Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez shared with the Worcester School Committee on Thursday her “goal-setting” objectives for 2024-25.
Slowly but surely, she said, the district is moving in “a direction of possibilities.” Initially, this consisted of a concentration on such components as guidebooks, road maps and monitoring.
She compared the effort that has been expended so far to that of “an architect.”
Monárrez outlined for the committee three main goals: equitable resources and educational programs; acquiring and retaining talent (with an emphasis on diversity of staff); and modernized and safe facilities.
These were further broken down into district, student and professional goals.
“We have not achieved this yet,” she said of her staffing objectives. “We need a more comprehensive goal of onboarding new staff” through such mechanisms as affinity groups and a formalized pipeline.
“This continues to be a heavy lift,” she said.
Her professional goal focuses on establishing links of continuous learning with The Vision of a Learner being “our North Star.”
She wants the Worcester Public Schools to be “a future-ready learning organization,” she said. Not with a “top-down” approach, but with learning at all levels as the cornerstone of the system’s approach.
Pointing to one of the final slides in her presentation, she said realizing “glimmers of possibilities and acceleration” will not be a straight line “but a lot of squiggles” before success is fully obtained.
What percentages of improvement could be viewed as constituting “growth” came up for discussion in response to a question posed by Molly McCullough, who subsequently made a motion for these to be shared with the committee.
A query from Susan Mailman about state “smart goals” prompted Monárrez to say that these have to some degree “held us back.” Mailman agreed, saying that the superintendent’s own goals “felt real” to her.
Member Dianna Biancheria said that “safety is not just facilities, but programs, like the bully program and the Alice program.”
“These are not easy goals,” Mayor Joseph M. Petty, who chairs the committee, said, in commending Monárrez on her report. “It’s hard to acquire talent.”
In terms of facilities, “we are behind but making progress,” Petty said.
Rod Lee is a career journalist, a veteran of the media scene in Central Massachusetts and the author of seven books including the recently published “Gil Cristopher,” a novel about the difficulties associated with aging. He can be contacted at rodlee1963@gmail.com
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