The city of Springfield, Massachusetts officially has a new superintendent in place.
Standing ovations at city hall Thursday night came as the Springfield School Committee approved a contract for Dr. Sonia Dinall, the candidate committee members picked in May to oversee the school district.
A lifelong resident of Springfield, Dinnall started working in education as a science teacher at Forest Park Middle School, eventually building a resume that included a decade at Hartford Public Schools as the Executive Director of College and Career Readiness, and three years as a principal at the city’s High School of Commerce.
Chosen by the school committee after a monthslong search, Dinnall was called up by Mayor Domenic Sarno to both formally sign her contract and join the committee.
Before Dinnall signed the four-year contract, members of the committee shared their sentiments ahead of the vote, including committee member Barbara Gresham.
“I'm just so happy and delighted that we have you as our superintendent,” she said. “We look forward to working with you and moving forward in a positive way.”
Doing the same was committee member and attorney Peter Murphy, who also acknowledged the process of ultimately picking Dinnall was contentious at times, particularly before finalists had emerged.
Heated debates over how to conduct the search process to replace then-Superintendent Daniel Warwick often broke out on the committee and during public listening sessions.
At one point, school committee members, including Gresham, took part in a boycott over how committee leadership was allegedly handling the agenda.
But as Murphy and others emphasized Thursday, the new superintendent has the full support of the committee.
“Obviously, there was some controversy or some difficulty during the meetings for your appointment, but I think we should just put that all behind us,” Murphy said. “… we're a team, and I think we all have a healthy amount of respect for one another and I really look forward to working with you, and in the best interests for the children of Springfield.”
With her contract in place, Dr. Dinnall becomes both the first woman and Black woman to helm Springfield Public Schools.
Taking her seat, she thanked the committee while pledging to ensure the district offers the same caliber of education she had received growing up in the city.
“The education that I received from Springfield Public Schools was second-to-none and that is the education that we will continue to provide for each and every one of our students, regardless of creed, zip code, color, culture - every one of our students will receive the type of education that I received, that would allow me to sit here as a superintendent of Springfield Public Schools,” she said.
Prior to her selection, Dinnall had been serving as the Chief of Family and Community Engagement for the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership.
The partnership is a non-profit that partners with the district and state to help support more than 5,000 students across 16 middle and high schools in the city since emerging in 2015.
The committee tapped Dinnall months after Warwick announced in January that he planned to retire at the end of the school year.
He ended up departing earlier than expected, leaving in early June amid fallout over a voicemail that featured him disparaging school committee member LaTonia Naylor-Monroe.
Acting as superintendent in the interim was Dr. Michelle Balch, the school district's Chief Instructional Officer.
