The new superintendent of Springfield Public Schools is halfway through her first, full school year leading the district. During a recent special address, Dr. Sonia Dinnall described work done during her first few months, as well as priorities going forward.
At a gathering of teachers, principals and city leaders, Dinnall gave her first “State of the Schools Address” as superintendent — months after officially becoming the head of New England’s third-largest school district.
At the St. Anthony’s Cedar’s Banquet Hall on Jan. 17, the address ranged from praising past accomplishments of the district to what became clear during the superintendent’s first 100 days – a time she says featured a great deal of listening and stops at some 50 community events.
“I listened with ears that were full of hope and expectation, that our students will become top achievers in the state of Massachusetts,” Dinnall recalled. “… many, many months ago, before I started on July 15, I started with an entry plan, and that entry plan had three phases, and it had four essential priorities.”
For a district of just under 24,000 students, Dinnall says those priorities included addressing SPS relationships and leadership, learning and achievement, family and community engagement, and operations and finance.
Early accomplishments, she says, include restructuring and revisiting how the district's Central Office operates, from adjusting meeting frequencies to developing an "Academic and Student Support Services for Equity" or ASSET team to "conduct root cause analysis on underperforming schools and respond quickly to maximize impact on improvement."
“We meet every Monday - we gather together, several of us, in that conference room downtown, at 1550 [Main Street] and we pour over the data,” Dinnall said. “We discuss what's going on with our children and how we can better support - and be in service to - the work that happens every single day in every single school in every single classroom.”
Other early actions include reestablishing the Westfield State University Early College program for Spring 2025 and launching a “Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow,” attendance campaign. According to Dinnall’s presentation, the district recently saw its chronic absenteeism rate drop by 1.6 percent.
The address featured its fair share of fall 2024 data, as well. That included a glance at kindergarten through 3rd grade performances when it came to early literacy universal screening.
The numbers aren't great. For third grade, based on 1,693 students, only 37 percent are either at or above the literacy benchmarks, while 44 percent are "well below."
It's a similar trend for grades 1 and 2, as well as kindergarten. Bucking that trend is one of the "four areas of focus" the superintendent laid out for improving student outcomes through strategic planning.
“For our students who are with us - three-years-old, four-years-old, five-years-old, kindergarten, first grade, second - if they have an attendance rate of 95 percent and they've been with us all those years, it is not an unrealistic expectation for them to be reading on grade level by the end of the 2nd grade,” the superintendent said to applause.
Other areas of focus include transforming the student experience in middle school – grade levels Dinnall says were once rich with offerings such as choir, home economics, and wood shop classes.
There were also the matters of focusing on college and career readiness and laying groundwork for post-secondary student success.
By the end of the address, the superintendent had emphasized there are a number of positive developments in motion in the district – a revamped Central Office that will likely lend itself to further district improvements, families and community members who have signaled a willingness to collaborate further with SPS and restructured mentorship programs being put in place for principals.
She says changing perceptions of the district can start with something as simple as engaging in conversations.
“The next time you're in the bank and you tell somebody that you're an educator, and they’re like ‘Oh, you work in Springfield, oh my gosh,’ - the next time they carry on like that, correct them!” Dinnall said. “Say, ‘No, I work in Springfield.’ The next time you’re at the hairdresser or the barbershop, and they start talking about how bad Springfield Public Schools is, speak up! Speak up and stop the negative narrative, because we have so much more good going on in this district than bad!”
