Overseeing one of the biggest school districts in New England, the Springfield School Committee held its first, organizational meeting of the new year Thursday – tackling some lingering issues from 2024 and picking a new vice chair.
The committee’s 2025 kickoff featured former Vice Chair Joesiah Gonzalez passing on seeking another term as second-in-command.
The committee unanimously approved his nomination of LaTonia Monroe Naylor, returning her to the role she held through 2023.
In a statement to WAMC, Naylor said she’s pleased to get the unanimous support, and hopes the committee will remain focused on the education of the city’s some 24,000 students. She added “there is a plethora of things to do, and we get more accomplished together.”
It was a smooth vote and largely smooth meeting for the committee, after an at-times rocky 2024.
Early last year, then-Superintendent Daniel Warwick announced his plans to retire, setting off a search process that raised concerns among members like Gonzalez and Naylor.
The search ultimately yielded now-Superintendent Dr. Sonia Dinnall.
Following the vote, the meeting continued, with Naylor switching to the vice chair’s seat, eventually speaking to the meeting’s next major item – Springfield police accessing public school cameras.
“The reason why we wanted to put this extension is that we were finally able to get everything in process with our new attorneys, and they have started to review what we have and are starting to consider the different comments that we received as well,” she said.
The school committee spent part of last year going over a memorandum of understanding reached between Springfield Public Schools and the police department.
Allowing access to exterior cameras at the district’s over 60 schools, the MoU also stipulates how the department can access indoor cameras under various conditions.
There are limitations, but as students at community hearings described, the extent of the access is a point of concern, as is transparency over the previous MoU and the apparent difficulty that came with accessing it.
It’s feedback Naylor and others hope to incorporate in the next interdepartmental agreement. Before that can happen, a 45-day extension of the previous one was needed as the old MoU was set to expire in about a week.
The extension passed, with Mayor and Committee Chair Domenic Sarno describing how the MoU has impacted student safety.
“If something catastrophic, God forbid, would happen - eight times it’s been in use. [There] must be in agreement with the school department allowing the police department to go in there and they can respond instantaneously to an incident,” Sarno said. “Seven were false incidents, but again, [the]police department [can go] in there immediately and then, not blindly - and one was an incident that they were able to quell quickly.”
Naylor says there’s a hope to put the matter before the full committee again before the end of January.
The committee was also slated to tackle strategizing and discussing future graduation requirements for SPS, after voters statewide opted to shed passing the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement.
The agenda also included discussion about the need for an assistant superintendent.
SPS has been without an assistant superintendent since the retirement of Lydia Martinez-Alvarez in 2022.
Ultimately, after a request by Naylor, the committee agreed to table the items, with the Vice Chair-elect noting she did not expect conversations on the topics to begin at the organizational meeting, instead, hoping the committee would circle back later and review the matters further – potentially with legal counsel, as well.
One other agenda item – discussing a possible dedication at Central High School. Sarno said he’s heard from community members and favors of naming the basketball court after NBA player and Central alumnus Travis Best.
The matter was recommended to the Building and Maintenance subcommittee.
