At-Large School Committee member LaTonia Monroe Naylor was named vice chair of the School Committee during its Jan. 2 organizational meeting.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield School Committee elected LaTonia Monroe Naylor as the new vice chair of the School Committee during it’s organizational meeting on Jan. 2.
Monroe Naylor, a Springfield native who has been on the committee since 2018, replaces Wards 1 and 3 School Committee member Joesiah Gonzalez, who served as the vice chair in 2024.
Gonzalez did not seek reelection to this position and was the one who nominated Monroe Naylor during the organizational meeting.
Later in this meeting, the School Committee began having preliminary discussions about reinstating the assistant superintendent position to the school district.
According to state law, it is up to Superintendent Sonia Dinnall to make a recommendation for an assistant superintendent because she runs the day-to-day operations and organization of the district.
Because the position is currently not a budgeted item, the School Committee would then have to vote whether to approve Dinnall’s recommendation.
If the committee were to disapprove of a candidate for assistant superintendent, Dinnall would have the option to ask for a written reason from the School Committee as to why they made that decision.
During the organizational meeting, Gonzalez stated that he would support any organizational changes Dinnall makes and noted that the assistant superintendent and chief schools officer positions are currently not staffed within the district.
“I just want to make sure that we’re being both fair and equitable to our current sitting superintendent by allowing her the space, knowing that we’re going to support her, depending on what she decides to bring forward, in terms of any organizational changes, seeing as that both of those positions currently are not staffed,” Gonzalez said.
Lydia Martinez-Alvarez was the last person to serve in the role as assistant superintendent of the district until she retired in 2022.
With regard to the process of finding a new assistant superintendent, At-Large School Committee member Denise Hurst said that she is hoping the committee and the district can have “aboveboard” and “transparent” conversations across the next couple of meetings.
“We should begin to talk about these things sooner rather than later,” Hurst said.
School Committee member Peter Murphy agreed with Gonzalez’s perspective that the committee needs to support Dinnall through this process of selecting an assistant superintendent, and he also believes that the budgetary issues surrounding the position can be worked out “fairly easily.”
He added that he is interested in discussing what tools Dinnall needs in this process.
“I certainly would be open to discussing that, whether that’s next week or the week after,” Murphy said. “If that’s something that the superintendent needs, I think we should give her the tools, you know, to succeed, if that’s going to help the district.”
Although School Committee member Barbara Gresham suggested putting the discussion around the assistant superintendent on the agenda for committee’s Jan. 9 working session, School Committee member Chris Collins felt that the Jan. 9 meeting was too soon to ask Dinnall to decide on her organizational structure.
“I think that’s really a rushed timetable, and I wouldn’t want to be put in that position, and I don’t want to put her in that position,” Collins said. “I’d like to see the superintendent bring it forward when she thinks it’s appropriate.”
As of press time, there was no agenda item regarding the assistant superintendent on the School Committee’s Jan. 9 agenda.
The next regular School Committee meeting is Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
