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Date: 8/1/2023
NORTHAMPTON — From playing school as a child, to running multiple school districts throughout her career, Dr. Portia Bonner has dedicated her life to education.
With the school year about a month away, the longtime educator of 30 years is embracing her new role as the permanent superintendent of Northampton Public Schools with open arms. In an interview with Reminder Publishing at her office on 212 Main St., Bonner said she visited the district a couple of days before she started to meet some people before summer vacation.
“I’ve had an opportunity to actually see the children in the classroom, meet some of the teachers and paraeducators as well as some of the staff,” Bonner said. “It’s important to make those connections, to get a sense of what’s going on in the district where we should focus for the year, learning about the needs of the district.”
The first few weeks in Northampton have been an exciting whirlwind for Bonner, who officially began her tenure as the new superintendent of NPS on July 1, after Janelle Pearson-Campbell served in the interim role this past school year. It might be the dead of summer, but there is a lot to do.
Aside from learning the intricacies of the district, the new superintendent is also preparing for what she believes is a consequential year for students, teachers and staff around the country.
“We’re still feeling the impact of COVID-19 and meeting the needs of our students who are coming back into district,” Bonner said. “There’s a lot of stuff that I am coming into the midst of…it’s a really exciting time.”
This is not Bonner’s first rodeo as a leader of an entire school district. In fact, her interest in education started long before she even entered the field as her career choice. She comes from a long line of educators, including aunts and uncles who served as teachers, principles professors and preachers.
The exposure inspired her to pursue this path.
“I used to love to set up my dolls in a classroom and pretend I was a teacher,” Bonner said, of her childhood. “And there was always that form of teaching in my family.”
Her interest in the education field sprouted from there. Bonner earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Connecticut, a Master of Science in Biology from Purdue University, and her undergraduate degree in biology and sociology from Skidmore College.
She officially knew education would be her career choice while she was working on her master’s degree, and wanted to fill the field with a voice that was absent during her time going through the system.
“Through my education, I found that there really were not teachers of color,” Bonner said. “So, for me it was like, this is one way that I can make an impact. This is one way I can give back. This is one way that I can ensure that children have opportunities similar to what I had so that they can excel and be successful.”
A New Englander at heart, Bonner has seen all sides of the field. She has been a high school biology teacher, a director of science and technology, head of curriculum, a school principal, assistant superintendent and a superintendent in multiple districts, including New Bedford, East Haven, Conn., and most recently, an interim superintendent role in the Bozrah, Connecticut school district.
With her new role in Northampton, Bonner is entering a district that will see quite a few changes in the coming year, including a new reading program, new assessments, full implementation of a new math program and the introduction of a new communication tool called “Parent Square.”
Beyond that, she is also looking to add cohesiveness to the district so everyone understands how their work connects to the broader goals of NPS around diversity and equity.
“We’re still having those conversations of what equity is and what we see it as,” Bonner said of the NPS district. “Now it is time to see how that is going to look like in our district. How is it going to unfold? And so that comes with putting all those components that we’ve been talking about, all these new initiatives, putting it together, but making sure that when we put it together, that’s reflective of that responsiveness in the instruction.”
Bonner has plenty of experience as an advocate of public education and ensuring that the district has what it desires so it can meet the needs of the students. She told a story of a time during her tenure in East Haven when she and other superintendents pushed Connecticut to continue funding the necessary amount to keep her district running. That type of fight bodes well in a district like Northampton, where state funding has been underwhelming in past years.
In the realm of equity, Bonner also mentioned how she was part of a major initiative during her time as assistant superintendent in Hamden, Connecticut, in the early-2000s that centered around courageous conversations about race.
During that time, the district worked with an organization that facilitated training with teachers about how to be culturally responsive in their instruction.
“It began to really help teachers to include resources in their teaching materials that students could see themselves in,” Bonner said of that initiative. “It also opened up a more student-centered approach to instruction, where students were having more of a choice in their assessment.”
Bonner hopes to bring that valuable experience to Northampton, but in order for change to sustain itself, things will take time. She told Reminder Publishing that she agrees with the School Committee in that the district needs a strategic plan, and when that is implemented, Bonner said she will support those goals.
“I’m finding that people say, ‘oh, we’re not doing anything when it comes to diversity and equity,’ but there are things that are happening, but it’s happening at such a slow pace that people feel like there’s nothing happening,” Bonner said. “Things that are slow-changing, those are the things that are sustainable and last.”
There are also many things Bonner must face pertaining not only to Northampton but school districts across the country. There are the long-term mental health effects exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and a warring world, along with the looming complications around teacher retention and meeting student needs.
“We have students at different levels, at different points and we no longer can just teach to the mass, but we have to be very one-on-one with our students so that they can progress,” Bonner said, referring to the result of the coronavirus pandemic. “If there are children with high needs, we have to make sure that there are supports in that classroom to be able to manage those children and to also make sure that they’re included in the learning and to have the strategies and the time to plan with those different support staff so that it’s an engaging atmosphere.”
Not all of these issues will be solved right away, but Bonner plans on handling them with the tact they deserve.
In the meantime, Bonner said she is continuing to meet people one-on-one and learn more about the district she is just starting to helm, while also preparing for professional development and opening convocation. There is a lot that needs to be done but Bonner said she is excited to pursue this next journey in her career.
“In order for change to actually happen, we all have to work together,” she said. “There may be disagreements in that, but we have to come to a consensus of what’s best for all of our children to move forward.”