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Date: 12/12/2023
SPRINGFIELD — School Superintendent Daniel Warwick’s performance was judged as “exemplary,” although for a second year there were members of the School Committee didn’t agree with the description.
The committee met on Dec. 5 in a working session for the annual discussion.
The committee’s chief legal counsel, Melinda Phelps, explained that each member of the committee evaluated Warwick according to criteria set by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She then aggregated the individual ratings into one document which she gave the committee members to review.
She continued to explain Mayor Domenic Sarno, as the chair of the committee, then writes a proposed recommendation. Sarno wrote in his evaluation, “Based on DESE Performance Standard Superintendent Warwick has been ranked by the majority of School Committee members in the highest in two categories. Also, on page 4 [of the evaluation] on Overall Impact on Student Learning, which is extremely important, Superintendent Warwick is ranked by the majority of the School Committee members in the highest two categories. Even though evenly split, my determination is to once again rank Supt. Warwick as ‘high.’”
Sarno gave Warwick the highest ranking of “exemplary” for Warwick’s Professional Practice Goals, Student Learning Goals and District Improvement.
Looking at the aggregated report, when it comes to the overall assessment Progress towards Goal, for Professional Goal, two out of the seven members saw “some progress,” one in seven saw “significant progress,” one in seven voted for “met” the goals and three out of the seven voted for “exceeded.
For Meeting Student learning Goals, two out of the seven judged “did not meet,” two out of seven noted “significant progress,” two out of t the seven voted for “met” and one out of the seven chose “exceeded.”
For achieving District Goal, two out of the seven voted for “some progress,” while one in the seven voted for “significant progress,” one on the seven voted for “met,” and three out of the seven voted for “exceeded.”
In the comments section, which were not attributed to any committee member were the following:
Committee member Denise Hurst said the committee’s report could not acknowledge progress without noting challenges. She called attention to the ranking and asserted the highest ranking in the mayor’s recommendation is “not an accurate reflection” of the committee members.
She said that it’s not an indictment of the superintendent to give him a rating of “proficient” instead of “exemplary.” She explained, “It just means we have work to do.”
Hurst asked, “How can we meet in the middle?”
Sarno said that Warwick has done a “tremendous job,” and ticked off a number of accomplishments. Picking up a large ring binder, he added his recommendation was based on the DESE performance standards.
Committee member Joesiah Gonzalez said he was “wrestling” with the final evaluation. Noting the rankings by the committee members he believed the next highest ranking of “proficient” was more accurate.
He added, “He [Warwick] is doing a great job.”
Committee member Christopher Collins defended the mayor’s recommendation said the data showed that city has narrowed the gap between its learning statistics and the state’s.
Committee Vice Chair Latonia Monroe Naylor voiced concerns about “disappointing departures” of personnel that she thought could have been avoided. She added she wants to see greater equity in the district’s departments and Springfield needs a “pipeline” to develop potential staff.
“We do not have enough diversity,” she added.
When voting on adopting the mayor’s recommendation, Hurst, Committee member Barbara Gresham voted “no.” Voting “yes” were Committee member Peter Murphy, Gonzalez, Collins and Sarno.
Sarno recommended a 2% raise with Warwick, who has received a 2% cost of living increase. Hurst and Gresham voted against the raise. With the raise, Warwick’s salary increased to $319,089.