By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Superintendent Tom Geary unveiled four goals for the 2024-2025 academic year during a recent School Committee meeting.
The four goals Geary established as part of the state-mandated superintendent evaluation system pertain to teaching and learning, technology, citizenship and the fiscal year 2026 operating budget. He established the goals while he was still interim superintendent.
“I want to make sure there is a cross section of many areas where I see room for growth, clarity and improvement,” said Geary.
Teaching and learning
Geary said the first goal he established involves reviewing and assessing “practices designed to improve teaching and learning in the mathematics, English language arts and performing arts programs.”
“During the budget process this past spring, the School Committee and I followed the mantra of putting the focus back on the classroom as well as emphasizing the importance of teaching and learning,” said Geary. “Math and English are the two biggest curriculum areas in our district, so they will receive the primary focus in this first year.”
Geary said both elementary schools will begin the process of selecting a new math curriculum next year. He said Elementary Math/Science Curriculum Director Christina Perry will be giving a presentation to the School Committee this fall about the “planning process” for selecting the new math curriculum.
“The steps will be clear,” said Geary. “Teachers and families will understand the process.”
After a new math curriculum is selected, Geary said Perry will be giving a follow-up presentation about it to the School Committee next spring. He said the new curriculum will be introduced during the 2025-2026 academic year.
Geary said math and English curriculum directors/department heads will be giving presentations about both K-12 programs to the School Committee this winter. He also said the School Committee will be given a presentation about the district’s MCAS results as well as Lynnfield High School’s SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) results in November.
“There will be recommended targeted areas for improvement based on our findings,” said Geary.
Geary also said the School Committee will be given a presentation about the district’s fine and performing arts programs this winter.
“This will highlight the great things we are doing in our schools as well as identifying potential resources we may be lacking,” said Geary.
School Committee Vice Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy thanked Geary for developing a goal that focuses on the district’s curriculum. She also appreciated that Geary wants to focus on the fine and performing arts next year.
“We have very strong programs in the district and we have professionals who work very hard,” said Elworthy about the fine and performing arts programs.
School Committee member Jim Dillon expressed his support for the teaching and learning goal.
“I appreciate how you are going to work through choosing the math curriculum for the elementary level,” said Dillon. “Playing that out in front of the community and having involvement from teachers is very professional. I think it will take us in a good direction.”
Geary said the new math curriculum “will be clearly vetted.”
“There will be plenty of time for teachers and other stakeholders to give input,” said Geary. “There will be no mystery to what we are doing in a year from September.”
School Committee member Jenny Sheehan said she appreciated that Geary wants to use a “step-by-step process” that incorporates feedback from administrators, educators and families when selecting the new math curriculum.
“I think that is really important given what happened previously,” said Sheehan. “I know there have been a lot of questions from elementary school parents around the math curriculum, what it is going to look like and what is the timeline. In talking with Christina Perry, I know she has a great plan, but it will be nice to make it public and share it. I think people will be very receptive to that.”
School Committee Chair Kate DePrizio said the teaching and learning goal will help families better understand the district’s curriculum.
“Everyone will understand what we are doing,” said DePrizio.
Technology
Geary said the second goal he established involves “implementing the recommendations of the technology audit.”
The School Committee voted earlier this year to hire Focus Technology to conduct an audit of the Technology Department. Geary said he will be reviewing “the structure” of the Technology Department that will focus on the networking infrastructure and the educational technology components.
“The audit mainly focused on networking infrastructure, but if we are looking at that piece, we should be looking at the sum of the parts and how they fit together,” said Geary.
Geary said the results of the technology audit and the recommended next steps will be presented to the School Committee in the fall.
“For the rest of the calendar year, I will be holding regular meetings with the Technology Department’s leadership to prioritize the implementation of the recommended changes,” said Geary. “Some will be able to be done immediately, and others will have to be more planned out and phased in. Prioritizing our networking and infrastructure environment has to be a point of emphasis for us going forward.”
Geary said the School Department’s fiscal year 2026 budget will seek to address needs identified in the technology audit.
Additionally, Geary recently hired former digital learning coach Rochelle Cooper to serve as the district’s next educational technology director.
Citizenship
Geary said his third goal involves identifying and developing “practices that make citizenship central to school ethos.”
“This goal is tied directly to student actions,” said Geary. “In the past six months and well before that, I have asked myself, what do we expect of our students on a daily basis? After a lot of thought, the guiding question I keep coming back to that I want to be at the forefront of this goal and the district is what does it mean to be a Lynnfield Pioneer in terms of responsibilities to one’s self, to classmates and to the community.”
In addition to having administrators give a presentation about “how citizenship is taught in the curriculum” to the School Committee, Geary said social-emotional learning will continue being taught in all four schools. He said Lynnfield Middle School will continue using the Advisory program and LHS will continue working on implementing the Vision of the Graduate initiative. He also said school officials will be identifying “changes and improvements” that can be implemented.
“We will have several building-level committees working on this,” said Geary. “If we have better clarity in a lot of these areas, I think we can better delineate what it means to be a Lynnfield Pioneer.”
Elworthy said she supported the citizenship goal Geary established.
“I love this because it speaks to the kind of kids we raise,” said Elworthy. “While academics are our main job, we want to turn out kids who can contribute something to the world.”
Dillon agreed.
“Helping students become good citizens is fundamental and is critical to developing the whole child,” said Dillon.
DePrizio said the citizenship goal was her “favorite” of the four goals Geary established.
“I appreciate that you are looking at it in an age-appropriate way at every school, and are tying it to one theme of who we want our students to be,” said DePrizio. “I think it is truly going to help everyone.”
FY26 budget
Geary said the fourth goal he established involves planning an “effective fiscal year 2026 budget development process.”
“Given the financial constraints of the town and the fact we will be negotiating union contracts, a well-planned out and cooperative budget process is vital,” said Geary. “It has to start early, and it has to involve collaboration between the School Committee, Administrative Leadership Team, town administrator, Select Board and the Finance Committee. Everyone is going to have to know exactly where we are at because there are going to be a lot of moving targets this year.”
Similar to the previous six contract negotiations Geary has participated in, he said he is going to “take an active and leading role in these contract negotiations.”
“I think I am uniquely qualified to see the district from close up angles given my past experience as well as the various hats I have worn this year,” said Geary. “This will tie into my ability to make effective financial projections throughout the process.”
Geary said school officials will once again have a transparent budget process that will “address students’ needs first.”
“Budget decisions will also be made by soliciting input from the community through various means,” said Geary. “We want to know what is important to the community because this year will be a fast and moving target, and we need to stay on top of it.”
Elworthy concurred with Geary’s viewpoint.
“I think having continuous conversations with us, the Finance Committee and the Select Board so they know where we are at is really important,” said Elworthy.
