The Worcester School Committee on Thursday selected Rachel Monárrez to be the district’s next superintendent.
Monárrez, the deputy superintendent of the San Bernardino City Unified School District in California, will assume the role July 1. Her hiring comes seven months after the school committee announced it would not renew current superintendent Maureen Binienda’s contract, triggering a nationwide search for her successor.
“I really believe [Monárrez] will be a great leader,” said Mayor Joseph Petty, who’s also a school committee member. “I think she’s going to bring a sense of excitement to the city of Worcester, and bring it to the next level.”
Worcester Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in Massachusetts with nearly 25,000 students, more than 5,000 staff and an annual budget of about $400 million.
In September, the school committee voted against keeping Binienda as superintendent, a position she’s held since 2016. In announcing that decision, Petty said Binienda had done a good job in the role, but that the committee wanted a “new set of eyes” to lead the district.
Thirty candidates from across the country ended up applying for the position. The school committee narrowed it down to four finalists earlier in April: Monárrez; Sonya Somerville Harrison, assistant superintendent of Philadelphia Public Schools; Malika Savoy-Brooks, chief academic supports officer of Philadelphia Public Schools; and Charles Grandson, chief equity and strategy officer for Boston Public Schools.
The committee spent the past week interviewing the finalists and visiting their school districts before making a final decision during a meeting Thursday. At first, the committee voted 6-1 to select Monárrez, with member Sue Mailman voting for Savoy-Brooks. Mailman then requested a recount and changed her vote to Monárrez to make it unanimous.
Committee member Tracy O’Connell Novick said Monárrez’s colleagues and parents in the San Bernardino school district described her as someone who “breaks down barriers” and “brings everyone to the table.”
“Dr. Monárrez is a strategic thinker,” O’Connell Novick said. “What I heard from the district was the description [of someone] who met in myriad ways exactly what the Worcester School Committee is looking for — and, in fact, what the city of Worcester is looking for.”
Before serving as deputy superintendent of San Bernardino’s district, Monárrez spent nearly two decades as a principal and teacher in California, where she focused on assisting English-learning students.
“[She] believes in the possibility of every child,” according to her school biography, “and works endlessly to foster a culture of equity, academic excellence and high expectations for all learners.”
Reached by phone after the Worcester School Committee’s vote, Monárrez told GBH News “she was still in shock.” She said some of her priorities as Worcester’s superintendent will include closing achievement gaps between students, streamlining initiatives within the district’s office and ensuring that teachers treat all students with “dignity and respect.”
“I’m super excited and grateful to the community,” she said. “I can’t wait to dig in and really build relationships.”
