Students, families and educators are gearing up for the start of the school year — and so is Sonia Dinnall, who was recently sworn in as Springfield's superintendent of schools.
At a New North Citizens Council (NNCC) back-to-school party at Roberto Clemente Field in the city’s Brightwood neighborhood on Friday — her 15th day on the job — Dinnall said the transition into her new role has been a successful one.
“Everyone has gone out of their way to ensure that I have all the knowledge and information that I need in order to be able to hit the ground running and jump into the decision-making that I need to engage in,” she said.
Dinnall said she is listening to principals and families, working with staff and looking at data to determine what the priorities will be, but hopes to see attendance rates improve once the year kicks off.
“We need to make sure that our families understand that school is a priority,” she said. “Attendance matters. Attendance is critical. Attendance is important.”
State data from the Department of Education and Secondary Education show Springfield's attendance rate last year sat at 90.5%, slightly below the state average of 92.5%. More than a third of the district's students (35.6%) were labeled as chronically absent, which is significantly higher than the state average (22.2%).
“I'm thanking our families in advance for making sure that our chronic absenteeism rate decreases significantly, and our average daily attendance rate increases significantly,” Dinnall said. “The only way we can do that is if our families and our students partner with us and come to school every days — 180 days is not a lot of days. We need you there every day.”
The NNCC event included local organizations and vendors like Summer Eats, New England Dairy, ParentChild+, and more.
Kids got to pick out a free backpack and school supplies, paint works of art, pet Springfield Police horses, and get their hair done at a pop-up barbershop and salon.
“For us, it's really important because we want to make sure that they're coming back to school prepared,” Jason Carrasquillo, operations manager of NNCC’s after-school program said.
Carrasquillo said the after-school program, NNCC Youth, will start back up towards the end of September. The program runs five days a week with activities like sports, art therapy and music production, he said.
“We just provide free opportunities for the youth to be able to take part and feel like they're a part of something much bigger than themselves,” he said.
Springfield Schools’ grades 1-12 will return on Aug. 26. Kindergarten and preschool begin the following week.
