By traditional grading standards, Lynnfield School Superintendent Jane Tremblay scored a B- or a high C+ on a survey of town parents assessing Tremblay’s communication skills. That grade clearly doesn’t sit well with the superintendent because she unveiled a monthly plan for keeping parents abreast of school events.
No superintendent can afford to take parental views for granted in the 21st century and Tremblay is certainly aware of parental expectations relative to public education in a town like Lynnfield. In response to survey results, she implemented a plan to send emails to parents on the last school day of the month noting important dates for events at schools across town, as well as school district-wide events.
She also plans to include, according to a Lynnfield Weekly News story, “information on district-wide strategic goals.” That sounds like one of those phrases educators toss out as a warmup to a lengthy presentation packed with statistics.
But Tremblay sounds like an education professional who genuinely wants to know what parents think about local schools and suggestions for improving schools. Bear in mind, it was Tremblay who took steps this year to send out the survey asking parents to assess her communication skills.
She was pleased to receive responses from nearly 400 parents. “I was happy with that feedback,” she said. She should also be happy with the high marks for communication skills 79 percent of parents gave her.
Tremblay would undoubtedly have preferred an A+ ranking from parents, but many superintendents would be satisfied to get a favorable review from eight out of 10 parents. Tremblay is obviously not a run-of-the-mill superintendent and she is also obviously not insecure about at least hearing parents’ ideas for shaping school district goals. It is easy for superintendents to get stuck in administrative offices behind closed doors with a layer of assistants and deputy superintendents around them.
By law, they are answerable only to elected school committee members who hire and can fire them. Tremblay, like great superintendents in Lynn and surrounding communities, has taken a progressive approach to improving the schools she runs. Strengthening communication lines between parents and the superintendent may result in conversation and idea exchanges but no action.
But hearing parents’ views is a first step to getting parents and guardians more involved in school volunteer efforts and school councils where parents, teachers and other community representatives help shape initiatives at the school level.
A 79 percent favorability rating might translate to a C+ but Tremblay gets an A for effort when it comes to involving parents in improving Lynnfield schools.