Anna Nolin Named NPS Superintendent

By Connor Siemien Newton Editor Henry BlanCHette Heights Staff

The Newton School Committee named Anna Nolin, superintendent of Natick Public Schools, as the next superintendent of Newton Public Schools (NPS) during a school committee meeting on Friday.

Nolin will assume the role on July 1.

“It’s such a complex job where you have to be the educational leader, the managerial leader, and a community leader,” Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, who is also a member of the school committee, said at the meeting. “What [Nolin] talks about with direct experience and a sound theory of the case … outcomes and data, kept surfacing in a very positive way.”

Nolin—as well as Thomas

Anderson, superintendent of New Bedford Public Schools and the other finalist for NPS superintendent—answered questions during a community forum on Wednesday and Thursday. During the forum, Nolin addressed the current fraught political climate surrounding education. Nolin said she intends to take all families’ perspectives into consideration if chosen for the position.

“We’re going to talk with families and constituents regardless of their political views,” she said. “[It] doesn’t mean I agree with everything, but it is my job to listen and to understand how those conditions shape what is happening to schools.”

Nolin said increased racial diversity in staff is important. She said she oversaw a twofold increase in staff members of color within one year as superintendent of Natick Public Schools.

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