SUPErINTENDENT’S UPDATE ‘It takes a village’

BY SUPERINTENDENT JOHN BUCKEY

Good people of Marblehead:

The African proverb “it takes a village” has really been resonating with me this week as I reflect on all the support and collaboration we have with the town of Marblehead.

At a recent cabinet meeting with town colleagues, I outlined a number of examples where various departments support our Marblehead Public Schools. I would like to share them with our families who might not be aware.

Marblehead Fire Department — We have had a recent goose problem at the playground at the Brown Elementary School. Chief Gilliland quickly stepped up and brought some equipment on site to clean the playground. He has since monitored and worked to deter our avian visitors.

Additionally, the chief has offered to support an adult CPR course for parents in the district. After NFL player Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field, some families have reached out to me to see what the district does for CPR training.

We provide it in PE and health classes at both MVMS and MHS

Nowadays, that parent will float a question out on Facebook — maybe one as simple as “when is the next early release day?” — and inevitably get responses of varying quality, he said.

Prior to hiring his communications director, it had not been uncommon for Welch to come into work on a Monday morning and have to catch up with a conversation that had raged on social media on Sunday night.

Facing a mandate from his school committee to get his arms around the situation, Welch said he made the case to hire someone whose sole focus would be messaging and communication. Dedham initially hired its communications director for 20 hours a week. The School Committee saw such immediate benefits, they quickly began discussing adding 10 hours to her work week.

“I cannot speak highly enough of the return on investment,” Welch said. “I think in 10 years, you will see this in every single district.”

In addition to maintaining the district’s website and conducting training sessions in the district, Dedham’s communications director has streamlined the process of translating into multiple languages notices being sent by the district’s principals, Welch noted.

Gloucester Superintendent Ben Lummis has had a similar experience with a $60,000-a-year, full-time position he is funding through a grant, having seen the value in such a position in his previous role in Brookline.

“Schools and districts have a history of bad communication, and the reason for that is they do not have staff dedicated to doing it,” he said.

Lummis acknowledged that he still hears occasional grumbling about whether the money being spent on a communications director would be better spent addressing the district’s other needs. But Lummis is convinced of the value.

“School committees and superintendents really need to help educate people about the need to communicate effectively, and what that takes to do,” he said. “It is not something that can be done on top of other people’s jobs. It can only be done well if it is somebody’s primary responsibility.”

The consultants’ view

Horan told the Current that his work with Buckey started during the pandemic, when districts across the state were facing increased demand on school administrators to make sense of the various edicts from the state.

Since then, Horan said he has been primarily working one-on-one with Buckey, “in part because he is the district’s primary communicator, he is new to the superintendent position and wants to develop his skills.”

Horan said he has also been on call for advice for situations demanding an immediate response, whether that might be a graffiti incident or the devastating loss of Marblehead High senior James Galante last year.

John Guilfoil, principal of John Guilfoil Public Relations, said resistance to hiring firms like his tends to come from a misunderstanding about what PR professionals do. It is not to concoct “spin” or cover-ups, he said.

“A public school district is essentially a mid-sized corporation, and every other mid-sized corporation has both internal and external public relations professionals, and no one argues with it,” he said.

Like Welch, Guilfoil noted how much the communications landscape had changed over the last 15 years.

Marblehead is an “exception,” in that it has local reporters covering the town, Guilfoil noted. Elsewhere, the local paper has either been regionalized “or it’s gone,” Guilfoil said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened the community’s demand for more information from its public schools, he added. No longer will a simple letter home to parents suffice, Guilfoil said.

Guilfoil and others noted that school superintendents tend to be one of the highest paid municipal employees in their community.

“You don’t pay $250,000 to a superintendent to have him write press releases,” Guilfoil said.

The value of a communications consultant comes to the fore when there is a crisis in the district, Guilfoil noted.

He pointed to a situation about 18 months ago when students at King Philip Regional Middle School in Norfolk found a gun on a seat in the back of the school bus that had fallen out of the driver’s pocket while he was cleaning up the bus after dropping off Norfolk elementary school students.

Guilfoil coordinated a joint press conference and joint press release with the Norfolk Police so there would be no miscommunication and a unified message coming from the officials.

“It gave people peace of mind,” he said.

Welch used the same phrase, citing the example of how someone monitoring a police scanner might hear that an ambulance had been dispatched to one of the town’s schools.

A communications person can get out a quick message to the community that it is related to a student with a peanut allergy who had eaten something shared by a classmate before the rumor mill gets rolling.

Horan believes that there is unquestionably a connection between his work and the success of the district.

He noted that, if communication is handled poorly, it can distract district leaders, taking their focus away from student outcomes.

“I wouldn’t do what I do if it did not serve the district’s bottom line, which is student achievement,” he said.

Guilfoil agreed, “Effective communication is part of a district’s path to excellence.” and ensure that our coaches are trained. We have provided classes for staff, but we have not recently offered one for families. The time is right; thank you, chief. Stay tuned for additional details on this.

A good PR professional will not put a false veneer on a district’s efforts but will find ways to highlight success stories that might otherwise go untold, he said.

That is all the more vital given the competition to retain students public schools face from private, vocational and parochial schools, Guilfoil said.

Marblehead Police Department

— Chief King has been an avid supporter of Safe Routes to School and helped to explore grant opportunities to keep our walkers and bike riders safe.

The chief has brought back a full school resource officer to the district — Sean Sweeney Jr. — and is a regular contributor to our District Safety Committee.

The collaboration to keep our students and staff safe is invaluable.

Department of Public Works

— While we are grateful for our collaboration with DPW all year, at this time of year with snow and ice we are reminded of how important their support is.

Recreation & Parks

Department — We have a great working relationship with Rec & Park as they maintain our playing fields and attend to our mowing in the summer months while we provide spaces in various schools for their programming. We are updating our current MOU with them to detail further the specifics of our mutually beneficial work.

Abbot Public Library — We are currently hosting the Abbot Public Library in the Eveleth School as they undergo the renovation project at their 3 Brook Road location. They host a number of programs and events that support our students and staff. We are grateful for their ongoing support and collaboration. I feel like I could go on and on. After Wednesday’s State of the Town, I felt it is as important as ever to appreciate, understand and value the need for unity and collaboration. Our students and staff deserve that.

Search updates

This week, we issued a series of surveys for students, staff and families at Marblehead High School regarding the search for a new principal. We solicited interest from students and parents who might be interested in being on the Search Committee. The Marblehead Educators Association, by contract, selects four teacher representatives for the search. Additionally, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, we posted the position and are accepting applications.

We also posted the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning position. We will provide additional details about this position in a future update.

The composition of the Search Committee will be similar, and the timeline should have the successful candidate announced by the first of May.

National School Counselor Week

During the first full week of February (Feb. 6-10), schools throughout the country will celebrate National School Counseling Week. Coming out of the pandemic, school counselors have been invaluable in supporting students and families struggling with academic, social, emotional and mental health challenges.

National School Counseling Week is a great way to promote awareness, appreciate our counseling faculty and staff, and recognize the school counselors across MPS.

Throughout the week, we invite you to let your school’s counselors know that you appreciate their work.

Black History Month

“This month allows us to reflect, remember and acknowledge the achievements of those who went before us.

We have placed Black History

Month banners throughout each of our school buildings. Students have been celebrating Black influential leaders in many ways. Our high school students have been leading morning announcements, elementary school students have been doing activities, and our middle school students have been reading poems. Thank you to the Marblehead community for celebrating our shared history this month and always.”

— Caja Johnson, METCO director

As I end this week’s update, I noticed today is 2-3-23. A quick search on the Googler found this is a lucky day for numerologists.

“According to numerology, this date has a special energy encouraging us to think more about our goals and go after them.”

Happy 2-3-23, and have a great weekend.

Marblehead Superintendent

John Buckey sends email updates to the school community on Friday afternoons, which the Current republishes to share with the wider community. In some instances, the update will be lightly edited, primarily to remove items that will be dated by the time the newspaper is delivered.

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