LYNNFIELD — Superintendent Tom Geary presented his four fiscal year 2025 goals during a School Committee meeting.
“Creating these goals, I want to make sure that a cross section of as many areas as possible where I see room for growth, clarity, and improvement can be addressed,” he said.
The first goal is to “review and assess practices designed to improve teaching and learning in the mathematics, English language arts, and performing arts programs,” he said.
“During the budget process this past spring, the School Committee and I followed the mantra of putting the focus back on the classroom, as well as emphasizing the importance of teaching and learning,” Geary said. “To me, the next logical step is to ensure we maintain that focus by publicly communicating what we prioritize in these areas and how to plan to achieve these goals.”
He said math and English are the primary subjects in the district and will be the first areas of focus during the next fiscal year.
“This first goal aligns with curriculum instruction, assessment, data-informed decision making, student learning, and commitment to high standards as part of the DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) rubric for superintendent evaluation,” Geary said.
The second goal is to “work toward implementing the recommendations of the technology audit,” which took place over the last few months, he said.
“Prioritizing our networking infrastructure environment has to be a point of emphasis for us going forward,” Geary said.
The third goal is to “identify and develop practices that make citizenship central to school ethos,” he said.
Geary said that thinking about what it means to be a Lynnfield Pioneer in terms of “responsibility to oneself, to classmates, and to the community” is central to this goal.
At the elementary-school level, this goal will focus on social-emotional learning curricula, he said. At the middle-school level, the goal is to evaluate how the school’s core values are being “embedded within the school culture,” Geary said. At the high-school level, the goal is to continue the development of the five pillars of the vision of graduates, he said.
“If we have better clarity in a lot of these areas, I think we can better delineate what it means to be a Lynnfield Pioneer,” Geary said.
The fourth goal is to “plan (an) effective FY26 budget-development process,” he said.
“Tom, I think you’re the 10th superintendent I’ve worked with in my career and this is the most ambitious set of goals I’ve seen a superintendent lay out,” Committee member Jim Dillon said. “These are real, core-of-education, heart-of-the-district goals that are what we’re really all about. It’s all about the kids and their experience in learning and it’s great to have the focus there for the school district.”
