In its annual evaluation of her performance, the School Committee gave Superintendent Linda Dwight top marks for guiding the district through the ongoing educational challenges of 2020. In all the categories set by the state for evaluating a superintendent, committee members judged Dwight’s work to be in the two highest categories—proficient or exemplary. Overall, they concluded, her leadership ranked as exemplary, the highest level.
Committee members prepared their evaluations individually and appended their own comments, which appear anonymously in the aggregated evaluation presented at the Oct. 26 School Committee meeting.
“Dr. Dwight has been an outstanding leader for our district,” one committee member wrote in her concluding comments. “… I don’t think we could have been in any better hands to keep the district moving forward during this extremely challenging time.”
Another commenter wrote, “While work on specific goals has taken a back seat to operating schools during COVID, her prioritization of safety and her ability to listen and work with the teachers and the HTA (Harvard Teachers Association) has enabled Harvard to open in a hybrid model with large community support.”
Members did express some concerns. One wrote in her comments, “At times [Dr. Dwight] protects others’ times at the expense of her own time, which I worry could lead her to burn out.”
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requires school committees to evaluate superintendents annually, based on their performance in four general areas: instructional leadership; management and operations; family and community engagement; and professional culture. Each area includes four to six more specific responsibilities, such as ensuring high standards for curriculum, managing human resources, sharing responsibility, and addressing family concerns. The evaluations are presented in public meetings.
In her 2019 evaluation, Dwight also received mostly proficient and exemplary ratings, but with a majority of School Committee members settling on the proficient category as her overall rating. This year, her sixth as superintendent, a majority raised her rating to exemplary.
