Belonging: Almi Abeyta’s Story
School Administrator, September 2022

Almi Abeyta started as superintendent in Chelsea, Mass., two months before the coronavirus pandemic hit. PHOTO BY RUTH RONEN FOR SOMERVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Almi Abeyta, superintendent in Chelsea, Mass., needed to frame her vision and values in order to move an equity agenda. So like all great leaders, she borrowed one.

Abeyta’s colleague in the Harvard Urban Superintendents Program, Susan Enfield, then-superintendent of Highline Public Schools in Burien, Wash. (and now superintendent in Washoe County, Nev.), had coined the phrase that educators need to know all students “by name, strength and need.”

Abeyta wanted to go a bit deeper in her district of mostly Latino students. Her own story as a Mexican-American, that of her father who immigrated here at age 12 and her daughter’s student experiences in the district where she was deputy superintendent had all shaped her leadership. She knew that for Chelsea educators to reach all students and families, they needed to know their stories. In Chelsea, students are known by name, strength and story.

For Abeyta, a culture that inspires equity-based transformation rests on belonging. Educators must know and trust each other, adults and students must be engaged together in learning, and the entire system must do whatever it takes to reach families. For her, achieving the vision of all students graduating college and career ready requires a culture that rests on the shared value of relationships and collective effort. This hasn’t been easy.

Abeyta started her superintendency two months before the pandemic hit and then had to lead a new community during the George Floyd murder. Her decisions and her words carried more weight than during a typical entry process for a new superintendent, and the problems of the system had been magnified due to recent events. But through listening and building relationships, Abeyta has brought people along. Now, in her third year that feels like her first, some of her strategic leadership moves are starting to bear fruit.

Reinforcing Messages

Belonging manifests itself in different ways in Chelsea. Early during the pandemic, the superintendent and her team realized that many Latino families weren’t responding to e-mails or accessing the website for information. So they instituted a text-messaging system, which has significantly increased communications between schools and families.

To tackle discipline issues, they’ve focused on understanding the reasons behind a child acting out and patterns of adult behavior that may be contributing. Children who feel connected to an adult and a sense of belonging act out less and learn more. When her daughter was in high school, she told her mom one morning on the way to school, “If a teacher doesn’t like me, I just don’t do well in class.” That stuck with Abeyta, and she constantly reinforces with educators the need to show students they are valued and loved.

Survey feedback showed Abeyta that principals wanted more focus on instruction (due to so much focus on the COVID-19 crisis), so she changed one of their regular meetings to instructional rounds. She was committing her time to building relationships with the people she leads, and she was sending the message that instruction is their most important job when moving a systemwide equity agenda.

To deepen her equity agenda, Abeyta brought in outsiders to facilitate a long-term learning process and hired a cabinet-level leader for diversity, equity and inclusion. Abeyta has been an active participant and shares her own story as she reminds people they first need a sense of belonging before they can do the hard work of equity.

A culture that sustains equity-based transformation requires a leader to be constantly on message. Abeyta realized after a year or so that her message was being compromised by the game of telephone that too many districts engage in. So she spends a lot of time with her cabinet on ensuring a consistent message emanating from on top, and she designs and facilitates districtwide leadership meetings so nothing gets lost in translation.

The culture she has created in Chelsea is bringing together students, educators and families in a collective effort. To transform this school system, everyone needs to know they belong.

—  JOSHUA STARR