Though he grew up in Newton and attended Harvard for undergrad, Los Angeles is where Matt Spengler launched his career in education.
“I never wanted to be a teacher, I never expected to be, but I just ended up in LA working for an education nonprofit,” Spengler said.
With an undergraduate degree in political science, his sights were originally set on city government — until a council member recommended joining a nonprofit to get a better sense of city systems. Spengler took the advice, joined an education-based nonprofit and wound up on a softball team with coworkers entrenched in the world of education.
“A bunch of crazy science teachers from Jefferson High School and I joined the softball team, and they talked about the job,” Spengler said. “They needed folks at Jefferson, and it inspired me to say, ‘OK, time for me to see if this can work.’”
Spengler joined the English department at Jefferson High, and has remained in education ever since. Following his stint as an English teacher, Spengler became a school principal, started a school in Oakland, Calif., and, most recently, founded and led the education nonprofit Blueprint Schools Network. This fall, in addition to his work with Blueprint, Spengler will step up as superintendent for Felix Commonwealth Virtual School, operating out of Lasell University.
Education and public service are both family legacies, he noted.
“I got into public service and giving back primarily through my grandmother, who was the first woman elected as a Select Board member in Arlington,” said Spengler. “She was a real trailblazer in education, housing, libraries — and so I grew up watching her and helping her campaign.”
His grandmother’s example, coupled with his mother’s work in rehabilitation for the blind, his father’s professorship in environmental science, and his grandfather’s efforts as a nonprofit leader for the American Meteorological Society, demonstrated for Spengler the significance of both public service and education.
His personal approach to education is driven by a desire for equity — a “base note,” he said, of his career — that can be traced back to his time at Jefferson High.
“I [loved] the students and families,” he said. “These were first-generation folks from Michoacán and Jalisco, Mexico, but also El Salvador, who were then in a system [with] a lot of barriers … And so that actually inspired me up till now, to search for ways to engage students differently. How do we bring some creativity or [a] more student-centered focus into our schools?”
Spengler returned to Needham when the dot-com era made buying a house in California difficult.
“I would fly back for a weekend and go try to see 30 homes from Newton and Needham and Watertown and Weston and Belmont and, by far, Needham provided the best value in terms of what we were looking for,” he said.
Now a 20-year resident, Spengler has raised his family in Needham and watched two of three children graduate from the Needham Public Schools. During this time, he has come to admire NPS’s creativity and student-centered focus — a focus he has supported as a school committee member for the past nine years.
Long-time friend and fellow NPS parent John Barrett said Spengler excels at communicating, considering new ideas from a digital standpoint, and improving existing programs — “He can’t really handle my backhand on a tennis court, but I won’t get into that,” Barrett added.
“The importance of education, the importance of good outcomes for all students in the system, and maintaining that level of achievement for all is probably what I respect the most [about Spengler],” Barrett said. “He really dedicated his life to it.”
Spengler has introduced ideas such as the addition of a student representative to the committee, in an effort to apply the student-focused “fairness lens” that has driven so much of his work.
“How do we revise stuff, or how do we think about it differently?” he said. “What other data do we need to collect, so that we’re not missing out on some kids who should be benefiting from what is an outstanding school district? I’m proud of what we’re doing in Needham, but great school districts also continually examine what they’re doing.”
Heading into what he believes will be his last term, Spengler said he continues to find work on the school committee important, interesting and necessary for a healthy community.
“The strength of our schools is super important to me,” said Spengler. “My family and kids have benefited from it, and so I want to be part of that continuation.”
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