Meet Brian Allen, the Next Superintendent of WPS
The first WPS graduate to lead the district in 60 years
Aislinn back at it again with another over-and-above analysis of public schools news. Please consider supporting this outlet so we can support Aislinn’s work!
When four-year-old Brian Allen walked into Quinsigamond Elementary School for his first day of Kindergarten in 1974, it was just a few weeks after Richard Nixon signed the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA) into law. The federal law prohibits discrimination in schools based on race, color, sex, or national origin and requires school districts to address and remove barriers, like language, that might hinder students from fully accessing educational opportunities.
Fifty-one years later, Deputy Superintendent Brian Allen–soon to be Superintendent–spends most days solving that problem: equity for Worcester students in a rigged system that does not fully fund federal mandates, putting poor districts at a perpetual disadvantage.1 And as chaos continues at the federal level, there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight. It’s a fraught and unprecedented time to become Superintendent of the second largest school district in New England.
On May 1 the Worcester School Committee voted 8-1 to hire Brian Allen as the next Superintendent of Worcester Public Schools for a three year term, pending negotiations. While there was an item on the agenda about hiring a new superintendent, it did not say who, and so his hiring at that school committee meeting caught many off guard.
For WPS parents who have come to appreciate, even expect, the increased engagement and clear communications by the district, the patience for the school committee and their lack of authentic engagement is growing thin. The Committee needs to do better. And I also feel the need to say, especially because it is election season, that we need to be wary of the folks who are weaponizing the hiring process (or lack thereof) in bad political faith.
Over the weekend I saw lots of fellow WPS parents and educators, and everyone had a different version of basically the same question: “Who is Brian Allen, anyway?” And I don’t think they meant who he is, like putting a name to a face, but they meant who is he; what’s he about?
In the public sphere, Allen is the Deputy Superintendent, CFO, and COO of Worcester Public Schools. That includes overseeing finance, facilities, transportation, safety, IT and nutrition departments. His understanding of school finance and operations is the best in the state, if not the region. So much so that in 2013 he won the Eagle Award from the Association of School Business Officials International, which is “the highest tribute” a member can receive.
Allen has worked in the district for almost 27 years, under five different superintendents, two interim superintendents, and too many school committee members to count. He’s seen some contentious budget cuts over those decades, including one every year between 2004 and 2012 (the school committee also closed 8 schools during that time). Whether he deserves his salary2 is the subject of public and private conversations almost every year, including in 2010 when he received a $12,000 raise and a teacher held a sign at a rally that said “We want the Brian Allen plan.” On Monday I emailed him and asked why he’s stayed in education, and in Worcester, as long as he has. He told me, “Public service is my calling. Working in Worcester is where I feel I can actually make an impact to improve opportunities for students.”
Brian Allen was born at Hahnemann Hospital in 1970 and lived in a triple decker on Mattson Ave until 1972, when his parents moved the family to 27 Steele St. in Quinsigamond Village. He is the third generation on both sides of his family to grow up in Worcester–both his parents grew up on Belmont Hill until their families were displaced by the I-290 construction. Allen’s dad, Edward, worked as a machinist for Norton Company and served over thirty years in the Coast Guard Reserve. His mom, Joyce-Ann, worked in local retail shops.
In the 70’s and 80’s Quinsigamond Village was a working-class neighborhood (still is, although the countries that immigrants are coming from has changed). Allen is nostalgic when he recalls growing up on Steele Street, “It was a tight-knit street where you went out during the summer and came back for lunch then again when the street lights came on, but each house was keeping an eye on everyone. My family never could afford to go on vacation, so our summer vacations were filled with kickball, wiffleball, bike riding, and other mischievous kid stuff.”3
When Allen started his freshman year at South High Community School, the building was just six years old. Everyone called it the “new” South.4 The school had an open-classroom concept, and Allen loved it. “Walking through the pods, you got to see everyone. It was a great community. We always joked that if you sat in the right seat, you could take two years of English at once. The one you were actually in and the class next to you. The building made it feel like you were connected to everyone.” Still, Allen said there is no comparison to the new school, which he had a strong role in facilitating. “The new school layout is great, the classrooms are exceptional. The current and future South High students have a great place to learn.” Allen has been involved in the building of every new school in Worcester since Worcester Tech in 2006.
While at South, Allen served as the student representative for the school committee (in 1987), and played baseball, although he wasn’t on the roster senior year. When I asked him why not, he said he blew out his knee during a pickup basketball game over February vacation. ”It was either going to be this injury or my lack of talent that was ending my athletic career, so it’s better I can blame the injury.”
His senior year he went to school with school committee member Jermaine Johnson (district F), who was a freshman at the time. And school committee member Maureen Binienda (at-large), was a teacher at South then, too, although Allen never had her. When I asked Allen if there was a teacher that really made a mark, he said there were too many to count, and then he listed off a whole bunch. 5
It’s possible that the South High Class of 1988 may have known Allen best when they voted him “quietest” in the senior class superlatives that year; he was described as “ALWAYS seen, but rarely heard.” In observing Allen over the last few years, I can confirm that has been his approach: he listens more than he speaks, and he’s visible so he can listen.
After South High, Allen went to Clark University, graduating with a degree in economics. Then he got a Master’s in Public Administration from Suffolk University. He stayed in Worcester, working first as a budget analyst for the city, and then as a business manager for Worcester Vocational Schools. In 1999 he took a job with the Worcester Public Schools as a business manager.
In 2003 he married his wife, Karen, who is currently the principal at Lincoln St. Elementary School. She is a North High graduate and also went to Clark University. She has spent her entire career working for Worcester Public Schools. Prior to Lincoln St., Allen was an Assistant Principal, Focused Instructional Coach, and Teacher of Students with Moderate Special Needs at Woodland Academy for 19 years. They have three kids, a sophomore in college, a junior in high school, and a freshman in high school. The Allens live in Holden, a point of contention that was raised at the May 1 school committee meeting. As a parent I was curious why he chose to raise his kids there instead of Worcester. He told me that they were living in a small condo in Worcester when his oldest, Zachary, was born in 2005. They realized quickly that they needed more space. “People may have more elaborate metrics to make this decision than we did. Our metric was to be near family. We found a new construction location in Holden that we liked, after looking and looking everywhere, that was close to family in Holden and those in Worcester, and close to get pretty much anywhere easily without much traffic.” They moved to Holden in 2006 and Allen’s kids attend the Wachusett Regional School District.
While his wife has lots of public school teaching experience, Allen does not.6 As a parent, I asked Allen how he will lead our school district without K-12 classroom teaching experience. He told me, “We have very exceptional instructional leaders, both building principals and at the central office. The teaching and learning team will continue, as always, to provide the direct oversight of curriculum development and school-based evaluations.” He added, “Instruction happens in the classroom by our exceptional teachers, not at the central office. The most important work of the central office, among all of the things needed to run a district, is to support schools. We do that by providing resources–people, time, and materials. We look at data, we allocate resources, and provide tools for schools to support student achievement. We build systems and structures that best support the schools. I think my work has demonstrated that resource allocation and organizational structures have been an expertise of mine.”
It’s not often that Allen highlights his own accomplishments, despite his resume being full of them. In the almost 27 years that Allen has worked in WPS, he has spearheaded many key initiatives that have proven transformative.
Probably the biggest impact that Allen has had, not just for Worcester, but for students across Massachusetts, is his strong advocacy for equity funding of public schools. His expert knowledge of how school funding works has allowed him to point lawmakers and community advocates to areas of improvement, and he is able to break it down in a way that your average person can understand. Allen was an instrumental part of the team from Worcester who pushed to get the Student Opportunity Act passed in 2019, which increases the amount of funding based on real costs of educating low-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, as well as costs for health insurance. Given Worcester’s student population, this means increases in the foundation budget for Worcester which has brought millions of dollars into the district in the last few years.
For over a decade, Allen pushed to take school buses “in-house.” Before the 2022-2023 school year transportation was contracted out to a company called Durham. It had been a disaster almost from the get-go, but things were dire by the 2018-2019 school year. (For more details see what I wrote in 2022). A 2019 report, produced by WPS transportation and finance teams led by Allen, underscored the need for change:
“In summary, the district has experience with operating and managing student transportation and the transportation and district staff already work every day to ensure the safest, most cost-effective operating transportation program. The district has been highly successful in converting other services from third-party vendors to district-employed staff resulting in better services to students and reduced cost. It is all of these reasons combined that will result in a highly-efficient, low-cost operation that can improve safety, quality, and service to our school district.”
The report was clear: there would be lots of benefits to district-run buses: cost-savings, improved caregiver support and student experience, more flexibility for field trips and athletic events, and the ability to directly negotiate contracts with bus drivers and monitors. Despite this, then-superintendent Maureen Binienda thought the district was not ready and it eventually took the school committee overriding her recommendation to make it happen. Six years later, everything in that report turned out to be true. The district has saved millions. It’s hard to imagine the financial impact if it hadn’t happened.
Allen is probably at his best, though, during the yearly budget process. For twelve years in a row, Worcester Public Schools has been awarded the highest national recognition in school finance, the Meritorious Budget Award, for budget transparency and preparation. And each year Allen makes his rounds to parent groups, community organizations, and the school committee, to talk about the budget. In these sessions I have seen him answer questions about some of the most mundane intricacies of the district off the top of his head. When budget deliberations start, you can find Allen sitting at the big table in the middle of the school committee chamber. In front of him typically sits a six-inch binder filled with the budget book and an analog calculator, which he uses to try to make sure that certain school committee members' budgetary motions actually add up.
Come July, though, Allen will leave the table and have a new vantage point in City Hall, sitting up next to the Mayor. He'll be the first WPS Superintendent to have graduated from Worcester Public Schools to be up there in a long, long time. So long, in fact, that the last one once took a photo beside John F. Kennedy. I, for one, am glad to see a Worcester public school kid back on top.
Based on enrollment the district requires about 209 ESL teachers to deliver a state-mandated level of service, which is about $18.5 million. The state only provides the district $10.5 million. Even worse, the actual spending for special education by the district exceeds what the state allocates by $52 million. Again, these are mandates, so the district has to find the money for them somewhere. Which means money taken from other priorities.
In 2024, as Deputy Superintendent, Allen’s gross pay was $244,000. He’s #34 on the City of Worcester employee wages list, and the third highest WPS employee after Assistant Superintendent Dr. Marie Morse (#32) and Superintendent Monárrez (#5)
Allen has made up for the lack of summer vacations as a kid, as he has purportedly been to Disney World between 70-75 times.
Allen also attended old, old South High at 14 Richards St., when it was Sullivan Middle School. It’s now the home of Goddard School of Science and Technology.
Allen named Jim McDermott (English), Charles Favreault (History), Ronald Levine (History), Charles Houghton (Math), Ron Hidenfelter (Math), Donna Ghize (later Rodrigues) (Spanish) as exceptional teachers that had an impact on him.
Allen has taught future principals as an adjunct at Worcester State for over twenty years.
This is an excellent profile, Aislinn!