Education

Ligia Noriega-Murphy begins her first school year as superintendent of Malden Public Schools

By Saliha Bayrak Equipped with 26 years of experience working in urban schools and a life-long pursuit of immersing herself in different cultures, Ligia Noriega-Murphy is starting her first year as the superintendent of Malden Public Schools.  Malden is a new environment for Ligia Noriega-Murphy. Malden has a much smaller student population than Boston, where she previously worked in public education. Originally from Guatemala, Noriega-Murphy also graduated high school from Boston public schools. Yet, Malden is “so diverse with small communities that are so rich in different languages, different cultures,” she said.  “There’s a lot of people that are so invested in making this district powerful and so unique and different. And that’s my job now, to make sure that we are going to be the best district in the nation,” Noriega-Murphy said. “I am already embracing how people just love the city.” Throughout her job interview process, Noriega-Murphy had a few opportunities to interact with the community that she would soon become a part of. A few of the things that struck Noriega-Murphy during […]

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An honest conversation of Ferguson and beyond

On Saturday, December 13, 2014, Mai Du, of Wah Lum Academy in Malden, brought a call to action from the community.  Du hosted a forum entitled An Honest Conversation of Ferguson and Beyond.  She wanted teens and children to speak their thoughts on the happenings of late, and to get more involved. The group of about 75 people consisted of teens, younger children and adults.  The program was facilitated by a group of teens. In the beginning, large blank papers were placed around the room for participants to place stick-ums on, according to categories ie. Fears, Hopes, Questions, etc. The leaders reviewed what had happened in Ferguson, with the known facts.  Then participants were given a pre-determined subject to discuss in small groups of 5 or 6. People were grouped with diverse ages, races and ethnicities.  The groups were given about 20 minutes to discuss among themselves.  Then, all joined again in the large group to share what came out of the small groups.  These groups met 3-4 times with different questions, and would again […]