Bobby Tynes will leave his post as principal of Fletcher Maynard Academy to take on a district-level position in the Cambridge Public Schools, he told families Friday via an email.
Tynes, who is in his fourth year as principal, will remain at the school through the current academic year. In June, he will take on a role coordinating student supports across the elementary and secondary levels, focusing on chronic absenteeism and student engagement. That position runs through the 2026-27 school year.
“It has been a great honor to lead the school over the last four years,” Tynes said in his email, reflecting on his time at FMA. “Together, we have made incredible progress in our growth data and in our community building, and that momentum is only building.”
Tynes said Superintendent David Murphy had asked him to take on the one-year position.
“While change can be difficult, please know that CPS remains deeply committed to supporting and investing in the FMA community,” Tynes wrote. “Our school has a very proud future ahead.”
His note was followed by an email from Murphy, expressing gratitude for the work Tynes has done leading the school. “The past four years have been years of transition and occasional challenges for all school communities, and throughout that Principal Tynes has never wavered in his dedication to the students of FMA.”
Murphy said he asked Tynes to take on the new district-wide role because of “[h]is wealth of experience as both an elementary and secondary [school] administrator in the Cambridge community.” Tynes has worked in education for 40 years. A Cambridge native, he joined the Cambridge Public Schools in 2004. Prior to becoming principal at Fletcher Maynard, he was an assistant principal at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
Murphy also acknowledged the impact that the shakeup would have on the FMA community and said that “next month our district will be hosting a series of meeting to hear input on the leadership transition that will now take place at FMA.”
Murphy said, though, that the transition would be an “opportunity to reaffirm the ways in which FMA is doing right by students and to discuss how we can build on those strengths in the coming years.”
He noted that more information on the meetings would come following next week’s February vacation.
During Tynes’s tenure at FMA, the school’s hiring practices were questioned and allegations of a “retaliatory culture” were raised by current and former staff, among them Cambridge School Committee Member Luisa de Paula Santos while she was a candidate.
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