Community members weigh in on ballot question 2
Former school committee members John Petersen and Xuan Kong spoke to the School Committee during the October 10 public comment period to encourage a no-vote on Question 2 on the November 5 state ballot.
Question 2 proposes to eliminate the requirement that Massachusetts high school students pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test to receive a high school diploma.
Petersen noted the test ensures all Massachusetts high school graduates are meeting a common standard and is an important metric that informs schools, school districts, and the state department of education how students are performing on important measures of success.
Xuan Kong, who also encouraged a no-vote, said that a passing score on MCAS is a critical indicator of what families and communities expect from our kids which is “not just to earn a minimum passing number but also to learn much more beyond that simple number to prepare them for success beyond high school.”
Community member Glen Cote disagreed. “High stakes tests are stupid. I didn’t need the MCAS to get the support I needed. There are better ways to help our kids learn.”
Acton-Boxborough High School seniors recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program
Ten Acton-Boxborough Regional High School seniors have been named semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program, and fifty-four seniors were named Commended Students.
The announcement was made by Superintendent of Schools, Peter Light, at the October 10 School Committee business meeting.
Over 1.3 million high school students, nationally, entered the 2025 competition by taking the preliminary Standards Admission Test (PSAT) which measures students’ readiness for college admission and also serves as an initial screen of program entrants.
Each year, the National Merit Scholarship Program recognizes approximately 50,000 students based on the results of junior year PSAT scores. Students at or above their state’s Semifinalist Selection Index cutoff will be among the 17,000 National Merit Semifinalists and move to the next step in the program. Semifinalists advance to the finalist level by fulfilling additional program requirements. Scholarship winners will be announced this spring.
Acton-Boxborough Schools begin process of defining a Vision of a Graduate
For over a decade, school districts across the nation and seventeen states have been utilizing the Vision of a Graduate framework to define a set of competencies that will prepare their students for life in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing job market and world.
At the School Committee meeting on October 10, Acton-Boxborough Superintendent Peter Light and Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Gabrielle Abrams announced the launch of Vision of a Graduate in Acton Boxborough. The initiative fulfills a component of goal three in the District’s improvement plan for 2024-25.
The premise of Vision of a Graduate is that schools can play a unique and vital role in setting students up for success by linking attributes prioritized in the Vision to standards of practice for teaching and learning so that students have opportunities to develop and intentionally practice targeted skills such as analytical and creative thinking, resilience, and flexibility as they move through the curriculum.
“At the heart of this idea is the notion that we are inviting current and former students, families, educators, community members and business leaders to help co-create a set of aspirations and attributes for our students,” stated Light.
A Steering Committee is already working to implement a process which includes surveys planned for November and a large-scale workshop scheduled for January with multiple opportunities during the winter months for additional community input. A final document will be brought to the School Committee for endorsement at the end of the school year.
School Committee members expressed support for the initiative.
Members Schmidt, Klein, and Campbell asked about budgetary impact, with member Klein asking for clear communication about any costs associated with its implementation and tradeoffs the District is willing to make in order to stay on track with budget guidelines.
Member Ramachandran spoke to questions in the community about why schools are teaching social-emotional learning, noting that many of these attributes are also associated with Vision of a Graduate. Superintendent Light concurred, “If you go through the list of the top skills employers are looking for, at least a third qualify as social-emotional skills in the CASEL framework. We’d be doing a massive disservice to our students by ill-preparing them for their future not only as good people but as workers if we are not teaching these skills.”
“The world is shifting in seismic ways,” Light said. “Even as a parent I am seeing the need to have a clearly articulated vision for what our kids need to do beyond traditional academic coursework.”
Examples of how Vision of a Graduate has been implemented in schools across the United States are available online.
Vision of a Graduate is endorsed by the Association for School Superintendents in partnership with the non-profit Battelle for Kids and is a required component of the school accreditation process by The New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
School Committee discusses funding priorities with the State Legislative Delegation
The Acton-Boxborough School Committee hosted a robust panel discussion on funding priorities in education with State Senator Jamie Eldridge and State Representatives Danillo Sena and Simon Cataldo at the October 10 School Committee meeting.
This was the first time the delegation has met with the full School Committee.
Senator Eldridge opened the discussion with a review of the state’s budgetary commitments for the current fiscal year pertinent to k-12 public education. These included increases in Chapter 70 education aid to local school districts, funding for free school lunch for all Massachusetts public school students regardless of household income, and funding for an historic increase of an additional $104 per student for the 119 minimum aid districts of which Acton-Boxborough is one. The statutory minimum aid amount is $30 per student.
School Committee members Klein, Wilson and Parikh pushed for additional financial support for minimum aid districts like Acton-Boxborough which is facing a third year of budget cuts. “Though grateful for your support, the $16M we are getting from the state is small compared to what we have deemed and what the state had deemed is a minimum amount of spending that we should put towards our students,” Klein said. Member Wilson advocated for an update of the state’s funding model.
The delegation also highlighted proposed bills that align with School Committee priorities on tuition-free all-day kindergarten (H. 514), reimbursement for special education costs (H.525), and funding for high quality literacy instruction (H.579).
Bill H.514: An Act relative to tuition-free universal full-day kindergarten, submitted by Representatives Cataldo and Kearney and co-sponsored by Representative Sena would, if passed, support the small number of Massachusetts school districts in their efforts to implement tuition-free all-day kindergarten.
Since 2019, the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee has been struggling to honor a commitment to reduce and then eliminate tuition for its all-day kindergarten program without the benefit of the state-funded kindergarten expansion grants which were reduced and then eliminated in 2016-2017. Massachusetts has subsequently required public school districts to absorb first year start-up costs for this program.
Ginny Kremer, a long-time advocate of free all-day kindergarten, spoke passionately in support of Bill H.514. “More and more people are waking up to the fact that early childhood education is a good investment and a really effective way to spend public dollars. For the state, this is a small amount of dollars in the long run for a limited period of time until those kids are counted in the state’s chapter 70 funding. Anything you can do to help is going to make a big difference.”
Bill H.525: An Act to increase special education circuit breaker reimbursement from seventy-five percent to ninety percent, co-sponsored by Representative Cataldo, proposes to increase reimbursements to districts for special education costs related to mandated services for students with disabilities whose needs cannot be supported in-district.
The circuit breaker program currently reimburses districts up to seventy-five percent of costs that exceed a per student threshold set by the state.
The state legislature has consistently fully funded this reimbursement program every year at seventy-five percent since 2018-19 through an annual state budget appropriation, but Superintendent of Schools Peter Light, reported that, very recently, reimbursement estimates for Acton-Boxborough had to be adjusted down from $4.1M to $3.5M due to a reported, unanticipated increase in the number of claims state-wide.
Light told the delegation: “This is significant money for us. I believe state revenues get finalized in December, so if there is an additional opportunity for the state to revisit funding this program and match actual costs incurred by districts with the seventy-five percent threshold, this would be a huge relief for every school district in the state.”
Bill H.579: An Act to promote high quality comprehensive literacy instruction in all Massachusetts schools, submitted by Representative Sena and co-sponsored by Representative Cataldo, has been referred to the committee on House Ways and Means. School Committee member Klein reported to the delegation that Acton-Boxborough has taken a proactive stance by onboarding a literacy curriculum that aligns with the science of reading.
Representative Cataldo noted, “This a controversial bill. To me, it is an abomination that many districts have been teaching debunked methods of literacy for years when we knew better, and that needs to change. I know there is opposition to the bill. I think Rep. Sena is going to file it again, and I am going to support it.”
Diane Baum is the School Committee beat reporter for the Acton Exchange. She served on the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee from 2015 to 2021.