Acton-Boxborough student creates immersive scavenger hunt to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War
Acton-Boxborough junior and Eagle Scout candidate from Troop 32, Aaryan Arora, was recognized at the November 14 School Committee meeting for his collaboration with Acton’s 250 Committee to create an American Revolution-themed scavenger hunt for Acton-Boxborough fifth graders.
The hunt takes participants to eight historically significant locations across Acton, Concord, and Lexington where immersive descriptions simulate authentic experiences as seen through the eyes of Acton Minutemen, a local militia serving under Isaac Davis who was the first American officer killed at the Old North Bridge in Concord during the first battle of the Revolutionary War. A monument memorializing Issac Davis stands on Acton’s Town Common.
“All around us are reminders of our revolutionary history, but many historical sites are not widely known,” Arora said. “The scavenger hunt is meant to connect our fifth graders to our rich local history.”
Arora and members of the Acton Minutemen ceremonial reenactment company visited all six Acton-Boxborough elementary schools in October to spread the word about the scavenger hunt which Arora hopes will continue in future years.
“So far we’ve received excellent feedback from the Acton Historical Society and from teachers who have told us that their fifth graders are excited to complete the scavenger hunt,” Arora said. “I’m a firm believer that to ensure the lasting success of our democracy, we need to raise our next generation to be upstanding citizens and patriots who love our nation. It’s my dream that for years to come the scavenger hunt will continue to open the eyes of the next generation into the beauty and sacrifice that went into creating this nation.”
Acton-Boxborough fifth graders who complete the hunt will receive a commemorative, triangular hat called a tricorn, which was popular during the time of the American Revolution, and an invitation to march alongside the Acton Minutemen reenactment company in a section of the six-mile Isaac Davis Trail this April 21 on Patriot’s Day.
Boardwalk Campus wins Green Building of the Year, District awarded $1.5M for electric school buses
The Boardwalk Campus, which houses the C.T. Douglas and Paul P. Gates Elementary Schools and the Carol Huebner Early Childhood Program has been selected by the non-profit Built Environment Plus (BE+) as the 2024 Green Building of the Year. The Campus is the first all-electric, net zero school built in partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority and serves as a nationwide model for sustainable school buildings.
The award was announced in October at the Green Building Showcase awards in Boston’s Seaport District.
Last year, the Boston-based architecture and design firm, Arrowstreet, was awarded the 2023 New Construction Design of the Year Energy Excellence Award by Eversource for its design of the Boardwalk Campus building.
Kate Crosby, Energy Manager for the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, was named Change Agent of the Year by BE+ for her impactful work embedding environmentally sustainable infrastructure in Acton-Boxborough schools and was recognized in a ceremony at the November 14 School Committee meeting.
Crosby also serves as an advisor to Resource Force, a student organization at Acton-Boxborough High School which has been a driving force advocating for policy changes in the District that align with state decarbonization goals. Resource Force is currently working with the School Committee’s policy subcommittee to update its sustainability policy. A draft of the updated policy was presented to the full School Committee for a first read at its November 21 business meeting.
Crosby announced at the November 14 School Committee meeting that the District has been awarded $1.5M from the State to acquire four electric school buses. The award is a much needed supplement to the $200K awarded to the District in June from the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program and makes actionable a commitment made by the School Committee to begin a transition from fossil-fuel-reliant to all-electric vehicles.
School District rolls out updated protocols to address hate and bias incidents
At the November 14 School Committee meeting, the School District announced the rollout of updated protocols describing a comprehensive, coordinated response to hate and bias incidents. The new protocols prioritize the safety of individuals and establish guidelines for investigations, communication to stakeholders about incidents, and support for impacted parties during and after the investigative process.
Jennifer Faber, the District’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, who presented an overview of the protocols to the School Committee, noted that the document is a culmination of several years of work by the School District in collaboration with a multistakeholder Leadership Coalition to Eliminate Hate and Bias Speech. The New England Anti-Defamation League, the State Department of Education, and numerous student, staff, and community groups and organizations also provided input.
“This work started before I got here in 2022 and has continued its focus on ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment for all students and staff, and maintaining trust with our communities,” Faber said.
Faber announced the launch of a data dashboard scheduled to go live in January on the District’s website that will report the number of bullying, harassment, hate and bias incidents, and Title IX infractions above a certain threshold. Data will be updated biannually and disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and disability. “When trends are recognized, we will work internally to disrupt them,” Faber said. The School Committee voted unanimously at their November 21 business meeting to approve updates to policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment, and for Title IX protections for pregnant and parenting students.
School Committee member Andrew Schwartz reacted positively to the updated protocols and asked what preventative measures the district is taking to strengthen school cultures where intolerance of hate and bias acts are social norms. Superintendent of Schools Peter Light responded, “We are trying to take a comprehensive approach that includes programs, trainings, and professional development as well as normalizing discussions around similarities and differences so students can recognize shared interests while also appreciating how they are different.” Light noted that student groups at the high school including the Jewish Student Union, Dear Asian Youth Group, Muslim Student Union, and Black Student Union are actively engaged in bringing other students into conversations about culture.
Light told the School Committee, “The culture of creating upstanders is a really important step to interrupting patterns. Data from the work of the Leadership Coalition identified that the prevalent problem reported by students was that when people around them were silent in response to an incident, it perpetuated a culture of hate and bias. Once we identified the root cause as silence or lack of action, we began the process of training a response to interrupt incidents at the high school and junior high school. We’ll also be taking this to the elementary schools. My working theory and that of the Leadership Coalition is that when educators and students consistently interrupt incidents in the moment, that’s going to do more to shift school culture than extensive trainings.”
School Committee anticipates another tough budget cycle
The School Committee voted unanimously on November 21 to approve their budget guidelines, which will inform deliberations and decision-making as the fiscal year 2025-26 budget planning cycle gets underway. High on the list of priorities is balancing the needs of students, staff and taxpayers with an overall budget increase limited to three percent.
Early projections from District leadership for the fiscal year 2025-26 show an anticipated budget deficit of approximately 2.3M.
Superintendent of School Peter Light told the School Committee, “We knew we would continue to face budget challenges [even with an operational override approved this past April by Acton voters]. We are in a position for the upcoming fiscal year where expenses continue to outpace revenue. It is, simply put, the pressure of inflation and the cost of doing business. There are no big surprises or curve balls that we are seeing. We are going to have to make some choices balancing the needs of our students, staff and community with the resources available to us in the most sensitive, thoughtful way possible.”
Forecasted cost drivers include an increase of $3.8M in contractual obligations, increases in costs related to utilities, building maintenance, and out-of-district special education tuitions, and health insurance increases that reflect industry-wide volatility.
Though formal budget presentations are not scheduled to begin until December, School Committee Chair Adam Klein and Vice-Chair Rebeccah Wilson engaged in a brief, robust discussion regarding potential savings that might be realized by increasing class sizes at the high school which were intentionally kept below policy guidelines for the purpose of supporting teachers’ ability to meet student needs in heterogeneously grouped course-leveled classes.
“When I look at class sizes of twenty-one students or less I don’t see a return on our academic investment,” Klein said. “The Elementary Budget Task Force is asking these same questions at the elementary level. I think we have to take some of those learnings and look at the secondary level.” Member Wilson countered, “I think it’s useless to look at this from only that perspective because the people who know if we’re putting money in the right place are the teachers and students. We can’t say we think [larger caseloads] are best for everybody without asking the people who are directly affected.”
The Budget Task Force is currently working with the consultant New Solutions K12 to identify and recommend creative, cost-saving, structural efficiencies at the elementary schools that reflect consideration of the needs of students and staff while still maintaining high standards of excellence and positive student outcomes.
Student outcomes at the high school level were reported at the November 14 School Committee meeting by the District’s new superintendent for teaching and learning, Gabrielle Abrams. Abrams noted that the number of Acton-Boxborough High School students who took at least one advanced placement (AP) exam jumped from 472 in 2022 to 755 in 2024. “This is a result of a concerted effort by the high school to open up enrollment opportunities in higher level courses for more students and a more diverse student population, and tells a story of hard work and a commitment to high-level, high-quality coursework,” Abrams said.
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.