10 | ACTON-BOXBOROUGH REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT
We’ve Created a Revolution
tation from students, staff, alumni, booster organiza- tions, youth sports, and parents/community members at-large. In parallel, the high school established a Student Working Group to lead the development of a new Mascot. Both groups met throughout the year and solicited considerable feedback from stakeholders. Initially, our Student Working Group sent a survey to our students, staff, alumni, and community to solicit initial ideas for a new mascot. The survey was sent to nearly 20,000 email addresses and posted to social media in multiple forums. There were over 2,200 responses to this initial survey and it generated more than 400 unique suggestions . Our students then worked as a group, with consistent feedback from the Mascot Screening Subcommittee, to analyze the initial data and synthesize a list of finalists from the ideas that were generated. This analysis and the deliberations of the Student Working Group, resulted in four finalists to be recommended to the community for additional feedback. Our students then solicited additional feedback from students, staff and the broader community. This survey was then distributed in a manner similar to the initial survey and resulted in over 1,500 responses from students, almost 500 staff, and over 3,700 community members . Our Student Working Group then met after April Vacation and deliberated over the course of two days on a final recommendation. After vigorous discussion and debate, the Student Working Group came to unanimous consensus to recommend that we be The Acton-Boxborough Revolution or A-B Revolution .
The fight for positive change and equity never ends; it is the voice of the people: a Revolution. It acknowledges our past, but speaks to our future. We are innovators, barrier breakers, and difference makers. A Revolution represents a show of ingenious strength, challenging, outsmarting, and overwhelming the status quo The Acton-Boxborough (A-B) “Revolution” After significant work over the course of the year by our Student Working Group and Mascot Screening Subcommitte, and by a vote in May 2022 by the School Committee, we were pleased to announce that the the new official mascot of the Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools is: In October 2020, the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee voted to retire the “Colonials” as the mascot of the Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools. The school committee solicited and heard public com- ment from over 700 individuals through a combination of live and email testimony leading to this decision. After deliberation on the issue, the School Committee ultimately voted to retire the mascot. A subcommittee was composed of 17 members and included represen-
We would like to thank once more the students and staff who served on the Student Working Group, as well as the community members on the Mascot Screen- ing Committee, for their efforts over the course of this past school year. We also appreciate the significant input and feedback from students, families, community, and alumni during the selection process. There are community members and alumni whose experiences have included, and will continue to include, a bond with the Colonial mascot. That bond will always exist and we recognize its place in our school’s history. We now look forward to beginning a new chapter in our community’s story with A-B Revolution as our mascot. As School Committee Vice Chair Kyra Wilson- Cook noted during deliberation, “we are blessed to see our community change, morph, and grow, just as it has from the beginning. Our students have been given the extraordinary gift to feel grounded in our community’s history and to use that foundation to reach, to risk, and to realize their destinies.” As we embark on this next chapter, we will soon begin the process for developing a visual represen- tation to accompany the Revolution mascot and take steps to incorporate the imagery into our schools, fields, and activities.
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