ANNUAL REPORT 2021–2022 | 3
SUPERINTENDENT’S WELCOME
ACTON AND BOXBOROUGH COMMUNITY,
It is hard to imagine that I am wrapping up my fourth year as Superintendent of Schools here at A-B. In some ways, it feels like I joined the community yesterday, and in pandemic years, possibly a bit longer. At this time last summer all signs pointed to a return to normal schooling. Later that summer the Delta Variant threw us a curve ball and we had to again implement elements of our COVID restrictions. There is good news, however: our students had a full 180 day school year of fully in-person learning! Looking back, I think we can all share a sense of
pride and relief that it is safe for our students to be fully back in school. The 2021–22 school year was not without continuing challenges: we battled bus driver shortages, as well as shortages of assistants, substitute teachers and food services staff. As COVID cases amongst our staff rose during the winter and spring, keeping schools staffed became challenging. There are success stories for the year as well: we worked with our local boards of health to provide vaccination clinics for our students, resumed all of our activities for students and welcomed families back into our schools, resumed field trips and student travel experiences, and were able to be mask-optional for about half of the year. Despite all of these changes and the impact of the pandemic, our educators and families continued to support strong student achievement. In September 2021, ABRHS was named the top high school in the state by Boston Magazine for a second consecutive year. The Department of Education also contacted us to learn about our approach to mathematics during the pandemic because our students had the highest growth rate in the state for mathematics in grades K-8 among schools testing more than a small handful of students. I am incredibly proud of our educators and families, but most importantly, our students. A-B continues to provide one of the best values for education in the Commonwealth.
Looking ahead, I am excited for the 2022–2023 school year. We are expanding our work around social emotional learning, and have plans in place to increase access for students to mental health and behavioral health supports. We are implementing a comprehensive, multi-tiered system of support to ensure that all of our students continue to be successful academically, socially, and emotionally. Finally, we are continuing our work to ensure that the diversity of our students and their families is broadly represented in our curriculum and schools. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to our staff, families, and community for the support they provided to our students throughout these last two challenging years. I am especially grateful to our nurses for their dedication and leadership during the pandemic. Finally, I want to thank the citizens of Acton and Boxborough for your continued support of our excellent schools.
Peter Light SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
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