Stephanie Gagnon & Theresa Yuan
Staff Writers

Since the Ghostwriter is now online, we had the opportunity to create  a video interview with Mr. Antonelli, the principal of Westford Academy. He spoke with us about his goals for the new school year, his opinions on some current events and issues, and his dear wish to wear a funny tie.

Antonelli’s main goals for the new 09-10 school year include keeping the MCAS scores in the top 10 percentile, and to keep the AP scores consistently high. He also encourages students to stay after school and stay engaged, while becoming “well-rounded students” with their co-curricular activities.

“In Long-Range Goals, I really see that I would like to have students with more community service,” Antonelli said. “Right now it’s a recommended 40 hours of community service, and I would like to see somewhere in the range of 100 hours over the four years.”

He would like to give foreign language and fine arts a more active presence in students’ lives. Aside from these goals for students, he would like the school to receive a successful accreditation from NEASC, which comes in October.

When speaking about NEASC, he said, “I’m looking forward to the visit; it’s been a long journey. It’s been two years of arduous work, putting together the self-study reports and such. I think we’re going to do very well. I’m very confident that we have very thorough reports. People were very thoughtful in putting together those together. I’m excited to finally have students involved in the process.”

He went on to explain that the results will come in the form of a grade – Deficient, Proficient, or Limited – and a recommendation for the future.

Next, we asked him about some of the new changes to the student handbook. He mentioned that there was no problem with the use of iPods and cell phones if it was appropriate. Since they were interfering with the servers in the school, however, new measures have been taken regarding cell phones. If a student wants to use one during the day, s/he will have to go to the office to borrow the school phone there.

Antonelli was very pleased with the response to the new tardiness policy, or “7:35 rule.” He said that tardiness has dropped off significantly since the implementation of this new rule.

We discussed current events – including environmental measures, Obama’s speech on education, and the recession – and their impact on WA. Regarding the environment, he explained many new procedures that are now in place, which have helped the town to reduce energy usage by 5%. These include measures taken by the teachers to turn off their lights and their computers, etc. He reminded us that new ideas for environmental conservation, like reusing Styrofoam and plastic, are always welcome, especially from students.

His response to President Obama’s back-to-school speech was affirmative. He agreed that the messages in the speech were true, and that it was good that the President was focusing his energies on a successful start to the school year. He believed that it corresponded to the WA mission statement, encouraging tolerance, high expectations, and critical thinking.

On the subject of the recession, he said that Westford is a very fortunate town in the fact that our board of selectmen have been “fiscally conservative.” In fact, he went on to mention that we are in the bottom third for per-pupil-expenditure, but in the top 10% in the state for test scores. However, the extended forecast for the recession will make for a “fiscally difficult year” ahead.

On a lighter note, Antonelli mentioned that some of his favorite memories from the WA games included the football game on September 18th, when he was able to watch the new WA Marching Band in full uniform. He described it as “spectacular.” He also liked the recent win against Chelmsford High School. He also enjoys it when he gets to watch the students being competitive.

As the principal of WA, Antonelli said that he doesn’t have just one “proudest moment” of his school, but many. He said, “It is exciting to watch all the pieces and parts come together, and to see that people are proud of WA and will go the extra mile.”

His favorite thing to do as a principal is to visit the classrooms and attend different events at the school. He really likes to engage with his students. One of his personal goals is to visit more classrooms this year.

When asked if he had ever considered other careers, he stated that he has “no higher aspirations” than to be a principal. He likes being with the students, and being a daily part of the school community. However, he said that the only other career he could consider would be as a principal of a lower-elementary school, where he would be able to wear a wacky tie.

Hopefully not too wacky – we like him right where he is.