By Stefanie Doucette
Staff Writer
Despite having been hanging on every wall for the past year, not many students can recite the mission statement in its entirety. This is stirring up panic throughout the WA community of faculty and administration, seeing how NEASC is coming to evaluate Westford Academy in just 18 days.
From October 18th, to October 24th NEASC – formally known as New England Accreditation of Schools and Colleges – will be perusing WA and evaluating it according to set standards of academic acceptability. Although Westford has been a part of NEASC for nearly 40 years, this is the first time in 10 years that Westford is up for accreditation.
The main focus of any NEASC evaluation requires a school specific mission statement on which they can judge how well said school follows to it. This is what instigated Mr. Antonelli, Mr. Goldberg, and a handful of other staff members and student representatives to put WA’s most esteemed values into words as an official mission statement in 2008.
Goldberg said, “It was always around to some extent in every aspect of what the school stands for, but now it has just been organized and revitalized.”
Coming up with the mission statement was no small feat, though, according to Goldberg. The entire faculty, as well as certain student body representatives, were broken down into eight smaller committees. Each committee then came up with particular points they felt were most important to the Westford Academy community. Finally, this was all compiled into the mission statement students see hanging in every room of the building. Although time consuming, it was a worthwhile process.
“Its creation was a school-wide effort, which is a really cool concept that seems to reflect its purpose,” says Goldberg.
However, has all this effort gone to waste? In a random poll of the school cafeteria, 12 students could properly recite it.
When asked, Senior Maria Hodgins replied, “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”
Junior Amanda Szidat’s started to say, “In collaboration with…?” but could not recite any farther.
Nevertheless, administration isn’t too stressed, despite the fact NEASC will be here within the month. Their goal is to have students be able to just pull out a few key points, such as “ever-changing global society” or “fostering tolerance.”
In fact, Goldberg would actually prefer this to word-for-word recitation.
“I would be more concerned if all 1600 students knew it verbatim. It would be too robotic and more like brainwashing than anything else,” said Goldberg.
His only concern is that NEASC officials share his view on the matter and understand when no one knows the mission statement.
But there is also the issue of whether or not WA actually follows its mission statement. Some students feel as though it is a false truth or an exaggeration.
Szidat says, “I think it’s what administration wants us to be, but not what we actually are.”
NEASC might not see Westford Academy as tolerant or embodying academic excellence as the mission statement claims.
What Goldberg feels is most important, though, is that the students understand what the mission statement is all about, NEASC aside. It was created to provide a sense of pride for the school community and promote its most esteemed qualities.
“Most students think it’s a little silly. But what’s important is that they know why it exists and what it stands for,” said Goldberg.
