As COVID-19 infiltrates the Westford area, the School Committee led another virtual meeting on March 23 to continue discussing the virus’s impact in town. Governor Charlie Baker has instituted a stay-at-home advisory starting today March 24 and the town has declared a local state of emergency.  As...

In light of the recent spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) across the world, the School Committee Meeting met on Monday March 9 to address concerns regarding the impacts of the disease in Westford. In the absence of Superintendent Bill Olsen, Assistant Superintendent Kerry Clery gave a statement and answered...

At the Westford School Committee’s February 24 meeting, specific changes were made that will affect students mainly at the elementary level. Superintendent Bill Olsen and assistant superintendent Kerry Clery presented specific cuts to the budget concerning the $400,000 town funds to supplement higher...

Westford resident Sue Higgins has been collecting signatures for an official recall referendum election against School Committee members Avery Adam, Chris Sanders, Gloria Miller, Alicia Mallon, MingQuan Zheng and Megan Eckroth as of Wednesday, February 12. Higgins and her team expect to collect their...

On Monday February 11, a School Committee Meeting was held at Stony Brook Middle School to discuss the concerns surrounding Bill Olsen's contract renewal. Multiple Westford residents, parents, students, and teachers came forward to criticize the board's decision and to voice their reasons for why they...

Tensions rose high at the Stony Brook School as the Westford community filled the auditorium for the School Committee Meeting to confront the rumors regarding the lack of extension of Superintendent Bill Olsen's contract. Though the Committee had voted 6-1, with Sean Kelly as the sole dissenting opinion,...

On Wednesday, January 22, Superintendent Bill Olsen and Director of School Finance Ingrid Nilsson held a meeting with the School Committee to talk about the cost and logistics later start times, and generally concluded that later start times would likely not be feasible during the 2020-2021 school year. This...

On Monday, January 13, the Westford School Committee met to discuss proposed budget cuts in the Latin and English departments, as well as other service reductions. The meeting lasted nearly four hours and featured speakers who would be directly affected by the proposed budget cuts, such as Sarah Bjorkman,...

On December 17, 2018, Superintendent Bill Olsen issued a final approval of the graduation cap and gown policy, which took effect in the 2019-20 schoolyear. The policy changed from “boys wear maroon, girls wear white” to a choice of either a maroon or white gown for the Class of 2019. For the class...

For the past two years, the School Committee has been trying to implement later start times for the entire Westford school district. Their main purpose in doing so is to relieve Westford Academy student stress and increase the amount of sleep high school students get. While I appreciate them trying to...

At the Westford School Committee’s most recent meeting on December 11, 2019, almost 100 Westford residents gathered at the Millennium School to attend Superintendent Bill Olsen and Assistant Superintendent Kerry Clery’s presentation regarding recent school budget cut proposals. In short, Olsen has...

In the previous installment of this budget series, we discussed some of the how and the why of Westford's school budget crunch. Now we break down the state aid formula, or money the state gives to make sure Massachusetts schools function at a minimum level, and outline all the ways in which it falls...