Dec 12, 2018 | Elections, Schools
By Michael E. McAllister
It was with mixed emotions today that I submitted a letter to School Committee Chair Dan Brosgol and Superintendent Jon Sills informing them of my decision not to pursue a third term on the Bedford School Committee. My current term – marking 6 years in total (including 3 years as Chair) – expires on March 9, 2019.
This decision was not an easy one to make. I continue to be genuinely engaged by the work of the School Committee and am proud of what we have accomplished, including:
Dec 8, 2018 | Boards and Committees, Schools
By Julie McCay Turner
Superintendent of Schools Jon Sills shared reflections on matters of race with the Bedford School Committee on Tuesday, November 27 and in a later email exchange with The Bedford Citizen. His remarks came after a pair of letters were sent to parents and subsequently posted in The Bedford Citizen on November 12 and on November 19.
Dec 8, 2018 | Schools
By Linda White, with photographs by Jeff JHO Hoyland
Bedford High School hosted the Sixteenth Annual Women of Science Scholarship Competition Reaching for the Starts – Celebrating Astronomical Discoveries of Women Astronomers on Saturday, December 8, 2018.
The competition involved approximately forty teams of junior and senior high school women competing in four science and engineering events. All events involved knowledge based in the areas of biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental science, math, and physics. Teams competed as a group in each of the four events.
Dec 6, 2018 | Schools
Submitted by the JGMS Science Club
Parent volunteer and rocketry hobbyist Alex Zhilyakov stepped forward this autumn to teach John Glenn Middle School students how rockets work and to help them in assembling rockets purchased from Estes Rockets by the school’s science department.
Dec 5, 2018 | Arts and Culture, Schools
Submitted by POMS – Patrons of Music Students
The fall concert season at the Bedford Public Schools is in full swing! The Performing Arts Departments at Lane, JGMS, and BHS have been working hard all year, and the student musicians are ready to show off their skills to family, friends, and community members.
The BHS orchestra and concert band will perform at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, December 11, including selections from Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” with a special guest narrator. Prokofiev’s symphonic fairy tale tells the story of a young boy, a sinister wolf, an ill-fated duck, and a cast of other human and animal creatures, as portrayed by individual instruments within the orchestra. The orchestra will also perform the first movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 25, and the band will perform Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” always a holiday favorite. Mr. Jim Felker and Ms. Brianna Creamer lead the band and orchestra, respectively.
Dec 4, 2018 | Arts and Culture, Schools
Submitted by POMS – Patrons of Music Students
The Littleton Middle School gratefully borrowed the set from last year’s spring musical, HONK! JR. Littleton students performed Honk last weekend, November 30 and December 1.
Assisting in the scenery exchange? Fellow JGMS crew member Parker Anderson-LaPorte, parents Peter Ricci and Rob Metcalf, and the JGMS scenery crew. Bedford’s artistic and technical expertise have gone viral!
Nov 30, 2018 | Schools
Submitted by the John Glenn Middle School
The John Glenn Middle School has released its Honor Roll for the first quarter of the 2018-2019 school year.
Nov 30, 2018 | Schools
Submitted by the Bedford Integrated Preschool Program
Neighborhood children who will be 3 years old by August 31st are invited to a screening for possible enrollment in Bedford’s Integrated Preschool Program. To learn more about this unique, tuition-based program offered by the Bedford School Department, visit www.bedfordps.org/preschool
Nov 28, 2018 | Schools
By Ginni Spencer
Heather Galante, principal of Bedford High School, welcomed an audience composed of parents, teachers, and students to a meeting on November 6 in the high school auditorium. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce a new program from Challenge Success, a research-based organization affiliated with Stanford University Graduate School of Education. The evening meeting followed an all-day professional gathering where the program was rolled out to high school faculty. Galante expressed her enthusiasm for the initiative and her hopes that it would become the beginning of a broad, inclusive conversation among teachers, parents, and students about new ways to help establish “balance, joy and happiness” in the lives of Bedford students. “We want our kids to build a life, not a resume,” she said.
Nov 25, 2018 | Schools, Selectmen, Sports
Compiled by The Bedford Citizen
The focus of the Bedford Rotary Club’s luncheon on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving has been the Bedford – Concord Carlisle football game since 1981, the year Mike Rosenberg introduced the concept, modeled on a similar event in Lexington. The teams gather for some pre-game conviviality, and to hear an inspiring speaker — the typical format for a Rotary lunch.
As this year’s speaker, Rosenberg might say that his long career in Bedford (multiple terms on the School Committee and as a Selectman, along with serving as editor of the Bedford Minuteman and the Lowell Sun in their glory days) pale in comparison to his 45-year stint as the BHS press box announcer, a position he has held since 1973.
