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Class of 2024 ~ JGMS Luau Parade and Moving On Celebration

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Bright sunshine, blue skies, a sea of colorful tropical leis, a few grass skirts, and smiles aplenty greeted members of the Class of 2024 during the JGMS Moving On Parade celebration on Monday, June 15.  JGMS principal, Kevin Tracey, and faculty members sporting tropical attire and leis lined the parade circle to greet the students who arrived masked and in decorated vehicles, both vintage and new. The atmosphere was festive and observant of social distancing. Students were presented with their certificates, class gifts, and took advantage of a photo op with Principal Tracey and a colorful tropical backdrop.

Following the parade, Principal Tracey still attired in his Hawaiian shirt and lei presided over a virtual Class of 2024 Awards Ceremony. Moving On students and families were present via Zoom and others were invited to watch the live Bedford TV coverage. The National Anthem was presented by the Eighth Grade chorus led by Amy Budka and accompanied by Thomas Griffin.  After welcoming everyone, Tracey took an opportunity to thank and acknowledge the many individuals (parents, JGMS faculty and staff,
Bedford school administrators, Davis and Lane teachers, and Bedford community members) who have supported the students throughout their educational experience and especially during this Covid-19  period of distance learning

Schools

School Committee Confirms Y2020-21 Budget Cuts

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At their June 16 meeting, the School Committee approved the 2020-21 school year budget, approved changes to the JGMS and BHS handbooks, and approved a two month contract for retiring Superintendent Jon Sills to assume an associate superintendent position from July 1 through August 31, 2020.

Bedford

Parents Diversity Council – A Community Resource that We Need More Than Ever

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In light of the recent tragic events involving the death of George Floyd and many others, and increasing racial tensions across our country, the Bedford Parents Diversity Council invites you to learn about its mission and goal to be a community resource. The PDC, a long-time vision of Superintendent Jon Sills, was officially launched in 2019. The group’s ultimate goal is to create a culture of belonging among families of all aged students in Bedford, Boston (our METCO students and families), and Hanscom Air Force Base.

Bedford Education Foundation Announces its Summer Grant

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We at the Bedford Education Foundation (BEF) hope that this message finds you and yours well at this challenging time for our community and our country as a whole.  Now, for some good news…

The BEF Grant Committee has voted to award the Bedford Public Schools a $15,000 grant for two site licenses, one each for Davis and Lane Schools, for the Lexia Core5 Reading (Lexia) program. Lexia is an online tool that students in grades K-5 will use to build their reading skills. The program supports educators in providing differentiated literacy instruction for students of all abilities from grades Pre-K to 5.

Schools

Back-to-Back School Committee Meetings Push Proposed FY21 Budget Closer To Reality

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The School Committee met twice last week, once on June 10 and again on June 11.

June 10th Meeting
At their June 10 meeting, the School Committee approved a $1,278,000 reduction to the originally proposed FY21 School Budget. This vote did not approve cuts to specific line items, rather a collective reduction.

June 11th Meeting
The following night, at their June 11 meeting, the School Committee deliberated the reductions that were proposed at the previous meeting.

The School Committee was met by a vocal group of parents, advocating for special education, world language, and the gifted and talented program. Superintendent Jon Sills and School Committee Chair JoAnn Santiago assured parents that the comments would be taken into consideration.

2020 COVID-19

Celebrating the Class of 2020 ~ The Citizen’s Special Tribute Edition

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Today in the virtual pages of The Bedford Citizen we bring you our first-ever Special Tribute Edition dedicated to all of Bedford’s high school seniors. Whether you attended Bedford High School, Shawsheen Tech, or an independent high school we salute your achievements and your resilience in this very unusual year.

Click this link in the actual story to read The Bedford Citizen’s Tribute to the Class of 2020. After graduation The Citizen will offer this special edition in PDF format,
so it can be printed and saved alongside your yearbook and other mementos.

I know there was a lot surrounding graduation that didn’t happen this year…but we are struck by the creative and innovative ways that so much did happen…and may even happen yet. Virtual awards are not as much fun as the in-person events, but our kids got recognized. While photos of friends in caps and gowns are not as wonderful as photos together in caps and gowns, hundreds of pictures and videos are being shared through The Citizen. Yard signs dot our local landscape…and for the first time were hand-delivered by BHS principal Heather Galante and teacher Charlie Humphrey. Cap-and-gown pick-up was transformed into a mini-parade which made a socially distanced attempt to allow students and teachers to see one another one last time.

To the Class of 2020: We’ve brought all of this and more together into a single edition of The Bedford Citizen. This edition captures the ways in which parents, teachers, administrators, town officials and employees, and Bedford at-large came together in the Year of the Pandemic to ensure that your graduation would be recognized and remembered as the important milestone it is…Covid-19 be damned!

A huge thank-you and shout-out to the many hands that brought this special edition to life: Heather Galante; Andy Pigeon; Charlie Humprey; Patrick Morrissey; Jonathan Pierre; Keith Mangan; Karen Santos; the 2020 BHS Senior Parents Committee; Jeff Hoyland; Rep. Ken Gordon; and all those who generously shared their videos and photographs with us.

The Bedford Citizen’s Tribute to the Class of 2020 was coordinated by Ginni Spencer with help from Gene Kalb, Meredith McCulloch, Mike Rosenberg, Jordan Stewart, and Julie Turner.

2020 COVID-19

Ninth Annual Tenacity Challenge Grapples with Racism, Reparations, and the 2020 Elections

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For the first time since its inception, the L&A2 Tenacity Challenge, could not be held in person. Undeterred, however, by the limitations of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bedford High School virtually hosted its annual academic scholarship competition for Latino and African-American high school students from urban and suburban districts across Massachusetts.

Even with the limitations resulting from a mid-semester shift to on-line learning, teams from Framingham, Lowell, Methuen and Newton North, in their determination to compete in the ninth annual challenge collaborated and prepared remotely to present arguments and analyses on this year’s theme – Racism, Reparations and the 2020 Elections.

Celebrating the BHS Class of 2020

Recognizing Bedford Students in the Class of 2020 at Shawsheen Tech

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Like countless seniors around the nation, Shawsheen Tech’s Class of 2020 has a distinctly unique Senior Year. This year’s graduating class includes 5 students from Bedford.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Andy Pidgeon for helping The Bedford Citizen to recognize these students for their hard work and determination during their time at Shawsheen Tech. Shawsheen’s graduation ceremony is set for three evenings — June 16, 17, and 18 pending approval of the Billerica Board of Health. Final details will be released as soon as they are available.

Schools

A Message from Superintendent Jon Sills ~ Reductions to the FY21 School Budget

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Editor’s Note: The following message regarding reductions to the FY21 budget, was sent by School Superintendent Jon Sills  to families on Sunday, June 7, 2020

As you may be aware, the school department is required to reduce the FY21 budget that we originally created with the support of the School Committee, and which received the support of the Finance Committee back in January, by $1,278,000.  This is due to over $2,000,000 in reduced state and local revenues.

While we are not reducing below our FY20 budget number, we are significantly reducing what we originally proposed for FY21.  The $1,278,000 net reductions change our FY21 budget from a 3.5% increase over FY20 plus a $450,000 extra fund for what were extraordinary out-of-district special education costs, to a .4% increase plus the extra special education funds.  In looking at where to make these changes, we could not simply eliminate the new positions we had asked for, as these are needed to meet our special education/IEP ethical and legal obligations and anticipated increases in emotional and mental health needs.

Click the following links in the actual document:

Read the FY21 Budget Chart – Bedford School Department 06072020

The School Committee will meet in remote session at noon on Wednesday, June 10; click this link for the agenda and instructions for joining the meeting

Schools

Saluting Bedford’s Spring Athletes ~ 2020, the Vanished Season

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Thanks to Mr. Hoyland for memorializing the 2019 season for the spring teams, and to Mr. Mangan for his roster of all the athletes who would have competed.

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, Bedford’s spring athletic season was just beginning to get organized.

When the stay-at-home order went into effect in mid-March, the season ended before it began.

A look back at Spring, 2019

2020 COVID-19

Messages for the Class of 2020 ~ Thinking of You Today

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Early in 2019, the Bedford School Department set  Graduation for the Class of 2020 on Thursday, June 4.

The last day of in-person classes was  Thursday, March 12, before Covid-19 and a mandated stay-at-home order turned the world on its ear. Classes switched to online learning, and the rest is history.

To honor Thursday, June 4, this story is posting just after 6 pm on 6/4/2020. Superintendent Sills, Principal Galante, METCO Director Mondesir, and School Committee Chair Santiago have checked in with messages to you, the BHS Class of 2020.

2020 Annual Town Meeting

EXTRA! EXTRA! The Bedford Citizen Announces Special Tribute Edition Dedicated to ALL BEDFORD SENIORS!

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The Bedford Citizen is pleased to announce that it is preparing its first-ever special edition which will be dedicated exclusively to local young people graduating from high school this year. This issue will be published on or about June 8th and will be chock full of written content, photos, and videos for and about them.

Can you help us by sharing photos of students taken over the course of this year and most importantly taken during the time leading up to what-would-have-been-graduation?  Our goal is to create a keepsake edition for seniors and their families capturing this very unique commencement year.  (We are particularly interested in cap-and-gown photos but you are not limited to that.)

Please note: The Citizen wishes to honor ALL of Bedford’s high school graduates, not just those graduating from BHS. If your senior attended Shawsheen Valley Technical High School or an independent high school outside of Bedford we would like to honor them as well.

Photos may be submitted to editor@thebedfordcitizen.org.  Please include names, dates, and the high school from which your senior is graduating if other than Bedford High School.

2020 COVID-19

Celebrating Senior Night ~ Buccaneers Baseball, 2020

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On what should have been the last home game for the seniors on the Bedford Bucs Baseball Team, the evening of May 27, 2020, the team’s 8 members of the Class of 2020 gathered on A field to celebrate Senior Night, the capstone of their high school baseball careers.

It was the season that wasn’t when the pandemic halted all practices and every game.

The 55th Annual CSF of Bedford Awards ~ 2020

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The platform was Zoom, and the checks were mailed, but the Bedford Chapter  of Dollars for Scholars hosted its 55th annual awards presentation on a YouTube video released on Friday afternoon.

The names of the awardees are listed in alphabetical order, along with their probable college destination, and the scholarship(s) each received.

The designation Dollars for Scholars refers to awards underwritten by donations to the annual Phono-a-Thon held in March each year.

All of the recipients are Bedford residents, and most are Seniors at Bedford High School although the program is open to all students graduating with the Class of 2020.

Schools

The Long Goodbye – Cut Short – The March 11th Project – Continued

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What I do know is that even if I had known that March 11 was my final day of school, there still
is no “right” or “perfect” way to say farewell. I know I would have taken the opportunity to say a final thank you to my teachers and express how much they mean to me, and how grateful I am for their belief in me and their ongoing mentorship.

Caps and Gowns and Ups and Downs

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On a hot, sunny afternoon more reminiscent of July than late May, Bedford High School (BHS) seniors yesterday drove by the main entrance of the building they left forever on March 11 to pick up their caps and gowns.  Supported by an energetic faculty and administrative staff, a plan was developed to turn the normally routine dropping off of books and school equipment and picking up of graduation garb into a fun event that would inject a note of celebration into the disappointment that has pervaded this year’s many canceled activities.