How One Town Is Reaching New Heights With Its Public School System
With over 7,000 students enrolled and still rising, Lexington Public Schools have no sign of stopping. Lexington, Massachusetts home to the Battle Green, offers many tools and accommodations for students to succeed.
Lexington invests a large portion of its money on a wide variety of sports, extracurricular activities and diverse programs for all ages.
Alongside of the public school system, the town also offers outside opportunities such as the recreation department with jobs, internships, lessons and more.
Mrs. Troianello, a secretary at Diamond Middle School says, “the excellent educational system brings the majority of residents to Lexington. The educational standards are high Money is invested in tools. For example, Chromebooks and laptops are given for all to use.”
Another aspect of the town’s success is the effort placed on maintaining a strong LABBB program, which stands for Lexington Arlington, Burlington, Bedford, Belmont.
This special program accommodates people that are mentally challenged and physically challenged. Not every town has this program.
The LABBB program also offers dances, sports activities and parties. During the summer, they have open swim hours at the Lexington Town Pool.
Kathleen Carcione, a former secretary at Lexington High School says, “if a person who has hearing impairment, Lexington has on staff, full time, a hearing specialist who goes to the different schools and works with children that are hearing impaired. Not only does she work with them, Lexington will provide whatever they need, in terms of hearing aids, physical things in the classroom like putting sound barriers to help and Lexington will finance it all.”
To compensate for the rise of enrolled students, Lexington has built modules and extended their school buildings with new floors.
Even so, it is projected that they will also build a new High School and tear down the old one.
Additionally, if there is a student who is brilliant and excels at their academics, Lexington Public Schools will provide college leveled courses for them.
Students in Massachusetts are also required to complete MCAS, which stands for the Massachusetts Comprehension Assessment System. Carcione also says, “Lexington is scoring 98% in Math and 98% in Reading. The state average is 52%.”
Another highlight that Lexington Public Schools have is the METCO program. This program helps bus people from Boston to Lexington Schools. Students have to be on the bus by 6:00 AM to be sent to Lexington.
Kathleen Carcione mentions the story of, “a brilliant person that was a METCO student and when I looked up her transcripts to print them out for colleges, never did she get anything below an A. She was unbelievably brilliant and got a four-year scholarship to Harvard.” The student was asked by the super attendant about what she attributed her success to.
She responded by saying it was her peers. As a result of being placed in an accelerated class with other students, it encouraged and motivated her to work harder to stay at that level.
Lexington Public Schools remain strong and continue to grow in enrollment numbers despite COVID-19 restrictions. With the financial benefits, tools and programs provided, Lexington has become one of the best school educations in Massachusetts.
