Posts Tagged ‘school’
Brave New World
Less than a year after dumping the Warrior logo, the Wakefield School Committee continues to demonstrate that they are more in tune with global causes than they are with the local taxpayers who pay the freight. Last week, they quietly changed Columbus Day to “Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day.” And nobody said a word. The 2022-2023 […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: America, Aztecs, calendar, Christopher Columbus, colonizers, Columbus Day, education, European, explorer, History, human sacrifice, Humor, Indians, Indigenous People, Italian-Americans, Italians, learning, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, New World, North America, Opinion, Peru, Politics, Reuters, Scandinavian, school, stolen land, students, teachers, Vikings, virtue signaling, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Memorial High School, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield School Committee, WakefieldMA, Western Hemisphere
High school confidential
If you thought the Warrior logo issue that roiled the Wakefield community last spring was just going to go away quietly, that’s what’s known as wishful thinking. At least that’s what the anti-logo side was wishing would happen. But the Warrior logo is back in the news, and once again, it wasn’t the pro-logo side […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Ami Wall, Doug Lyons, election, Humor, Indian, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, Opinion, Politics, public records, Richard Bayrd, school, School Committee, survey, Suzy Veilleux, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, warrior
Undue process
“First we have the fair trial, then we hang him.” That quote from Judge Roy Bean came to mind last week as I watched the School Committee discuss the “process” that would be used to determine the fate of the Wakefield Warrior logo. After this “process” plays out, the School Committee, in its adopted role […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: Aimee Purcell, ballot question, Colleen Guida, court, Darci Burns, execution, Finance Committee, gallows, Greg Liakos, hanging, hangman, Humor, Judge Roy Bean, justice, logo, Mark Sardella, Mike Boudreau, Opinion, Politics, process, referendum, school, School Committee, sentence, Thomas Markham, Town Council, Town Election, trial, verdict, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrior, Youth Council, Zoom
Offensive strategy
If nothing else, the current debate over the Wakefield Warrior logo has been educational. I’m not talking about learning the unique history of the logo. It’s been well-established that a local Native American family and the four-star general for whom we named the Galvin Middle School played key roles in the history of the Warrior […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: ancestry, athletes, children, education, Galvin Middle School, game plan, heritage, History, Indian, jocks, John R. Galvin, logo, Mark Sardella, Native American, Opinion, Politics, Richard Bayrd, school, strategy, students, tactics, U.S. Census, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, warrior, Youth Council
Snowbound snowflakes
They don’t make snow days like they used to. I don’t know when everything changed. Maybe it was the Blizzard of ’78 that traumatized us to the point where we no longer take any chances. Way back in the 20th century, when I was a youth, we never had the luxury of knowing 24 hours […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: blizzard, bus stop, Climate Change, driveway, Internet, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, radio, school, school bus, shoveling, sled, snow, snow blower, snow day, snowboard, snowflake, storm, technology, Television, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools, winter
Commencement Address
Greetings parents, guardians, students, faculty and other stakeholders. On behalf of this professional learning community and its educators, it is a pleasure to welcome you to today’s commencement exercises. I am pleased that you were able to leverage your resources in such a way as to join us today. Our strategic plan for this afternoon […]
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Tags: commencement address, diploma, education, educator, eduspeak, faculty, graduate, graduation speech, jargon, learning, lingo, Mark Sardella, pedagogy, school, schools, student, teacher, Wakefield Daily Item
The Big Ask
Wakefield School Department officials have acknowledged that their requested 11.4 percent budget increase for FY 2016 is “a big ask.” The largest piece of that increase is $1,176,875 (3.8 percent) for “contractual salary obligations.” Another $658,174 (2.1 percent) is for SPED tuitions and $628,218 (2 percent) goes to fund salaries related to the newly instituted […]
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Tags: Big Ask, budget, Christopher Callanan, Daniel Sherman, Dr. Stephen Zrike, Edward Dombroski, Finance Committee, Gerard Leeman, Mark Sardella, school, School Committee, schools, Wakefield Daily Item, William Boodry
Commencement Speech
We are right in the middle of the graduation season, and I am again available for a small stipend to deliver the keynote address at any commencement ceremonies. Or you can save yourselves the money, save me some time, and spare your graduates a few minutes of agony and just read it here. Graduates, distinguished […]
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Tags: commencement, graduates, graduation, Mark Sardella, school, speech, students, Wakefield Daily Item
Keep Neighborhood Polling Places
Largely ignored in all the excitement over the margin of victory in the June 9 Special Election was the fact that the decision to build a new Galvin Middle School was made by a minority of the town’s voters. Less than one-third of those eligible weighed in with a vote. If you count only the […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Daily Item, election, elections, Galvin, Galvin Middle School, Galvinize, Galvinize Wakefield, Mark Sardella, polling places, Proposition 2 1/2, school, schools, tax, taxes, vote, voters, votes, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
One Issue Wonders
Every time a special interest group manages to pack Town Meeting to ram their pet measure through, local government geeks find themselves wondering if there will be some long-term residual benefit, some lasting silver lining to this cynical exercise. Surely, they imagine, out of this great mass of people here to vote on their one […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: ballot, ballot question, debt exclusion, election, Galvin Middle School, Galvinize, Galvinize Wakefield, June 9, Mark Sardella, new Galvin Middle School, property tax, Proposition 2 1/2, rebuild, school, school building project, school construction, schools, taxes, Town Meeting, vote, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
Mark Sardella 