The Spectrum 2020-2021
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AB Community Striving for More Diverse Staff in Schools
BY NOSARA MAXWELL '23
Most Acton-Boxborough students graduate without having a single teacher of color throughout their thirteen years in the district. 
Currently, minority educators make up less than 6 percent of Acton-Boxborough Regional School District’s (ABRSD) staff. However, students and administration are working to change that statistic in order to reflect a growing
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BLM at AB​
BY AVA WONG '23
In the first 8 months of 2020, police in the US killed 164 Black people. One of those deaths includes George Floyd, whose unjust treatment has inspired more than 25 million people to protest against racism. “I think that we've opened our hearts enough, and we've rendered our souls enough that we're finally ready to face each other and do that pushing and pulling. We're ready to do the work,” said Kyra Wilson Cook...
Cancelled Student Government Elections
BY ADI RAMAN '23
Student government serves as a bridge between the student body and administration in many schools, and Acton-Boxborough is no exception. However, this year, a minimal amount of applicants led to the forgoing of student elections in November, so applicants automatically assumed their positions. This trend is especially interesting for Student Council (StuCo), the branch of government at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School that can implement changes on the most regular basis. 
In a written interview, the elected officers of the Student Council and their advisors helped explain this subgroup of AB student government and how it...
Going Fully Remote and Where We Stand
BY SOPHIA SAGHIR '24
As COVID-19 cases surge across Massachusetts, Governor Baker has reimposed statewide restrictions to slow the spread. Such measures include limiting the maximum number of people allowed at outdoor gatherings to twenty-five people; reducing the capacity of businesses, gyms, libraries, museums, offices, and houses of worship from fifty to twenty-five percent; and mandating mask use while in public settings. Even school districts that previously offered a hybrid learning program for the 2020-21 school year have switched to a remote learning format due to the risk of in-school transmission. As of December 1st, 23% of Massachusetts districts are completely...
Hot Spots to Hang out at AB
BY MAY HONG '23 & KATHERINE LEE '23
On the surface, Acton is your average small suburban town, with nothing to do and few defining characteristics. However, its community and ambiance is something that no metropolis could ever recreate: Acton is a great place to live, despite its superficial blandness. From Nara Park to the bike trails, Acton’s current facilities are underappreciated. To rectify this oversight, we have gone through and compiled a list...
No More Snow Days?
BY ERIN TOBIN '23
Ahhh, snow days. We all know the nostalgia of waking up, seeing the backyard transformed into a winter wonderland, and gliding down the stairs to ask, “Did the school call, is it really a snow day?!” We remember the instant glee hearing a “yes!” in response and knowing that a day of friends, snowball fights, and hot cocoa awaited. From superstitious beliefs like putting a spoon under your pillow to using a snow day
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Colonials Mascot Removal Underscores Division in the AB Community
BY MILENA ZHU '22
On October 15, the AB school committee unanimously decided to retire the Colonials mascot. Moments after the decision, many took to social media to express their outrage or support, reigniting the contentious debate. 
The push for a new mascot has been prevalent for a number of years. However, it wasn’t until this year when the possibility began to take form. In early June, a “Let’s Change the AB ‘Colonials’ Mascot” petition was created. The removal was considered a first step in making our district inclusive of students of all communities. Our mascot, proponents for the change reasoned, was a symbol of oppression and colonization, and represented actions not to be placed upon a pedestal. In the summer, Acton-Boxborough Students for Equity and Justice (ABSEJ), a group of alumni and a few students focused on bringing social change to AB, was also created. Their efforts began consolidating in July when ABSEJ reached out to the Nipmuc tribe, whose ancestors first occupied Acton land. A representative, Brittany Wally, helped guide ABSEJ’s research and focus. Also around that time, ABSEJ formulated the logistics for removing the mascot and scheduled a meeting with the Acton-...
The Pandemic-Induced Digital Age
BY ADI RAMAN '23
Schools around the world have made significant operative changes to reduce the spread of COVID-19. These decisions have manifested in the form of remote and hybrid learning programs at AB, forcing students to use more online platforms in a world already dominated by screens. While students and faculty find positives within this situation, experts and teachers question the long-term effects of spending so much time online...
What Would Remote Learning Have Looked Like Ten Years Ago?
BY KERA MATTHEWS '24 & SOPHIA SAGHIR '24
As a society, we have come a long way technologically. In just a decade, the public has been introduced to a new generation of innovations
—including electronics, social media platforms, and online services--to make our lives more convenient. These technological advancements have become essential to our daily lives, especially for those enrolled in remote learning programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, students rely...
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A Club’s Inspiring Transformation: The Decline and Revival of The Spectrum
BY SOPHIE ZHANG '22
From assembling the newspaper’s layout by hand in the ’90s to conducting meetings over Zoom in our present day, The Spectrum continues to evolve. However, I learned last year that The Spectrum I know and love today differs greatly from what it once was. There wasn’t always an organized process of writing articles or a precise structure to running meetings. In fact, The Spectrum couldn’t even afford to print around five years ago. With an ever-rotating staff, our beloved newspaper has surely had its ups and downs since its founding in 1982. 
Between 2014 and 2016, The Spectrum experienced “a steep decline,” according to Ms. Hammond, the newspaper’s advisor since 2005. She points out that there were “some less motivated members of the editorial staff” who had inherited the titles but “weren’t contributing a lot.” One leader in particular had other commitments and couldn’t be regularly relied on. Few were coming to meetings and recruiting writers, and articles were pulled together at the last minute. Furthermore, no one was willing to sell advertisements and raise money to print The Spectrum, leading to a virtual newspaper in 2015. However, creating a website lacked appeal to staff
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COVID’s Impact on Local Businesses
BY DIVYA PRASATH '23
During a time when every individual is concerned with their own well-being, local business owners have given special attention to their stores. According to the Acton government, profits have rapidly declined, losses ranging anywhere between 15 to 66 percent. 
Additionally, COVID-19 has caused a severe drop in customers, forcing many shops to shut down. Further, as restrictions loosened and the possibility of reopening hung in the air, many still had no system for safer operation, but they persisted. The pandemic has pushed store owners to adapt their normal work routine to continue operation while accommodating for customers needs. To gather information on the specific impacts of COVID-19, I interviewed Dawn...

Financial Impact of COVID-19 on AB Schools
BY ADI RAMAN '23
As we prepare for the upcoming school year, the battle against COVID-19 persists, forcing ABRSD to continuously adapt. Thus, in May, the district reduced the 2020-2021 budget by around $550K to account for economic uncertainty and to further support student education and school operations
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The budget is sourced mostly sourced mostly from local and state...
A New Digital Age for AB
BY SOPHIE ZHANG '22
Pre-pandemic, AB schools remained relatively tech-free with paper assignments and notes. COVID-19, however, has forced education to go digital and thus requires access to devices. Overseen by Student Dean Mr. Hohn and the new Digital Literacy Coach, Ms. Foley, the 1:1 Chromebook Initiative will give every...
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The Drawbridge Mentality—Exclusion and Escapism in Acton Massachusetts
BY THE REPORTING TEAM
It’s a wintry Thursday in the last week of January, in a grand room on the second floor of Town Hall. Posters are spaced evenly around the brightly-lit room, featuring colorful charts paired with questions such as “What demographic trends surprised you?” or “Where should new housing be built?” Staffers direct each attendee to pick up a pen and a stack of sticky notes, creating an English class-like atmosphere. Tonight’s public forum seeks to inform the Housing Production (HPP). The visioning document will detail how Acton plans to meet its obligations under state law to ensure a supply of affordable housing. The town has advertised this forum for weeks, 
including a press release in the Boston Globe. Those efforts have brought out a crowd of sixty-five...

Teachers on Virtual Learning
BY JULIE CHEN '23
As you just finish scraping the last bit of breakfast off your plate, you grudgingly open up your laptop to attend your first Zoom call of the day. After thirty minutes of class discussion, you click on the Google Classroom tab to receive an onslaught of new school assignments, fresh and waiting for your completion.

With the spread of COVID-19 and the closing of schools, teachers are taking on a puzzling issue: virtual learning. The quick decisions made by Governor Baker, Principal Dorey, and Superintendent Light left the future of school operations unforeseeable. Mrs. Bromberg, a math teacher at the Acton Boxborough Regional High School, mentions that the “fluidity of the virus” is a challenge and that it is “difficult to adjust.” She reports that the long hours spent grading became...
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Acton Board of Selectmen 2020 Election
BY MICHAEL CHENG '20, MAY HONG '23, KATHERINE LEE '23, & ADI RAMAN '23
“What, in your opinion, sets you apart?”

We asked this question and many others to the four candidates vying for Acton’s Board of Selectmen on June 2nd. One thing we learned was that they have a lot in common.
Candidates all support strong schools and believe that collaboration is key to a successful board. They also agree that the town faces a variety of challenges, from affordable housing and the environment to the impact of COVID-19 on town finances. 
The differences lie in their background and experiences. Although all four had lengthy resumes in local politics and volunteering, they have different priorities, and they all have slightly different ideas about what makes a board and government run smoothly and efficiently.
AB Students in Quarantine
BY JASMINE WU '22 & KIRTANA KRISHNAKUMAR '20
The pages in front of me are blank; scribbled words melt into the rhythmic clacking of keys. Time melds together, drifting between night and day and hours and days and weeks. However for others, every moment matters: someone somewhere doesn’t feel the faint bluish glow of a screen on their face; someone somewhere is distressed, thinking about a sick loved one, or fearing for their own immunocompromised life; someone somewhere is risking
their health to serve our society. For students at Acton-Boxborough, highschool life has been resigned to a simple quarantine...
The Anti Defamation League AB
BY NEHA SARAVANAN '22
This year, the ADL Peer Leading, or ‘A World of Difference’ program became integrated into the Acton-Boxborough community. Tenth and eleventh graders first learned about the initiative in an extended advisory presentation in the fall, and then, as newly trained peer leaders, introduced it to ninth graders in January. Though we’ve heard teachers talk about it and perhaps have some friends involved in it, we may still feel
unsure about the program’s true purpose. Why do we have it at our high school? What is the goal of the program? Today I will answer your...

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