Dear Shrewsbury Families, Colleagues, & Community Members,
Our return to full-time, in-person learning has continued to go extremely well, with Oak Middle School making the shift this week and final preparations for SHS being completed for Monday. I am extremely grateful to all of our SPS staff and our town's Public Buildings Division staff for their hard work to make all of the logistics work, and to our families and students for all of your flexibility and support.
Please read on for information on some exciting school and student achievements and an update regarding next year's budget.
Shrewsbury High School ranked in top 1% in the U.S. for STEM education, top 6% in nation overall: US News has released its annual high school rankings, and SHS once again was rated very highly according to the metrics used. This year, out of over 17,800 high schools rated, SHS was ranked 58th in the nation for "best high schools for science, technology, engineering, and math," which is in the top one-tenth of 1% of all U.S. high schools. Overall, SHS was ranked 984th, placing it in the top 6%, with a score of 94.49 out of a possible 100. While only one type of measure of quality, these results would not be possible without an extremely strong educational program that develops students' academic proficiency across all of our grades, from preschool, to elementary, to middle, to high school. Thank you to our students, our educators and support staff, and our families for your efforts and support that resulted in this significant recognition.
SHS Student Council named National Gold Council of Excellence: The SHS Student Council has been recognized for the fourth year in a row for its outstanding achievements in leadership and service. Congratulations to all of the students and faculty involved in earning this national honor!
Speech & Debate State and National Champions: The SHS Speech & Debate team had another outstanding season, with many excellent results. This year, two students earned individual state championships: Rithika Prasad for finishing first in the Extemporaneous Speaking category; and Shalini Biju for winning in two separate categories, Original Oratory and Informative Speaking. Additionally, Reeya Kansra was named the national champion in Humorous Interpretation in the recent National Tournament of Champions! Congratulations to Rithika, Shalini, and Reeya for their remarkable achievements!
School Budget Update: Last night, the School Committee unanimously voted to recommend a $75,722,168 town appropriated budget for the School Department for consideration at the annual Town Meeting. To see the slide presentation regarding the budget (including some answers to frequently asked questions) click here, and to view the meeting presentation and the School Committee's comments click here. Please don't hesitate to reach out to the School Committee at schoolcommittee@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us or to me at jsawyer@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us with questions.
Thank you for your continued support of our students as we head into the last phase of a very challenging year with hope and optimism.
Respectfully,
Joe Sawyer
Superintendent of Schools