Moving Junior year teen to Westford/Acton- NEED HELP (Boston: home, school districts)
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We are moving to Acton/Westford area from NY. We have 2 kids. One of them is a junior in high school. He goes to Catholic school. He is not happy at all with the move. We are struggling for 3 days now to convince him.
From all the reviews I read about both schools, these are great schools but very very tough. It seems there is a caste system there, unless you are A+ student, you are considered worthless and even bullied.
I want to know from someone who lives there and has kids going to these schools...what would it be like going to these schools in the middle of Junior year and not to mention remote/hybrid setup
My teen is a good student( not a A+ though) but has a life outside school. We are really stressed out.
Any help is appreciated
There is another New York family that recently posted on CD that is moving to Westford after touring the general NW/N area. Their kids are younger, but decided on Westford for a number of reason.
Going back a few year, we decided on Westford over Acton. Would have moved to Concord if budget allowed.
Westford schools, including Westford Academy (the public high school) are pretttttyyyyy welcoming and accepting. We've heard very good things about the support system and the EQ of the staff. There are like 50+ club at WA that come in all shapes and sizes.. Music clubs, LBGTQ+ clubs, snowboarding/skiing. You name it. The WA theatre program is huge deal. They compete Nationally, and have made their way to NYC to perform a number of times. It is a Division 1 high school, so sports are also fairly competitive for having only 1800 students. I'm quite sure the same goes for Acton as well.
Academics are important in Westford, like they are in many white collar towns. 20% Asian population certainly drives up the competitive culture, as many tier 1 students go Ivy. But for every 1 Ivy grad, there are 4 that go to private/State schools. Normal kids who like to socialize, hang with friends, go to the Lake House, grab dinner on Friday night, go swimming.
I have yet to hear one bad thing about Westford Academy from parents in town. In general, almost everyone moves here to raise a family and send them through a strong/very strong school district, and they are exceedingly happy with the decision. Remember- Folks who go on to give reviews on sites like Niche, are like the folks who go on to give restaurant reviews on Yelp!.
Another thing- It's fairly transient.. 10% Internationally born, many, many more from out of State. You'll meet a good amount of ex-NYers, folks from the Midwest, etc. In that way, it may be nice. Again, I'm sure Acton is no different.
Reach out if you have any specific questions.. Rent vs. Buy, areas of town, etc.
OP, tough, tough break for your junior. Since your junior is currently in Catholic School, I’m wondering whether you would consider a private parochial school in MA? Perhaps that would make the transition less jarring than the leap into a public school (and a remote/hybrid public school at that)? Or, is it too late to enroll? I take it that finishing the year remotely at the current school is not an option?
As for public high school in Acton ...
Though we no longer live in Acton, my children went through the Acton School system. My daughter graduated from ABRHS in 2017 and I do not recognize the school that you are describing. By and large, kids from Acton are really, really good kids. The community is sheltered and extremely family oriented. Yes, parents want their children to get a good education and do well. But, the community as a whole is open-minded, down to earth and progressive. My daughter (who is white) had Chinese, Indian and Black friends. Hers was a very mixed social group. Perhaps this was rare, but I’m not sure. She was also a solid B student and was never bullied. In fact, the kids do not discuss grades and honor roll lists are not made public or published in the town newspaper as they are in other places. If you look at the school’s data sheet it actually turns out that most students are, in fact, B students as it is very difficult to be a straight A student at ABRHS. The academics are challenging, as you have heard. Most of the kids at the high school grew up in Acton or Boxborough, so they are used to the challenging academics having first attended RJ Grey Junior High. The academic demands might very well be a shock to a newcomer.
One other issue with the school is that it is quite large (2000 kids) so it is easy for some kids to feel a bit lost. On the other hand, with so many kids to choose from, there are more opportunities to find a welcoming social group that doesn’t fall into either the “jock” or “nerd” stereotypical grouping. Does your junior do a sport? Play an instrument? Like robotics? Enjoy theater? There are endless amounts of activities offered to appeal to all kinds of kids (at least during pre-pandemic times). And, yes, probably the usual amount of alcohol/weed use that you might find in any affluent MA suburban high school.
Since we are no longer in town I can’t comment on remote learning. I do hear that ABRHS kids attend classes 2 days a week with the hybrid model. Remote and hybrid learning is problematic in every community, so I’m sure Acton’s model is no different. And, yes, this will make the move even tougher for your junior.
Like the majority of MA, Acton is primarily comprised of Democrats. But, there are definitely Republicans in Acton too. For us, it made no difference in terms of socializing with other parents, no one ever talked about it. But, things may have changed in the three years since we lived in Acton. Today’s political climate is much more divisive.
Last edited by Idontwanttocheckmymessage; 10-22-2020 at 09:41 PM..
These claims made about these schools strike me as bizarre, yet made about almost all of the Boston area schools by someone. I have heard similar accusations (to varying degrees) about many school districts, including the one where we live. My son is a high school junior, and I can say that he is not one of those A+ students, yet has plenty of friends and is not bullied. In many of these towns, there are the cliques where all of the kids are vying to get into Harvard. That certainly brings issues, but I have not perceived that the kids in those cliques are going out and bullying or even giving much thought to the kids who are not in their group.
I'm not surprised that your 11th grader is unhappy about moving. I would expect he would be unhappy about moving anywhere. I think the inquiry needs to be narrowed -- what are your son's interests and are there any school systems that are particularly well-suited toward those interests?
These claims made about these schools strike me as bizarre, yet made about almost all of the Boston area schools by someone. I have heard similar accusations (to varying degrees) about many school districts, including the one where we live. My son is a high school junior, and I can say that he is not one of those A+ students, yet has plenty of friends and is not bullied. In many of these towns, there are the cliques where all of the kids are vying to get into Harvard. That certainly brings issues, but I have not perceived that the kids in those cliques are going out and bullying or even giving much thought to the kids who are not in their group.
I find it rather bizarre too having attended a high performing HS with the usual pressures from high performing parents and Asian/Indian families who will accept nothing less than an MD. Despite this presence, it was quite easy to find peer groups outside of the most popular cliques ... of which most had nothing to do with GPA or intellect (i.e., beautiful charismatic people typically win that race). I also missed the social media window by a year, so perhaps that has allowed the cliques to become much more robust or binary ... could be seeing as my cousin cried "toxic" about our district when I found the same district to be diverse and rather benign as a student.
There were a few kids who struggled and it was almost always the same scenario: late transplant + huge culture shift (i.e., ultra conservative household versus hyper progressive student body), or just plain 'odd' (i.e., severe mental health issues).
I'd be very hesitant to shift a child mid-high school unless they were already experiencing social issues. It's hard to build social networks when the existing social networks are already shifting focus to college.
Acton/boxborough seems like a very nice area, but I am afraid this district would be a pressure cooker. Weren’t there a number of suicides here years back? All depends on what you are looking for.
Acton/boxborough seems like a very nice area, but I am afraid this district would be a pressure cooker. Weren’t there a number of suicides here years back? All depends on what you are looking for.
It should be noted that at least some of the cases happened post A-B when the individuals were attending college and had entered an entirely different social environment.
IMO, I thought the Acton-Boxborough district received a fair amount of unwarranted blame for what was an unfortunate string of individual events. The Globe, WBUR, WGBH, and other outlets have covered this situation at great length and the common thread seems not to be overt stress from academic pressures, rather, it seems to be well documented mental and physical health issues (e.g., depression, anxiety, severe headaches, etc.) leading to suicidal ideation and, unfortunately, the actual act.
It's a debated subject in the mental health community, but A-B could very well be a case where a group of at-risk students were already ideating suicide and the first event triggered a 'point cluster' of follow-on suicides. This is not uncommon in institutional/community settings (e.g., public schools, universities, hospitals, etc.) and it seems the sub-25 year old demographic is most prone.
Last edited by Shrewsburried; 10-28-2020 at 08:47 AM..
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