Governor, State Educators Tour Marlborough High School Today

Gov. Deval Patrick, state secretary of education Paul Reville and state commissioner of elementary and secondary education Mitchell D. Chester, will be at today to celebrate the first year anniversary of the national Race to the Top educational initiative.

School said Marlborough was chosen to host the 1:30 p.m. press conference because of its early entry and achievements in the STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) and Early College High School academic programs now in place at the and at Marlborough High.

The governor and state officials will tour some of the classrooms and then hold the press conference in the library.

The School Committee last night welcomed students, chaperones and the principal of the Akiruno Middle-Junior High School as part of the annual Japan Exchange Program with Marlborough families.

The 13-member contingent from Japan, including eight students, arrived Monday, Sept. 26 and will head back Oct. 5.

Masashi Yamazaki, principal of the visiting school from Tokyo, thanked the school department and school committee for the program, and said, "I hope our special friendship will last a long time."

The program was initiated by Nancy Kline, a health educator at the Whitcomb Middle School, in 1995. Marlborough has entertained a student/cultural exchange ever since.

She thanked the families who are sponsoring a student for the week for their generosity in making the exchange experience a great success.

The Akiruno students and their respective Whitcomb host include:  Ryuta Amino and Zachary Huaman; Hikaru Mabuchi and Kevin Murphy; Hikaru Sakurai and Chris Povell; Ambi Tanaka and Mary Bovaconti; Rina Ikeda and Kylie Lewis; Kaho Suyama and Kimberly Konar; Hana Kondo and Sasha Davis; and Hiromi Sekine and Yosef Naim.

In other business, Superintendent Pope said the school department is working to improve efficiencies on bus routes and limit the minutes students have to stay on a bus.

Pope said this year has been smoother than last year, but acknowledged that each year has its own problems with transportation issues.

Marlborough is in the last year of its contract with North Reading Transportation, Inc., which provides bus services for the district.

Pope said he was very pleased with the new transitions at all levels. The Whitcomb Middle School, which absorbed the eighth grade from the high school, is now the largest school with grades 5-8 and with a population of about 1,400.

Of those 1,400 students, about 1,000 are enrolled in a foreign language class, Pope said.

In addition, athletic director Jeff Rudzinsky said 202 middle school students are participating in middle school athletics at Whitcomb in football, soccer, field hockey and cheerleading. "All teams are thriving," Rudzinsky said.

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