Lexington Public Schools (Massachusetts)

Coordinates: 42°26′39.72″N 71°11′58.30″W / 42.4443667°N 71.1995278°W / 42.4443667; -71.1995278

Lexington Public Schools is a public school district in Lexington, Massachusetts, United States. The district consists of six elementary schools, two middle schools, and a high school. Each elementary and middle school is named after an important figure in Lexington's history.

There are nine schools in the Lexington Public School district:

• Bowman Elementary School
• Bridge Elementary School
• Joseph Estabrook Elementary School
• Fiske Elementary School
• Harrington Elementary School
• Maria Hastings Elementary School
• Jonas Clarke Middle School
• William Diamond Middle School
• Lexington High School

Elementary schools

Lexington's six elementary schools - Bowman, Bridge, Joseph Estabrook, Fiske, Harrington, and Maria Hastings - serve students in kindergarten through 5th grade.

Bowman Elementary School

Bowman Elementary is named for the descendants of Nathaniel Bowman, the progenitor of an important family in Lexington's history.^[1] The current principal at Bowman is Mary Anton-Oldenburg.

Bridge Elementary School

Bridge Elementary is named for the descendants of Matthew Bridge, to whom the once-farmland around the school site formerly belonged. A mural on the front side of the school building represents "working together". The current principal at Bridge is Meg Colella.

Bridge was a High Performing National Blue Ribbon School in 2010.^[2]

Joseph Estabrook Elementary School

Estabrook Elementary is named after Joseph Estabrook (1669–1733), the first schoolteacher in Lexington. It is notable for being the oldest Lexington Elementary school. The current principal at Estabrook is Jeffrey LaBroad.

The school garnered nationwide attention from the David Parker controversy, when parents sued the Lexington school system, arguing that their children were being coerced by public school teachers "to affirm the correctness and the normalcy of homosexuality" and same-sex marriage. The bulk of the legality of the controversy revolved around whether parents have a right to receive parental notification and opt their elementary school children out of such content. Federal courts ruled against the Parkers.^[3]

Fiske Elementary School

Fiske Elementary is named for the Fiske family, which circa 1678 was the first family to settle on East Street. The current principal at Fiske is Thomas Martellone. The current facility was constructed between 2005 and 2007.

Harrington Elementary School

Harrington Elementary is named for the Harrington family, which produced many notable town citizens, such as Jonathan Harrington who was killed in the Battle of Lexington, and another of the same name who was the battle's last survivor. The current principal at Harrington is Donna Bonarrigo.

Maria Hastings Elementary School

Maria Hastings Elementary is named after Maria Hastings Cary, a local philanthropist and the founder of the town's main public library, Cary Library. The current principal at Hastings is Louise Lipsitz.

Middle schools

Lexington's two public middle schools - William Diamond MS and Jonas Clarke MS, commonly referred to as "Diamond" and "Clarke," respectively - serve students between 6th and 8th grade. Students at Diamond are generally fed in through Estabrook, Fiske, and Hastings, and students at Clarke are generally fed in through Bowman, Bridge, and Harrington.

Like many middle schools, both Diamond and Clarke operate in an academic team system, in which each grade is broken down into smaller groups of common teachers and students. Each of the grades in both schools are divided into three teams, with one exception. Diamond and Clarke have built a cross-town rivalry bridging academics and athletics.

Academics

Both Diamond and Clarke have been among the top schools in MCAS testing.^[7]

Academically, both schools offer a comparable curriculum comprising several core subjects in addition to a wide range of electives. Students are required to take courses in math, science, English, and social studies, each of which follows its own track.

In math, students are required to take courses ranging up to algebra, with placement and level being determined individually. In science, students are required to take courses in earth science, life science, and chemistry and physics.

In social studies, students are required to take courses focusing on ancient civilizations, world geography, and U.S. history. In foreign languages, students have the option to take a sequence of courses in French, Spanish, or Mandarin Chinese. The Mandarin Language program is ranked one of the best Mandarin Language programs in the country, and the school and Mandarin teachers have received many awards, such as the Confucius Institute Award and various cash and technological prizes from the Chinese Government. Top students in Spanish may have the opportunity to visit Costa Rica, or in past and recent years, Spain, as part of a language and culture immersion trip abroad. Similarly, top students in French may have the opportunity to visit Quebec City, and top students in Mandarin may have the opportunity to visit Beijing, Jinhua, and Shanghai, China.

Students in both schools have the additional opportunity to participate in their respective school's orchestra, band, or chorus.

Sports

Both schools field varsity teams in many sports, including cross-country running, soccer, basketball, track, field hockey, baseball, and softball.^[8]

Extracurricular activities

Led by coaches Kenton Findell at Diamond and Joshua Frost at Clarke, Lexington's middle school math teams are renowned for their successes and mutual rivalry in competitions such as Mathcounts and the NEML, and in the Intermediate Math League of Eastern Massachusetts. Clarke's current run of seven consecutive IMLEM championships was immediately preceded by nine consecutive championships by Diamond. Two Lexington natives have won the Mathcounts national championship: Jonathan L. Weinstein in 1991 and Alec Sun in 2013.

Both schools have a plethora of other clubs and teams.

William Diamond Middle School

The school is named after William Diamond, the 16-year-old drummer for the Lexington Minutemen during the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The current principal at Diamond is Jennifer Turner, and the assistant principals are Bayard Klimasmith and Elizabeth Sharp.

Prior to the 2010-11 school year, the teams in each grade were named Omega, Delta, and Sigma. To differentiate between grades, one would have denoted teams as Ω6 or Δ8 and Σ7. At the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, the 6th grade team teams were renamed Athena, Apollo, and Pegasus; the 7th grade teams Denali, Everest, and K2; and the 8th grade teams, Liberty, Freedom, and Independence. In 2016, another half-team, Artemis, was added to the sixth grade.

Along with many other extra-curricular activities, Diamond has a school newspaper, called the "Diamond Dispatch", which is run by the students and a 6th grade English teacher.

Many of the Advanced French and Spanish classes compete in the National French Exam and National Spanish Exam, respectively.^[9]

Jonas Clarke Middle School

Clarke is named after the local pastor Jonas Clarke, who was present at the standoff at Lexington Green shortly before the shots that started the Revolutionary War. The current principal at Clarke is Anna Monaco,^[6] and the assistant principals are Mary Barry-Ng and Jonathan Wettstone.^[6] The school mascot is Jonas Bark the Bulldog.

Jonas Clarke Middle School has been rated one of the top schools in the United States, and received the High-Performing National Blue Ribbon Award in 2013.^[10]

The teams at Clarke are named with the theme of exploration. More precisely, they are named after spacecraft. The 6th grade teams are named Voyager, Atlantis, Quest, and Columbia; the 7th grade teams are named Adventurer, Endeavor, and Explorer; and Enterprise; and the 8th grade teams are named Apollo, Challenge and Discovery.

(S.G) student government is the student-run government of Clarke.

Clarke also has a school newspaper, called the "Clarke Barker", which is also run by the students and a 6th grade English teacher. Clarke's extra-curricular activities range from academic to artistic to athletic and beyond. New activities are created each year by the request of the students, if there is a faculty or parent coordinator.

Lexington High School

Most students that go through the Lexington Public Schools system end up at Lexington High School. Alternatively, students are given the opportunity to attend the regional vocational school, Minuteman Regional High School, and a few each year decide to take the opportunity.

The current principal at Lexington High School is Laura Hofmann Lasa (LHS class of 1977), and the assistant principal is Adam Goldberg. There are four deans: Scott Kmack, Nicole Canniff, Nancy DeFeudis and Kate Herman.

Notes and references

External links

• Lexington Public Schools
• LPS redistricting proposal (Archive)
• Redistricting map (Archive)