Wayland prides itself on getting 95-plus percent of its students into post-secondary programs each year, most of which are four year colleges. The potential loss of our 10-month secretarial position, as a result of a failed override, would greatly impact our students’ chances of being admitted to such colleges because we would not have the necessary staffing to process our students’ college applications properly.

In addition, other services the Guidance Department provides would also be compromised.

The primary focus of our 10-month secretary is to prepare and send students records to colleges (including a transcript, academic and personal evaluation checklist, personalized GPA distribution chart, high school profile and counselor’s recommendation). In addition, term grades are sent throughout the year, and we often fax SAT scores, report cards or any additional information that could help a student’s chance of admission throughout the process.

Because of the volume of applications we process (nearly 2,000 this year), we need two secretaries to work as a team to prepare these packets. Without the current secretarial support we have, our department could not continue to send this comprehensive packet. Instead, we could only send what is required—a student’s transcript—without any supporting materials. This would put our students at a tremendous disadvantage in the college process because the colleges would not have supporting evidence to properly explain how demanding a students’ course load is, where he or she falls within the class, how competitive our school is, and what personal strengths or difficulties a student might have endured throughout high school to explain “gaps” in their transcript, or other unique situations.

Please understand that without this secretarial position, our office would no longer be able to provide this type of service to our students without all students and families losing other important services our department provides. It goes without saying this position is important to our students and families because of the college piece, but it goes even further than that. Our 10-month secretary also supports the counselors and our other guidance secretary with the day-to-day responsibilities of the office. Each week, we see or hear from hundreds of students and parents. Counselors meet with students throughout the day, but they also need to consult and communicate with teachers and department heads often, and the secretaries (in all departments) are instrumental in setting up meetings among counselors, teachers, department heads, students and parents.

Without a doubt, other services our department currently provides would need to be eliminated. The team we currently have in the Guidance Department works incredibly well to deliver comprehensive services to nearly 900 students and their families in Wayland. With the removal of this position, this could not happen and the impact would be felt tremendously throughout our school and community.

It is our hope the community understands the tremendous impact these budget cuts would make on the students and families of Wayland. Simply stated, Wayland High School’s Guidance Department, as well as the greater academic community (if all department secretaries are eliminated), would not be able to provide the comprehensive services the community has come to value and expect, and out students will be the ones hurt most.

Marybeth Sacramone
Guidance Department Head

As the parent of an 11th-grader and 3 older children who have gone through the Wayland schools, I am very concerned with the list of proposed cuts at the high school should this override fail. The proposed secretarial cuts will strip the backbone from the academic departments. It is the secretarial work that allows teachers time to plan and develop their classes, meet with our children and with us on an individual basis, write those recommendations for summer programs, jobs and college. The secretarial support also gives our teachers the time to interact with and mentor our children after school in extra-curricular activities, most of those mentors and coaches are members of the teaching staff.

The cut of a Guidance secretary will affect all students directly. Among their responsibilities, the Guidance secretaries process all and everything confidential related to college: the standardized test reports from the MCAS, ACT, SAT; the teacher recommendations, the compilation of the college application information sent by WHS to the colleges to which students apply. Their work frees the Guidance Counselors to do the work we need them to do—meet with our children around college admissions and, more importantly for most, around the daily and weekly struggles of developing into a young adult. It is difficult for counselors to schedule times to meet with the students who need to see them, meet with the groups they mentor on campus, write the recommendations students need for jobs, camp or college. To schedule time for a parent to discuss family struggles, developmental issues, appropriate class placement, is challenging and with the cut of a secretary the responsibility of compiling the confidential information related to each student must fall to the counselors.

For our students, these high school years are not only about academics and getting into college, they are primarily about developing into a young healthy adult. It is our responsibility as parents and community members to be certain that opportunities and guidance are available to them.

We have a very academically intense program at WHS but students need more than academics to balance their lives. For many students it takes time to find what interests them and for many it is not academics that fires their interests. Students shine in different arenas and those who simply can’t get excited about the academic learning need the opportunity to explore the extra-curricular offerings we currently have in the clubs, sports and the arts. Along the way they learn more about themselves and hopefully find interests that will last them beyond their years at WHS. They also interact with students not in their academic tracking. This builds a community that sustains them when the school hours are over.

It is our responsibility to provide the venues, academics, extra-curriculars, and the guidance for our children to be healthy young adults.

Please vote yes for the override on April 8 and at Town Meeting.

Aida Gennis
Former Chair, Wayland High School Parents Organization
Wayland Hills Road