The Revere Board Of Education (BOE) recognizes students from each school in the district to show their appreciation for the district’s students.
The BOE allocates the first half of their monthly board meetings toward student recognition. This tradition is relatively new to the Revere school district. This custom, continued by Superintendent Michael Tefs, began many years ago, but Tefs wanted to continue to honor students for doing their jobs well.
“There’s so many amazing things that go on with [Revere] students. [We are] constantly looking for ways to celebrate our students and their families. . . . The pride that [their families] have and the fact that we were part of generating that [has] been pretty, pretty awesome,” Tefs said.
While Tefs took initiative to continue the idea, the principals and teachers in each school are the ones who nominate students that deserve to be celebrated. Revere High School Principal, Dr. Andy Peltz, described the process of selecting students.
“At the high school, we have either nominations by teachers, principal selections or the board may have seen a specific event and will request that [those] students be acknowledged,” Peltz said.
Parents and other family members are welcome, as board meetings are public forums. The President of the BOE and a Revere parent, Keith Malick, spoke about the reasoning behind these celebrations, and why they occur at board meetings, rather than in school or over the announcements.
“The why behind it was ‘let’s celebrate at every angle we can.’There’s certainly celebrations on social media [for] athletic events, Speech and Debate and Mock Trial. [The meetings] are a public venue [where] the Board of Education gets a chance to just applaud students and families,” Malick said.
Recognition is not uncommon among surrounding school districts, but the Revere method is distinctive. Revere makes an effort to recognize students monthly, which is uncommon among surrounding communities.
“The frequency is unique. In other districts, there would be occasional board recognitions. . . . [They’d] rotate; one month it’s the high school, another month it’s the middle school, but the fact that it’s every month, K-12 is exciting,” Peltz said.
Malick continued to speak about the characteristics of the students that are selected.
“The principles have done a really nice job of looking through the lens of the Vision of a Minuteman; the attributes of a vision of a Minuteman,” Malick said.
During the last meeting of 2023, the boys soccer team was honored and Nick DePompei was named coach of the year. The team was honored for being the runner-up at the state championships.
Student recognition is important, not only to reward students who are doing the right thing, but to also keep representation in the school community. The Revere BOE, principles, teachers and the superintendent continue to work to maintain this tradition in order to keep the community involved. The next board meeting will be held February 20.
Click HERE for more information on the Revere Board of Education.
