21st Century Learning
Our Successes
The Wachusett Regional School District is the largest regional district in the state with 13 schools educating over 7500 students across the five towns of Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, and Sterling. Wachusett teachers have demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to bring the benefits of Education Reform and K-12 regionalization into the lives of the children in their classrooms. The results of their efforts are amply demonstrated in the exemplary gains in student achievement. Click here to find out more about our successes and areas targeted for further improvement.
Our Challenges
Despite our ambitious goals, achievement gains, and commitment to improvement, the District faces severe funding deficiences unlike any other regional district in the state. While our members towns of Holden, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, and Sterling keep substantial reserve funding, the school district utilizes nearly all funds to operate annually.
Wachusett receives the lowest per pupil foundation budget from the state of any regional district in Massachusetts. Furthermore, the District receives the lowest contribution from member towns. This yields the most narrow delta between our state funds and our combined state + local per pupil allocation for any regional district in Massachusetts. Ultimately, this funding formula results in an average of $125 per student for all instructional materials, textbooks, and technololgy each year. The state average is $393. This gross under-funding severely limits the ability of our teachers and principals to provide the premier education our students deserve.
Find out more about our intiatives
Our Mission for 21st Century Learning
The Wachusett Regional School District is committed to helping our students develop the college and career readiness skills they will need to find success beyond our schools. Given our challenges, we will need to innovate our approaches, find efficiencies where possible, and support the ongoing efforts of our teachers and administrators to embrace 21st century learning.
To this end, the District embarked on a number of initiatives through our AIM21 campaign. In order to provide students with career competencies they will need, our schools are building 21st Century Skills into all curriculum areas. As we address the demand for digital literacy in the 21st century, classrooms are integrating digital Learning Tools as a vehicle for instruction. Digital Conversion and green school efforts are reducing waste and energy consumption to realize financial efficiencies and protect our environment.
