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Students and Wakefield Academy report strong start: senior privileges, phone policy, and high summer satisfaction rates
Summary
A student representative and Wakefield Academy director reported start-of-year items (parking passes, senior privileges, 'Off and Away' phone policy) and summer program outcomes — enrollment in camps and academic programs, staffing and high satisfaction ratings.
Maya Palak, a senior school committee representative, gave the committee a student-centered update on start-of-year logistics and policies.
Palak said students must register for parking passes (via a Google form) and display them to avoid warnings and tow risks, and described the Junior Lot as the most commonly used space. She outlined senior privileges, explaining that students who earned a 75 or higher in fourth-quarter courses last semester are eligible for flexible early-dismissal privileges under a sign-out log. On phone policy, Palak described the schoolwide approach as “Off and Away,” meaning phones are allowed only at lunchtime; she told the committee students have found the restriction helpful for focus and classroom attention.
Committee members thanked Palak for a thorough update.
Estelle Burdick provided a detailed summary of Wakefield Academy’s summer operations and the program’s opening for the school year. She reported the academy ran a mix of academic and camp programming over the summer and provided enrollment figures for its components: 395 contracts across offerings (each contract representing one student), about 130 students in the camp program, an average pre-K camp attendance of approximately 35 students, and enrichment programs that served roughly 182 students over five weeks. Burdick said the program employed roughly 182 program assistants, college assistants and high school assistants and noted that the current year’s academy enrollment represented about 80 more student contracts than is typical at this time of year.
Burdick said family surveys returned strong results: 92% of respondents felt the program supported WPS core values and, on a combined satisfied/very satisfied scale for the academic program, she reported a 100% satisfied or very satisfied response. She highlighted popular offerings (Kids Test Kitchen, CodeWiz, Wicked Cool, SportsZone) and increased participation in homework clubs and Galvin clubs.
The committee asked clarifying questions about scholarships and staffing; members praised the breadth of enrichment options and thanked staff for the program’s work.
