 Good afternoon and welcome. My name is Brian Merringer. I am the principal of the Audison Middle School. Today, we would like to welcome the Audison community, students, alumni, parents, current and retired faculty and staff, and town residents to one of our special events celebrating Audison's 100th birthday, the presentation of a resolution from the Massachusetts General Court honoring Audison's 100 years of learning. We are pleased to have some special guests here to help us today. We have, first of all, Rachelle Rubino, who is one of our assistant principals here at the Audison Middle School. We also have Julia McEwen, who is an assistant principal here as well. We have Dr. Holman, who is the superintendent of the Arlington Schools. Mr. Sean Garbley, who is Arlington's state representative. Arlington's state senator, Ms. Cindy Friedman. We are also receiving information from Mr. Dave Rogers, who we were hoping could be here, but unfortunately cannot attend, and Mr. Bill Hayner, who is the chairperson of the Arlington School Committee. Exactly 100 years and one day ago, on December 8, 1921, the recently completed Junior High West was dedicated. At the time, the Arlington School Board was one of the first school committees in the state to adopt the recommendations of a newly founded National Education Association that young adolescents have distinct social, emotional, and academic needs, and that these needs would be better through junior high schools, as opposed to grade 1 through 8 grammar schools and 9 through 12 high schools. The Junior High West was one of the first junior high schools in the state, and its dedication was an important event. The standing room only, we had Mr. Clarence Kingsley, supervisor for the secondary education, the Massachusetts State Board of Education, was the keynote speaker, according to the Arlington advocate, who also said the auditorium was packed that day with standing room only. The title of his address was the Junior High School as a modern expression of American democracy in education. For 100 years, the Junior High West, now called the Autism, after its long-serving principal, A. Henry Autism, was helping its students to develop the social, emotional, and academic skills necessary for us to have responsible citizens. I would like to thank the community of Arlington. It is a pleasure and honor to be the principal of the Audison Middle School. We are filled with talented teachers and wonderful students, and every day I look forward to coming here to the Audison. There are days here in which I leave, knowing that I'm fortunate, and also being able to experience kids growing up. And more than anything, I get to laugh hard once a day because there's always something that seems to be funny here at the middle school. What I would like to do, though, is I'd like to get different perspectives from people who have been here and either been students here, might have been parents here, or run the district. At this time, I'd like to invite Representative Garbley, who was a student here when it was a few years ago, should we say to come up and read the official resolution along with Senator Friedman. So I'd like to invite them both up here to the microphone, please. Good afternoon. It is an honor to be here and join all of you, Principal Merringer. Thank you so much for inviting myself and Senator Friedman to this incredible birthday celebration. And on behalf of myself and Senator Friedman and Representative Rogers, it was an honor to present this resolution celebrating 100 years of outstanding education to the town of Arlington and to the young people of the town of Arlington. I also want to mention Derek Keenan, my staff director, is here. And I say that because Derek is a graduate of the Odyssey Middle School. Before we jointly read the resolution, I want to talk about why this is so important. It's difficult sometimes to celebrate the birthday of a structure, of a school. But that's really not what we're doing today. Well, it is. We're celebrating 100 years of this wonderful school in the Odyssey Middle School. But what we're doing is we're celebrating 100 years of teaching and learning and experiences of teachers, students, and staff. Every student that comes into this building is shaped and molded by teachers, by staff, and their futures are brighter because of the role that this school has played in their lives. When students leave the Odyssey, they are filled with memories. And I want to share one memory. As a graduate of the Odyssey Middle School class of 1999, when I came to the middle school, I didn't come to this building because it was in the middle of getting built. I went to Arlington High because at that time, that's where the Odyssey was. Kind of a dark place sometimes. Not the place a middle school student would find him or herself. We had a great experience. And then when this building opened up, it was beautiful. It was a brand new school filled with great experiences and absolutely great memories. And I cherish those experiences from the teachers I had, from the students I created lifelong friendships with. And I will always have that in my future. I am shaped and molded by the experiences and the positive experiences I had here at the Odyssey Middle School. So Senator Friedman is going to say a few words of her experience as a parent of students here at the Odyssey Middle School. And then we're going to jointly read the resolution. Thank you, Sean. And thanks to everybody who's watching this. And thanks to ACMI for being here and supporting the students of what we used to call the AV Club. And this is just one of the examples of what happens here at the middle school, that kids have an opportunity to do these kinds of things. That this is a place where learning both learning an interdisciplinary curriculum but also a hands-on curriculum is really, really important and serves people so well. I'm happy to report that my daughter, who was a student here at Odyssey, is a grown-up adult with a real job and health insurance. And so all the parents out there know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This is a challenging and fascinating and, like the principal said, amazingly fun age. And I want to thank all of the staff and all of the teachers who come here to work with these kids. It's such an important time of life. And what happens here really matters. So we are quite pleased and honored to be here. And we are so glad that the Odyssey is here and that it continues. And here's to another 100 years. And thanks to you all. And now we're going to read the resolution. OK, congratulating the Odyssey Middle School in the town of Arlington on its 100th birthday. Whereas the Odyssey Middle School in the town of Arlington was established as a junior high school on December 8, 1921. And we'll be celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and whereas the school was originally called the Junior High West and selected as its first principal, J. Stern's Cushion, who served from 1921 to 1923 and was succeeded by Franklin P. Hawks, who served from 1923 to 1938, followed by A. Henry Odyssey, who served from 1939 to 1972. And the school has been under the leadership of subsequent outstanding principals since and whereas throughout the school's first 100 years, the school community has recognized and celebrated the varied academic, social, and developmental needs of the students. And whereas the school community has, for the past century, encouraged all of its students to engage in a rigorous interdisciplinary curricular and extracurricular program while empowering students to achieve their maximum potential and whereas the students of the school strive to be creative and collaborative decision makers are culturally aware and mindful of themselves and others and have made many positive contributions to their community. Therefore, be it resolved that the members of the Massachusetts General Court hereby congratulate the Odyssey Middle School in the town of Arlington on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. And further recognize its illustrious century of teaching and learning, admirably reflecting the town of Arlington's continuous commitment to its children's welfare and its high ideals of educational excellence, and be it further resolved. That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded by the clerk of the House of Representatives to the Odyssey Middle School in the town of Arlington, signed by Ronald Mariano, Speaker of the House, Stephen James, Clerk of the House, Karen E. Spilke, President of the Senate, Michael D. Hurley, Clerk of the Senate, and the representative and myself. And Representative Dave Rogers. Thank you, everybody. Representative Garberley and Senator Friedman, thank you very much. I agree with you. It's a lot about the people here and the experiences that our kids have had that really make this important. Next, I'd like to call up, please, to the podium, Dr. Homan. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for having me. My name is Liz Homan, and I'm the very proud Superintendent of Schools for the Arlington Public Schools. Unlike Representative Garberley and Senator Friedman, I'm new to both Massachusetts and to Arlington. This is my first year as the superintendent. But I can say that as a former middle school teacher and someone who has spent my career and went to a junior high school in middle schools and in schools, this is a very special building. It is rare in one's career that they get to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a school. It's even more rare today that we get to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a junior high school or middle school. And as a former teacher of eighth grade, I can say that this is a very special time in students' lives. Massachusetts was right and was a pioneer, and Arlington was a pioneer in recognizing that this period of a child's growth and adolescence is a critical one for their social development, for their academic development. And so it gives me great joy to be here and to have been here yesterday on the actual birthday of the Audison Middle School, going through classrooms, meeting Audison's bright and brilliant students, and recognizing that Arlington is both a town that promotes civic engagement and one that recognized very early that at a very young age, our students are able to make a difference in their community. So I want to say thank you for being here. I'm very happy to be here to celebrate this very important birthday for the Audison and for Arlington's public schools. And with that, I will hand it over to the chair of the school committee, Mr. Bill Heiner. I think one of the reasons I got picked is because I'm closer to the 1921 in age. I want to thank Ms. Duke, the students that are here, and ACMI. As I was watching you, it just dawned on me, when the school was first opened, television hadn't been officially invented yet. RCA was still experimenting in New York City. By the time I was born, there was a TV show called Howdy Duty. Television went off the air at about midnight and would come on, there'd be a test pattern. Parents would wake up in the morning and you'd sit there and look at it. Didn't have any television for you people to work video. So you're very fortunate in doing this. The school has been a piece of bedrock in this town. It's one of the few schools that has been consistently there for the past 30, 40 years. People look at it. My wife graduated from here in 1960. She was, Mr. Audison's daughter was in that class. She wanted me to make sure that you all saw it. There's a picture of the graduating class over there and it'll be part of the video at some time. The teachers here are something very special. The students here are something very special. I wanna thank you all for letting me part of it. Thank you, Mr. Haynor. I'd like to thank everyone who shared something here today and I'd like to thank all their guests for their time to celebrate with us this afternoon. I would also like to thank the students who are currently filming from ACMI and the Audison Media Group, which has done a great job. I'd also like to thank one of our teachers, Amy Duke, who has done just a fantastic job organizing this event, but also other events throughout this year. She has a great sense of history and likes to keep it alive. So as all of us look forward to another century of educational excellence at the Audison Middle School, I just wanted to thank, once again, many of the teachers who come through these doors every day to help our students learn. I'd like to thank the students here and I'd like to thank our families who entrust their children to get a great educational experience here at the Audison Middle School. So thank you very much for tuning in today and good afternoon.