To the editor:
I’d like to share with the wider community my comments at a recent School Committee meeting. They are as follows:
My name is Anna Rosefsky Saavedra. I’m a WPS parent and alum. I work remotely as director of an education research center at the University of Southern California. Here are data-driven reasons for celebrating WPS and renewing Dr. Lussier’s contract.
Stanford’s Educational Opportunity Project tracks test scores over time in grades 3 through 8 across public school districts nationwide. The 2025 data shows that in both math and English Language Arts (reading and writing), Wellesley’s scores are on par with similar high-performing systems, with learning rates showing recent improvement after a COVID-era dip and remaining well above the state and national averages across the full sixteen years. There is no falling behind. Wellesley is leading the nation along with the districts surrounding us.
WPS’s broader record is also laudable. In 2024, Fiske Elementary was designated a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education—the third Wellesley school to earn that honor, after Sprague in 2010 and Hardy in 2021. Few demographically similar districts have earned multiple Blue-Ribbon awards, representing consistent elementary excellence. As well, this year, objective external reviews of the Elementary Skills and Language-Based Programs show both provide meaningful educational benefits to students with complex learning needs.
At Wellesley High, 96% of Class of 25 students taking AP exams passed, even with 97 more exam-takers than 2024, and 93% of the Class went on to four-year colleges. The performing arts program has earned Gold Medals at state festivals for 16 consecutive years. WPS athletics is consistently recognized among the strongest public-school athletic programs statewide. These are all validations of a highly successful district.
There are areas needing continued improvement. Post-pandemic ELA recovery has been slower than in math, like in comparable districts. Chronic absenteeism warrants ongoing attention. WPS’s publicly available 2023–28 Strategic Plan directly addresses these challenges.
Fourteen years under one superintendent, with consistent results, is itself a differentiator. The overall picture for WPS is one of stability and strength—a district that has excelled across sixteen years of national data, through the same headwinds most districts nationwide have faced: COVID, demographic changes, the rise of screens and social media.
For everyone who moved to Wellesley or stayed in Wellesley for our schools, believes in public schools as critical to democracy, knows our children are benefitting from an excellent education, and/or benefits from high home values due to the quality of our schools, I hope you will join me in celebrating WPS’s successes, and constructively collaborating with educators and leadership to continue to improve. WPS’s high level of performance requires sustained, experienced, strong leadership, and supports continuity, not disruption.
Anna Rosefsky Saavedra
