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A-B Schools Closed Tomorrow January 26: Due to forecasted conditions, all Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools will be closed tomorrow. Thank you and please stay safe.

4 hours ago

R.J. Grey Junior High School

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Eye on the Junior High: 1/22/26

Posted Date: 01/22/26 (03:34 PM)
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Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:

I hope you are doing well. I sent a brief message on Tuesday about our power outage. True to form, our students did a great job of going with the flow that day. I made several announcements over the PA, updating students and staff with what we knew, which at the time, wasn't much. Some students excitedly asked if we would be dismissed early! They were disappointed to hear me say no. The following day, another student wondered if the power outage was connected to the Auroras which were visible in the night skies in recent days. That was also not the case! Our facilities staff tracked down the issue well after the end of the school day and have made the necessary repairs. For as long as I am aware, much of the entire district's phone and network infrastructure has been housed at RJ Grey. When our generator failed to start up, this caused the rest of the District to lose access to those services. Facilities has already made repairs to the generator, and we'll be ready for the next power outage! We only hope that it's not due to this weekend's incoming snowstorm!

Our students are very clever, as I'm sure you are aware. We became aware of some of our students using Google Lens, combined with Google Gemini, to take some shortcuts with their work recently. The power of AI is enormous and, at times, catches us off guard. Students have realized they could take a screenshot of a question on a Google Forms quiz, for example, and immediately get a correct answer through AI. When we discovered this last week, we worked with our Ed Tech department to shut down the feature on our Chromebooks. And while I'm confident we've disabled that feature, there will certainly be another workaround that will pop up soon. The bigger conversation that I'd love your help in having at home is, "What does it mean to do your own work? And be proud of your own work?" In our February staff meeting, I'll chat with our staff about this same idea, knowing that we'll continue to play "whack-a-mole" with each of the new features that come out. Thanks for your help in talking with your kids at home about the importance of pride in producing their own work on an ongoing basis.

Tomorrow is our annual Summer Fun in Winter event from 3 - 4:30 pm. It's a fun event that usually draws in lots of students as participants and spectators. Thank you in advance to those of you who've volunteered to bring snacks for our students. We appreciate your help with this event!

I hope you have a nice weekend, and good luck to all of us with the snow and freezing temperatures!

Jim
Upcoming Dates
Friday, Jan 23: Summer Fun in Winter event after school, 3 - 4:30
Friday, Jan 23: Hawaiian Shirt Day
Monday, Jan 26: 7 Red SOS Lesson
Tuesday, Jan 27: Winter Chorus Concert, 7 pm
Wednesday, Jan 28: 7 Blue SOS Lesson
Monday, Feb 2: 7 Gold SOS Lesson
Monday, Feb 2: Library closed to students after school
Tuesday, Feb 3: School Council, 7 pm
Wednesday, Feb 4: 7 Green SOS Lesson
Monday, Feb 9: Early Release at 1 pm