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Your community. Your news. Your paper. Vol. 50 | No. 19 | May 10, 2024
Shrewsbury · Westborough · Northborough · Southborough · Marlborough · Hudson · Grafton
1974 - 20
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Millbury Street’s Akillian celebrates 32 years of educating Grafton students Citizens’ petition to rezone Clinton St. site eyed for industrial park Shrewsbury | 15
Select Board approves lease, power purchase agreements for school solar arrays Northborough | 20
’s Mother’s Day y
Teamwork helps Westborough girls lacrosse beat rival Algonquin northborough| 30
Gift Guide
Page 12
By Evan Walsh Reporter GRAFTON – When books walk away from classroom shelves, Gayle Akillian doesn’t chase after them. Her classroom at Millbury Street Elementary School is filled with books — shelves of books, buckets of books, crates of books, carousels of books. Akillian owns the majority of the books in the room, which she accumulated from retired peers and Scholastic coupons. Her collection totals nearly 2,000. So, when the occasional title goes missing — perhaps one of her students became wrapped up in a book and forgot to return their latest read — it’s not alarming to Akillian. In fact, Grafton’s longtime reading specialist celebrates when books “walk” from her classroom-turned-library. “If they loved it so much they don’t want to return it, it means they’re going to read it again,” she said. Akillian has spent most of the last 32 years helping Grafton’s elementary-age students read. Along the way, she has become the district’s longest-tenured educator, impacting the lives of thousands of young children. Road to Grafton While Akillian has taught in Grafton for the last three decades, she hails from Holden
Akillian | 27
Gayle Akillian stands in front of her bookcase in her classroom at Millbury Street Elementary School. (Photo/Evan Walsh)
MBTA zoning vote delayed to October By Evan Walsh Reporter SHREWSBURY – Shrewsbury Town Meeting will not consider MBTA zoning later this month. While the town’s 240 representatives were set to consider MBTA Zoning at the May 20 Town Meeting, it now appears the vote will happen at a Special Town Meeting in October.
At a specially scheduled meeting on May 2, the Select Board unanimously moved to push the town’s vote on MBTA zoning to later in the year, allowing the community more time to analyze and debate the issue. Shrewsbury’s proposed zoning could complete the state’s pre-adoption process before the October vote, which may give an early indication if the MBTA | 9