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The following was submitted by the League of Women Voters of Winchester:
On Saturday, May 3, 2025, the first ever Civics Action Project Showcase was held at the McCall Middle School.
These Civic Showcases grew out of Gov. Charlie Baker’s Civics Education Reform Bill signed into law in November 2018. This legislation bolstered the state’s civics education requirements by establishing a high school voter challenge and also requiring public schools to provide a student-led civics project for eighth graders and high schoolers.
The Winchester Showcase was spearheaded by Chris Kurhajetz, director of Social Studies for grades 6-12, 7th & 8th grade McCall History teacher John Hogan, and Marilyn Mullane and Susan Verdicchio of the League of Women Voters.
Starting this spring, all McCall 8th grade students were assigned by their teachers to research issues important to them and their community and to develop action plans to work on addressing those issues.
The Showcase provided an opportunity for students to share the highlights of their research and advocate for next steps with members of the community, who were there as both attendees and as project reviewers.
Many thanks to the teams of reviewers, which included individuals from the League of Women Voters of Winchester, the Winchester Historical Society, the Network for Social Justice and WFEE, who all co-sponsored the event, with WFEE also providing a very generous grant to help get the showcase off the ground.
Members of the Select Board and McCall teachers rounded out the teams of reviewers.
One of the reviewers was Lynne Brodsky from the Steering Committee of the League of Women Voters.
“I was excited to interact with McCall Middle School students at their Civics Showcase today,” Brodsky said. “More than 25 teams of students presented their civics projects in a format similar to a science fair. Some of the projects (but not all) included food insecurity, traffic safety around schools, affordable health care, appropriate and inappropriate use of artificial intelligence by students, stress related to competitiveness and perfectionism among students, civic engagement and disengagement by students, lack of an appropriate place (such as a youth center) where students can gather and socialize after school, gender disparities in pay and parental leave in the workforce.
“I was honored to participate as a reviewer on one of the teams with volunteers from the League of Women Voters of Winchester,” she continued. “It is wonderful to see students engage with their community with a goal of raising awareness of important issues, and making the community better for everyone. My only regret about this event was that it was not long enough for me to be able to visit and learn about every project! Thank you McCall students, teachers, and mentors!”
And, thank you Winchester community for coming to this event, engaging with our talented students, and celebrating the importance of youth civic involvement.
