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Like many students who chose to attend Minuteman Regional High School, Nicole Kelly toured the school and attended an Open House before making her final decision. Unlike most students, however, she already knew a great deal about the school, since "Minuteman" was a household word in her Arlington home. A senior in the Early Childhood Education program, Nicole is the fourth member of her family to attend Minuteman, following in the footsteps of her older sister, mother and father. It is likely her younger brother will make the same choice, too.
"Our children saw that we had a good experience. We made sure they looked at the school, and then they each decided to pursue it," says Bill Kelly, who with his wife, Lorraine, was a member of the first graduating class in 1978. "They liked the idea that we knew all the teachers," Lorraine adds. "They saw it was an opportunity to look at a lot of careers, learn a trade, and be prepared for today's world." Family members have in common their enthusiasm for the school, its career opportunities, and the chance it offers students to shine, either in their vocational-technical area, sports performance or club participation. They also gave high praise to the schedule, in which students alternate weeks of technical training with weeks of academic classes throughout high school.
Alternating Schedule
"I really liked having shop one week and academics the next," says Jennifer Kelly, Class of 2003, now a freshman at Mt. Ida College. "This gives you two ways of learning subjects."
Jen played Mustang soccer and basketball and was recruited to play soccer at Mt. Ida, where she is majoring in sports management. She looks forward to the league playoffs in November.
She specialized in Retail Marketing & Management at Minuteman, a program she chose after looking at many different fields during the Freshman Exploratory Program. As a junior and senior, she participated in the Cooperative Education Program, working at Cambridge Savings Bank's Arlington Heights branch on alternate weeks. Jen was also a member of National Honor Society and DECA, a national student marketing association.
Nicole knew which field she wanted—Early Childhood Education—before she came to Minuteman, but still enjoyed the exploratory experience. "I liked meeting all the teachers and seeing all the majors—I didn't even know what Biotechnology was before Exploratory." Nicole participated in cheerleading for three years and now works part-time with her mother in an orthodontist's office. She plans to go to nursing school after graduation.
Chaos—and Fresh Paint
For Jennifer and Nicole, Minuteman was a well-established school with many activities and a full complement of students when they first enrolled. It wasn't quite the same for their parents.
"It was exciting with the smell of fresh paint and new carpets, but it was also chaotic at first," says Lorraine Kelly, then a resident of Concord, who moved into what was a brand-new school in January of her freshman year. Only one class, the Class of 1978, was there and it was "like family," Lorraine recalls. Lorraine played field hockey, basketball and soccer and was a member of the National Honor Society.
Lorraine didn't know if she wanted nursing or dental assisting, but enrolled in Health Occupations. By her senior year, she knew that dental was her strong interest, but Minuteman did not offer that program at that time. Her teacher arranged for her to observe at local dental offices and after graduation she went to Middlesex Community College for dental assisting. She still works in the field and enjoys her job, working with children in an orthodontist's office. As an orthodontic lab technician, she pours plastic models, trims them for presentation and makes retainers.
Lorraine and Bill knew each other in high school, but didn't date. Bill, then a resident of Belmont, was an Auto Body student who chose the field because of "a passion for automobiles and an interest in working with my hands." Despite this clear interest, he said it was "a tough choice, because I was also interested in Landscape Design." Like the other members of his family, he especially enjoyed "having the vocational experience one week and academics the next. The flexibility of the schedule was great."
Looking back, Bill believes he gained "a lot of values from school, and they gave us real world scenarios." Each member of his family—and each student at Minuteman, then and now—has the opportunity to provide a service or product for actual customers, testing their skills and talents while still in high school.
After graduation, Bill worked in the collision repair field, including eight years at Belmont Volkswagen, where he rose to the post of body shop manager. He also saw Lorraine again when a group of friends got together on Cape Cod. They began dating shortly after that, and now celebrate 23 years of marriage.
Bill took an evening school course at Minuteman to get a Massachusetts Auto Damage Appraiser license. When the family moved to Cape Cod in 1985, he decided to pursue his second interest, and Kelly Landscaping came into being, although he also worked for Bay State Appraisers License Company. Moving back to the mainland in 1988, they settled in Belmont and Bill went back into the car business. Employed by Foreign Motors West, he advanced to service manager and sales manager for the Land Rover. The family moved to Arlington, and in 2002 he began another career, related to his sales and finance experience. Bill now works for Mortgage Partners in Belmont.
Support from teachers is a constant all four Kellys noted in discussing Minuteman. "The teachers will push the students, and also take them under their wing to make sure they can do their job," Lorraine says. "I think it is amazing how the Minuteman staff gets kids ready for the world-with people skills, resumes, everything," she says.
Lorraine and Bill continue their connection with Minuteman, not only as parents and alumni, but through the Minuteman Parent Association, which Lorraine serves as vice president, and Bill helps out at events.
There are many reasons they stay involved. Lorraine chooses just one: "Everything around Minuteman is so positive."
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