Wellesley principal Jamie Chisholm answers Lincoln-Sudbury voters in finalist forum

SUDBURY — March 30, 2023 — Wellesley High principal Jamie Chisholm faced Sudbury voters as a finalist for Lincoln-Sudbury superintendent-principal. In an hour-long forum hosted by school committee members Kara Nye-Dorn and Kevin Matthews, Chisholm described his nine years as Wellesley principal and his current practices: a 16 percent IEP rate, an in-house emotional-disability program called Cornerstones, monthly half-day intervention blocks for post-COVID learning loss, and a Friday newsletter sent to every parent, student and staff member. Asked about weighted GPAs by resident Maura Cardi, Chisholm defended Wellesley's half-grade differential but said any Lincoln-Sudbury change "should be a deep and wide conversation." On racial climate, he disclosed a winter incident in which Wellesley students reportedly yelled racial slurs at a basketball game, prompting structural changes including emptying the front row of the home stands. On budgeting two towns, he said: "We're not the only game in town, or towns, I guess I should say."