Last year May, Natick Public Schools staff celebrated students with a series of three car parades on different routes.  This spring,, Natick High School’s Class of 2021 made it known earlier this year that they’d like to do the parading on the streets of town. This year’s graduates will get their wish on May 29 at 3pm, when a car parade featuring up to 400 vehicles will start to wind its way through Natick, with the blessing of NHS Principal Brian Harrigan, the Natick Police Department, and the Select Board.

The Natick Police Department has revealed the parade route, which will take participants from Natick High, down West Street, to South Main Street, a right on E. Central St., up Marion St., a right on Bacon St., a left on Oak St., a left on Pine St., a left on North Main St. to S. Main St., then back to the high school.

The total parade is expected to take about an hour. Students, who are not allowed to drive during the parade due to the excitement of it all, will be chauffeured by family or friends.

Graduates and their families will most certainly have their cars all decked out for the event, which is optional. The car parade is not a substitute for commencement ceremonies, which will take place on Fri., June 4, 7pm on Memorial Field. The rain date is Sun., June 6, 7pm on Memorial Field. The public is not invited to graduation.

The community is invited to line the parade route on May 29 to cheer the grads on.

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Tired of the tunes? You can now toss “Dr. Nolin’s Dispatch” onto your Spotify playlist.

The idea for this new podcast from Natick Public Schools came via the Parent Academy town hall held in January 2020, and parents have since confirmed that they’d like a podcast featuring school Supt. Dr. Anna Nolin and touching on timely topics.

A trailer has been released teasing the first episode, which will explore “agility, innovation, and a Natick profile of a graduate.”

The podcast will start with three episodes, distributed over the summer at dates to be determined. Nolin will look to differentiate the podcast from her other communications, including a weekly newsletter and appearances before the School Committee and other town groups.

“This podcast will be focused on discussing the nuts and bolts of our district work by introducing some of our leaders and the work they’re doing that impacts the district,” Nolin explained in an email to us. “In addition, this is also an opportunity for us share our deep community-student connections in new and exciting ways; the first episode shares a glimpse into that aspect specifically.”

The podcast has been produced by Natick students, who are leaning on their technical theatre and production backgrounds.

“The great part of doing a podcast is that allows flexibility in how we record our episodes, so most of our work is done in a remote capacity right now. However, when things allow, we plan to move to recording in-person (using the NHS studio) in the future,” Nolin says.

Nolin and the Natick Public Schools Communications Office met with students 6 times this spring to create the podcast (students Allie Conwell, Sammy Scharr, Ellie Pantekidis, Anna Victor, and Daniel Zogby are cited in a recent Natick Public Schools newsletter item on the podcast).

Natick is not the only school district to have a podcasting superintendent, but there aren’t many around here.

We give Dr. Nolin credit for bravery (we’ve been encouraged to add podcasting to our mix and have held off).

Which podcasts does she listen to, and perhaps take inspiration from?

• Modern Love (NY Times)
• Kind World (NPR)
• The Moth
• Harvard Business Review

Stay tuned for the first episode.