From Football to Lunch: NMRHS Policies Leave Students Upset

By The ClearScope Network | @ClearScopeNet

September 9, 2025

The 2025–2026 school year at North Middlesex Regional High School is off to a controversial start. Administration announced earlier this year that the football team has been cut, ending the Marching Band’s tradition of performing at the games. Now Marching Band will be reportedly playing at the Groton-Dunstable games instead. Community members from Pepperell, Ashby, and Townsend are reportedly “very upset” about the decision. While Homecoming is still on the calendar, it will not include a football game for the first time in recent memory.

In an effort to “strengthen connections between our school and our community,” Principal Laurie Smith has unveiled a new initiative: the Senior Citizens Lunch Program. The program, announced in a September 9th email to students, will begin Friday, September 12th.

In her message, Smith wrote:

“Beginning this Friday, September 12, we will be welcoming senior citizens from our three towns—Pepperell, Townsend, and Ashby—for lunch at NMRHS. They will arrive around 11:00 a.m., prior to the start of student lunch, so they can get their meals first. They will be seated and eating in the Annex.

This initiative is part of our effort to strengthen connections between our school and our community. I encourage you to be courteous, as I know you always are, and to take the opportunity to interact with our guests. Feel free to sit with them and have conversations—many of them have wonderful experiences and stories to share that I think you will find both interesting and valuable.

This will be a weekly event on Fridays, and we are excited to see it grow. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you in advance for your kindness and willingness to make our visitors feel welcome.”

The new program, however, has stirred frustration among students. The Annex has long been a senior-exclusive seating area in the cafeteria, but every Friday it will now become the designated Senior Citizen area. High School Seniors may sit with the Senior Citizens if they choose, but many students say the change feels awkward, uncomfortable, and disruptive to their one daily break.

Some argue the plan is unfair to both groups. They worry the effort could backfire, leaving senior citizens isolated if students choose not to participate. “It’s just weird,” one senior remarked, “and most of us don’t want to spend our lunch sitting with strangers.”

Between the loss of football, the change to Homecoming, and now the Annex being repurposed, many students feel that unpopular policies are being pushed out one after the other. For now, though, the administration is standing by its decision, with the first Senior Citizens Lunch set to begin this week.