WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A common lament on municipal committees the last couple of years has been members' frustration with virtual meeting formats.

 

But "Zooming" had at least one advantage for Mount Greylock Superintendent Jake McCandless on last week.

 

"I can assure you that the superintendent of your school district, academically, does not even deserve to be in the same room with you," McCandless told high school senior Annabelle Art.

 

Art joined McCandless and the School Committee via Zoom to receive the district's Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Academic Excellence Award.

 

McCandless, who has been involved in the award for more than two decades as a principal or superintendent, said Art joins a long line of recipients in his experience who were outstanding for their accomplishments in and out of the classroom.

 

"It does tend to wind up being not only a magnificently gifted and hard-working young person on their transcripts and judging by grades, but also it's been my pleasure to report that it's been wonderful human beings as well," McCandless said on Dec. 8.

 

"Annie, you may appreciate this. You may not. I did print out a copy of your transcript. Wow. I will not embarrass you by holding it up to the camera, although I would love to. And I will not embarrass you by reading from it. But it is as flawless of an academic record as I have ever seen."

 

Art will graduate from Mount Greylock in June after completing nine Advanced Placement classes. She has done honors work in science and English and has pursued an accelerated math curriculum that started with honors geometry in the seventh grade and this year includes studying multivariable calculus at Williams College.

 

McCandless was effusive in his praise for Art, a former winner of the Helen Renzi Award for citizenship as a sixth-grader at Williamstown Elementary. He also shared with the School Committee and the viewing audience excerpts from a letter written by Art's guidance counselor, Jessica Casalinova.

 

"Annabelle Art is an excellent student we can all admire," Casalinova wrote. "She is motivated, intelligent and aware of the world beyond the classroom. She truly wants to make a difference in the world and is articulate in the way she will make an impact. What I enjoy most about working with Annie is her confidence. She knows what she wants, and she goes after it.

 

"She is open minded and willing to take positive risks. Annie has made many meaningful contributions to our school and our community. She is a natural leader and displays her comfort within groups by taking charge without fanfare. She is a wonderful listener and is open minded to others' ideas and opinions.

 

"I am in awe of how she balances everything successfully and with ease."

 

McCandless commented that he has his doubts about the "ease" of finding that balance but said it is a credit to Art that she makes it look easy.

 

Art, also a co-captain on the varsity basketball team, was humble in accepting the award at the outset of Thursday's School Committee meeting.

 

"Thank you, Dr. McCandless for your kind words and this great honor," she said. "I'd like to thank all my teachers and family and friends who have always supported me. I'm just so thankful to have grown up in the outstanding schools of the Mount Greylock School District."

 

McCandless said he would catch up with Art in person to present her the award during a future school day. He used that Thursday's meeting to congratulate Art's parents, Childsy and Jamie, the latter a former member of the School Committee, and thanked both for allowing the Annie to be part of the Mount Greylock community.

 

"I have tried to distill what I would think of as my list as I think about you into a few things that really matter to me as the superintendent, as an educator, as a leader in this community, as a parent and as a servant to everybody here," McCandless said. "Annie, you have empathy and a hugeness of heart to make that empathy useful. You have brilliance and a work ethic to make that brilliance actionable. And you have dedication and the boundless energy to make that dedication actually matter for the people around you and for the world around you.

 

"That's a pretty powerful list of things to have and to be."