Boston Public Schools Student Wins State Championship In Wicked Math Year 1

O'Donnell Elementary School Grade 4 student Haytam El Ayoubi has qualified for the Math League National Championship, showing the impact of the Wicked Math Initiative.

Boston Public Schools Student Wins State Championship In Wicked Math Year 1

Boston Public Schools (BPS) celebrates our latest champion math wiz. O'Donnell Elementary School Grade 4 student Haytam El Ayoubi won the Massachusetts Math League State Championship last month after earning the highest score in the competition among Grade 4 students. He will compete in the Math League National Championship on June 13, 2026, at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He represents Boston among the nation's top young mathematicians, with support from the City of Boston's Wicked Math initiative.

Mayor Michelle Wu visited the O'Donnell Elementary Math Club on June 10, 2026 to celebrate Haytam's accomplishment and recognize the successful first year of Wicked Math. Wu's visit was both a sendoff for Haytam and a reminder of the opportunities high-quality math enrichment can make available to students.

Throughout the school year, Haytam attended Math Club twice each week before school, demonstrating exceptional dedication, perseverance, and a genuine love of mathematics. He also represented O'Donnell monthly in Math League competitions, consistently challenging himself through advanced problem-solving and mathematical reasoning.

Haytam's success reflects the broader impact of Wicked Math, the City of Boston's initiative to expand access to advanced math programming across BPS. Launched in the 2025-26 school year through a partnership among EdVestors, The Calculus Project, the Young People's Project (YPP), and the BPS STEM Department, Wicked Math is helping build a stronger citywide math culture and ensuring students who love math have opportunities to deepen their learning inside and outside the classroom.

In its first year, Wicked Math established math clubs at 11 BPS schools, engaged hundreds of students in enrichment opportunities, hired 19 student math mentors through YPP, recruited students for The Calculus Project's summer program at MIT, and provided 11 professional development sessions for 161 BPS math educators.

The O'Donnell Elementary Math Club, led by Taylor O'Brien and Zhi Wang, has been one of the initiative's standout programs. The school's overall math performance has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, improving by 10 percentage points over the past two years.

As we celebrate Haytam's remarkable accomplishment, we also encourage students, families, and educators across Boston to get involved in the next chapter of Wicked Math. Opportunities include summer math programming, school-based math clubs, mentoring, competitions, and advanced learning pathways launching for the 2026-27 school year.

Haytam's achievement demonstrates what is possible when students are given opportunities to explore their passion for mathematics. As he prepares to compete against the country's best young problem-solvers, the entire BPS community is cheering him on and looking forward to welcoming him home after representing Boston with pride.

Boston Arts Academy

Founded in 1998, Boston Arts Academy (BAA) is the city’s only full inclusion public high school for the visual and performing arts. BAA offers a competitive arts and college preparatory education that creates unique opportunities for its students to be prepared as artists-scholars-global citizens.

Unique Features

Students can choose to study vocal music performance, instrumental music performance, multimedia entertainment and production, acting, set design, filmmaking, studio art, graphic design, fashion technology, or a range of dance opportunities.

After School Programs

We have tutoring in the library, provided through Boston College and Tufts University, Monday-Thursday from 3:00-5:00pm and Friday from 1:00-3:00pm. We have a half day on Fridays.

Sports

BAA participates in a Co-Op with other schools for athletics where they can play for other BPS school teams.

Extracurricular

Every year, BAA hosts a club fair for where students can propose clubs with a faculty advisor. This year, we had over 18 clubs students could sign up for including chess club, basketball club, cheer club, Gay/Straight Alliance, Latino Club, gaming club, and many more.

Additional Information

Early College Enrollment

CTE Pathways

Advanced Placement

AP Probability and Statistics; AP Biology. Students may also opt into Open Honors curriculum in non-AP courses where they receive more challenging coursework and receive honors credit upon completion of the program. In addition, students have access to dual enrollment courses at all of the Pro-Arts Colleges, Bunker Hill, Roxbury Community College, and Suffolk University.

Partners

The Pro-Arts Consortium connects BAA to Boston’s arts colleges—New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Berklee, Boston Architectural College, Emerson, SMFA at Tufts, and MassArt—along with Bunker Hill CC, Roxbury CC, and Suffolk University. Students can take dual enrollment courses and access teaching artists, workshops, and other resources through these schools. Our partnerships with community-based and professional arts programs across Boston also provide access teaching artists and opportunities for our students to participate in professionals shows and internships. Additional partnerships include Boston Children’s Hospital, Cartwheel Telehealth, HERC, BU Path, PIC, and the Boston Public Health Commission.

https://www.partnerbps.org/

Special Admission School

Tour dates are Friday, October 10, 2025; Friday, November 7, 2025; Friday, December 12, 2025; Friday, January 9, 2026. Tours are 10:00am-12:00pm, and another on Nov 16 from 9:30am-12:00pm. There is an audition workshop on Saturday, November 15, 2025 from 9:30 am - 12:00 pm. The deadline to apply is January 17, 2026. Auditions are Jan 23 from 12:00-4:00pm.

Decision letters are emailed on March 11, after 6:00pm.

Prospective students can apply online at https://app.getacceptd.com/bostonartsacademy, and must also rank our school on the BPS School Choice form.

To learn more about the audition process, please visit, https://bostonartsacademy.org/admissions.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Uniform Policy

Specialized Education Programs

Other Academic Programs

Family Engagement Opportunities

Parents and caregivers serve crucial roles in the life of our community, contributing their voice through Family Council and representation on the Governing Board. They are active partners in studnt learning, whether through volunteering at performances and exhibitions, participating in three parent-teacher conferences annually, or attending grade-specific parent meetings that foster stronger connections between families, students, and educators.