I still remember making the 1.5-mile walk, which I now make daily, from Newton Center down Parker Street to Newton South High School. I was wearing a black suit for my initial interview on a warm day in May nearly ten years ago, hoping I wouldn’t be too sweaty when I arrived. I knew I’d wanted to stay in the Boston area, and had done research on nearby schools. When I searched up Newton, I read the same moniker over and over: “great school system.” When I told people I was applying to Newton, the most common response was to praise the great school system. When I spoke with families, they cited the great school system as a primary reason they had come. During my interview, I answered some questions, did my sample lesson, and was given a tour of the building. During the tour, my guide said something that stuck with me: “We treat teachers like professionals here.” As long as you got your work done, they didn’t particularly care where or when you did it. After all, they said, the great t