Students in Watertown returned to class this month, including a large number of kindergartners on one campus. Back to School nights will be held this week, and the School Committee also heard about a proposal that would prevent students from using cellphones and other devices anytime during the school day.
At Monday’s School Committee meeting, Superintendent Dede Galdston thanked the Watertown Schools’ faculty and staff for preparing the schools to welcome students to the 2025-26 School Year. The first day of class was Sept. 2 for grades 1-12 and Sept. 3 for Pre-K and kindergarten.
“I think our opening days with our staff were very strong, and I think that the people got a lot out of them,” Galdston said “But I think more importantly, the week that we opened was just filled with joy and excitement. And the teachers were excited to be back, the students were excited to be back.”
The total enrollment in the Watertown Public Schools for grades K-12 this September is 2,667, Galdston said. This number is up slightly from last September’s 2,660. When Pre-K is included, the 2025 enrollment is 2,867.
The total enrollment at Cunniff Elementary School is 334 (up 31 from 2024); at Lowell Elementary School there are 412 students — eight fewer than last year; and Hosmer Elementary School has 579 students, which is down 17 from last fall.
One school had a particularly large kindergarten class, Galdston said.
“The one thing that came as the big surprise this year was the 80 kindergarten students in the Cunniff, so that’s four classrooms, which, as you know, we build for three classrooms per grade level,” Galdston said. “Hopefully we’re just going to have a little bubble that bubbles through, but that was pretty exciting. We have more kindergartners at the Cunniff than we have at the Lowell, and they’re very cute.”
Last year Cunniff had 55 kindergartners.
The Middle School welcomed 598 students, six more than 2024, while the high school enrollment is 744, down 31 from last fall. See the enrollment figures here.
Middle School Project
Galdston also reminded the School Committee that the proposal to completely renovate or rebuild Watertown Middle School has been put on the back burner by City officials.
“We are shifting our direction, potentially for the middle school to make the project a little bit later, but focusing on making sure that we make the necessary improvements that will help us as we move forward to an eventual project at some point in time,” Galdston said. “Because we do know that we need that with the population increasing in the school.”
On Sept. 9, City Manager George Proakis told the City Council he recommended postponing the full Middle School project because Watertown could not afford the price tag of about $112 million to build a school that would meet the needs of Watertown’s students without a tax increase via a Proposition 2 1/2 override.
A discussion of the smaller renovation project for the Middle School will be discussed by the School Building Committee on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. The meeting will be held remotely on Zoom. See the agenda and how to participate here.
Back to School Nights
Parents can get a look at their children’s schools at the back to school nights, or in the case of the elementary schools, open houses.
“We’ve kind of shifted them at the elementaries to be open houses more than back to school,” Galdston said. “A subtle difference, but it’s really a little bit more exciting, because you go with your kids and really get to know the school together as a family.”
The elementary school and high school back to school events will both be held on Thursday, Sept. 18, Galdston said. For the elementary schools they will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and at the high school it will run from 6 to 8 p.m.
At the Middle School, the event will be on Thursday, Sept. 25 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This is only for seventh and eighth graders, Galdston said.
“The sixth-graders had their back to school night prior to school starting — students and parents,” Galdston said. “It was very exciting, and we think that that was very successful, and we’ll be continuing that in the future as well.”
High School Honor & Tech Policy
School Committee Chair Kendra Foley shared an accomplishment for Watertown High School.
“Congratulations to our high school. U.S. News and World Report every year does a ranking for all the high schools in Massachusetts, and Watertown High School is ranked in the top 25 percent of all high schools in Massachusetts,” Foley said. “Wonderful news, and a testament to our excellent educators and administrators and great principal outstanding students there. So congratulations.”
WHS students also started the year with the new pilot program that limits students’ access to their cellphones and other personal electronic devices. The school is the first public school in the country to use the Doorman app, which “bricks,” or disables communication from a cellphone during designated times. In the case of WHS, that is during class time.
The rollout has gone well, said School Committee Vice Chair Lily Rayman-Read.
“Feedback we’re already getting is really positive,” Rayman-Read said. “Students do feel like they’re not using their phones as much, and it seems that, other than a couple of minor glitches, it seems to be rolled out pretty nicely.”
WHS Principal Joel Giacobozzi said he thinks the pilot is going well so far, and representatives from Doorman were at the school Monday “troubleshooting the last bits of little bugs.” He said students have given him feedback.
“Some of our more phone-tethered students said ‘we hate restricting devices, but this is fair,'” Giacobozzi said.
The rules for cellphone use may be changing, however, and a proposed Personal Electronic Device (PED) Use Policy for Grades 9-12 was shown to the School Committee on Monday.
The proposal includes preventing students from using their devices at any time from the start of school to the end of the school day, including on campus, during breaks in the school day, passing periods, and lunch, said School Committee member Lisa Capoccia. An exception would be made for students who have privileges to leave campus during the school day.
Simon Holroyd, who co-chaired the PED Task Force, said that decreasing use of phones and other devices improved students’ mental health.
“We evaluated a lot of studies that showed that decreases in phone use in school are associated with decreases in mental health consultations among students, decreases in bullying and improved parental perception of mental health among students,” Holroyd said.
Another recommendation is that when students use laptops in class that they be the ones provided by the school, and not be allowed to use personal computers.
The district’s policy is being created at the same time that State officials are creating a policy for all Massachusetts public schools. Rayman-Read said that there has been discussion at the state about “bell to bell” restrictions on use of cellphones.
“We have been told that bell to bell might actually mean beginning of class bell to end of class bell,” she said. “It does not actually necessarily mean beginning of the school day to end of the school day.”
Foley said she has heard that the State Legislature is likely to discuss the statewide proposal in early 2026, with an eye on implementing it in the fall of 2026. She added that Watertown can be more restrictive than the state’s regulations, but it cannot be less restrictive.
The School Committee’s Policy Subcommittee will discuss the PED recommendation and return at a later date with a proposal for the School Committee to vote on.