Watertown’s Director of Student Services will be stepping down before the beginning of school in September. The announcement came after parents of students in the special education program aired their complaints at the second straight School Committee meeting. A group of more than 100 parents also signed a petition requesting that the School Committee take a vote of no confidence for the Director of Student Services, who oversees the special education program.
At the meeting on July 22, members of the School Committee requested that the Watertown School administration make special education its priority. Some committee members also asked for the creation of a subcommittee to focus on special education so that they can hear directly from parents, students and others.
During the meeting, Superintendent Dede Galdston also spoke about the State’s review of the district’s special education program, which for the second year in a row placed Watertown in the Needs Assistance category. She also discussed the district’s action plan to address concerns in that area.
Future of the Director of Student Services
The School Committee had a meeting scheduled for June 25 to meet in executive session to discuss the petition calling for a vote of no confidence for Director of Student Services Kathy Desmarais.
At the June 22 meeting, School Committee member Lisa Capoccia said she thought that the discussion should be held in public at the next School Committee meeting. She made a motion to put the discussion on the agenda of the next meeting.
The motion was made at the end of the meeting, which lasted more than three hours. Some said because of the late hour they wanted time to think about it with a clearer head. Others said they wanted to hear from legal counsel to know what their rights are, and wanted to make the decision after the executive session. The motion failed to get enough support to pass, with only Capoccia and Sheila Krishnan voting yes, and the others voting present.
The June 25 meeting was cancelled, and that afternoon Galdston sent out a message to parents of students receiving special education services saying that the Director of Student Services will be “moving up the timeline for her departure from the district,” adding that Galdston asked her to stay on through the end of the summer.
In the announcement, Galdston wrote: “For the past ten years, Kathy has dedicated herself to Watertown’s students, bringing expertise and commitment to her work every day. We thank her for her years of service, and I will keep families and staff updated as the search process moves forward.”
The job opening for interim Director of Student Services will soon be posted, Galdston added, with the intention of having someone in place by the start of school. New teachers begin on Aug. 31, and the first day of school is Sept. 8.
The interim director will remain in place while school officials conduct the search for a permanent Director of Student Services.
Parents Speak
On July 22, parents spoke about the dissatisfaction they had with their experience with the special education program, and also expressed their concerns about the district’s improvement strategy being more focused on the process and not enough about the outcomes for the students. They said they wanted more measurable targets, such as proficiency in subjects and MCAS results.
Others spoke about the lack of trust, and even fear of retaliation for parents who complain about the district’s special education program. They added that they did not think that people who don’t trust the system would have participated in the district’s survey of special education families used to create the improvement strategy. Some suggested having exit interviews for families who leave the district.
A parent called for the School Committee to create a subcommittee to examine special education, as it had for other areas, such as the student cellphone use policy and vocational education.
Galdston said that she and others in the administration have heard what the parents are saying.
“I want to acknowledge, as I have throughout this process, that families and educators and leaders, even amongst ourselves, have raised real questions about communication, for sure, the IEP (individualized education program) process, and access to rigorous instruction,” Galdston said. “I should have been a little bit more attuned to the fact that. We’ve done a lot of digging and listening and hearing about why we’re out where we’re at, and I think that in here we’ve identified that.”
Among the messages that came through, she said, was including students more in the process.
“The one thing that was brought up the other day in the (Curriculum) Subcommittee meeting, which I completely agree, is what we’re really missing is the student voice, and we need to get to a place where — through the course of this first year of implementation — there is an avenue for student voice,” Galdston said.
One thing that Galdston said she thinks is key is reform of the special education program is to include a focus on the district’s system.
“I think that some people feel that accountability sits at the level of an individual, I would push back on that and say accountability sits at the level of systems and structures, and I’ve said this all along,” Galdston said. “If our systems and structures aren’t in place, then it becomes very challenging for individuals to do the work that they need to do. And yes, individuals are responsible for creating systems and structures, but they can’t do it alone. It has to be done with the larger context of the team.”
State Report
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released its review of Watertown’s special education program in 2025-26. The district scored 25 out of 35, which puts Watertown into the Needs Assistance category. Watertown also fell in that category in 2024-25.
Galdston highlighted some of the highlights of the DESE findings in the report, noting where points in the DESE score were gained or lost. (click here to see the presentation documents).
Areas of Progress
- Graduation rate rose 8.3 points (66.7% to 75.0%).
- The dropout rate improved sharply (22.2% to 10.7%) and now meets the state target, earning a point.
- High school math proficiency improved, and gained a point.
- The Equitable Services Child Count was submitted on time this year, recovering a point lost last year.
Areas of Concern
- Eighth-grade and high school reading proficiency both declined, losing points.
- Findings of noncompliance increased from 11 to 17 year over year.
- Inclusion (time in the general education classroom improved only marginally and remains well below the state target in both years, a persistent priority.
Special Education Improvement Plan
The district’s effort to improve the special education program includes rebuilding the trust with students and families.
Galdston said that an area she thinks needs work is the creation of the IEP’s, the legally binding document under federal law that guarantees specialized instruction, accommodations, and other services to students with special needs.
“What we talked a lot about is it seems like the trust was broken when we had some issues around our IEP process coherence and making sure that people fully understood the process,” Galdston said. “So I think for us maybe it seems a little bit more procedural, but we feel that if we’re able to really become coherent and consistent with our processes and procedures that will build trust.”
Collaboration with families will be a focus, and making sure they not only received the information about the special education program, but understood it.
“It’s not enough to just say that ‘You got this in PowerSchool (the district’s communication portal with parents),’ it’s, ‘Did you get it in PowerSchool, and did you actually understand what was being provided for you. And do you have any questions?'” Galdston said. “I think that that’s one area that we don’t do a very good job at now, but we’re going to move forward in the future.”
She added that having a point person for people to go to when they have questions or are confused would help people understand the process.
“We can’t leave people languishing, trying to figure out who do I go to? So we’re trying to make it so our family engagement facilitator is that point of contact,” Galdston said. “They’re going to be able to point the people to the direction that they should go in, so instead of trying to ask 10 different people, ‘Who do I go for this?’ and everybody’s confused as to what’s the right answer. We would have one person who would have the right directions to help people out.”
Another priority is having high expectations, and providing inclusive instruction, where special education students don’t have to leave their class for services, whenever possible. That will take co-planning time with special education and general education teachers, co-teaching partnerships, and designing the instruction to do so.
The state has a metric of having special education students spend 80% of the school day in a general education setting.
“I would offer that I think we also need to expand that idea of what inclusion is, and even if you’re not spending 80% of your day in the general education setting you are receiving the core content,” Galdston said. “When we talk about our plan, we don’t just focus on trying to get to the 80%. What we focus on, are we providing meaningful inclusion opportunities for all students in our schools? And I think that once we get there, even if it’s not coded as full inclusion, then I think that’s when we’ll start to rebuild some of that trust.”
School Committee Priorities
After hearing from the parents, and the reports from the Superintendent, multiple School Committee members had ideas and suggestions.
Krishnan said that staffing and training is important, and she also is concerned about rebuilding the trust that was lost with families. She wants the district and the School Committee to focus on the children suffering right now and how to fix that.
“How do you talk to families in crisis? And I think recognizing that when you have a young child and you’re not sure what’s going on with them, you are a parent in crisis,” Krishnan said. “You have an incredible amount of anxiety, and I think some of the ways that people have been talked to has not been taken into account that there’s a trauma response happening, and I feel like whatever training is needed to help educators, leadership understand, to take that all into consideration, is part of changing the culture and how we respond to families.”
Capoccia said she likes the idea suggested by a parent to have a subcommittee focused on special education.
“The suggestion to form an ad hoc committee feels appealing, because I think this is a crisis, and it enables us to get in the weeds and have understanding to a greater degree on these pieces that we’re all needing to get quickly educated and informed on,” Capoccia said. “And this isn’t something that’s been a regular reported item to us in this detail, just like in the way we get other kinds of reports, at least since I’ve been on the School Committee.”
City Council President Mark Sideris, who also is a School Committee member, repeated what he told people who attended his annual City Councilor meeting on July 8.
“I said this was a district where everywhere you went, they said ‘You want to go to Watertown if you need special education services. They have the best services around,'” Sideris said. “That was a while ago, we need to get back there, and I’ve committed to help get us back there. And I think the process needs to be more School Committee driven, so that we can get there.”
Having an ad hoc committee for special education could help with that, Sideris said.
“I think this is worthy of a School Committee led process to come up with outcomes, because rather than being in a very formal meeting here, it gives people an opportunity to bounce ideas off of administration, bounce ideas off of parents, and let them talk, and I think it works in much better situation,” Sideris said.
He also wanted to see special education as the focus of the school administration, which would be in the form of the Superintendent’s goals.
“Instead of seeing six goals, I’d like to see one goal. Let’s fix this. Let’s fix special education issues that we have, and focus as much of your attention and your administration’s attention as possible on this issue, because this issue is not going under, not going away,” Sideris said. “We’re all under a microscope, the administration, the elected officials, and I think it’s imperative that we find a way to rebuild the trust, re-change the culture, and do whatever we can to improve.”
School Committee Chair Kendra Foley said she found the two most problematic areas were performance of special education students and inclusion.
“You (Galdston) mentioned they’re related, the preschool, though, did really well with inclusion, and so I just wonder, are there models there?” Foley said. “I know at the Middle School, we heard during the school improvement plan from the principal, that they’re looking at shifting their model. So I just wonder if at each level are we looking at different models so that you can support both inclusion and performance, because they do seem certainly related.”
School Committee member Rachel Kay said the plan will take some time to implement, and while that will help students down the line she wants to help students now.
“How are we going to help parents who and families who are struggling now, whose children are struggling now?” Kay said. “I’ve mentioned before, I’d like to see an external review or some sort of external person come in, look through all the cases that are in hearing, look at through all the PRS (Problem Resolution System) complaints, and see — even if there was no found finding — can we do something about them; look at rejected IEPs and see what we can do about that. And we’re not going to make everybody happy, I’m well aware of that, but if we could help a few children by doing that, why not?”