The new Watertown High School will welcome students for the beginning of School in September, and the public will be able to take a look around before the first day of classes.
The first day of school is Sept. 8, 2026, but a grand opening for the new High School will take place on Sept. 2 at 3 p.m., said City Council President Mark Sideris, who is chair of the School Building Committee.
“We are going to have a grand opening, ribbon cutting ceremony with many speeches,” Sideris said at the July 27 School Committee meeting. “The members of (Watertown’s) State legislative delegation will be with us. Folks from the Mass. School Building Authority will be here. Deb Goldberg, the State Treasurer, is committed to be here, and we’re hoping to get some others.”
The building will remain open to the public until 8 p.m. on Sept. 2.
The school is the first high school in the nation that is net zero energy and LEED Platinum certified. The original goal was to open the school after spring vacation in April, but the opening had to be pushed to the fall. Sideris said people who have seen the school were impressed.
“I was in the building with the DPW Superintendent (Thomas Brady on July 22), and the Recycling Coordinator (Matt Bacon), and everybody’s pretty excited about what they’re seeing,” Sideris said. “We still have some challenges to get through, but we’re all excited about getting there because we didn’t get there in April, so we’ll see everybody on Sept. 2 between 3 and 8 o’clock.”
State officials will visit the school to certify one of the programs, said Superintendent Dede Galdston. Representatives from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will examine the space where the Early Steps Preschool program will be located. WHS students will also be helping in the preschool classroom, learning about early childhood education as part of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program.
“They have to come in and make sure that we are set up appropriately for both the delivery of early childhood education for the 18 kiddos that are going to be there, but also that we’re ready to prepare our future teachers with our new CTE program,” Galdston said. “I think we’re going to be fine through that process. But it is a very exciting moment because then we will become a fully fledged Chapter 74 program for early childhood.”