Schools

Watertown Public Schools Hosting Screenings for Special Education Preschool

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The Watertown Public Schools provided the following information:

The Watertown Public School’s Special Education Department will be offering Early
Childhood screenings for children ages 3 to 5 years old. Screenings are for children whose families have concerns about their developmental progress. They are conducted in an arena model specifically in the areas of:
Speech and language
Fine Motor (OT)
Gross Motor (PT)
Pre-Academic Readiness
Screenings are by appointment only. Families with concerns are encouraged to
contact the preschool to make an appointment by calling 617-926-7765 or e-mail
Karen.feeney@watertown.k12.ma.us

The arena screenings will be held at Early Steps Integrated Preschool located at the Hosmer Elementary School, 1 Concord Road on the following dates and times:
Monday, Oct. 22, 12:00–12:30, 12:30–1:00
Monday, Nov.

Schools

Watertown High School Robotics Team Excels at Beantown Blitz Competition

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On Oct. 6, the Watertown High School Robotics Team competed in Beantown Blitz in Revere where after a long day of competition they were able to advance to the final match and achieve a second place alliance finish in a closely contested final! Seventeen teams from around the New England region attended the competition and joined in three team alliances against other alliances to score points with their robots by strategically and efficiently placing game cubes in Exchanges, Switches and Scales. After competing in nine qualifying matches, the team moved on to the elimination matches. In the semi­final match, the WHS Robotics team’s alliance handily won the round 2­0 in a best of three.

Schools

Watertown Schools Piloting New System for School Visitors, Student Pickups

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The Watertown Public Schools are going high tech to keep track of visitors, and to make sure student are being picked up by those who are allowed to do so. This week, Watertown Middle School started using the Raptor Visitor Management System, which enters visitors into a computer system and can also check criminal and custody databases. Jason DelPotro, Watertown Middle School assistant principal and chair of the district’s Critical Incident Team, gave the School Committee an overview of the new program Monday night. Prior to the use of the computer system, the Watertown schools used the old fashion clipboard sheet to have people sign in and out when visiting campuses. Now, people will have to show a driver’s license and have it scanned into the system. The computer will then create a paper visitor ID, DelPotro said.

Cunniff School

Elementary, High School Projects Take Steps Forward at School Building Committee

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Two votes by the School Building Committee on Wednesday night moved the projects at Watertown’s three elementary schools and at the high school a step closer to being a reality. The projects to renovate and make additions to Hosmer, Lowell and Cunniff elementary schools, which have schematic designs, are ahead of the Watertown High School project, for which designs have yet to be drawn up. High School Project
Wednesday night, the School Building Committee, which oversees the projects, gave its approval to spend $1.6 million on the preliminary design and hiring an owner’s project manager for the WHS project. The Town Council will be asked to give final approval for the money at its Nov. 13 meeting, said Superintendent Dede Galdston.

Schools

School Officials Pleased with Watertown’s Results in First Year of New State Test

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The scores for the new MCAS exam are out, and the results pleased Watertown Public School officials. 

The Massachusetts Accountability System uses a different test, has different scores and different measures for how a school or district fared, said Watertown Superintendent Dede Galdston. She said, however, that the district fared well on the first year of the new test. “We are very pleased with our results,” Galdston said at Monday’s School Committee meeting. “Three (of five) schools met or exceeded the goals set by the state and one met it in some areas.” Cunniff and Lowell elementary schools and Watertown High School fell into the “not requiring assistance or intervention,” while Hosmer Elementary and Watertown Middle School fell into the “requiring assistance or intervention category, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Eduction (DESE) report.

Cunniff School

Architects Reveal New Design for Hosmer School, Parking Plan for Lowell School

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The designs for Watertown’s three elementary schools have started to become more solid, and in the near future school officials will present them to the communities in and around the schools. Architect Scott Dunlap from Ai3 presented the most recent designs at last week’s School Building Committee meeting. The biggest change comes at Hosmer Elementary School, where the latest design shows a large glassed in area on the northeast corner of the school. “It is an element we are introducing into the front of the building,” Dunlap said. “We are not saying that the glass will go all the way across.

Business

Nominate Middle, High School Entrepreneurs for Chamber’s Awards

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The Newton-Needham Regional Chamber provided the following announcement:
Each fall the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber recognizes two high or middle school students who demonstrate exceptional qualities around leadership, entrepreneurship and business. Past recipients have included students who’ve started their own business, created a unique app or product, or somehow demonstrated unique entrepreneurial skills.  
To qualify, students must currently reside in and/or attend a middle or high school in Newton, Needham, Watertown or Belmont and have not yet completed high school. Honorees will be recognized at the chamber’s annual Fall Business Breakfast on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Newton Marriott Hotel. We are now seeking your nominations for our 2018 Young Entrepreneur.

Schools

Grades at Some Watertown Schools Full; Students Face Heat in First Week

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The school year has begun in Watertown, and preliminary enrollment figures put classes at the town’s elementary schools at or under the class size guidelines, but some are right at the limit. Superintendent Dede Galdston gave the enrollment figures to the School Committee last week, just days into the school year. The Watertown Public School’s class size guideline calls for classes of no more than 20 for kindergarten and first grade, 22 for second and third grades and 24 for fourth and fifth. As the opening of school approached, there were some grades which worried Galdston. “One area of concern, originally, was kindergarten numbers,” Galdston said.