Building for the Future

Town Manager: Town Can Build 3 Elementary Schools Within Regular Budget

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Few towns can afford to pay for a major school project within its operating budget, let alone three, but Town Manager Michael Driscoll announced that the town would be able to finance the renovation or reconstruction of all three elementary schools without having to add to tax bills by passing a debt exclusion, Tuesday night. 

Driscoll discussed the financing of the Building for the Future school building program when he presented the Fiscal 2019 Preliminary Budget overview to the Town Council. His budget drew applause from the audience in the Town Council Chamber. “I am pleased to inform you we are proposing a plan which you will see whereby financing of the potential Elementary Schools Project estimated at $80 million t0 $120 million is included in the Debt and Interest Forecast beginning in Fiscal Year 2020, all of this to be done within the confines of Proposition 2 ½ and all of this to be done without the need to request debt exclusion financing from the taxpayers of Watertown,” Driscoll said. The announcement left grins on the faces of all the Town Councilors and the department heads at the meeting. Town Council Vice President Vincent Piccirilli estimated that paying for the project with money borrowed through a debt exclusion would have added $500 annually to the property tax bills of the average Watertown residential property owner.

Schools

Minuteman High School to be Featured on PBS Documentary This Week

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Minuteman High School is one of three vocational technical high schools in Massachusetts featured on “Job Centered Learning,” an upcoming, hour-long PBS television documentary about career and technical education by award-winning filmmaker Bob Gliner, the school announced. It is scheduled to be broadcast on PBS World stations in much of the nation. Locally, it will be shown on the WGBH World station on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. and will be rebroadcast on October 14 and 16. Viewers can find the exact station number in their area by going to worldchannel.org and clicking on
“Select Station.”

The two other vocational technical high schools in this state that are showcased on the program are Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School in Bourne and Greater Lowell Technical High School in Tyngsborough. “Job Centered Learning” demonstrates how the intensive career and technical education students receive at high schools like Minuteman helps to close the skills gap between the abilities and knowledge which job seekers possess and the credentials and experience that employers want in the people they hire.

Entertainment

Watertown Family Network Hosts Touch the Trucks Event

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On Nov. 4, the Watertown Family Network will host a Touch the Trucks event in the parking lot behind the Senior Center and Watertown Public School offices. The Watertown Family Network sent out the following announcement:

TOUCH THE TRUCKS

This is an opportunity for you and your children to see big trucks, a school bus, police car, moving van among others up close. See what it is like to be in the driver’s seat of these big and exciting vehicles and introduce your children to our community helpers. Saturday, November 4th, 2017 10:00 to 11:30 am in the parking lot of 30 Common St.

Schools

High School Moves a Step Closer to Being Accepted Into State Building Program

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For the fourth time this year Watertown Public School officials applied to have the renovation Watertown High School partially funded by the state, and this time the project has caught the eye of state officials who will come take a closer look at the aging campus. While WHS has not yet been invited to be part of the MSBA program, in which close to half the cost would be reimbursed by the state, Superintendent Dede Galdston said she is excited to see it being considered. “A group from the state will come to the district to interview people and have an architect come look at the building to determine if it’s one of the buildings that will get funding,” Galdston told the School Committee Monday night. “It is pretty exciting we made the first cut.” If the school makes the list of schools to be accepted into the state program, the work really begins for Watertown officials.

Schools

Watertown Officials ID Solution for Overcrowded Buses to Minuteman

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Due to a jump in the number of students from Watertown going to Minuteman Regional Vocational School, the bus going to the school has been filled to the brim, and sometimes over capacity. 

Because Watertown is not a member community of Minuteman, responsibility for getting the students to school falls on the Watertown Public Schools. Watertown school officials learned in April that 62 students would be enrolling at Minuteman, which was three more than anticipated, according to a letter to parents from Superintendent Dede Galdston. In additions, two more students were enrolled because it was the best place to accommodate their educational needs. The district sent out letters to the families of students going to Minuteman asking if they would like to ride the bus to school, Galdston wrote, and by Aug. 15, 38 parents replied.

Schools

Find Out About Potential School Start Time Changes at Forums

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The Watertown Public Schools could make some significant changes to the school start times, moving the middle and high schools later and the elementary schools earlier. These changes will be discussed at a set of upcoming forums.

The School Committee received a report from the committee looking into start times over the summer, where a couple of options were laid out (read more here). On Monday, the School Committee was told that the district will take a serious look at the option to start Watertown High School and Watertown Middle School at 8:30 a.m. and moving the elementary schools to start at and earlier hour. Superintendent Dede Galdston sent out the following letter about the school start time changes and the forums:

The Watertown Public School District is currently considering changes to the start and end times for all of our schools beginning in the fall of 2018. The reasons for considering this move are many with the most important being to improve educational opportunities for all of our students based upon optimal times for student learning to occur.

Schools

Timeline Set Out for Hiring Designer for Reconstruction of Watertown’s Elementary Schools

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The School Committee set up a timeline for the planning for the reconstruction of Watertown’s three elementary schools. The Watertown Public Schools have taken the first small steps toward renovating all five schools, an effort known as Building for the Future. The Building for the Future team, a group of 10 school and town officials, laid the next steps in a time table that would have a designer in place by the beginning of December. In August, the School Committee and Town Council decided to start with the elementary schools, continue to seek state funding to help pay for renovation of Watertown High School and work on Watertown Middle School a few years down the line. The schools will likely be renovated rather than being replaced with new buildings, but there will probably be some new additions at some schools.