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.

Ai3

Architect Assures School Committee That Renovated Schools Will be ‘Like New’

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The firm hired to advise the School Committee about renovating and rebuilding the town’s schools said a renovated school would be as good as a new one, and showed before and after photos of spaces that had been transformed at other schools the firm had worked on. On Monday night, the School Committee voted to take the first step toward renovating Watertown’s three elementary schools, tasking Superintendent Dede Galdston to work with officials on the Town side to hire an owner’s project manager and a design firm. In July, architectural firm Ai3 presented a potential plan for upgrading the town’s elementary schools which called mostly for renovation of the current campuses with some new additions to the buildings. School Committee Chairman John Portz said since then he has received questions from the community about whether the renovated parts would be redesigned to meet modern standards or just brought up to working condition. Town Council President Mark Sideris got similar calls, wondering why the schools are not being torn down and rebuilt.

Scott Dunlap, principal of architecture firm Ai3, brought some photos showing schools before and after renovations.

Minuteman High School

Minuteman Readys for New School Year, Talking with Watertown About Joining District

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The upcoming school year is expected to be another banner one for Minuteman High School, according to its top administrators. “We’re really excited about the 2017-18 school year,” said Principal Jack Dillon. Orientation will be held for new students in grades 9, 10 and 11 on Monday, August 28 from 7:45 am to 12:15 pm. All students will attend on Tuesday, August 29, which will be a full school day. Last year, which Principal Dillon called “the most significant in Minuteman’s history,” was notable for major developments such as changing the school’s regional agreement to include ten towns in Minuteman’s district instead of sixteen.