Letters

LETTER: Concern Over Pace of the Watertown Schools’ Master Plan

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Watertown Strong Schools provided a summary of the first meeting of the Steering Committee of the Master Planning Design Process for the Watertown Public Schools. School officials are looking to build the town’s schools for the 21st Century and deal with growing enrollments. Unofficial Minutes: Meeting of the Steering Committee of the Master Planning Design Process on 06/15/2016 – Key Points and Commentary

Note: These are NOT official minutes. Commentary can be found at the bottom of the minutes. Written by: Kate Coyne and David Stokes

Committee members: John Portz, Co-chair; Liz Yusem, Co-chair; Dr. Jean Fitzgerald, Superintendent; Charles Kellner, Director, Business Services; Vincent Piccirilli, Town Council Vice-President; Michael Dattoli, Town Councilor; Steve Magoon, Assistant Town Manager and Director, Community Development and Planning; Deb King, WEA President and WMS teacher; Toni Carlson, K-12 Educational Technology and Library Coordinator; Dr. Kimo Carter, WMS Principal; Alyson Morales; Pete Caron; Mike Shepard; Elaina Griffith; Chris Lowry.

Filmmakers Collaborative

Young Filmmakers Will Have Their Pieces Shown at Boston Kids Film Fest

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The darkened Lowell Elementary School library flickered last week as a group of students intently watched a set of short films – films made by and featuring themselves. A group of students in the Lowell Extended Day Program spent one day a week over the last several weeks learning about filmmaking and creating their own shorts. The worked with a teacher from the Filmmakers Collaborative. These films will be included in the Boston International Kids Film Festival in this fall. Fifth-grader Quian Yi Titterington helped shoot a film called “The Last Alien.”

Letters

LETTER: Parents Group Writes About Overcrowding, Enrollment and More

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The Watertown Strong Schools parent group followed the School Committee meeting on June 13, which tackled some key issues, such as overcrowding, enrollment projections and where dozens of students were honored. Unofficial Minutes: School Committee Meeting 6/13/16 – Key Points and Commentary

Note: These are NOT official minutes. Commentary can be found at the bottom of the minutes. Written by: Pete Caron, Julie Cotton, Kate Coyne, Alyson Morales, and David Stokes. Committee members: John Portz, Chair; Kendra Foley, Vice-Chair; Guido Guidotti, Secretary; Eileen Hsu-Balzer; Candace Miller; Mark Sideris; Liz Yusem; Dr. Fitzgerald, Superintendent; Charles Kellner, Director, Business Services; and Craig Hardimon, Human Resources Director.

Schools

Several Watertown Students on Dean’s List at MassBay Community College

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The Massachusetts Bay Community College is pleased to announce its 2016 Spring Semester Dean’s List. Full-time and part-time students who have earned a 3.50 or higher grade point average (GPA) are included and acknowledged on the Dean’s List. This semester list includes 292 students from Massachusetts. The following students from Watertown made the 2016 Spring Semester Dean’s List:

Artem Aleksanyan

Lisdeivy Clavijo

Victoria Desimone

Barry Doucette

Aleksandr Mangoyan

Jennifer Taylor

Bereket Waldelibanos

Vanessa Yee

Schools

Dancing With the Stars Raises Nearly $20K for Watertown Ed Foundation

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The Watertown Education Foundation (WEF) raised nearly $20,000 at its third annual, “Dancing with the Stars” event held in May. This year, Georgia (Butler) Mulgrew, Hosmer School guidance counselor, took home the trophy and was named the 2016 Dancing with the Stars champion. Cunniff School parent Kim Seacrist was awarded the Fan Favorite. Modeled after the popular television show, the event featured Watertown “stars” partnered with professional dancers from Ballroom in Boston, located in Allston. Kendra Foley, last year’s winner, served as one of this year’s judges, along with first time judge Manny Corriea and returning judge, “Miss Maria” Maria Scalzi-Monahan.

Schools

Approved Overcrowding Plan Focuses on Controlling Where New Students Go

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The School Committee approved a plan to deal with the overcrowding facing Watertown’s elementary schools next school year. The plan has fewer moves of classes from school to school, but creates less breathing room, so a district registrar will determine where new students are placed. The plan, the third presented by Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald, was approved by the School Committee on Monday night at their second meeting in two weeks. The only class moving out of its school is an Early Steps Integrated Preschool, which moves from Hosmer School to the Phillips Building. Room will also be created by other moves including:
• Combining Learning Support programs at Cunniff into one room
• Making the Computer Room at Lowell into a classroom
In the first plan, all the Early Step classes would have moved to the Phillips, as well as moving PreK classes from Cunniff and Lowell out of their schools along with two Cunniff kindergartens.

Armenian Genocide

106 Year Old Woman Shares Haunting Tale of Surviving the Armenian Genocide

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Seeing the cheerful personality and smile on the face of Asdghig Alemian’s face, you would never know the horrors and harsh conditions she lived through as a young girl. At the age of just five, Alemian watched family members die, was separated from her mother and made a harrowing journey just to be taken in by an abusive Turkish family. Now, at age 106, the Weymouth resident is one of the “last surviving survivors of the Armenian Genocide,” said Roxanne Makasdjian, a member of GenEd Board of Directors and UC Berkeley Manager of Broadcast Communications who interviewed Alemian at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown. The interview was part of a day-long program by The Genocide Education Project, called “Understanding the Armenian Genocide through Primary Sources,” to teach educators about the Armenian Genocide and was attended by teachers from the Watertown Public Schools, St. Stephen’s Armenian School, and other schools in the Boston area.

Graduations

2 Watertown Students Graduate from Eastern Nazarene College

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Two Watertown residents graduated from Eastern Nazarene College recently, receiving a diploma during ENC’s 94th spring commencement exercises held May 7 at the college’s main campus in Quincy, Mass. Nicole Greer graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. Heather Morely graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.