Letters

LETTER: Watertown Middle and High Schools Need to Start Later

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Watertown should move the middle and high school start times to 8:30am or later to support students’ health and academic performance. Currently the middle school starts at 7:40 a.m. and the high schools starts at 7:55. The superintendent will report on a survey of Watertown parents, students and teachers regarding potential new school start times at the School Committee meeting to be held on Monday, May 2, 7 p.m. at Town Hall. Middlesex district superintendents released a statement in March agreeing to consider moving high school start times to between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m. by fall of 2017. Over the last decade, and increasingly across the country, school districts are looking at starting school later.

Schools

Perkins School Gets Grant From Google to Help the Blind Locate Bus Stops

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Google has provided Perkins School for the Blind with a $750,000 grant to develop a cell phone app to help blind people find bus stops and other specific spots. 

The grant comes from the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities, and will be able to be more precise than the GPS available on cell phones, according to the article on Perkins website. Designers will work on the app over the next year. Read the entire article by clicking here.

Schools

Watertown Students Earn Student of the Term Honors at Minuteman

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Minuteman High School in Lexington announced the four outstanding students as Students of the Term for Term 3 of school year 2015-2016: freshman Fae Eisenheim of Arlington, sophomore Mia Ramos of Watertown, junior Alexander Gonzalez of Watertown and senior Andrew Battcock of Billerica. This honor is awarded to one student from each grade level based upon nominations from teachers. The criteria include academic achievement and good citizenship, according to Assistant Principal Brian Tildsley. All four attended a luncheon in their honor at the Fife & Drum Restaurant at Minuteman recently and were given certificates in recognition of their achievement. Fae Eisenheim “is an overall great student, teammate and friend,” said Nichole Devereaux, her math instructor and basketball coach.

Schools

Watertown Youth Coalition Will Discuss the ‘Well-Being of Watertown Youth’

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Every year or two, the Watertown Youth Coalition and Wayside Youth & Family Support Network surveys the town’s youth to find out how they are doing, and what risks they face from alcohol, drugs, depression and eating disorders, among others. The results will be revealed soon. The public is invited to “The Well-Being of Watertown Youth,” A Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, April 27 from 6-8 p.m. at the Watertown Free Public Library. The group sent out the following announcement:

How well are Watertown youth doing with regard to their health and well-being? Come join us for the release of the most recent Watertown Youth Risk Behavior Survey results.

Arabic

Watertown Student a Winner in the National ‘I Speak Arabic’ Contest

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It was no easy assignment to complete – or language to learn – but after more than 90 online video submissions, and over 55,000 votes tallied, three American students have been named as winners of Qatar Foundation International’s (QFI) I Speak Arabic web contest, including one from Watertown! Qatar Foundation International sent out the following information:

Anderson Wang, from Roseland, New Jersey, and current student at New York University, who submitted a video expressing his love for the Arabic language and his excitement to study Arabic at NYU Abu Dhabi, won QFI’s grand prize, receiving a $500 award and QFI “I Speak Arabic” memorabilia. Teacher Georges Chahwan’s Arabic language students from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, and Sana Rafiq from Watertown, Massachusetts, also received second and third place prizes. In celebration of the diversity of languages across the globe, QFI announced the winners on April 16, World Languages Day. Maggie Mitchell Salem, QFI’s Executive Director said:

“We have been absolutely thrilled with the level of interest and number of submissions that we received since launching the I Speak Arabic web contest in December.

Schools

Three Watertown Students Honored in the Will McDonough Writing Contest

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Watertown High School had three students selected as honorees in the Will McDonough Writing Contest, including two first place winners. 

The contest, named after the former Boston Globe sportswriter, received more than 1,200 entries from students around the area this year, and Watertown had its share of success. Watertown’s Sofia Farhadi received first place in the 12th grade contest, and Nicole Frisoli got first place in the 11th grade competition. Also honored was senior Nathan Ryan, who received an honorable mention. The first place winners were honored at a ceremony at the The Sports Museum at the TD Garden in Boston. Longtime sportscaster Sean McDonough (son of Will McDonough) spoke to the winners and the ceremony also featured appearances and speeches from his sister Erin McDonough, sportswriter Jackie MacMullan, and Celtics Vice President of Media Services/Alumni Relations Jeff Twiss, according to The Sports Museum.

Schools

Watertown Alums Want to Honor Former Principal With Plaque at Middle School

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A group of students who attended the old West Junior High School wanted to honor their former principal, Jack Burns, and decided to pay for a plaque at the middle school. Earlier this month June Ford and Mike Younger, who attended West Junior High from about 1975-77, appeared at the School Committee’s Building and Grounds Subcommittee and Ford made an emotional plea for permission to install the plaque. “You were never a number for him. He cared about you,” Ford said. “He not only cared about you as a student, but as a person.”

Letters

LETTER: Watertown Parents Group Wants Solution to Overcrowded Schools, Soon

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For the past several years, the growing student enrollment numbers in Watertown, particularly at the elementary level, along with the demands of good quality 21st Century general and special education, have placed increasing space pressures on our school buildings.  We have reached a point where our three elementary schools are out of space. Addressing these space issues has been on the back burner for far too long; we need to make major progress in the near term. To date, we have placed the responsibility for managing these space constraints and for maintaining safe and effective learning environments on the school principals and faculty.  They have done and continue to do a tremendous job – showing remarkable flexibility, creativity, and care to try and give all students a positive educational experience. We have reached a point where the physical space limits exceed their ability to solve the problem in both the immediate and longer term at the school level. There are several classes in each Elementary school that are projected to be above Watertown’s unofficial class size guidelines (18-24 students depending on grade level) next year, and quite a few that are right on the cusp of turning into a situation like what the Cunniff is facing right now.