Schools

Approved Overcrowding Plan Focuses on Controlling Where New Students Go

By |

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

By |

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

By |

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.

Letters

LETTER: Parent Skeptical of New Plan to Deal With School Overcrowding

By |

Watertown Strong Schools, the parent group, attended the Superintendent’s meeting about plans to move some PreK and preschool classes to the Phillips Building. Unofficial Minutes: Superintendent’s Meeting Concerning Short Term Space Proposals 6/8/16 – Key Points And Commentary

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

School Administration members attending: Dr. Fitzgerald, Superintendent; Beth Sahakian, Community Education Director; Bob LaRoche, Hosmer Principal; and April Romano, Early Steps preschool Director. School Committee members attending: John Portz, Chair; Kendra Foley, Vice-Chair; Guido Guidotti, Secretary; Candace Miller; and Liz Yusem.

Government

Middle School Window Replacement Approved by Town Council

By |

Watertown Middle School

Hundreds of windows that leak, let in breezes and do not connect well to the building will be replaced at Watertown Middle School in a project jointly paid for by the town and the state. 

Tuesday night, the Town Council approved the town borrowing $3.08 million, of which 48.47 percent will be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The price of the project grew from about $300,000 to over $3 million after the state’s project manager, Gale Associates, examined the school and found that 207 windows, instead of just a few dozen, needed replacing. Some windows let in water, others have gaps that let in the cold in the winter and some are permanently closed, said Siva Sivalogan, of exPERTcon Inc., who will serve as owner’s project manger on behalf of the Watertown Public Schools. “(The middle school) is solidly built, unfortunately the windows are not in good shape, to the extent that they are not compliant (with state standards),” Sivalogan said. Sivalogan showed photos of windows that show they are not well connected to the building.

Schools

See the WHS Award Winners, Teacher Honorees from Graduation

By |

Here are the student award winners and teacher honorees from the 2016 Watertown High School graduation ceremony. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Valedictorian

Zoe Grodsky

Salutatorian

Christopher Rohlicek

CUMULATIVE G.P.A. OF 4.0 OR HIGHER

Kareem Alhady           Julia Harrington

Olivia Almeida             Sasha Helfner                         

Niko Carvajal-Janke    Jeremy Holt

Karl Elbakian               Robert Kennedy

Sofia Farhadi               Christa Knell

Gabriella Fiorentino   Austin Lin

Kyle Foley                    Hannah McCall

Karina Franca              Cristopher Patvakanian

Sara Fulton                  Kira Peterson

Tyler Gardiner             Rachel Quinlivan

Briana Guillory            Melissa Rose

Arshdeep Singh

 

2016 TEACHER HONOREES

Cunniff School    Ms. Maryann Fitzpatrick & Ms. MaryKate Fitzpatrick

Hosmer School Mrs. Susan Bellis

Lowell School           Ms. Debra Garabedian

Watertown Middle School    Ms. Eleanor Donato

 

2016 RETIREMENTS

Mrs. Joan Corkery, School Nurse

Mrs. Gaylene Fantasia, Ceremony Coordinator

 

2016 ABCD AWARD (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty)

Ms. Adrienne Eaton, Lead Guidance Counselor

 

2016 TEACHER OF THE YEAR

Mr. Charles Duggan, Physics

 

2016 CLASS OFFICERS & EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Farid Mawanda, President     Katelyn Rourke, Vice-President

Tyler Gardiner, Treasurer       Jeremy Breen, Secretary

Kyle Foley, Robert Kennedy, Ally McCall, Hannah McCall, Steven Mey

 

2016 GRADUATION CEREMONY STUDENT PERFORMERS

Rivers and Roads – Zoe Grodsky & Kira Peterson

Never Alone – Jeremy Breen, Niko Carvajal-Janke & Ivana Mendez Juliao

The Call – Dominika Bondaryk & Hannah Cook

See the names of all the graduates here, and check out photos and highlights from the ceremony here.

Lowell School

Students from a Watertown School Place First in National Math Competition

By |

A packed room at Watertown High School erupted in cheers and applause when it was announced that Lowell Elementary School’s Continental Math League team finished in first place in the national competition during Monday’s School Committee meeting. The 27 fifth graders from Lowell took part in five meets through the course of the year, in which they tackle six questions that require “high-level mathematical skills, critical, intuitive and abstract thinking,” said fifth-grade teacher Debra Garabedian, who oversees the Math League at Lowell. Nationally, more than 400 schools and over 15,000 students participated in the competition. To qualify as a national winner, a school must have a perfect cumulative score of 180 points. This year, the Lowell was one of 13 schools to reach that mark and finish in first place.

Overcrowding

LETTER: Parents React to New Overcrowding Plan & More from School Meeting

By |

Parent group Watertown Strong Schools submitted this roundup of the School Committee meeting on June 6, where the overcrowding plan, facilities master plan, enrollment and many other items were discussed. 

Note: These are NOT official minutes. Commentary can be found at the bottom of the minutes. Written by: Alyson Morales

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. Audience members: Mena Ciarlone, Cunniff Principal; Elizabeth Kaplan, Lowell Principal; Bob LaRoche, Hosmer Principal; Donna Ruseckas, Director of Wellness & Extended Services; Adam Silverberg, World Languages Coordinator; Lauren Harwood, Accountability Data Manager; Vincent Piccirilli, Town Council Vice President; Aaron Dushku, Town Councilor; Lisa Feltner, Town Councilor; Jim Cairns, WSS; Pete Caron, WSS; Julie Cotton, WSS; Kate Coyne, WSS; Rebecca Grow, WSS; Diego Hammerschlag, WSS; David Stokes, WSS; Alyson Morales, WSS, Mike Shephard; and many other parents and community members. Math Olympiad

The Lowell 5th grade Math League was honored along with their teacher Mrs. Debra Garabedian for placing first in the nation in the Continental Math Leauge.