Schools

Watertown High Welcomes Three Guest Speakers for SPEAK Week

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The annual SPEAK Week is back at Watertown High School (WHS) March 28-April 1!! SPEAK (Sharing Personal Experiences and Knowledge) Week is organized by Wayside Multi Service-Center’s Watertown Youth Coalition (WYC) Peer Leaders from WHS, the WYC announced. Every year WYC Peer Leaders organize a fun filled week with special guest speakers, activities and knowledge building that relate to helping youth make positive healthy choices. This year SPEAK Week welcomes three guest speakers:

Get Real Teen Council, presenting on healthy relationships and consent, brought by the WHS Feminist Group. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, civil rights activist who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, brought by World of Watertown, Watertown Public School Department, and the Watertown Police Department, discussing nonviolent conflict reconciliation.

Schools

Grades May Shift to Different Schools to Relieve Overcrowded Classes

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The grades served by each school in Watertown schools could change significantly in an effort to relieve overcrowded classrooms, Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald told the Town Council Tuesday night. Watertown School officials got their request to apply for state money to rebuild or renovate Watertown High School approved by the Town Council Tuesday night. The new high school building would also be used for other grades, resulting in fewer students at the middle school and the three elementary schools. The town’s elementary schools, particularly the Cunniff, have become overcrowded, but Fitzgerald said the high school was identified as the building in greatest need of replacement, according to a consultant’s study a few years ago. She has a plan that to use the new school to help other schools.

Schools

Report Finds Watertown Schools Need to Pay Special Attention to Finances, Special Ed

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A consultant hired to review the financial mishaps of the Watertown Public Schools from a couple years ago presented recommendations to improve financial practices and also looked deeply at the special education program – a high cost area for the district. Monday night, the School Committee and Town Council received the report from RSM US. The group interviewed more than 50 people and spent months working on the report, said Craig Finley, the project lead. While there are nearly 30 recommendations (see the report here) to improve what’s being done in the Watertown schools, Finley said in general they are in good shape. “The biggest thing we foundation here is strong support of the schools,” said Finley, who worked in public schools, including as an assistant superintendent in the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District.

Government

Watertown High School Students “Kick Butts” at State House

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A group of students from Watertown High School students went to Boston last week to join a march to express their concern about the marketing and availability of tobacco products. On March 16, 2016 five Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders joined the 84 Movement in a Kick Butts Day march to the State House in Boston, to speak with their legislators and “spread awareness about the Big Tobacco and their sneaky tactics of targeting youth,” said WHS student Shanesha Christmas. The Peer Leaders spoke with, State Sen. William Brownsberger, State Rep. Jon Hecht, and State Rep. John Lawn’s aide about their concerns of tobacco products being Cheap, Sweet and Easy to get, Christmas said. The Peer Leaders were excited that they had a chance to have their voices heard about their concerns in their community. Find out more about the 84 Movement on its website, http://the84.org/

MSBA

School Officials Need a Vision for the New High School, Start Talking with Voters

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In their effort to get funding from the state to build a new high school, Watertown school officials toured a project in a town that was was successful in getting into the program. This week, the School Committee voted to have Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald submit an application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority to renovate of rebuild Watertown High School. To prepare for the application process, a number of School Committee members, school administrators and members of the town government went to Lexington’s Estabrook Elementary School to participate in the MSBA’s “Tale of a School” presentation. The three-story school replaced a traditional one-story building, said School Committee Chairman John Portz. School Committee member Kendra Foley said she had four major take aways from the presentation:

Districts need to know who they serve and where they are looking to go as a district
Districts need to be willing to make a strategic investments, both as district and as a community
The community really needs strong teamwork between the town and the school district to make the project work – most projects include joint facilities between the school and town
School design should be driven by teaching and learning in the classroom, not other way around

The district needs to include certain things in its plans, said School Committee member Elizabeth Yusem, but that should not stop officials from thinking big.

Government

UPDATED: High School Club Dives into Political Issues, Running Forum on ESL and Immigration

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{Please note, the date of the Forum on Language Learning and Immigration has been changed to March 28 due to snow on the 21st}

A group of students interested in politics and issues facing Watertown and the country has formed the Youth Political Action Committee or YPAC. Along with trying to get Watertown High School students more aware of politics, the group has taken on issues and next week will host a forum on one of them. On Monday, March 28 YPAC will help run the Forum on Language Learning and Immigration at the Watertown High School Lecture Hall from 7-9 p.m.

YPAC started last spring when one of the founders, junior Isaac Gibbons, was looking at a recent election. “It was after the 2012 elections. I was looking hard at the abysmal young voter turn out and it concerned me,” Gibbons said.

Entertainment

Fiddler on the Roof Coming to Watertown High School Stage This Weekend

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Whether you have plans or not this weekend, try to make some room on your schedule to come and see Watertown High School’s version of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Come watch the troubling love story between a daughter and her father who doesn’t exactly accept her love for what it really is, just because the man is less fortunate! Can you imagine if we weren’t allowed to marry whoever we wanted to marry? Well come and see the show! The Watertown High School Theatre students are putting together a production of the musical Fiddler on the Roof at Watertown High School on March 17, 18, and 19. The students have been working since the end of December right before Winter Break.