Schools

Find Out How to Help Watertown Middle School Win $50,000!

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Watertown Middle School has entered a contest to win $50,000 so they can remodel an old home economics room so it can be used by the school, including special education students. The middle school is competing against projects in places across the country in the Ultimate Neighborhood Give Back Challenge run by Guaranteed Rate. The top project wins $50,000, and money is also given to the runner-up. Winners are chosen based on votes and the merits of the project. The Integrated Life Skills program at the middle school teaches students with special needs to be self-sufficient by focusing on personal responsibility, independence and appropriate interactions.

Around Town

Watertown Rotary, Middle Schoolers Help Feed the Hungry in Panama

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Members of the Rotary Club of Watertown joined with Watertown Middle School students on May 14 to pack up 10,000 meals for hungry children in Panama. The groups teamed with Stop Hunger Now program, which will send the meals to those who need them. The volunteers filled small bags with vitamins, rice, a soy protein mix and dehydrated vegetables, who then passed them to more volunteers who sealed the bags and put them in boxes. Marc Vermouth, New England Program Manager for Stop Hunger Now, told the volunteers that about 1 in 8 people in the world – 800 million people – are hungry today and 25,000 people die each day from hunger related causes. The ready to make meals will be sent to schools in Panama to provide two-pronged assistance.

Letters

Letter: Town Council Should Adopt Town Manager’s School Budget

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Everyone in Watertown wants strong schools. But the notion that the schools have not been well funded by the Town Manager and Town Council is not true. The basic premise put forward to substantiate that notion is that Watertown spends a lesser percent of its total budget on schools. That idea only masquerades the real reason. We spend less because we have far fewer students to educate.

Government

Shootout with Bombing Suspects has Negative Impact on Watertown’s Kids

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{NOTE: The story was been updated on June 10, 2014 with more current information on the special education costs the district has spent this year.}

Some children living in the area where Watertown Police faced the Boston Marathon Bombing suspects have had long-term negative effects, which can be seen in the special education budget in town schools, officials said Thursday. Watertown schools have had a spike in the number of students with mental health problems, which is mostly seen in students who live close to the area of the shoot out – Dexter Avenue and Laurel Street in the East End. “We have seen high anxiety, older kids not wanting to be home alone and a feeling of hopelessness,” said Arlene Shainker, interim special education director. When it gets out of hand and affects their school life students are evaluated and sometimes sent to off-campus programs, including even hospitalization, Shainker said. The Impact

This school year Watertown has had 22 students placed in new out of district programs to meet their special needs, Shainker said, while last school year they had two.

Schools

Watertown Teens Will Debut Video on Healthy Decision Making

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For the past two years, students at Watertown High School have worked on the “I Am” campaign in an effort to avoid drinking and drugs, and to make healthy decisions. They will culminate their effort with a video which will be shown on May 19. More than 20 Watertown Youth Coalition Peer Leaders worked on the short film which promotes healthy decision making, and giving alternatives to risky behaviors such as underage drinking and other substance abuse. Through the “I Am” campaign these students have shared ways to maintain that identity both in real life and in the online. The Watertown Youth Coalition will show the film on Monday, May 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Watertown Police Department Community Room, 552 Main St.

Government

Watertown School Officials Detail Use of $1 Million Boost

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The Watertown Public Schools will receive a $1 million budget boost in the current school year, and they will spend most of it on special education, but will also use some on technology, materials and preparations for the new PARCC standardized test. Tuesday night, the Town Council approved taking  the money out of the Free Cash Fund and use it for the school’s Fiscal 2014 budget (which ends in June 30). The majority, $790,000, will be spend to create a Special Education Stabilization Fund. Unexpected special education costs when students move into town with severe needs can cost nearly $250,000 per student in some cases. The Watertown Public Schools cover the cost even when students go to out of town programs.

The stabilization fund was created to prevent the general education budget from being eaten away by the unexpected, un-budgeted costs, said Councilor Vincent Piccirilli.

Schools

Watertown’s League Champs Celebrated at School Committee

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Watertown High School enjoyed an amazing winter sports season – perhaps the most historic winter in school history – and the success was celebrated this week at the School Committee meeting. Four teams displayed five banners earned this winter on the basketball court and ice hockey rink. Watertown High School Athletic Director Michael Lahiff said this is the first time in his memory that four teams – boy’s and girl’s basketball and boy’s and girl’s ice hockey – have won the Middlesex League title. “It may be the first time in Middlesex League history,” Lahiff said. “I don’t know.

Government

Watertown Class Sizes May Not Shrink Under Proposed Budget

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Keeping class sizes small is one of the School Committee’s goals each year, but Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald said the budget may prevent lowering class sizes. The School Committee requested a $42 million budget, which would be $6 million more than Fiscal 2014 and would pay for 22 new teachers. The budget proposed by Town Manager Michael Driscoll  last week gave the schools a $2.267 million, or 6.18 percent, increase. Fitzgerald said the first priority will be filling the positions that will keep Watertown in compliance with state and federal mandates, including special education and English as a second language. After that, class size and other needs “may go unresolved,” Fitzgerald said Monday night.