Schools

Committee to Study Vocational Education Finalized, Will Get Help from Consultant

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The ad hoc committee that will study vocational and career education available to Watertown students will have four members of the public, and a consultant will assist members. The Vocational, Technical, and Career Education Options Ad Hoc Committee will have a total of nine members, and will meet monthly from February to June. Ultimately, it will come up with recommendations to the School Committee. The committee was formed after access to Minuteman High School was reduced for Watertown students after the vocational school opened its new campus in September 2019. Watertown is not a member district, but instead pays tuition for students to attend the school located in Lexington.

Around Town

Social Media Contest Inspires Residents to Clear Snow Around Fire Hydrants

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A fire hydrant that was shoveled out by one of 25 Watertown residents who entered the City’s social media contest after the recent blizzard. Dozens of Watertown residents answered a call on social media to shovel out fire hydrants in their neighborhoods after the recent blizzard. Watertown’s IT Department put out requests for people to clear the snow, and send in a photo to enter the contest. Prizes were given out to many who participated, said Jeanne Ostroff, the City’s Social Media/Web Coordinator. “At my last job at a local school district, I tried doing this a number of times with support from the Athletic Director encouraging student athletes to shovel and did not get any responses,” Ostroff said.

Homepage Featured

Police Log: Fight Starts After Argument Over Blocked, Businesses Hit With Graffiti

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The following information was provided by the Watertown Police Department. Arrests

None

Incidents

Jan. 26, 7:53 a.m.: A man came into Watertown Towing and was upset about his car being towed. He spoke to an employee and got upset because they would not release the car because it was unregistered. He forcefully pushed past the employee and took a set of keys, but they were not his.

Around Town

Library Seeks Residents to Take Part in Watertown Collective Memory Project

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The Watertown Free Public Library is launching a project called the Watertown Collective Memory Project and you can be a part of it! The Watertown Collective Memory Project (WCMP) is “a yearlong initiative to build a digital collection of stories and photographs from Watertown’s recent history, up to the present day, that captures the full breadth and diversity of our community,” as Local History Librarian Caroline Littlewood described it. Though the project is led by Littlewood and other members of the Watertown Free Public Library (WFPL), they are encouraging other local organizations to contribute and will be relying on volunteers to help run the project. The Historical Society of Watertown and Watertown Cable Access Television are both partners in the project as well. 

The WCMP first got started as part of a refurbishing of the WFPL’s digital history records and has since developed into a community-wide project to build a collaborative and accessible digital history of the town. For Littlewood especially, who started her position at the WFPL during the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has come to mean much more than uploading files.

Biotech

Watertown Company Developing COVID Therapy, Trying to Inspire Future Scientists

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Charlie BreitroseBryan Goodwin, chief biologist at Enanta Pharmaceuticals, and Watertown High School Senior Phil Centola look at a new microscope donated by the biotech company. Watertown-based Enanta Pharmaceuticals has a potential therapy for COVID-19 ready for human testing, and it also hopes to develop some future scientists with a donation to Watertown High School. On Monday morning, representatives from Enanta presented three new microscopes donated by the company to the WHS Science Department. The equipment can be hooked up to a tablet or cellphone to make it easier to see objects under magnification, and images can even be shared with other devices. The school had one of the microscopes, said Lynsey Kraemer, the district’s Science Curriculum Coordinator for Grades 8-12, but the district could not afford more.

Schools

See Photos from the Opening of the New Hosmer School & Rededication

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Charlie BreitroseParents and students head to the grand opening celebration of the new Hosmer School on Feb. 1, 2022. Watertown’s newest elementary school opened for the public to see Tuesday afternoon, and the bright and spacious three-story Hosmer School wowed those who roamed its halls and classrooms.

Superintendent Dede Galdston welcomed attendees who crowded the courtyard between the two wings of the Eastside school, and noted that it was just four months ago that the City opened another new school. “Many superintendents and city managers go through their entire career never opening a school and here we are opening the second in a year and a third on the way,” Galdston said, referring to Cunniff and Lowell schools. “And a new high school in the not too distant future.”

Around Town

Watertown’s Shick House to be Remembered with Historic Marker

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Watertown Free Public LibraryThe Shick House has been located on Grove Street since the 1800s. It was home to the owners of one of the few Jewish farmers in Massachusetts. Bob Bloomberg recalls the first time he got to look inside the Shick House. The house oozed history, but it was clear then, he said, that the home of the owners of one of the few Jewish-owned farms in Massachusetts was not in good shape. “I was in the house twice, the first time was about a year ago, and at that point we could go to the second floor,” said Bloomberg, a member of the Historical Society’s board who has researched the history of the house.

Schools

Community Forum to be Held on Watertown High School Project This Week

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Ai3 ArchitectsAn illustration of what the outside of the new Watertown High School will look like. A Community Forum to discuss the Watertown High School project will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m.

The meeting will be held virtually on Zoom, and will also be broadcast on Watertown Cable. The forum is the ninth one focused on the new WHS, according to the announcement from the School Building Committee. The most recent plan, which would cost an estimated $198 million, calls for the old school to be torn down and the new one constructed on the same site.