Asbestos

School Officials Confident Asbestos Hazards Have Been Dealt With, Schools are Safe

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Responding to concerns of parents and staff, the Watertown Public Schools administration presented a report on asbestos in the town’s schools on Monday night. Afterward, School Committee members said they are confident that Watertown’s students and teachers are safe from asbestos exposure. Many of the calls and emails came after an online petition started by people concerned about asbestos in the Watertown Public Schools. The petition cites the suffering of a former Watertown teacher, and calls for the closing of the Watertown High School and Watertown Middle School buildings until the asbestos hazards are identified and dealt with. Because Watertown’s schools were built during the “age of asbestos,” Superintendent Dede Galdston said, asbestos is certainly something to be concerned with.

MSBA

Rebuilding of Watertown High School Moves a Step Forward with State Board’s Vote

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Plans to renovate or rebuild Watertown High School cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when State officials voted to move the project to the next step — doing a feasibility study and create a schematic design

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board voted at a meeting held in Boston on Wednesday. The WHS project now moves to the second step in a series of eight. The School Building Committee will hire an owner’s project manager to oversee the design and construction, and hire a project designer. 

Watertown Superintendent Dede Galdston announced vote on Wednesday in a statement in which she wrote:

I am pleased to share with you that the Massachusetts School Building Authority unanimously voted to invite the Watertown High School building project into Feasibility at their board meeting today.  In attendance were Senator Brownsberger, Mark Sideris, Michael Driscoll, Shirley Lundberg, Heidi Perkins, Steve Magoon and me.The next step in the process is the selection of the Owner’s Project Manager which will begin soon.  Once the OPM is in place, the designer will be selected through the MSBA’s Designer Selection Panel process.  These steps are considered Module 2, which should be complete within four to six months.  This is great news for our community!  

The MSBA’s vote came after the Town Council voted to spend up to $1.6 million on an owner’s project manager and to hire a designer at a meeting in late November. At that meeting, Galdston showed what she called a “best case scenario” timeline, in which students and staff would move into the new school in the fall of 2023. A feasibility study will be created, which will include examining possible locations for the school and what the new construction and/or renovation will include.

Schools

Big Shift Coming to Watertown High School Class Schedule

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Watertown High School students and teachers will have to adjust to a very different class schedule beginning in the fall of 2019. School officials say the new schedule will allow for more projects, longer times for labs and pefromances. Currently, the high school has a schedule with six equal length class periods which meet in the same order every day. It is on a seven-day cycle in which advisory meets once a week. 

The current schedule has been in place for 20 years, but there has been a desire for some time to change it, Watertown High School Principal Shirley Lundberg told the School Committee Monday night. Discussions began last year, but the decision was made to delay making the change until the fall of 2019.

Schools

WHS Robotics Team Will Demonstrate its Robots at Driveathon

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The Watertown High School Robotics Team will be demonstrating their robots at the WHS Gym 

The Watertown High School Robotics Team sent out the following information:

Come join the WHS Robotics Team for a Drive­a­thon, Alumni Reunion & Robot Rodeo on December 15, 2018 at 11 a.m.

Students, mentors and alums will divide into three member drive teams to see how many laps they can drive a robot around the course on the basketball court, including traversing obstacles during a five minute time period. Pledges can be made for the number of laps completed by a drive team within the time limit or a lump sum donation made. Several team robots will be on display for family, friends and sponsors to view. Why not give driving a robot a try too? All are welcome!

Schools

Two Watertown High School Students Named National Merit Commended Students

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Two Watertown High School seniors received recognition from National Merit Program for being among the top scorers on the PSAT. Nathan Follett and Robert Leonard were named Commended Students in the 2019 National Merit Program, based on their scores on the 2017 PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test), Superintendent Dede Galdston announced at this week’s School Committee meeting. Approximately 1.6 million students took the PSAT in 2017, and the top 50,000 were identified by the National Merit Program. “They are approximately in the top 3 percent of students in the nation,” Galdston said. School Committee Chairman John Portz added, “Congratulations to both of you.

Schools

Town Council Approves Funding for Study & Schematic Design for New High School

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A significant hurdle was cleared on the path to building a new, or renovating the current, Watertown High School when the Town Council approved $1.6 million in funding for the project’s feasibility study and schematic design. 

Last week, the Town Council unanimously approved the funding for what is the end of the first of eight modules required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), said Superintendent Dede Galdston. The high school project was accepted into the MSBA’s process in December 2017. Since that time school officials have been taking the necessary steps, including creating a school building committee (the same one as for the 3 elementary school projects), documenting maintenance practices, and setting an enrollment. Galdston said, when completed, the high school will be able to accommodate 720 students. Currently the high school has about 660 students.

Schools

Watertown High School Robotics Team Excels at Beantown Blitz Competition

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On Oct. 6, the Watertown High School Robotics Team competed in Beantown Blitz in Revere where after a long day of competition they were able to advance to the final match and achieve a second place alliance finish in a closely contested final! Seventeen teams from around the New England region attended the competition and joined in three team alliances against other alliances to score points with their robots by strategically and efficiently placing game cubes in Exchanges, Switches and Scales. After competing in nine qualifying matches, the team moved on to the elimination matches. In the semi­final match, the WHS Robotics team’s alliance handily won the round 2­0 in a best of three.

Cunniff School

Elementary, High School Projects Take Steps Forward at School Building Committee

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Two votes by the School Building Committee on Wednesday night moved the projects at Watertown’s three elementary schools and at the high school a step closer to being a reality. The projects to renovate and make additions to Hosmer, Lowell and Cunniff elementary schools, which have schematic designs, are ahead of the Watertown High School project, for which designs have yet to be drawn up. High School Project
Wednesday night, the School Building Committee, which oversees the projects, gave its approval to spend $1.6 million on the preliminary design and hiring an owner’s project manager for the WHS project. The Town Council will be asked to give final approval for the money at its Nov. 13 meeting, said Superintendent Dede Galdston.