An Update from the School Committee

The 2024-2025 school year is underway and the Watertown School Committee held its first meeting of the school year on Monday, September 16, 2024.

As the community knows, the new Watertown High School is being built, with plans for students to move in in April of 2026. The School Committee has the authority to name or rename school buildings or spaces within school buildings. We are asking the community for naming recommendations for the auditorium and/or the gymnasium at the new Watertown High School. Please send suggestions to Kendra.Foley@watertown.k12.ma.us, and be sure to include your recommendation, the space, and reasons for the nomination. The nomination deadline is Monday, October 7 at noon. The School Committee will review the nominations and a final vote will take place at the October 21st School Committee meeting.

As always, we were excited to approve the annual 8th grade field trip to Washington D.C. This has been going on for decades and is described by WMS teacher and trip leader Christopher McDermott as a “right of passage in Watertown.” Between 130-150 students are expected to take part in the 5-day trip from June 2-6. The cost to families is $725, with an optional $50 donation covering incidental expenses and financial support for families in need. The School Committee is honored to support this field trip and others throughout the school year with a $15,000 allocation in the FY25 budget to help cover the cost of field trips like this for families in need.

Assistant Superintendent Emilys Pena looked back on the events of the summer, including student learning and professional development for staff. Among the highlights included the Summer Explorations program for Watertown’s elementary students and the music and drama program. More than 150 students attended Summer Explorations with more than 50 students taking part in the music and drama program.

We voted unanimously to make some minor updates to a number of district policies, covering non-discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual and sex-based harassment and retaliation, civil rights grievance procedure, security camera use after school hours. We approved a pilot plan to welcome two Watertown High School students each year to serve as non-voting members of the School Committee. We also approved an hourly rate pay increase for substitute food service workers to $17.69/hour.

Dr. Galdston put forward her draft goals for the 2024-2025 school year, focused on equity, student learning, district improvement, communication, and finance, operations and HR. The School Committee provided feedback and the Superintendent will come back with finalized goals in October.

Dr. Galdston also shared the first enrollment report of the school year. Watertown is now up to 2,851 students, an increase of more than 100 students from last year. An extra kindergarten class was opened at the Lowell School this year and elementary rezoning could be on the table in the future, as the Hosmer School is at capacity. Watertown Middle School and Watertown High School have also seen an increase in students.

And finally, we got to meet Raider, the new community resource dog. School Resource Officers Anna Margaryan and Kerry Kelley detailed the role Raider is playing in our schools and the benefits of having a resource dog in Watertown. Raider will serve students and staff in many ways, offering comfort, listening to read-alouds, and helping with conflict mitigation.

The next School Committee meeting will be on Monday, October 7, 2024 at 7:00PM. All agendas and materials can be found here.

Kendra Foley

Chair, Watertown School Committee