Schools

Perkins School Launches Online Academy for Continuing Education & Professional Development

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The following announcement was provided by Perkins School for the Blind:

Perkins recently launched Perkins Academy, an online continuing education and professional development platform for educators, dedicated to unlocking learning for children with disabilities. The natural extension of Perkins’ mission to help students with disabilities find their place in the world, Perkins Academy will offer remote, on-demand learning opportunities for educators. 

With 95 percent of students with disabilities in public schools, there’s an increased demand to share Perkins know-how across the country with public and private school teachers. Perkins Academy will deliver highly specialized training to educators that goes beyond the resources of many public schools. This past year, Perkins’ Watertown campus educated over 200 students locally, and over 1,000 across the state. The online learning modules will help disseminate the knowledge gained from their work in Massachusetts to teachers and families.

Schools

Watertown Students Earn College Honors at Bates, Lasell, Wisconsin, Miami U., and MassBay; One Graduate

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Dozens of Watertown students made the dean’s list and president’s list at Bates College, Lasell University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Miami University, and MassBay Community College. And a student graduated from Fort Hays State. Bates College

Lily Lambo of Watertown, Mass., was named to the dean’s list at Bates College for the fall semester ending in December 2024. This is a distinction earned by students whose grade point average is 3.92 or higher. Lambo is still considering a major at Bates.

Schools

Changes to School’s Extended Day Program But No Extra Seats; Plans for PreK & Preschool

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The Watertown Public Schools Extended Day program has been so popular that it consistently has more applications than spots available. School officials said the number of spots will not be increased, but efforts will be made to try to prevent students being on the waitlist for more than one year. The School Committee heard updates on the Extended Day — the district’s after school program for children in grades K-5 — as well as the PreK and district’s Preschool programs at its Jan. 6 meeting. Debi Cornelius, Director of Community Education, said the Extended Day Program is full with 410 students, and officially has 35 students on the waitlist, including 14 at Hosmer, 15 at Lowell and 6 from the PreK program.

Schools

Student Leads Effort to Install Fridge at Watertown School to Save Unopened Items for Community Fridge

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Third-grader Naomi Ward stands next to the fridge where food is saved after lunches at Lowell School and donated to the Watertown Community Fridge. She helped raise money to purchased the fridge. (Photo by Charlie Breitrose)

Thanks to the effort of an elementary school student, bags full of food from lunches at one Watertown school will be saved and made available to those who visit the Watertown Community Fridge. Setting up a program to collect the food and make it available to those who need it was a multi-year effort. Now third-grader Naomi Ward first got the idea of trying to save food from lunches at Lowell Elementary School when she was in first grade.

Schools

School Committee Update: Teacher Honored, Field Hockey Team Recognized, Enrollment Rising

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Watertown’s State Champion Field Hockey Team was honored by the School Committee. (Courtesy of Watertown Field Hockey)

Watertown School Committee Chair Kendra Foley provided a round up of the most recent School Committee meeting. See what happened below. There has been much to celebrate over the last month at our Watertown School Committee meetings. We were thrilled to honor Cunniff music teacher Liz Schorr, who was recently chosen as the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress Educator of the Year.

Schools

Watertown Students Earn Honors at RPI, SNHU and Mass College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences

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Students from Watertown received honors from Renselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), and from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). RPI

On October 30, Allison Fitzpatrick of Watertown, MA, was among the 210 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute seniors inducted into the Order of the Engineer, a national organization dedicated to upholding the highest ethical standards for the engineering profession. In addition to taking the Order of the Engineer pledge, each inductee received a stainless-steel ring to be worn on the little finger of their dominant hand. The rings represent each student’s daily commitment to serving humanity through engineering. These students will follow in the footsteps of RPI graduates who, since 1824, have applied technology and innovation to solving the world’s toughest problems.

Founded in 1824 for the application of science to the common purposes of life, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first technological research university in the United States.