Schools

High School Moves a Step Closer to Being Accepted Into State Building Program

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For the fourth time this year Watertown Public School officials applied to have the renovation Watertown High School partially funded by the state, and this time the project has caught the eye of state officials who will come take a closer look at the aging campus. While WHS has not yet been invited to be part of the MSBA program, in which close to half the cost would be reimbursed by the state, Superintendent Dede Galdston said she is excited to see it being considered. “A group from the state will come to the district to interview people and have an architect come look at the building to determine if it’s one of the buildings that will get funding,” Galdston told the School Committee Monday night. “It is pretty exciting we made the first cut.” If the school makes the list of schools to be accepted into the state program, the work really begins for Watertown officials.

Letters

LETTER: Parents Group Explains Positions on Taxes, CPA’s Issues & School Construction

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Since Watertown Strong Schools (WSS) released our “Fund Schools First” position statement on the CPA tax, the conversation on both sides of the issue has ramped up. We want to take this opportunity to clarify our position and clear up some misinformation that is circulating. We have also released a video of similar content for those that may prefer that media. Is it true that “Yes on 5 Doesn’t Harm Watertown Schools”? Watertown Strong Schools believes that passing the CPA now will be harmful to the future school renovation effort while CPA proponents believe that Watertown voters will pass BOTH the CPA and the future debt exclusion override in the next two years.

Government

Middle School Window Replacement Approved by Town Council

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Watertown Middle School

Hundreds of windows that leak, let in breezes and do not connect well to the building will be replaced at Watertown Middle School in a project jointly paid for by the town and the state. 

Tuesday night, the Town Council approved the town borrowing $3.08 million, of which 48.47 percent will be reimbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The price of the project grew from about $300,000 to over $3 million after the state’s project manager, Gale Associates, examined the school and found that 207 windows, instead of just a few dozen, needed replacing. Some windows let in water, others have gaps that let in the cold in the winter and some are permanently closed, said Siva Sivalogan, of exPERTcon Inc., who will serve as owner’s project manger on behalf of the Watertown Public Schools. “(The middle school) is solidly built, unfortunately the windows are not in good shape, to the extent that they are not compliant (with state standards),” Sivalogan said. Sivalogan showed photos of windows that show they are not well connected to the building.

MSBA

School Officials Need a Vision for the New High School, Start Talking with Voters

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In their effort to get funding from the state to build a new high school, Watertown school officials toured a project in a town that was was successful in getting into the program. This week, the School Committee voted to have Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald submit an application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority to renovate of rebuild Watertown High School. To prepare for the application process, a number of School Committee members, school administrators and members of the town government went to Lexington’s Estabrook Elementary School to participate in the MSBA’s “Tale of a School” presentation. The three-story school replaced a traditional one-story building, said School Committee Chairman John Portz. School Committee member Kendra Foley said she had four major take aways from the presentation:

Districts need to know who they serve and where they are looking to go as a district
Districts need to be willing to make a strategic investments, both as district and as a community
The community really needs strong teamwork between the town and the school district to make the project work – most projects include joint facilities between the school and town
School design should be driven by teaching and learning in the classroom, not other way around

The district needs to include certain things in its plans, said School Committee member Elizabeth Yusem, but that should not stop officials from thinking big.

Government

Council Approves Middle School Windows Despite Jump in Price

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An increase in the cost of replacing the windows at Watertown Middle School gave the Town Council some pause, but councilors ultimately unanimously approved the cost of designing the project, in part because the state will pay for nearly half the bill. Originally, the cost of the windows was estimated at slightly over $300,000, but when representatives from the Massachusetts School Building Authority came to look, they decided to increase the scope of the project can with it the price tag – which is now $2.7 million to $2.9 million. Last week the council was asked to approve $224,400 to cover the schematic design costs of the project. The windows cover the old portion of the middle school, and are a few decades old. Teachers said they are a distraction at best, and can be a real obstacle to learning at times.

Government

Council Grudgingly Supports School Project After Price Tag Soars

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The Town Council will consider adding millions to the price of the window replacement project at Watertown Middle School after the scope of the project was changed. 

The proposed project calls for replacing 207 plexiglass windows in the old section of the middle school. The estimate for the cost of replacing plexiglass windows at the middle school was $302,642 but after the owner’s project manager appointed by the state studied the project the cost of the project jumped to between $2.6 million and $2.9 million. The change in price was due to a change in the scope of the project, said Councilor Vincent Piccirilli, chair of the Budget and Fiscal Oversight subcommittee – the committee which voted to recommend the council endorse the project with the new budget. The project has been submitted to and accepted by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). This means the state will reimburse Watertown for 48.47 percent of the cost of the project, and that the town must follow the MSBA’s rules and even what will be included in the project. Council Vice President Steve Corbett said he was shocked to see such a miscalculation.

Schools

Heat Causing Headaches in Watertown Schools; Buildings Due for Upgrade

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The unseasonably hot weather during the first few weeks of school have caused headaches and some sweaty brows in Watertown’s schools, and the problem will not likely be solved until schools can be renovated or replaced. The heat got so bad one day that parents of Hosmer Elementary School students were given the option to take their children out of class. About 150 students went home that day, said Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald. “We have never done that before, but we have never had that sort of heat,” Fitzgerald said. School officials did not dismiss Hosmer because they did not want children whose parents could not pick them up to sit at home alone.