Elections

LETTER: Watertown Schools Parent Group Says Fund Schools, Not CPA

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Fund Schools First, Vote No On The CPA

Watertown Strong Schools (WSS) is urging Watertown voters to vote no on ballot question #5 regarding the Community Preservation Act (CPA). Here’s why:

The funding needs of our schools should be Watertown’s highest priority at this time. • All 5 of our schools are in urgent need of renovations and physical upgrades so that our buildings can support the overcrowding issues facing our Elementary schools and the high-quality 21 st Century education that all our children deserve. • The Watertown Public Schools (WPS) Facilities Master Plan study is almost complete, and initial cost estimates are that we will need at least $200 million to upgrade our school buildings. • We believe that the passage of the CPA in November could jeopardize the willingness of Watertown residents to vote in favor of a debt exclusion override that will be necessary in the next 1-2 years to fund these essential school renovations.

School Building Program

Final Community Forum on Future of School Buildings on Wednesday

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The Watertown Public Schools and the Town of Watertown announced the final community forum in the School Facilities Master Plan process. They sent out the following announcement:

This summer the Watertown Public Schools and the Watertown community are working with the Cambridge architectural firm SMMA (Symmes Maini & McKee Associates) to develop a School Facilities Master Plan. This is the first important step to review and assess the capacity of our school buildings to support the teaching and learning needs of the district. The limitations of the school district’s current buildings have become increasingly apparent with the need for special program spaces, pressure from increasing enrollments, and a goal of maintaining appropriate class sizes. Watertown’s current school buildings are at least sixty years old and were designed for a time with very different educational needs than the present.

Letters

LETTER: Important Meeting on Future of Watertown Schools Coming Up

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What’s Going On? Watertown Public Schools: Second Community Forum, Wednesday, July 27, 7 p.m., High School Auditorium, 50 Columbia St. Whether you have kids in the WPS or not, these meetings are very important. SMMA, an architectural firm specializing in educational facilities, has been hired to evaluate all our school facilities given: changing educational instructional needs and state/federal mandates; our old, tired buildings; and increasing student enrollment numbers. Can buildings be renovated within the same footprint, will they require new additions, be retired, or need to be built from the ground up, i.e., new construction?