Superintendent's Newsletter
June 16, 2023
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A Message From the Superintendent
We are celebrating the end of another successful year here in the Watertown Public Schools. I continue to be awed by the overall support of this community to ensure success for all students in the Watertown Public Schools. Thank you!
In this newsletter you will find several highlights from these past few months, starting with our superstars, the graduates of the Class of 2023! I have no doubt that these fine graduates will go on to build a better future for all of us. We also celebrate and thank our 10 faculty and staff "graduates" who are retiring after giving a total of 207 years of service to the Watertown Public Schools.
This month we celebrate our LGBTQIA+ community with the annual Pride Month celebrations. We also recognize and celebrate Juneteenth on Monday, June 19, with a federal holiday. There are several Juneteenth events this weekend for families in both Watertown and Belmont. As your superintendent, I want to affirm our commitment to inclusion and belonging and recognize that we continue to experience moments and actions in our schools that challenge our commitment. It remains our mission, our job, and our core value to ensure that all students, staff, and families are welcomed, celebrated, respected, and belong. We will continue to learn and grow as a community to make this a reality.
We are in the fourth year of our Building for the Future Initiative, with several years before that being dedicated to the design and development of the plans. This year we have seen the awarding of the contract to build our new Watertown High School, the construction of our WHS at Moxley building, and our continued work on the renovation/addition of the Lowell Elementary School. And if you haven't already, take a drive down Mt. Auburn Street and check out the almost finished O'Connell Field in front of the Hosmer School. It looks amazing. Thank you to the WHS softball players who advocated for improvements in the design of the fields.
I wish you and your families the best for a relaxing, rejuvenating, and wonderful summer break!
Enjoy,
Dede Galdston, Superintendent of Schools
Congratulations Class of 2023!
165 Graduate from Watertown High School
On Friday, June 2, we celebrated the accomplishments of the Class of 2023 by looking back on the last four years and looking ahead to the future.
In his parting words to the graduating class, WHS Principal Joel Giacobozzi spoke of the kindness he had witnessed over their 4 years at Watertown High School.
“You’ve taught me there is no replacement for just showing up for one another," Giacobozzi said. "You showed up with your kindness, your passion and your warm smiles to set such a high bar for all the students”.
Assistant Superintendent Theresa McGuinness encouraged the graduates to always be willing to ask for help and to seek out mentorships and connections in life.
"Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness," she said.
WHS Valedictorian Shannon Fitzpatrick reflected on the roads traveled by the Class of 2023, starting with remote learning during the pandemic to graduation.
“After today, our journey splits into 165 new paths," Fitzpatrick said in her address. "Tomorrow, we will embark on our new road.”
Due to rain, the graduation ceremony moved indoors to the Kelley gym. 2023 Class President Zuhayr Masud talked about the significance of this graduation, the final before the current Watertown High School building is replaced.
“It’s almost poetic that we are in here today, saying goodbye,” Masud said.
The Class of 2023 gift was a painting of Watertown High School, remembering its 100 years of service to our community.
See more pictures and videos of graduation on our Facebook page. Make sure to follow Watertown Public Schools on Facebook and Twitter.
Congratulations to all our graduates!
Come say farewell to Watertown High School!
Lowell Renovations Update
Unfortunately, it has now become apparent that the renovations to the building will not be complete in time for September. As a result, we now plan to return to Lowell in early October.
Learn more about what this means in our letter to the Lowell community:
Moxley Update
Read more about the Moxley space from Watertown News or check out this feature from Watertown Cable News.
Budget Approved
The Watertown City Council approved our budget for the 2023-2024 school year.
This is a level services budget, meaning all positions, programs, and initiatives paid this year will be covered next year. Our commitment to maintaining every service we provide our students and families is unwavering and we are pleased to have met this goal for the next school year.
This budget process did not come without challenges. Despite a 3.5 percent funding increase from the city, we still had to close a $1.38 million shortfall to meet our goal of providing the same level of services we provided for Fiscal Year 2023. We were able to do this by tapping into state and federal pandemic relief funds.
Some of the primary drivers in cost increases our district faced include a 14 percent increase in the cost of out-of-district special education and 25 percent increase in busing costs. These cost increases are not unique to our school district and are being faced by districts across the state.
Training the Broadcasters of Tomorrow at WHS
WHS is one of two high schools in the country serving as pilots for The High School Radio Project, where students prepare and present music, talk, and news programming. The goal of the station is to help students explore radio, audio, and broadcasting as a potential career path.
Performing Arts Shine in the Spring
Our band and string students put on great performances with the successful return of Band-A-Rama and the Watertown String Spectacular, and orchestra students took the stage for their spring concert.
The Watertown Middle School music had an outstanding trip to Six Flags, where students performed for judges and then enjoyed the park for the rest of the day. In total, WMS Music brought home four first-place finishes. Read more!
Meanwhile, the Watertown Mall hosted a monthlong display of work from visual artists K-12.
Congratulations to our musicians, artists, and performers on a job well done!
Grabbing Gold
Check out the video of the WHS Orchestra's gold medal winning performance.
Spring Playoffs
Girls tennis, girls lacrosse, and boys baseball all picked up playoff victories (with lacrosse earning a trip to Nantucket in the process, see the photo from the ferry below!). There is so much to be proud of for all our teams.
2022-2023 proved to be an excellent year for Raiders sports, with field hockey taking home a state championship in the fall and boys hockey earning a trip to the state semifinal in the winter. Go Raiders!
Pursuing a Greener Future
Our stewardship of the environment extends beyond the classroom to our actual buildings themselves. Our beautiful new Hosmer and Cunniff Elementary Schools are net-zero energy and achieve LEED Gold standards, and the new Watertown High School will be only the second high school in the country to be both a net-zero energy and LEED 4.0 platinum building. To meet these standards is a significant accomplishment for our school district and our community.
Net-zero energy buildings are buildings that generate energy onsite by using clean, renewable resources. To be considered net-zero, these buildings must produce those resources in a quantity that either equals or is greater than the needed amount of energy at the site.
The LEED rating system has four standards by which they judge green buildings: certified, silver, gold, and platinum. The rating system, which judges how buildings deal with carbon, water, waste, energy, health, and indoor environmental quality, is so stringent that as of 2020 there were only 3,800 buildings in the world that had achieved LEED Platinum standards.
Get a sneak peak of the new Watertown High School, scheduled to open in 2026.
Kindergarten Registration
Kindergarten registration is now OPEN for the 2023-2024 school year! We look forward to welcoming our future WPS students this September.
If your child turns 5 by August 31, 2023 and lives in Watertown, you can register online here.
For questions about the registration process, contact the District's Registrar Terri Stafford at terri.stafford@watertown.k12.ma.us. If you need interpretation assistance, please contact the Registrar's office to set up an appointment. We would be happy to help you through the registration process.
If you are new to our schools and wonder where your child will attend elementary school, you can find a map of the Watertown elementary school zones here and the updated attendance zone policy here.
Running for a Cause
Boston 25 News recently profiled Stephanie and her inspiration for running. The story is linked below.
Work for Watertown Public Schools
Looking for your next professional opportunity? Watertown Public Schools has a variety of openings available now, including administrative roles, teaching jobs, and support staff positions.
Click below to learn more about a potential career with our school district.
WPS UPCOMING EVENTS
Conversations and Virtual Coffee with the Superintendent
Tuesday, Jun 20, 2023, 09:00 AM
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School Committee Meeting
Monday, Jun 26, 2023, 07:00 PM
Cuniff School, Warren Street, Watertown, MA, USA
Feel free to reach out at any time!
Dr. Deanne Galdston
Email: deanne.galdston@watertown.k12.ma.us
Website: www.watertown.k12.ma.us
Location: 30 Common Street, Watertown, MA, USA
Phone: 617-926-7708
Facebook: www.facebook.com/watertownpublicschools
Twitter: @WatertownSupt