Rounding up Fiske Wild West fun fair

September 26, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Not sure if this cowboy and cowgirl thing is going to turn into a fashion trend in Wellesley, but the western-style hats sure looked great at this Saturday’s Fiske Wild West Round-up at Wellesley’s Fiske Elementary School.

Making its triumphant return after taking last year off, the fun fair is a big fundraiser for the school.

A big, happy crowd enjoyed games, bouncy structures, food, music, crafts, and more.

Cowboy strut at Fiske Wild West Round-up in #Wellesley pic.twitter.com/Tx3FsPSvJD

— swellesley (@swellesley) September 25, 2021

fiske wild west round-up — The always fraught prize table

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Swellesley Report (Wellesley) (@theswellesleyreport)

New Wellesley public school proposal considers closing Upham earlier than expected

September 25, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Public Schools have a lot of balls in the air.

First off, construction on a teardown/rebuild on the existing footprint of the Hunnewell Elementary School in Wellesley Square is slated to begin next summer, provided the project gets the needed votes from Town Meeting this fall and from the general public at a special election in December. While construction goes on, students will need to be educated for 18 months in off-site swing space.

“The original proposal was for those students to be reassigned by grade level to the other elementary schools with space to host additional classes. A complex endeavor to be sure, with Hunnewell classes being separated, shifted to new schools, and then returning to their new school,” Wellesley Public Schools Supt. Dr. David Lussier wrote in an email replying to our questions.

Also on the calendar is a proposed teardown/rebuild of the John D. Hardy Elementary School, with a construction start date planned for next summer.

The new Hunnewell and Hardy schools are being designed to accommodate up to 365 students and 18 classrooms within a 6-school district.

Upham School, which along with Hardy was in the running to be revamped, ultimately was not chosen for a rebuild. The School Committee’s plans are to close Upham but retain ownership of the building and the property until such a time that the town’s elementary school enrollment increases to the point when a 7-elementary school model is once again needed.

At the same time, the district also has put into place plans for full elementary redistricting (slated to occur in 2024) upon the completion of both the Hunnewell and the Hardy building projects, and the consolidation from 7 to 6 elementary schools, with the closure of Upham School. “Those plans were completed and approved in early 2020 and were part of the community decision to assess building a new school on the Upham vs. Hardy sites,” Lussier said.

As part of these plans, Upham School was supposed to remain as the Upham School for another two years. However, many Upham families left the WPS system last year during the pandemic and enrolled their students in private school. During an update by WPS at the Aug. 31 School Committee meeting, it was reported that Upham is down to 175 students, 13 teachers, and 12 sections.

The falling numbers at Upham have led to a new proposal put together by the School Committee and the WPS administration. “Even prior to the pandemic, Upham’s numbers had declined to such a degree that there were single sections of some grade levels. The pandemic has only led to a further decline in Upham’s enrollment, despite district efforts to reassign students to that school,” Lussier said.

At a June School Committee meeting Lussier said, “…we’ve been dealing with significantly lower enrollment at Upham now for some years. In order to have a critical mass of students and to maintain a vibrant school community we are trying to use the tools available to us, and one of them of course is choice, allowing families to enroll.” To that end, enrollment was opened to families who might want to transfer their students there. Only 2 families signed on. Later, 1 of those pulled out.

During a Sept. 23 Zoom meeting attended by School Committee representatives and Lussier, the Upham community was informed of a proposal that could lead to the closure of Upham at the end of this school year, and an earlier-than-expected redistricting of that school’s students. Lussier emphasized to us that this is a proposal, not a decision.

Teachers and staff at Hunnewell and Upham were earlier told of the proposal, which has started to generate buzz across town.

Under the proposal, the idea is to redistrict Upham students at the end of the 2021-2022 school year and use the Upham building as swing space for the Hunnewell community until 2024, when the new Hunnewell is expected to open its doors. Under this plan, Upham will no longer serve its current community. Upham students would be redistributed to other schools. Lussier cites minimizing overall disruptions and transitions to students and families as the reasons for the change.

As laid out by Lussier during meetings, the proposal includes the following phased-in approach to redistricting:

Beginning in SY2022-23, Upham students would be redistricted to Bates and Sprague, per the approved redistricting plan
The Skills program, the in-district, specialized program that serves students on the autism spectrum, would be relocated to Hardy. This program, which draws students from across the district, was already slated to move to the new Hardy building, which is being customized to support this program.
Hunnewell students, rather than being sent to multiple schools during their school construction, would move as an entire school into the Upham building in the fall of 2022 and then return to their new school in February of 2024.
Phase 1 of this proposed early redistricting plan would only involve redistricting the Upham school. The remaining redistricting plan would be implemented in Phase 2 in 2024.

Lussier said, “We can certainly appreciate the feelings of the Upham community to this proposal, which would accelerate the timeline for that school’s closure by two years. We would not be contemplating this approach if we did not feel it was responsive to each of the aforementioned needs while minimizing overall disruptions/transitions to students and families.”

This is all far from a done deal. “This proposal is being shared with the intent of soliciting feedback from the community before any decision is made by the School Committee to proceed,” Lussier said.

Upcoming meetings:

The Hunnewell community has been invited to a 7pm Zoom meeting on Monday, Sept. 27 to learn about “important updates on the WPS elementary building projects and their impact on Hunnewell moving forward.” Supt. Lussier and and School Committee Representatives will be on hand for this discussion.
Wellesley School Committee will have its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 6:30pm. Among the agenda items: Swing space and phased redistricting.
A WPS community webinar on swing space & redistricting is slated for Thursday, Sept. 30 at 7pm.

Separately, the Wellesley Advisory Committee has been reviewing Town Meeting articles related to the school projects, including at its Sept. 22 meeting.

Guided walk on Guernsey Sanctuary Trail in Wellesley this Sunday, 10:30AM

September 25, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Guernsey Sanctuary Trail guided walk with Wellesley Trails Committee</

September 26, Sunday (10:30-11:30 a.m.)

Explore Guernsey Sanctuary, a 25-acre reservation owned by the Wellesley Conservation Land Trust. The sanctuary was part of the William Emerson Baker estate and the site of his 1870’s amusement park on Sabrina Lake.

Meet at the Guernsey parking area. Take Dover Road from Washington Street and follow for 0.7 mile. Turn right onto Livingston Road, which becomes Winding River Road, and follow for 0.9 mile. Small parking area is on your left at the trail map house. For other cars, please park on the right along Winding River Road.

Wellesley MCAS scores released

September 24, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

We’ve done the initial dirty work and located Wellesley’s MCAS scores on the Massachusetts Department of Education website. But we haven’t had a chance yet to dive into the numbers (we’re guessing some of you have, or will), and haven’t heard any Wellesley Public School officials chime in yet.

The common headline about the standardized test scores is that they’ve fallen in many communities from 2019 to 2021, reflecting the results of trying to learn during the pandemic in remote and hybrid fashion (we’ve embedded the 2019 and 2021 Wellesley overall stats below, though note numerous cuts of the data can be viewed on the state site). Tests weren’t administered in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education reported that 46% of students in grades 3-8 across the state scored “Meeting Expectations” or higher in English language arts in 2021, and 33% did so in math. Both of these represent a drop compared to 2019, when 52% scored at that level in English language arts and 49% did so in math.

Support Swellesley’s independent journalism efforts by contributing or advertising.

Private school listings in Wellesley (and beyond)

September 24, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

Thanks to iCode, Wellesley’s premier comprehensive K-12 programs in computer science, for sponsoring The Swellesley Report’s Private Schools page.

iCode’s STEAM programs offer kids the opportunity to build soft skills and strengthen their academic skills, with options that fit their lifestyle and schedule. iCode’s dynamic, proprietary curriculum is designed to span disciplines: science, technology, engineering, arts, and math literacy are embedded throughout classes as kids learn skills that prepare them for school and beyond. Virtual and onsite classes available. REGISTER HERE.

Contact Deborah for more info on inclusion of your private school (grades K and up) located in Wellesley or elsewhere, or for advertising on Swellesley. Parents and guardians: Please let private schools know that you found them here, if you did…thanks.

Assistant fire chief fined $5K for conflict of interest violation

September 24, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley Assistant Fire Chief Jeffrey Peterson has paid a $5,000 civil penalty after acknowledging to the state Ethics Commission a conflict of interest related to the town’s hiring of the fire chief’s son as a firefighter in 2019.

This follows the commission’s announcement in August that Wellesley Fire Chief Richard DeLorie paid a $10,000 civil penalty for violations related to his son’s hiring.

According to the commission, Peterson admitted to violating the conflict of interest law by altering the Fire Department’s hiring process to favor the chief’s son and by selecting and interviewing the son of his wife’s cousin.

The Ethics Commission, citing statute, doesn’t answer questions about specifics of cases like this.

Beyond my Wellesley garden—a visit to Kennebunkport, Maine

September 23, 2021 by Deborah Brown 3 Comments

All dig-in-the-dirt types need occasional time away from their own gardens, even when the late-summer border on the good side of the yard demands adoration as the asters, hydrangea paniculata, and windflower anemone come into their own. All dig-in-the-dirt types need occasional time away from their own gardens especially when the weedy, ignored side of the yard looks ever-more forlorn and takes on a reproachful attitude whenever the gardener passes by. Part rejuvenation, part garden-chores avoidance technique, visiting other gardens is a must for anyone who so much as plunks in a few daffodil bulbs every fall and calls it quits for the rest of the year.

Kennebunkport, Maine — I’m not sure if the windflower anemone was planted in this spot to match the pink shutters across the street, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. This is Kennebunkport, where details matter.

There’s no question that right up until the snow flies, my own garden could benefit from an hour a day of my attention. I really do mean to lavish that kind of care on all the hardworking plants but the thing is, an invitation to visit Kennebunkport landed in my inbox. That happens sometimes and when it does I gas up the Subaru, collect my garden posse, and we all head up to Maine.

We knew we were in for a treat, the opportunity to be welcomed into the very beautiful, very private gardens of a special neighborhood in Kennebunkport, where the summer residents really know how to end the growing season in style. “Pretty soon it will be cold and brown and gray,” reminded one of our garden guides, an octogenarian who specializes in keeping gorgeous color combinations going right into October. “It’s so important to keep everything beautiful as long as possible,” she said as she showed us around her ocean-view property.

We bopped along from garden to garden, sashaying right past “private road” signs. We wandered yards, showing the kind of entitlement that would have gotten us led out in handcuffs if it were high-summer and if we weren’t on the guest list of a long-time Kennebunkport gardener and resident. Besides, as garden-gate crashers, we’re well behaved enough. We don’t stomp around in the perennial beds, or make loud comments about how the asters are clashing with the Montauk daisies. That’s how we get invited back, dontcha know.

Here are some pics as we made our way along the Atlantic coastline.