Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
The 8th grade class at Wellesley Middle School had its commencement ceremony on Monday, June 22, the last day for Wellesley Public Schools. Principal Mark Ito emceed.
Wellesley Media captured the action.
Congrats to the students. We wish you a fun summer.
The latest Wellesley charity & nonprofit news:
Recently, around 125 sixth graders from the Wellesley Middle School raised and donated over $22,000 to the Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund is connected to Dana Farber, and any money it raises is used to help fight cancer. This important organization received a large sum from WMS 6th graders through an event called the Reading Rally, spearheaded by Ms. Kenerson’s advisory. Participating 6th graders found sponsors, then read books for a two-week period, raising money to donate based on the amount read or from a flat donation. The donation will surely help the Jimmy Fund, which uses near 80% of money gained from donations to conduct research. (Write-up shared by a WMS student. Thank you.)
Wellesley 8th graders earlier this month organized a Surplus School Supply Donation Drive at Wellesley Middle School and Wellesley High, and the effort was a success.
Student Caroline Jaffe followed up to let us know that the effort netted more than 325 donations, which in turn will be distributed to schools in Lawrence and Lowell.
Dr. Robyn Riseberg (of Wellesley,) Rebecca Powell, and Amy Kingman of Boston Community Pediatrics have received a New England Emmy Award in the Health/Medical Long Form Content category for the documentary Beyond Medicine: The Story of Boston Community Pediatrics.
Boston Community Pediatrics is first nonprofit, pediatric private practice of its kind in Massachusetts.
Wellesley Public Schools Athletic Director John Brown earlier this year announced he’d be retiring in the fall after 20 years on the job, and he was already looking pretty darned relaxed as a Distinguished Service Award honoree this past weekend at the Wellesley Veterans Parade.
The team looking to replace him, however, isn’t nearly as relaxed at this point.
Wellesley High Principal Jamie Chisum last week wrote in his weekly newsletter that “after many steps and hours of process our search has so far not yielded a new director. Our plan is to repost for the position and continue the work of finding the best match for who the middle and high school need at this time to make sure our student athletes have the best possible experience in our program. A huge thank you to all the people who have volunteered to be a part of our listening sessions prior to interviews, our interview teams, and our finalist day open sessions. Your feedback has been extremely helpful to the process.”
See something? Send something: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
Wellesley Middle School in late March held its annual French Fête, a feast of food, music, activities, and culture.
The event is sponsored by the Parent-Teacher Organization and supplemented by many individual donations.
Highlights included:
• Parent volunteers abounded
• Families shared their francophone home cultures by sponsoring tables about Haiti and Mardi Gras in New Orleans
• Wellesley High School Key Club volunteers, including several former WMS French students, helped out
• WMS French teachers Hafsa Abdelmoula and Rebecca Blouwolff organized a karaoke song and dances by grade to French pop tunes (including a first-ever country line dance!), games, and activities that highlighted the French language and the cultures of the French-speaking world
• Le Petit Four bakery donated gift cards to the dance contest winners, which coaxed many reluctant dancers out onto the dance floor
A handful of Wellesley Public Schools student-athletes have been selected to run on Saturday, April 18 in the BAA Middle School 1k and BAA Invitational Scholastic Mile races on the streets around the Boston Marathon finish line.
Fleet Taylor, Wellesley Middle School 8th grader. Personal best Mile 5:44. Fishing is his hidden talent, and the mile is his favorite distance to run.
Cora Gibby, Wellesley Middle School 6th grader. Personal best mile is 6:31: She achieved her PB this year at the Harvard Friends and Family kids meet. The 5K is her favorite distance to run.
Maren Tamburelli, Wellesley Middle School 7th grader. She also skis and swims.
Sami Juma, Wellesley High School senior. Mile personal best is 4:27.91 . He ran a 15:45 5K (his favorite distance to run), at the Bay State Invitational. He also plays the piano and enjoys 12x400m workouts.
Alex Bonnette, Wellesley High School senior. Mile personal best is 4:32. ompeted at the Bay State cross country championships in 2025. His favorite workout is the 6×800, and his hidden talent is playing the saxophone
Eloise Crissman, Wellesley High School junior. Mile personal best is 5:48.10. Eloise’s hidden talent is that she can do a headstand. She also completed a half marathon last spring.
Courtney Edmonds, Wellesley High School senior. Mile personal best is 6:00.4. Courtney’s hidden talent is that she can hold a plank for 11 minutes. She achieved her personal best in the mile during her junior season.
11:00 AM Girls Middle School 1K Race Start
11:10 AM Boys Middle School 1K Race Start
11:25 AM Girls Scholastic Mile Race Start
11:35 AM Boys Scholastic Mile Race Start
The youth races will be followed by professional runner 1-mile races.
From Adam Blumer, Wellesley Middle School Social Studies Department Head:
Across the state, all 8th graders take part in Civics Action Projects, where student groups pick an issue they want to work on at the school, local, or state level and develop strategies to try to make change happen. As part of this, we teach students how to create simple surveys to get data on how people feel about their topic and their possible goals/strategies for change. While this is still very much a developing skill, students benefit from getting rich data from an authentic audience to help shape their ultimate proposals at our Civics Fair.
With this in mind, please consider helping out our 8th graders with their Civics Action Projects. If you want to fill out any (or all!) of these surveys, please fill them out by Tuesday, April 7.
Thank you! If you have any questions about the surveys or the Civics Action Project, please contact Adam Blumer, WMS Social Studies Department Head, at blumera@wellesleyps.org
| Topic/General Subject | Target Audience | Link to Google Form | Team | Civics Teacher |
| Homework for WMS students | Parents of WMS students | Click here | W | Taylor |
| Air conditioning at WPS | Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | W | Taylor |
| WMS start time | Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | W | Taylor |
| Increasing voter turnout in Wellesley (A) | Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Improved pediatric medical services for families in financial need | Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Increasing voter turnout and awareness in Wellesley (B) | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Creating positive change at Morses Pond by hosting a fishing tournament | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Creating a financial literacy elective class at WMS | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Increasing voter turn out in Wellesley | Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Using unused land in Wellesley | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Rising sea levels in Massachusetts | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| WMS Ropes Course Redesign | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Food insecurity in Massachusetts | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Beautifying WMS and schools | All students and Parents of WMS students, members of the wider Wellesley community | Click here | M | Chute |
| Youth employment | 8th and 9th graders | Click here | W | Taylor |
| Composting in Wellesley | Wellesley residents | Click here | W | Taylor |
| Trash Pickup | Wellesley residents | Click here | WMS | Eichner |
| Passing Periods | WMS Students & Teachers & Parents | Click here | WMS | Eichner |
| Litter | Wellesley community | Click here | WMS | Eichner |
| Lunch Tables | WMS Parents | Click here | WMS | Eichner |
| Voter Turnout | Wellesley Residents (Electorate) | Click here | S | Hardwick |
| Centennial Park Development | Wellesley Community | Click here | S | Hardwick |
| Financial Literacy Classes in WPS | WPS Community | Click here | S | Hardwick |
| Recess at WMS | Parents of WMS students | Click here | W | Taylor |
| Pollution in Wellesley | Wellesley Community | Click here | S | Hardwick |
8th graders in Wellesley participate in a Civics Project where groups pick a school, town, or state issue they think could be improved and work on ways to advocate for a specific change and/or to raise awareness about the issue.
Here’s a list of topics students have chosen and are just now getting started researching. Department Head Adam Blumer is looking for volunteers who might be willing to answer some basic questions or give advice to students. If you are willing to be a contact on a particular issue, please let him know on this form.
You don’t need to be an expert in any way or be involved in local government—just be willing to give some basic information or point students to resources (online or real life) that you know of to help build their knowledge and shape their project.
If you volunteer, at some point in the next week or two you might get an email from a group asking for information or clarification on something they’re learning about. The goal is to avoid having the same adult field requests from multiple groups, so the lift should be manageable.
If you have questions or need clarification, please reach out to Adam at Blumera@wellesleyps.org
Wellesley’s Chelsea Sebastian, who has quite the artistic eye, shared this video of a sunrise seen through the boiler steam at Wellesley Middle School.
“As my slang-slinging 7 grader says ‘the middle school is fire, brah’,” she writes.