Wellesley High Class of 2020 left wanting for outside graduation ceremony

July 26, 2020 by Bob Brown 4 Comments

Wellesley High School’s Class of 2020 was forced to forfeit many traditional activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but students and their families are still urging the town’s public school system to reconsider allowing an in-person graduation ceremony. They point to other nearby schools, including Natick High, that are proceeding with outdoor graduation ceremonies adhering to state guidelines.

Wellesley High students appreciated the town’s huge turnout for the Class of 2020 car parade, after which graduates got their degrees in a drive-by procession at the school. But students collectively sent a letter to Supt. David Lussier urging the town to reconsider allowing a more formal traditional graduation ceremony as well that would include speeches, awards, etc.

Hopes that the July 31 ceremony might still happen—including for those who have worked summer plans around that date—were initially quashed during a School Committee meeting earlier this month following a Board of Health recommendation. Wellesley High School Principal Jamie Chisum then reconfirmed that in a memo issued on Friday, July 24.

Dear Families,

I know this is a communication many of you have been waiting for a long time. I am writing today to announce that out of an abundance of caution we have made the decision not to hold an in person graduation ceremony on July 31st as we had hoped. We looked at a number of different scenarios, including going so far as trying to limit participation to just the graduates and a small group of school personnel. Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t guarantee the safety of the event for the community and that had to be our top priority despite how disappointing this news is to receive.

We will instead be producing a video production with the key components of that event to push out to you. In that video we will name the Teacher of the Year, the two senior cup winners, and it will include several speeches from staff and students.

I want to say public thank you to the class of 2020 officers who have worked tirelessly on behalf of their classmates to try to find a way to make this work. Their commitment exemplifies the character this class has shown during the entire pandemic.

Please be safe and well.

Sincerely,

Dr. Chisum

This video consolation prize isn’t enough for those who want an in-person event. Parents responded to Dr. Chisum’s message on Friday requesting more explanation and possible reconsideration.

More than a week earlier, after hearing of the Board of Health recommendation that an in-person graduation ceremony not be held, Class of 2020 officers quickly drafted a letter. They scrambled to get dozens of student signatures, and fired off the letter to the school administration, outlining proposed safety measures that go beyond those recommended by the state.

Dear Dr. David Lussier:

WE ARE THE CLASS OF 2020. We are the seniors of Wellesley High School. We are WHS athletes, musicians, performers, mathematicians, writers, students. We are future college students and employees.

We understand that the Board of Health has made the recommendation to forgo our planned graduation ceremony, but we hope that you will see it as just that — a recommendation. The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education explicitly laid out guidelines for graduation ceremonies on May 21, stating:

“High school graduations are an important ceremony in the lives of the graduate and their loved ones. High school graduation ceremonies should proceed with the following schedule and guidelines… Ceremonies held beginning July 19 may take place OUTSIDE under the following standards and assuming the public health data supports the continued opening of our state.”

Not only do MA State Guidelines specifically lay out the rules for both a safe and meaningful ceremony — they encourage it. These are recommendations approved by a governor and commonwealth whose decisions have led Massachusetts to “flatten the curve” to a point where we are now averaging fewer than 200 cases per day in a population of 6.8 million people. Our seven-day weighted average testing rate is 1.6 percent positive and still trending downward. While certain states in our nation continue to struggle with COVID-19, through our combined efforts, Massachusetts has become an example for our country. These graduation guidelines exist within that example.

The MA Board of Education knows how much gravity lies within a graduation ceremony and made tough decisions with guidance from health experts to make this possible. The Board understands the emotional toll that months of isolation to help stave off this grave infection have taken on high school seniors like us, who gave up our Senior spring, which we had looked forward to for so long, and who now are facing an extremely curtailed college experience in the fall. Our proposed ceremony lies far within these guidelines (eleven days after the given window, no parents or guests allowed).

We’ve listened to your concerns about congregations and the additional risks of mosquito-borne illnesses, and have the following additional solutions:

The ceremony will be moved to mid-morning, we propose 9:00 AM
All students will sign a pledge not to congregate post-graduation
Graduates will receive a seating map with their assigned seating
Students will arrive in staggered time frames
Students will be dismissed by row, alphabetically. Rows will not be able to leave until the previous row has exited the premises

These measures are in addition to those already proposed, including socially distanced seating six feet apart and face mask wearing at all times. We also remind you that we are willing to have this ceremony without our parents present, which is beyond the state’s guidelines and those that many of our neighboring towns are undertaking.

Our Class, since the darkest days of the lockdown, has used the hope to keep us going forward that once the state allowed for it in mid-summer, we could celebrate the completion of our time in the Wellesley Public Schools together, on one field, sitting as a class. We were blown away by the car parade — an event that invited all 28,000 members of the Wellesley community to line Washington Street during Phase 1 of MA reopening — but, out of all the things we sacrificed, the class never let up in our desire to celebrate together. We stayed home and stayed apart for the greater good of our community, state and country. We endured the loss of what was supposed to be the best year of our life. We struggled with our mental health but remained high with hope that we would one day have the ceremony we wished for.

In these trying times, we’ve sacrificed, we’ve stayed home, we’ve done our part. We ask for you, today, to side with the state guidelines. We ask you to reach within your heart and please side with us, your WHS Class of 2020.

Sincerely,

WHS Class of 2020

Students’ parents say they got confirmation from the Board of Health that on Friday, July 17 it approved of the amended ceremony plan proposed by students, then parents followed up with School Committee members. Word was that the school system was still not in favor of going ahead with a ceremony, and that was confirmed with Dr. Chisum’s July 24 letter.

I confirmed this with the School Committee on Saturday night.

But with a few more days left before July 31 hits, the Class of 2020 is hoping that might not be the final word.

Natick’s Lookout Farm makes great use of picturesque space for outdoor dining

June 14, 2020 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

To the extent I’m a regular anywhere, I’m one at Lookout Farm in South Natick. In recent years I’ve run around the orchard on Thursday nights with a group that congregates after in the Taproom. And our neighborhood has quarterly-or-so meet-ups at the country-chic spot, sometimes entertained by a neighbor’s band.

So when the COVID-19 crisis hit, Lookout Farm was one of those places I missed. It wasn’t clear when we’d have a chance to visit again given that social distancing rules marked a temporary end to dine-in services (their curbside market shop is up and running).

Now farm management has faced head-on the challenges of running its Taproom and other venues profitably. All it took was a spare field that the farm just happened to have, and a little creative thinking to get The Lookout up and running. The new open-air dining venue sits further back on its 180-acre property than the Taproom. Dozens of picnic tables have been plunked down in a mown field that now serves as the dining room, and what a beautiful dining room it is. Surrounded by up-and-coming summer crops, there’s a view of the iconic red barn. Across the field are rows and rows of over 50,000 espaliered fruit trees over which grape vines are trained on seemingly endless arbors.

lookout farm outdoor dining Natick town officials quickly approved the outdoor-dining plan, and The Lookout opened on Friday, June 12. We decided to let them work out any kinks that day, and reserved a spot online for our family of four on Saturday, June 13. The reservation system is handled through OpenTable, and works pretty well, though it’s hard to get a view at a glance of which time slots are available (the farm’s website says The Lookout is open Thursday-Sunday, but that’s not entirely clear in the online reservation system. Note: The schedule has since changed since we posted this review, as shown below.).

While I’d been to the farm many times, I still couldn’t quite visualize what we were in for. Though I had prepared enough to know that we’d need to wear masks, tables would be separated more than usual, we’d need to order our food and drinks via our phones once we got there, and that there was some sort of walking path for taking a post-dinner constitutional.

Lookout farm the lookout — Digging into the steak tips

We drove past the Taproom parking lot and followed signs to a grassy parking area. The Lookout staff, operating at friendliness as high-peak as the June strawberries available at the farm’s market shop right now, gave us a quick rundown of the rules and directed us to a check-in kiosk. We were then escorted to a reddish picnic table under a white tent. A good dinner crowd had already convened, with a mix of friend groups, families, and some familiar faces to us. The tables, including some small, rather romantic-looking set-ups, look out over the farmland. Some tables have umbrellas. All are spread across a large area with wide paths in between tables. The set-up works well during nice weather, and the tented area should still be fun even in a bit of drizzle.

Our server handed us paper menus to help us avoid scrolling hell on our phone, which we’d use to make our selections and put in our contact and payment info. That all worked smoothly, and I was ready to place our order when one of our boys learned his brother would not be sharing his fries. I wasn’t able to backtrack at that point and add anything to our order, so had to put that order through and do a new order for the fries. That turned out to be no big deal.

Our drinks, including tasty Super Yellow American Pilsner ($7), and a bottled Raspberry Lime Rickey, arrived first. The farm is known for is excellent cider selection, and our neighbors, seated a few tables away, raved about their choice of strawberry.

Shortly after our drinks came, our meals arrived, each in individual brown boxes accompanied by disposable plastic utensils.

Welcome new menu

We divided and conquered the menu, which has been orchestrated by executive chef Jason Gorman. The menu has been greatly expanded beyond the flatbreads, cheese plate and chicken tenders that Taproom patrons have come to know, a welcome change.

One of our sons was satisfied with his hearty Impossible Burger ($16) . Our other son made incredibly quick work of a juicy Honey Butter Fried Chicken Sandwich, a good deal for $15 considering its fresh brioche bun and 2 layers of chicken. Having just finished a 12-mile run, he probably could have wolfed down another one or two. My wife predictably went for the lobster roll ($22), her first of what will be many in the coming months. Big spender that I am, I chose the $22 stout grilled beef tips, which had just the right amount of flavor and tenderness. Broccolini made for a nice side, but I foisted the potato salad onto my wife due to my mayo aversion. She gave it thumbs up. The overall bill was a tad hefty, especially with two orders of $7 fries, but we, and probably other diners heading back out to restaurants, are willing enough to tolerate slightly higher prices as these local businesses look to make up for lost time.

The new COVID-19 era dining experience didn’t feel entirely unusual, though not having a server swing by every so often to ask if things were OK or if we wanted another drink takes some getting used to. Up-selling is a thing in the restaurant business, a time-honored way of increasing the total of the tab. My wife commented that under normal circumstances she probably would have ordered a beer when the food order arrived. But the food gets sent out by a runner, and the runner ran away, as was her job. The waitstaff doesn’t make regular appearances, because part of the point of this exercise is to remain distance. Not wanting to send me back to my phone to place a beer order when my food was piping hot and in front of me, she shrugged and decided ordering the beer wasn’t worth the trouble.

We get that things are going to be different out there in restaurant world and have already been thinking of ways to better communicate what it is that we’d like. No surprise that things aren’t exactly what they used to be.

Lookout farm the lookout

Roaming the orchards

After dinner, we took the staff’s suggestion to take a 1/2 mile stroll in the orchards. In hindsight we’d wished we’d known about the option to order a beverage from the nearby kiosk to take with us on our walk. Learn from our mistake. Good people, know that you’re actually allowed to roam the fruit orchids with drink in hand. It’s almost like we aren’t in Massachusetts anymore. The walking paths are widely spaced and one-way, a la grocery store aisles, and we stopped to chat briefly with friends walking in the opposite direction. The grapevines overhead, the brick path underfoot, blue sky above, and a gentle breeze coming up from across the fields made the night feel something close to magical. For months now we’ve been doing take-out once a week and counting that as “special.” You know what’s really special? Not cleaning up after take-out night. True I didn’t have to cook it, but take-out night isn’t effortless. Spare us dinnertime effort once a week, tell me I don’t have to lift a finger to clean up the kitchen, and I’m happy for days and days.

“I thought the physical set-up was good,” my neighbor texted the next morning. “Tables far apart and open air. I felt safe…wow, I give then a ton of credit for making a go of this and pulling it off. And the french fries were excellent!”

Down the road we can foresee the farm adding some outdoor entertainment, making this an even livelier venue.. For now, The Lookout should be a popular place to take a break from home cooking, and should help the farm sell a few more cider donuts, strawberries, and other curbside pickup items as we phase toward the new normal.

The Lookout

Tuesday – Friday Lunch Menu 12:00pm – 3pm | Dinner Menu 3-8:30pm

Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm – 8:30pm Full Menu All Day.

Last seating 7:15 | Kitchen closes at 7:45pm | Last call 8pm | Walking Path Closes 8pm.

Beyond Wellesley: police report “active incident” in Natick Mall area

June 1, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

According to the Natick Police department on their Facebook page, “there is an active incident in the area of the Natick Mall.”

In the Monday, June 1, 10pm post, the police asked the public to use caution when traveling in the area, or avoid the area if possible.

Massachusetts State Police also are on the scene, and you could hear Wellesley and other police departments chiming in on a very active police scanner on Monday night.

Management at Nouvelle condos, which is attached to the Natick Mall, has advised residents to stay inside their units.

As heard via police scanner, officers have been monitoring activity at several “staging areas” in Natick including Ben & Jerry’s on route 9, and the Cloverleaf Mall. A large number of vehicles was also reported to be heading down Speen St.

From Natick with Love: Looking over Wellesley

April 30, 2020 by Bob Brown 2 Comments

According to Rich Ames, GIS coordinator and more for Natick’s Department of Public Works, area DPWs have good working relationships with each other. So he’s making the rounds, via drone, and recording aerial videos of communities nearby Natick.

It was Wellesley’s turn this week, and while much of what you’ll see in this video looks familiar, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Town Hall from this vantage point.

More: An aerial view of Wellesley’s COVID-19 pandemic shutdown

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Natick teen’s 3D printing gift: Masks for medical staff on coronavirus duty

March 22, 2020 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

Since a very young age, Natick’s Christian de Weck carried around an “idea” notebook with him in which he wrote down possible inventions. While the 19-year-old MIT freshman might not have envisioned a need back then for cranking out medical masks, his brain was working in a way that prepped him to spring into action during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The mechanical engineering student has set up a 3D printer workshop in his family’s dining room, where he so far has pumped out 20 masks for use at Mass General Hospital.

“This effort started when I saw on the news that the president of MGH tweeted that they were in desperate need of masks and were asking anyone with 3D printers or any other fabrication capability to help out,” says de Weck, who is using his own materials and donating the masks to the healthcare facility. “I figured that since I have two 3D printers at home, they could be put to good use making masks for people who need them… I am willing to give them to any facility that might want/need them.”

3d masks — 3D printed masks: Fashionable and essential

mask 3d

Uprooted, but not down

Like other students whose campuses have been cleared and in-person classes canceled, de Weck has seen his life uprooted by the pandemic. And he’s well aware of how it is affecting the lives of so many others directly and indirectly. “Many families including my own have been staying at home for the past few weeks, not to mention many services are shutting down and people risk unemployment/eviction. I also believe this virus exposes some of the flaws within our current healthcare system and overall society. Hopefully, this virus will allow people to see and rectify these issues…”

The Beaver Country Day School grad is using 2 Qidi dual extruding 3D printers, 1 of which he received as a birthday present a couple of years ago, and another he came by more recently.

“The masks are being made from a plastic filament called polylactic acid (PLA) that is commonly used in 3D printers. This material “is easy to melt and shape, but should also be adequate for protecting the user of the mask,” de Weck says.

“It takes close to an hour-and-a-half to print each mask, then roughly three-quarters of an hour to make the filter and cap. There’s additional assembly involved as well, such as using warm water to shape the masks and attaching elastic straps.

Making mom proud

The 19-year-old’s volunteer efforts come as no surprise to his mother, Lynn, who says as a youngster he was always asking what he might invent to help her around the house.

She references an independent study he did in his junior year in high school in which “he designed and 3D printed a prosthetic arm for students, complete with a thumb drive in the thumb and a ruler on the hand edge and a pencil case on the forearm. 3D prosthetics are cheaper to print for kids who are growing and need to be refitted often.”

She couldn’t be prouder about his latest volunteer effort. The de Wecks made their first mask delivery on Sunday to a friend who is an MGH doctor.

“[Christian’s] creativeness, combined with caring for others and always wanting to help is the fabric of who he is,” she says.

Meanwhile, her son expects more filament to arrive on Monday. “I plan to make as many masks as I can until my PLA filament runs out,” he says.

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Wellesley’s Pond Road could get change of scenery

March 3, 2020 by Bob Brown 3 Comments

Running and gasping up hilly Pond Road a few times a week, I rarely notice the houses as I pass under the tree canopy and by stone walls, security gates and Lake Waban. That’s part of what’s special about this bumpy old path, 1 of just 7 officially designated scenic roads in Wellesley. It is, as one Pond Road homeowner said at a recent public meeting, kind of like.going through a “magical forest.”

That dynamic could be changing. A Boston developer is looking to build 2 homes on property at the top of the road, near Rte. 135, that would be set closer to the road than most of the estates along this stretch. Despite the development team’s assertions that plantings will be added and efforts will be made to retain a tree buffer between the new homes, the existing ones and the street, it seems clear that the look and feel of upper Pond Road would change.

upper Pond Road — Yeah, but can you park along the road?

The owner of the 10,000-plus sq. ft. home at 200 Pond Rd., in Natick is selling lots at 194 and 196 Pond Rd., in Wellesley to the developer, who has been making the rounds with his team through Wellesley board meetings since fall. They’ve hit the Design Review Board (pretty easy) and Planning Board (not so easy), and next will star at a public scenic road-focused meeting on March 16 featuring the Planning Board, Natural Resources Commission and Tree Warden.

The developer, recognizing that Wellesley ain’t SOBO, has hired attorney Larry Shind, who knows the ropes in town as a former Board of Selectmen and Advisory Committee member. The lawyer has done his best to position the proposed homes as not being out of character, noting that the topology of the property allows the houses “to be nestled into the hillside.” He has also cited existing homes that are indeed visible from the road, especially at the lower end and during winter, and that are larger than the houses pitched for 194 and 196 Pond Rd.

upper Pond Road As is typical of such proposals, the developer went for broke with an initial plan to cram lots of house onto each property, as presented at a Dec. 2 Planning Board meeting. Planning Director Don McCauley, who acknowledges the challenges of weighing the right to build vs. maintaining the character of an area, ticked off a long list of concerns about the project. These related to scale, landscape preservation and other issues, such as the logistics of construction on so narrow a road, where no on-street parking is allowed.

The developer has since scaled things back in light of town official and neighbor feedback during this Large House Review process. This “substantially revised proposal,” as attorney Shind described it at a Feb. 3 Planning Board meeting, included moving away from making the 2 proposed homes look so similar to each other, shrinking their square footage from 12,500 to 9,000 and 11,500 to 9,400, pushing the houses back from the road to a minimum of 65 feet (from 40 feet), and planting dozens of new trees. He emphasized that the stone wall and trees along the road would remain untouched.

(Time tracker: While I’ve never actually stepped foot in a Pond Road home, I go up and down the road often. For this post, I’ve plodded through some 5 hours of meeting recordings on Wellesley Public Media, and I’ll tell you, nothing gets my blood pumping like some good TLAG and dark sky lighting talk. I’ve largely written this post based on the videos, minutes from the meetings and other background.)

Neighbors and town officials still have their concerns, which range from the visibility of the proposed homes from the road to significant tree removal to sewer and lighting issues. The aesthetic impact of the side-by-side projects is the main concern on this road, which mainly includes Wellesley College property on the east side.

“I hope you truly understand how people in this town feel about…Pond Road,” said Planning Board member Kathleen Woodward at the Feb. 3 meeting, where she expressed special disappointment over landscaping plans. “It’s very precious to this town, and it deeply disturbs a lot of people that someone wants to come in, tear down a lot of trees and place houses close the road that don’t fit with any house on that street and change the look of a really beloved road in our town.”

pond road lower end

Neighbor David Howe at the Feb. 3 meeting publicly thanked developer Joe Hassell for reaching out to him and meeting, but still has issues with the preservation of the landscape, scale of the buildings and the open space implications of this project. “If you look at Pond Road…it is maybe not a unique road in town, but it’s close to that. And particularly at this end of Pond Road, it is sort of a canopied entrance into an older forest,” he said. “While I appreciate the changes that have been made, they don’t really change to me the impact of what it’s going to be like to drive through the beginning of Pond Road and see 2 white houses still quite close to the road.”

Also among those speaking up have been members of the Hunnewell family, which is synonymous with Pond Road to me. Frank Hunnewell, who lives at the lower end of Pond Road with his wife, also said he appreciates the willingness of the project leaders to listen to comments and make changes. But he said he still has concerns about open space usage and nearness to the road. “Given the environmental, the scenic and the historic nature of the site, it would be my hope that the project actually would have to reach a higher bar than if it were in a part of town where these buildings are more customary.”

The public will get to hear more at the scenic road public hearing on March 16 at Town Hall. Given that the road is at the edge of both Wellesley and Natick, and that only a handful of homes have Pond Road addresses, it remains to be seen whether this matter will gain attention across Wellesley from more than the Hunnewells, their neighbors, and town officials. We’ve seen controversies in the past in Wellesley involving development along scenic roads, including on Brookside Road, which includes Wellesley Country Club among its neighbors.

The 2 new homes will have little impact on things like traffic and school population, issues that have inspired public action involving recent 40B projects in more central parts of town. While the cutting down of trees will be apparent on Pond Road, the changes won’t be as in-your-face to most of Wellesley as say the Great Plains Avenue 40B project, which is passed by so many on their way to the Wellesley dump.

But if you value what Pond Road means to Wellesley and want to learn more, the scenic road hearing on March 16 should be worth your while.

More: Littering fines that even Wellesley residents can’t afford

Natick dog park coming soon

February 27, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Natick’s new fenced-in dog park along Rte. 135 near the Middlesex Path is slated to open this spring, providing one of few dedicated off-leash options in the area.

An orientation for pet owners and potential pet owners is being held on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7pm at Morse Institute Library in Natick. It could be a good opportunity to hear how welcoming the Eddie’s Park might be to those who live outside Natick. Pooches are not invited to this meeting.

Organizers say they are “gathering a board of experts in the dog world. Learn more about responsible dog ownership and also bringing your dog to the park.” You can learn more about the park at the FIDO of Natick Facebook page.

Wellesley doesn’t have any fenced-in dog parks, though Centennial Reservation, Perrin Park and other open space in Wellesley are often used by free-range dogs, sometimes to the chagrin of those walking, running or playing. These parks are destinations for residents from Wellesley and beyond.

Some efforts have been made to spark discussion about a dedicated dog park in Wellesley, nothing official has happened. Needham’s got an official off-leash recreation area, but it’s only for Needham dog owners.

More: Top Wellesley dog names & breeds for 2019

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