Watertown High Students will Have New Freedoms and New Responsibilities Next Year

Watertown High School students will have new freedoms next year, but they will come with new responsibilities, Headmaster Steve Watson told the School Committee Monday night.

In addition, the school will make changes to the disciplinary system, he said, when discussing some of the changes to the Watertown High School handbook.

Seniors who have prep periods – ones where they do not have a class – will be able to leave campus, Watson said, but they will also be expected to do an independent study project.

The projects do not have to fall into any particular academic subject.

“Students have things we might call hobbies, but they are far more involved,” Watson said.

He gave an example of a student who records his on music in a studio on the weekend. He could use that for his project.

The school will change its philosophy when it comes to discipline, Watson said.

Students with unexcused absences have been in danger of not passing a class, but next year, some students will be able to make up for the absences.

“We will make no credit [for missed classes] only for student cutting classes,” Watson said. “We are looking for other ways of doing things. Hudson High School has done some interesting things. They have a Saturday school where students have to show up for three hours on Saturdays.”

School Committee member Eileen Hsu-Balzer said Watertown used to have Saturday school.

“It is effective because no one wanted to come in on a Saturday,” Hsu-Balzer said.

The enforcement of wearing hats and texting will be relaxed, too, Watson said.

“Enforcing it in the hallways between classes isn’t the right battle to fight,” Watson said. “We will enforce it more consistently in the classroom.”

Texting is disturbing in class, Watson said, and there is a worry that people wearing hats in class may be diverting their eyes and cheating off other people’s papers.