Watertown's School Improvements Focusing on Student Safety

The proposed capital improvement plan for the Watertown Schools focuses on projects that will make the schools safer, including fixing fire doors and properly installing bicycle racks.

School Committee member Michael Shepard presented the $442,300 plan for fiscal 2013 this week to the committee.

One proposed improvement would be fixing a door at Lowell School that locks during fire alarms that did not work well. The budget for replacing the door system is $35,000.

"The budget calls for replacing fire safety locks to make sure they open quickly," Shepard said. "In an exercise, the Fire Department was not able to open it quickly. They would have had to use a hatchet to open it."

School Committee member David Leon has been looking for bike racks to be installed at schools for more than a year, and Shepard said the budget includes money for that work. Right now they are chained to trees and Shepard said parents told him they are not safe.

"They are waiting until April vacation to have them installed," Shepard said. "They will be unchained from trees and installed properly."

Other major expenditures include:

• $95,000 for replacing classroom furniture at the five schools
• $95,000 to create new classroom space for the preschool for the Connections/Autism Awareness program at the Hosmer School
• $35,000 to replace the floor of the cafeteria at Watertown Middle School
• $25,000 to sand and repaint the gym and cafeteria store at the Cunniff School
• $25,000 to remove carpet and replace with flooring in parts of the Hosmer School