Watertown's Voice for Peace, the Environment, and Social Justice

The WCES Local Government Initiative

See the latest news!

Through our Local Government Initiative, members of WCES attend meetings of the School Committee and the Town Council, and share what is going on in these meetings with the rest of WCES. Look here for news as it becomes available.

The Local Government Initiative benefits WCES members by boosting our presence in town meetings, and by helping us all stay informed, so that our collective voice can be as effective as possible.

We welcome your participation in this important way for our group to keep a finger on the pulse of town issues. Getting involved is easy, and it doesn't require much time. You can attend just one or two Town Council meetings or School Committee meetings per year, or as many as you like. After the meeting, you send a brief email to our coordinators (see contact information below) about any issues discussed at the meeting that might interest WCES members, and we post the news on our web site and share it in our regular emails.

• To sign up to attend Town Council meetings, email WCES.
• To sign up to attend School Committee meetings, email Wende Weinstein.
• Thank you!
Local Government News

Watertown School Committee meeting Sept. 11, 2006
Submitted by Wendy Weinstein

• In a report on the No Child Left Behind Act, School Superintendent Dr. Hiersche described his vision for how the school district should prepare its students for the 21st Century. Dr. Hiersche named the following domains of literacy, most of which are germane to WCES: global awareness (He cited global warming as an example), entrepreneurial literacy, financial and civic literacy, health and wellness awareness, deep understandings rather than breadth of coverage, learning and thinking skills, problem solving and critical thinking skills, cummunication skills, creativity and innovation, collaboration skills, information and media literacy skills, technology skills, and life skills (latter including leadership, ethics, social responsibility, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity and responsibility, people skills, self direction).
• The School Committee established a Wellness Committee. There is also a policy on wellness (including health education) that was read during this meeting, and approved during the October meeting.

Watertown School Committee meeting Oct. 16, 2006

• The Watertown Middle School has a Robotics Course that addresses the MA Learning Standards on Technology and Engineering. In this course students learn about engineering design as they design a program for a robot. There is potential for an educational connection that WCES can make through this course around the issues of environmental safety and green technology.
• Note: The MA Curriculum Framework for Technology and Engineering is posted at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/scitech/2001/0501.pdf#search='MA%20learning%20standards%20on%20technology%20and%20engineering' See in particular p. 120 for a suggested list of topics of study that pertain to an "Historical and Social Context for Science and Engineering." This list includes a number of topics of concern to WCES, clustered under the headings of 'Unintended negative effects from uses of science and technology/engineering," and How science and technology address negative effects from uses of science and technology/engineering."