Tag: Waltham High School

  • Waltham’s new high school brings career training to life

    It doesn’t feel like a high school.

    Walking through the kitchen, the salon, the auto body shop, the carpentry shop — all of it looks, feels and even smells professional.

    Which is exactly the point, said Waltham High School Principal Darrell Braggs.

    “You forget you’re in high school,” he said. “You don’t feel like you’re in a school that has a space trying to learn [a trade]. You feel like you’re actually in that space. You’re temporarily out of the high school, and you’re in the field.”

    The school, which cost $374 million and opened to students last September, is home to 14 vocational programs, also known as Career and Technical Education programs. 

    Mike Grace, director of CTE at Waltham High School, said the school was built with the CTE programs in mind.

    “The new building allowed us to increase our programs from 10 to 14,” he said. “And with the new, larger spaces we were able to update our equipment to match what students will be working on in the industry.”

    Students explore all the programs as freshmen, and then are able to pick one to continue pursuing as sophomores and beyond. Some 608 students — 34% of the school’s population — are enrolled in a CTE program, Grace said.

    Offerings include culinary arts, cosmetology, automotive technology, early education and care, health assisting, TV broadcasting, carpentry, electrical, HVACR and environmental science.

    A few of the programs will offer their services to the public: culinary arts, cosmetology, automotive technology, and early education and care. The school hopes to have a restaurant and salon open as soon as the fall 2025 semester, while the opening date of the child care center has not been determined.

    Open for business

    Meanwhile, the automotive technology shop is already open to Waltham residents and school district employees.

    WHS autoshop. Photo by Bailey Scott.

    “Auto tech was already public facing [at the old high school], so they hit the ground running on day one,” Braggs said. “In fact, in the first week of school, my car was down there on the lift, and they were taking care of it.”

    The shop provides only minor work, such as brake repairs, oil changes, cosmetic fixes and routine maintenance. 

    ‘A dream kitchen’

    Jean Hunt, a CTE culinary arts teacher, has benefited greatly from the new spaces, especially the updated kitchen.

    “In the old building everything was harder and took longer,” she said. “And I had to explain [to the students] what they were missing. But now we’re able to use all these amazing pieces of kitchen equipment, really state-of-the-art stuff.”

    Hunt, a former chef who has been teaching in Waltham for 20 years, said the new space is “a dream kitchen.”

    “I tease the kids that they’re never gonna work in a kitchen that’s as pristine as this, especially year one, unless you’re walking into a brand new hotel or kitchen,” she said. “We’ve really got all the bells and whistles.”

    The kitchen connects directly to the restaurant, which is not fully furnished. It still lacks point-of-service machines where customers would order and pay.

    WHS culinary cafe. Photo by Bailey Scott.

    The school is still working out the schedule for the restaurant, Hunt said, but it will most likely only serve lunch, since she has her advanced classes around that time. Only those classes will be allowed to work at the restaurant.

    “Some of my classes are just freshmen who don’t even know how to properly hold a knife yet,” Hunt said, “so they obviously can’t be cheffing it up at a restaurant.”

    The goal is to have the restaurant open for business sometime early next school year, once the restaurant is complete and more of the students have been trained to work in it. 

    Salon services

    The school has added a cosmetology program that will include a salon where members of the Waltham community can make appointments.

    The salon will only offer non-chemical services in the beginning, said Yolanda Crowell, a Waltham High cosmetology teacher, because of restrictions from the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Cosmetology and Barbering. In order to provide chemical services, students are required to have 500 hours of experience, Crowell said.

    WHS beauty shop. Photo by Bailey Scott.

    “Because we’re new, our students currently in the program only have gained one year of experience,” she said. “Next year, once they start gaining those hours, they’ll be able to start using chemicals, and we hope to introduce those services by 2026 or 2027.”

    The non-chemical services the salon will provide include blow dries, smoothing and other hair treatments, manicures, facials and waxing, Crowell said.

    She hopes to have the salon open by the end of the fall 2025 semester. 

    Crowell — who for 10 years was the director of G2O Spa and Salon, a high-end salon in Boston — added that students who complete the program will leave with more than just some new skills.

    “It’s a big accomplishment, because once they complete the three years in the program, they will have the hours to gain a cosmetology license,” she said. “They can take a state board exam, and once they pass that, they’re able to work out in the field in any cosmetology career.”

    Asset for the city

    Braggs said that the career-readiness aspect of the CTE program is one of its greatest strengths.

    “A lot of people don’t realize that when our students are done here, they’re ready to go,” he said. “They are industry-ready from day one after graduation.”

    Braggs added that the school is taking the utmost precautions when it comes to the public-facing programs and student safety.

    “We’re making sure that the right people are coming in, but it’s very compartmentalized,” he said. “You have to ring a bell to go into these places, and when you come in, you don’t have access to the school. It takes like nine steps to get into the main building.”

    He said the new building — and its programs — are good for Waltham, because they inspire students to want to stay in public schools.

    “Students who may have chosen to go private or may have chosen to go to [another vocational school] are choosing to come here instead, and I think that’s exciting for the community,” he said. “People who live in Waltham are coming to Waltham public schools and not going elsewhere.”

    This story is part of a partnership between The Waltham Times and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Finalists for Waltham High School principal share visions for school’s future at parent forum

    The finalists for the Waltham High School principal position answered questions about their visions and plans for the school Monday night at a forum for parents and guardians.

    The candidates, who were revealed by the school district Thursday, are Donavan Tracey Jr., an administrator at a high school in Rhode Island; Courtney Gosselin, a principal at a K-8 school in Somerville; and Mike Sabin, a Boston Public Schools executive and the former principal of Waltham’s McDevitt Middle School.

    Katherine Peretz, administrator of human resources for Waltham Public Schools and head of the principal search committee, moderated the virtual forum. The candidates were brought into a breakout room one at a time and asked the same questions.

    Each candidate had 20 minutes to answer the questions and at the same time give their pitch on why they should be the next principal. 

    Afterward, they moved to a separate forum for staff, which was closed to the public. 

    The candidates did not have any interaction with one another throughout the process.

    The questions, submitted in advance by parents and guardians, covered a range of topics: what they would change about the school if they had a magic wand, how they would deal with phones in the classroom, and how they would work to improve the academic performance of the school.

    Other questions touched on issues like transparency and discipline.

    When asked about their vision for the school, the three candidates’ answers had common themes.

    Tracey said he wanted to make the school more welcoming, encouraging students and teachers to stay by increasing staff and parent involvement in the decision-making process.

    “For me,” he said, “a vision of school is one where students are excited about learning and they get to be heard and understood.” 

    Gosselin’s vision focused on creating a more welcoming community for students, encouraging them to grow through a challenging curriculum, and increasing involvement in extracurricular activities.

    “In my perfect high school every student would have an extracurricular that they’re really passionate about, and that they would want to attend beyond the school day,” she said.

    Sabin said he would primarily focus on transparency, adding that he would want to create a school where students felt supported and challenged.

    “It’s not really about my vision for the school, but it’s about the students’ vision,” he said. “It’s about the family and the community’s vision and the staff’s vision.”

    Asked how they support both high-achieving and struggling students, all three candidates talked about meeting students where they are academically.

    “One very important thing in the classroom is that everyone cannot be expected to always do the exact same thing,” Sabin said. “There has to be differentiation. Supporting every student and challenging every student is difficult for the staff, but it is possible. And so I think that needs to be a focus of professional learning and of the way that instruction is delivered.”

    Tracey agreed but mentioned that data collection was critical.

    “It’s very important that we are looking at the data and classrooms and communicating with families often about where each student is in their journey in order to move the student to where they need to be academically,” he said.

    Gosselin added that it was crucial to use discipline as an opportunity to teach students.

    “How are we teaching students how to make better choices?” she said. “How are we getting to the root cause of why students chose that particular action, even though it was not the right one? And how are we supporting them to move forward with that?”

    All three candidates expressed similar goals of increasing transparency and working to incorporate cellphones into the learning environment instead of just banning them.

    They also all agreed that discipline must begin with setting expectations and recognizing that students need to understand the rules, values and culture of the school in order to meet those expectations. 

    Peretz said the search committee will email a form to parents and guardians soliciting their feedback on the candidates. Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa will analyze the responses, which will factor into the hiring decision.

    Darrell Braggs, the current principal, announced his decision to step down at the end of the school year last December. No reason was given for his departure, and neither Braggs nor Mendonsa responded to questions from The Waltham Times.

    This story is part of a partnership between The Waltham Times and the Boston University Department of Journalism.