By CHRISTIAN MAITRE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer
Waltham High last week announced a partnership between its health assisting program and the nursing program at Regis College.
The partnership will create a pathway for Waltham High students enrolled in the health assisting program to attend Regis, a private university in neighboring Weston. The partnership will offer health assisting program students in their junior year early admission into Regis’ nursing program and a minimum yearly scholarship of $25,000.
Regis also will share data on the academic performance of Waltham High health assisting program graduates who attend the university’s nursing program. Regis will give Waltham the students’ grade point averages, graduation rates, retention rates and information on their progress in their major compared to other nursing students.
Juliette Fornier, Waltham High’s health assisting instructor, said such data will help determine whether and how well the health assisting program is preparing students for post-grad opportunities.
Alex Patturelli, Regis’ director of undergraduate admission, said the nursing pathway program with Waltham High is the first of its kind.
In order to be accepted, students must meet a variety of academic requirements. More information on the program can be found here.
Other School Committee news
- The district’s science director, Matthew Burns, gave committee members an update on the science department. He said challenges include a high turnover rate and larger class sizes in recent years. He said successes include a 17% increase in MCAS scores at McDevitt as well as a collaboration between English as a second language teachers and science teachers to create new lessons for ELL students.
- Committee members unanimously approved the high school wrestling team’s request to travel out of state for tournaments during the winter sports season.
- Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa presented her list of goals, which received a unanimous vote of approval. Goals include completing year one of the Superintendent Induction Program by attending meetings; developing lessons based on the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Culturally Responsive Look-Fors program; and engaging more families and community organizations through forums and timely communication.
- WHS Principal Darrell Braggs presented a plan creating more structure for Hawk Block, a weekly period in the high school students’ schedule; high school faculty and staff will review potential changes to Hawk Block in early December.
- Braggs clarified about the cell phone policy at WHS and communication around the policy, noting that there is an exception for students attending the third lunch session to keep their phones off and in their bag. He also said students attended an assembly to learn about the new cell phone policy and families had received information about it via newsletters.
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