The Newtonite v Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018 • Volume 97
City devises Newtonville facelift plan Jacques Abou-Rizk Construction vehicles and debris have replaced many long-standing businesses along Washington Street as private developers and the city look to revamp the busy corridor. The construction currently taking place along Washington Street is the Washington Place project. This development coincides with the city’s own “Hello Washington Street” zoning proposal for the future reshaping of the area. “We want to have a plan when more Washington Place proposals come up,” said Community Engagement Manager for the Department of Planning and Development Lily Reynolds. She added, “Our job as the city is to layout the choices to the community.” With the zoning plan, Reynolds hopes Washington Street— which has caused concern for many years regarding pedestrian safety, traffic, and functionality— will “enhance what people like about Newton.” CEO of Mark Development Robert Korff said that he hopes the new apartments, small shops, and restaurants of Mark Development’s Washington Place project will help in revitalizing the area. “We are going to have color and vibrancy, instead of what we have now, which is gray and has no vibrancy,” Korff said. Washington Place plans for 140 new apartment units, as well as restaurants or small shops to be added in the stretch between Walnut and Lowell Streets. The project has completed much of the demolition process and is projected to open to the public in the spring of 2020. “I think the community is going to love it,” Korff said. He estimated that roughly 220-250 new residents would move into the apartments. Senior Maya Matthews, a student representative on the School Committee, said she is “a bit worried” to see how the new residents will affect the community. “With hundreds of apartments being built comes hundreds of families and hundreds of kids,” said Matthews. “When it comes to a rising population, we start to see issues on how much we can spend on each student,” Matthews added. “The question is: will the budget grow as fast as the increasing population?” Although “Hello Washington Street” is still in the planning stages, multiple community meetings and surveys have allowed the city to create a vision plan and draft zoning for the corridor, according to the Planning and Development office’s website. The city expects to have a final draft of the plan next spring, Reynolds said. by
Marijuana Dispensaries Newton community members wrestle with the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Newton North High School, 457 Walnut St., Newtonville, Mass. 02460
North community reacts to bias allegations Helen Xiao and Sophia Zhou Students, faculty, and parents responded to allegations against history teachers for biased teaching after news outlets published this past August a personal email discussion from 2017 between teachers about how to teach objectively in a tense political climate. Ilya Feoktistov, executive director of the non-profit organization Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), obtained the email exchange between a group of history teachers, including David Bedar and Insongesit Ibokette, through a public records request. All teacher emails are considered public records. Feoktistov shared his findings in an opinion piece published in The Federalist Aug. 7. Fox News “Insider” picked up the story shortly after, reporting, “Bedar accused the president and his supporters of ‘nativism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc.’ and wrote that he found it difficult to teach other perspectives in early 2017.” In response, principal Henry Turner sent out a statement to all faculty, students, and parents. “The email exchange cited in The Federalist website demonstrates our teachers discussing ways in which to allow thoughtful discussion,” he said. “We support our teachers’ emails and ongoing dialogue about these values, and we support their right to grapple with these issues.” According to Bedar, he wrote the email in response to tensions among students after the 2016 election. “I had a couple of students who told me that some pro-Trump students at our school were emboldened and picking on other people, and the point I raised to my department was that this was a very difficult situation to deal with,” he said. Bedar added that while teaching students to think objectively is im-
portant, balancing hate speech and free speech can be tricky. “We want to respect kids who are liberal, conservative, anarchist, or whatever, to express their beliefs,” said Bedar. “However, what they say can’t be blatantly racist, or homophobic, or anti-any group for that matter.” The Students’ Rights and Responsibilities Handbook mandates that students and teachers must “create an environment where everyone feels known, safe, and valued.” Feoktistov’s criticism of Bedar centered around Bedar’s perceived bias against conservative students. “What happened was that Principal Turner had sent out an email to the history department with guidelines on how to teach current issues in history class,” said Feoktistov. But “Mr. Bedar and Mr. Ibo-
Yesha Thakkar Sophomores this year will receive Chromebooks as part of the pilot “1:1 Technology Program.” The program aims to “equip students with a lot of access to content and encourage them to foster a connection to learning,” said principal Henry Turner. The pilot is an expansion of a smaller one that took place last school year with the junior CP American Studies English and history classes and will determine whether the program will be expanded to the whole school. According to the Newton Public Schools website, all sophomores will receive Chromebooks in early winter, allowing teachers to incorporate more technology in their classrooms. Students will be expected to take responsibility for the Chromebooks and return them at the end of the school year. According to Turner, the idea for the program came from a data analysis of the ratio of computers to the student population across the Newton Public Schools which revealed that Newton elementary
and middle schools have more computers per student than the high schools. The pilot was developed in order to achieve the district’s goal of equal access to technology and to aid in the transition to the new computerized English Language Arts and Math MCAS tests. Shortly after the first stages of the decision-making process, Turner formed a committee to relay information to and collect feedback and suggestions from faculty. “As an English teacher, I found benefits in students having their own device with them everyday, because depending on the day, not having to sign-up for a cart at the last minute was really easy,” said English teacher Kate Shaughnessy. Her class participated in the smaller pilot last year. According to history teacher Max Roberts, teachers are excited about the prospect of using the online version of textbooks in classrooms, which allows them “to update textbook material regularly.” Sophomore English teacher Danielle Johnson added that she
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Abby Roll
Senior Abigail Dobies goes for a shot during a 4-0 scrimmage against Weston Thursday, Aug. 28. kette were having none of it. They wanted to suppress conservative viewpoints.” According to Jennifer Morrill, head of the South history department, the email exchange showed teachers engaging in a conversation on how to objectively teach controversial issues. “What the author of the article was concerned about was the nature of a private conversation, not about a lesson or a thing that happened,” said Morrill. “There’s no evidence that teachers acted inappropriately, and I have a lot of faith in the skills and judgements of the teachers.” Superintendent David Fleishman said,“It was a very thoughtful email exchange that was clearly taken out of context” North teachers’ ability to remain objective, however, seems to be sub-
ject to personal opinion. According to North parent Ed Urquiola, teachers at North clearly demonstrate a lack of objectivity. “My son says teachers treated him very differently after finding out he went to the Trump rally and were cold towards him,” he said. On the other hand, senior Ben Archer said he felt that teachers did not let their own bias and beliefs determine their attitudes or actions towards students. “I believe that teachers are aware of the students’ beliefs, both supporting and opposing their own,” said Archer. “But no, I don’t think teachers favor or disregard students based on their political beliefs.” According to Fleishman, this fall the district will release an informational document on how the schools teach history.
Pilot program aims for equal technology access by
Ruthanne Fuller Fuller highlights her early successes and reflects on future goals in her first year as mayor.
and several other teachers look forward to going paperless. “The eco-friendly aspect of this program is very exciting, especially since we use a lot of paper in this school.” However, going paperless may be more difficult for math and science classes, which often need paper for calculations. Chemistry teacher Brian Gagne said, “going paperless seems extremely unlikely. Incorporating the use of technology seems like a more viable option in that I might ask my students to turn in lab reports and other written assignments online.” Despite its benefits, this program also presents a range of challenges. According to Shaughnessy, students experienced various technical issues such as broken laptop keys during last year’s pilot. “I worry a little bit about the wear and tear. Whether the devices will be able to keep up,” she said. “Chris Murphy was great if a student had a problem. He was very prompt. If we let him know, he addressed it, but on a larger scale we only have one Chris Murphy and a
lot more students.” Johnson added, “It’s very important to strike a balance between the flexibility and distractibility that the use of laptops in the classroom entails.” Sophomore teachers are also apprehensive about bullying and other social misconduct online. “The anonymity that technology poses is already a concern, and students will be exposed to technology even more,” Johnson added. Other alternatives, such as placing a Chromebook cart in each classroom, were considered, but it was “too expensive and did not allow for the flexibility of taking the Chromebooks home,” said instructional technology specialist Chris Murphy. However, Turner added other alternatives are still in consideration. Although a one-to-one program was favored as more cost-effective, according to Murphy, the pilot stage of this program could cost the district upwards of $120,000, excluding the costs of lost, misplaced, or damaged Chromebooks.
Swim Preseason Girls’ swim develops strong camaraderie as they begin the season with new a head coach.