Haverhill

Signage Proposal for Historic Haverhill Homes Inches Closer to Final Approval

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The Haverhill City Council Tuesday sent a request from the city’s Historic Commission to allow uniform signage for historic homes to its Administration and Finance Committee for final review. The proposal, brought forth by Councilor Devan M. Ferreira and members of the Highlands Neighborhood Association would, as WHAV reported Tuesday, implement a citywide historic sign program where homeowners could place signage to denote its historic nature, including the name of the first owner and year built inside a decorative outline. Ferreira, who introduced the program, noted the city may need to explore how to procure signs for homes and whether the city or homeowner would pay for it. “The city’s involvement with this effort is a little unclear. It’s largely being a volunteer, neighborhood-based initiative,” said Community Development Division Director Andrew K. Herlihy, representing the Historic Commission.

Education

Haverhill Administrators Reassure Students Laws Generally Prohibit ICE Raids in Schools

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Haverhill school administrators set out last week to reassure students and their families that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents cannot conduct raids within schools. During last Thursday’s School Committee public comment time, Haverhill Student Council President David Martinez raised fear about possible immigration actions. His concerns followed media reports of a Jan. 20 memorandum from Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine C. Huffman rescinding Biden-era “Guidelines for Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas” as well as unverified reports of raids. “I’m super, super concerned about the ongoing ICE raids in Massachusetts and their impacts on students and families,” Martinez said.

Education

Beloved Haverhill High’s ‘Coach O’ Dies at 85, Calling Hours to be Held at HHS

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A former Haverhill High School coach and athletic director who died Tuesday will have his calling hours Sunday in the school he called home for decades. The Haverhill School Committee Thursday night approved use of the Haverhill High gymnasium for Haverhill Athletic Hall of Famer R. John “Coach O” Ottaviani’s calling hours. Mayor Melinda E. Barrett called the move “very fitting” and recognized him as a “real presence” within the community. “[He] supported all sorts of endeavors as far as fundraising for different groups, was always around, loved to go tailgating. I know when I had my store, I made a lot of subs on Saturdays so he could go to his beloved UMass games or occasional BC games.

Education

Haverhill High Teacher Kempinski to Attend 80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation

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A Haverhill High School history teacher will be in attendance for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp next week. Theodore “Ted” Kempinski attends the observance as an invited witness and the only teacher from the United States to be invited. He, as WHAV reported last year, is honorary consul of memory for the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial. On his website, Kempinski details the trepidation he experienced while planning for the trip. “There are no words that can truly capture human understanding or emotion, at those moments.

Haverhill

‘Project Y’ Aims to Involve 100 Youth in Haverhill Community Projects

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The YMCA this spring aims to mobilize more than 100 youth in a new volunteer program that benefits the community. The initiative, dubbed Project Y by Regional Executive Director Tracy Fuller, aims to engage teens in middle school and high school to volunteer throughout the city. “These projects aren’t to benefit the Y, they’re to benefit the community. So, we’re soliciting ideas from the community,” she told city councilors Tuesday. She said she believes the initiative will be a “great opportunity” to empower area youth to have a stake in their city.

Education

Haverhill Schools Pull Back New Graduation Requirements, Unveil 2025 Program of Studies

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Haverhill Public Schools administrators are rolling back certain new graduation requirements after getting feedback from the state, but forging ahead with several new course offerings. Supervisor of School Counseling Megan Arivella last week told School Committee members, the school system adopted state-recommended graduation requirements for this year’s graduating class in the aftermath of voters repealing requirements last fall. Arivella said, however, the city was unable to meet certain criteria to “make it successful.”

“You need to have a PE substitution in place, a language equivalency or placement substitution in place, you need to have certain funding which we have had to build certain (career technical education) programs, but overall, our students, we found, it was rolled out too quickly without building the capacity for it to be successful so some of our students just didn’t have enough of the credits to graduate at the time we needed them to,” she said. Arivella said that the school system is awaiting guidance from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education after voters opted to repeal the graduation requirement for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS. Committee member Mikaela Laluimere encouraged administrators to prepare an additional fourth-year mathematics requirement in the future.

Education

Haverhill School Committee Advances Feasibility Study to Decide J.G. Whittier School Future

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After years of complaints of crowding and poor conditions at Haverhill’s John Greenleaf Whittier School, School Committee members voted last week to spend $1.2 million to study whether repair or replacement is the best option

A year ago, the Massachusetts School Building Authority voted to invite the school into an eligibility period which could lead to partial state reimbursement. School Superintendent Margaret Marotta told the Committee a feasibility study is the next step. “The study essentially looks at grade allocation, the number so students the building should hold, what the specific components of the building might look like programmatically, where specifically the building might be located, that sort of thing.”

Committee member Yonnie Collins raised concerns over whether money from the school department would be used, citing a need to be “fiscally responsible.”

Committee Vice Chairman Richard J. Rosa clarified money for the study comes from the city side and not from the education budget, but, beyond that, he alluded to the need to go back to taxpayers. “We wouldn’t be able to pay for this school without a debt exclusion,” Rosa said. “If the residents were not to pass a debt exclusion, we would very likely back out of the project because we wouldn’t be able to pay for it.

Education

Haverhill School Committee Slows Budget Priority Planning as Members Debate List

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A Haverhill School Committee exercise to better align next year’s spending with educational priorities will get another review later this month after members debated details such as staffing and soliciting student opinions. The Haverhill School Committee last Thursday took a preliminary look at budget priorities for the year beginning July 1 when reviewing a proposal drafted by member Thomas Grannemann. Grannemann, as WHAV previously reported, pored over previous years’ budgets to see how the city compares to other districts. Included on the preliminary list which Superintendent Margaret Marotta would use to guide her budget request later this year include efforts to reduce absenteeism, support new reading and writing curriculum rollouts and provide for college and career exploration in and out of the classroom. However, some committee members didn’t support the working document, with Vice Chairman Paul A. Magliocchetti citing concerns over references to additional resources for freshmen orientation, action planning and partnerships with community organizations.