Teachers union urges special ed overhaul

School Committee · Meeting of May 4, 2026

Watertown teachers union presented a special education task force report urging eligibility and transition reforms. WEA task force co-chairs Barbara Barry, a Cunningham School fourth-grade teacher, and Jim Duffy, a middle school special education teacher, told the Curriculum Subcommittee the group surveyed 112 of the district's 496 staff after special education issues consumed "about 80 percent" of union rights-committee meetings. Barry said most fixes "cost zero dollars and zero cents." Special education team chair Greg Roberts countered during public comment that building administrators maintain "a very much open door policy." Separately, high school staff presented a graduation risk scorecard flagging 26 students with 10 or more risk points and 11 students tracked as having left school this year, while reporting a credit-buyback program with a "100 percent" success rate among participants.

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Source: the School Committee meeting of May 4, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.