WHS Principal’s Newsletter for 04 September, 2026

Dear Families,

Happy Friday at the end of our first (half) week of the 2026-2027 school year.  I am happy to report that the energy in the building this week was fantastic.  I spent the majority of my first three days observing classes and catching up with kids.

On Tuesday evening the seniors had a pizza party and picked up their “senior shirts” in the cafeteria with a lot of excitement.  Then, on Wednesday morning at 5:45 am about 100 of them showed up on Hunnewell field in pajamas and blankets to watch the sunrise on their senior year of high school.

A few hours later our 9th graders showed up for their high school orientation with help from our New Student Ambassadors and our Journey’s leaders.  They got tours, met their advisory, and learned about their schedule, and they heard the advice that they should take a chance and join something new while never worrying alone here.

We had shortened classes on Wednesday, yesterday we roared right into our day one of classes and today we did the same until our traditional end of the first week assembly. This afternoon we honored our State Champion Girls Swim team from last fall, the senior class officers got the crowd fired up, we got to hear our Rice Street Singers and Keynotes singers fresh off their trip to Fenway Park Monday night sing us the national anthem (see below), and our Student Unification Project kids got everyone in the Homecoming spirit with a class officer relay race (won by the officers of 2028).  At the end I challenged the community to each play their individual part in helping make sure every person in the high school feels safe and welcome here.  It was great to see everyone together in one place.

Our very own Wellesley High School Keynote Singers and Rice Street Singers perfored the National Anthem at the Red Sox game on Monday.  Our National Anthem performance undoubtedly propelled the Red Sox to a thrilling 9-8 comeback victory over the Seattle Mariners in 10 innings.  Visit our website to watch a video of our singers gearing up for their performance

Please submit the WHS School Council Parent/Guardian Representative — Candidate Submission Form 2026 by Thursday, September 10 at 3:00 p.m.

Candidate statements will be shared with the WHS Community through a Google Form for voting.

The School Council brings together students, faculty, parents/guardians, community members, and the principal to discuss and make recommendations on school policy, culture, curriculum, and other issues affecting WHS.

Please join us for our first Coffee with the Principal of the school year with Principal Jamie Chisum on Friday, September 18th, 9:00-10:00 am in the WHS Faculty Dining Room.

On one Friday each month, we invite you to kick off your morning with us! We open the doors of our Faculty Dining Room for an informal, relaxed gathering dedicated entirely to our parent and school community. This is a wonderful, casual opportunity to connect with other families, meet new faces, and share a cup of coffee and conversation.

School Principal Jamie Chisum and Interim Director of School Counseling Meg Walendin will alternate every month, sharing timely school information and taking questions from the audience.

No RSVP or formal agenda required—just come as you are, whenever you can drop by. We look forward to seeing you there.

Please visit the WHS Calendar Monthly View on the WHS Homepage to find dates for future Friday morning gatherings.

Dear WHS Grade 9 and New WHS Families,

Welcome to our school community. We are thrilled to invite you to a special morning event designed specifically to help you transition into the high school years.

We hope you will join us for this valuable morning of information and community building.

Dear Students & Families,

Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year!  As we make our final preparations to begin the year, it is important to pass along the following reminders and procedural information regarding our scheduling process and requests to make further schedule changes.  Please review this information carefully.  Schedules will be available on Powerschool on Wed, August 26th at 3pm.

As we continue to review our policies and procedures at WHS through the lens of Challenge Success, we remain focused on reducing stress-inducing practices and continuing to increase the personalization of our school environment.  As a result, the school has developed a process for requesting schedule changes that eliminates lines and first-come-first-served practices.  This process is designed to ensure that requests to make a schedule change will be processed in an equitable manner.  Additionally, this approach is designed to reduce the stress surrounding the change process by having discussions in a more personal environment with a student’s individual school counselor.

Students receive a list of their courses for the following academic year in June so they can plan their summer assignments.  For those students interested in requesting a higher level or AP course in the fall, they should complete the summer assignments for that course in case their request can be facilitated.

Students have an opportunity to request a schedule change at any point after they receive their courses in June until the week before school starts by filling out an electronic request form.  If the requested change was possible within the constraints of the schedule, students will see the change reflected in their schedule when it is released in late August.  If the change was not possible, their counselor will reach out to them to discuss options.

The Fall process to request a schedule change will be as follows:

Thank you all for your cooperation and we hope you have a wonderful start to the 2026-2027 school year!

Step Up Day is Wednesday, October 14th at Wellesley High School. Students will participate in activities tailored to their grade level.

Visit the WHS Step-Up Day for detailed information.

Questions? Contact your school counselor or Jen Culver, WHS Testing/SSD coordinator.

As we prepare for the new school year, Wellesley Public Schools must confirm student emergency contact details, directory information, and permissions. We use PowerSchool to maintain these data. The PowerSchool Parent Portal will be open from August 19 through September 9, 2026.

Please log in during this window to update your child’s information. Homeroom assignments for Grades K-8 will be available on August 19, 2026; Grade 9-12 schedules will be released on August 26, 2026. Note that class lists are not distributed due to privacy laws (see MGL 603 CMR 23.00). Some teacher names may show as “TBD” while we finalize placements.

Please see the PowerSchool Parent Portal Instructions on our WPS District Website for further instructions.

Please review our Updated Tardy Policy on page 13 of The 2026-2027 WHS Student Handbook, available on the WHS Website under WHS Quick Links

The safe transportation of students is a shared responsibility of students, parents/caregivers, bus drivers, bus monitors (where applicable), and administration.

Please review our 2026-2027 WPS TRANSPORTATION HANDBOOK on the WPS Website for full details.

Please also note the following list of acceptable items that are allowed on the school bus:

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is pleased to share the MCAS Family Portal with you. This online tool lets you see your student’s MCAS test results.

Preliminary MCAS results from spring 2026 are available. You will also see your student’s results from past years (2023–2025), if available. The Family Portal will be updated in September when final results are ready.

Go to mcasfamilyportal.emetric.net.

To create an account, you will need

First, view the Quick Start Guide at doe.mass.edu/mcas/family-portal.

Next, see the MCAS Family Portal Help Guide, also at doe.mass.edu/mcas/family-portal, which shows you step by step how to

Please contact your school principal if you have any questions about your child’s results. If you have trouble setting up your login, email us at portal@wellesleyps.org. We are here to support you.

You may have seen the news about the new Massachusetts High School Graduation requirements that were released by the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) last spring. They are lengthy and they will definitely have an impact on Wellesley High School in the future. Fortunately, we will not begin the implementation of those guidelines until the class of 2031 enters the high school next fall. None of our current high schoolers will be under the new requirements. We will be communicating a lot more about how things will look as we iron out our implementation plans later this year. If you are curious about what the state is asking of us all feel free to follow the link above for more information.

I’m thankful for the long weekend to recover from all this opening energy, but I’m looking forward to getting back at it with the kids next week.  The 2026-2027 school year ship has officially left the dock.  Here’s to smooth sailing for you and your family.

Best,

Jamie