Dear Families, 

I know we’ve seen a few snow flakes flying the last couple of days, but the ground looks a whole lot greener (browner?) than it did last week at this time. I have not yet adjusted to this time change fully myself, but I’m hopeful more days will help all of us still struggling. 

This afternoon I want to share with you a photo from something exciting that happened at Wellesley High School Wednesday evening. The Channel 5 newshow Chronicle is working on an episode that will highlight the 60th anniversary of the Metco program. They filmed two different segments here on Wednesday. The first was the story of two young men, Clarence Bly and Teddy Komjathy, who met in their Wellesley elementary school and remain friends today in their twenties. This segment actually is a revisitation of Clarence and Teddy’s story that Chronicle produced 10 years ago for the 50th anniversary of Metco.

The second segment was an interview with Ms. Paula Davis who was one of the original six Metco student graduates of Wellesley High School in 1968. Paula shared stories of how Ruth Batson had actually called her mother specifically to recruit Paula into Metco. She shared stories while she flipped pages in her yearbook. 

Paula described stories that were good and others that were not, but she was firm in her assertion that she and all her classmates would choose to do it all again. She also took a moment to praise our current students who take the ride in from Boston each day for their determination and grit. She wanted them to know it is worth it. I honestly felt it was a privilege to be present for these two moments. 

WHS Class of 2025 Alumni Lily Kahrl recently received her Congressional Bronze Medal. 

To qualify for this prestigious honor, Lily has performed:

At the food pantry, Lily served meals, greeted guests, and helped prepare meals, and gave a lot of people high fives. 

And she wore a pink jacket like Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde” to greet Congresswoman Katherine Clark, our Representative. 

Congratulations to the Wellesley High School Science Olympiad team placed 5th overall at the Massachusetts State Tournament, held March 7 at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Competing against 71 teams from across the state, the team earned two gold medals, one bronze medal, and several top-six ribbons across a wide range of STEM events.

The team’s senior captains are Stephanie Xia, Huan Trinh, Chris Lin, and Anish Sankar, with Mia Chung serving as junior captain, and the team is coached by Dr. Jeff Robin.

The WHS boys Nordic ski team were league champions, and the boys and girls teams won the combined league champion award! It was a very special night with 7 Wellesley boys placing in the top ten of the league.

As shown in photo in below (clockwise): Luca Buchbinder (9th place), Leo Ventimiglia (3rd place tie), Coach Mark Jacobson, William Carroll (10th place tie), Nico Buchbinder (6th place), Parker Lee (5th place), and Wyatt Park (3rd place tie). Not pictured, Cooper Munro (7th place). Congratulations to All!

After hosting the preliminary round of the METG High School Drama Festival at Wellesley High School on Saturday, February 28th, the Wellesley High School Dramatic Arts Society’s production of “Fire in the Hole” was selected to advance to the semi-final round. Students also earned several awards for both acting and technical work:

Students will now prepare for the Semi-Final round on Saturday, March 14th (location to be announced).

Students have the opportunity to travel to Galapagos during February break 2027! It’s an amazing opportunity they will not want to miss. Follow the link below for information and to sign up.

Please reach out to Mr. Bateman (batemank@wellesleyps.org) if you have any questions.

Greetings Class of 2026 Students and Families, 

We are excited to announce this year’s 80s Dance! 

The event will take place Friday, March 27th from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at the high school. This dance is a beloved senior class tradition, and students are encouraged to come dressed in their best 80s attire.

ATTENTION PARENTS: We are looking for some snack and drink donations to help make the evening a success! If you would like to contribute, please sign up using the link below:

We look forward to seeing you all there,

2026 Class Officers

The Wellesley Scholarship Foundation is excited to partner with Marian Derryberry for this year’s Boston Marathon! Marian has been a special educator at Wellesley High School for 23 years and is thrilled to be running her 11th marathon and her 1st Boston! Knowing how meaningful the support from WSF can be for students, Marian is appreciative of any donation to this year’s marathon fundraising effort! Please click the following link to check out her fundraising page and learn more about her running journey!  

WHS 10th Grader Nate Cody has been accepted as a candidate in Blood Cancer United’s 2026 Student Visionaries of the Year campaign.

 

Student Visionaries of the Year is a national seven-week challenge through which high school student leaders raise funds and awareness for the fight against blood cancers. Last year’s New England candidates raised an amazing $1,300,000 for the mission of Blood Cancer United. This year’s campaign began on February 5th and culminates with our Grand Finale Gala on Sunday, March 29th at Granite Links in Quincy, MA. The funds raised benefit our mission; to cure blood cancer, and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. 

 

This is truly an elite competition and we count ourselves lucky to have Nate, leading Team “Running For A Cure”, as part of this campaign to represent Wellesley High School. Please see Nate’s fundraising link, which can be found HERE,

 

Please see the recently updated School Counseling Page for Spring events and information.

WHS counselors will present a framework and timeline for the post-secondary process with a focus on the milestones that are particularly relevant to students looking ahead to their junior year.  

Meeting ID: 864 3077 3862

Password: 137436

The librarians at Wellesley High School host a monthly Book Club for parents where we read YA books and discuss. If you are interested in participating please email us at whslibrary@wellesleyps.org

Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 7 2026 at the Wellesley Free Library Cafe (1st floor) at 7:30pm to discuss Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (nonfiction)

The Wellesley Free Library will have copies available for check out.

Any question can be emailed to whslibrary-group@wellesleyps.org.

Our list of clubs and enrichment programs for 2025-2026 has recently been updated.

To print your own copy or access the list, see Complete List of 2025-2026 Clubs on the WHS website. 

I know today marks the last day of our little intersession between winter and spring sports. As much as we love our athletics, there is something nice about things slowing down a bit on that front. The kids haven’t slowed much. We had a tremendous Acastock concert last Friday night, tonight at 7 pm our Massachusetts Theater Guild will be performing their play Fire in the Hole as they prepare for the state semi-finals tomorrow in Brockton, our Academic Decathlon team qualified for the National Championships by finishing in the top three in the state, as you can see above our Science Olympians finished 5th out of 71 teams at the all state competition, and not to be left out our Mock Trial students competed in a session at the Moakley Court House in Boston in front of real judges. They won their first match but lost the second in the quarter finals of the tournament. It was their first loss all year! 

All four classes at the high school got to do some fun kids games when they competed in our annual Dodgeball tournament. Some great pictures below. 

Finally, I will be sending out another separate note about this but I did want to give folks a heads up that I will be hosting some listening sessions for both students and parents (separately) so we can hear what hopes people have for a New Athletic Director and for our Athletic Department in general as we begin our search process. It is an exciting and daunting challenge, but it will be made better by the wisdom of the crowd. Those meetings will be from 6-7 pm in the Faculty Dining Room at the High School.  

If you didn’t know already, this is a busy place to be! 

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Best, 

Jamie