By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — On Tuesday, School Committee members heard about plans to create a Wakefield Memorial High School alumni database from high school librarian and media specialist Diane Ho and Class of 2022 graduate Katie Patt, who is now a student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
“Colleges do this for a reason,” Patt said in reference to college alumni networks that help people connect socially and professionally. “Why not start in high school? This is something that could help people and students in Wakefield.”
Ho said she came from a high school with a strong alumni network. “This can serve as a vital resource for the school system by fostering relationships,” she feels. “The alumni is one of our greatest untapped resources. Many are eager to give back to the community.”
Initial steps will be getting current and recent students to fill the database, followed by outreach to alumni. “The goal is to reach out to as many people as possible,” Patt said.
That could include many older people who may need to use traditional, low tech tools to be entered. “We have alumni who are not tech savvy,” Patt knows.
Patt’s involvement builds on her career during which she was editor of the yearbook and worked with Ho and captain of the swim team.
At the Catholic University she is a sales and marketing major, is on the swim team and works with alumni.
She’s also drawing on the legacy of her late grandfather John Encarnacao, who was a School Committee member for 21 years and a Town Councilor/Selectman for 17 and tried to start an alumni network. “He tried to start a program many years ago, but due to lack of technology, it was hard to get it running,” she said.
Now there’s already a Wakefield Memorial High School Alumni Directory Facebook page.
As is customary these days, Ho and Patt showed a short video on the program that outlined objectives to formalize alumni connections and engagement, facilitate career and internship pathways to offer career advice and relationships, enhance school and community bonds, preserve the legacy of the High School and provide strategic support for future students.
It also outlined steps for implementation of gathering information, increasing alumni engagement and connections, using technology to expand and asking the School Committee to collaborate with an Alumni Directory Committee that may include a teacher who will receive a stipend for their role.
The members and Superintendent Doug Lyons were receptive. “I think it’s a great idea,” School Committeeman Kevin Piskadlo reacted. “There’s a lot of value in something like this.”
“I like the idea that people can help other people find work,” Peter Davis said.
Tom Markham noted some classes stay more connected as alumni than others through informal networks. “I’m glad to endorse this,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what this becomes,” colleague Stephen Ingalls added.
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Also on Tuesday, Kevin Fontanella was chosen as the new School Committee chairman succeeding Ingalls. Over the last year Fontanella was vice chairman. “Thank you,” he said after the unanimous vote, which came at the end of the meeting.
He later added, “I am looking forward to serving as chair of the School Committee this year. I truly feel that we have a collaborative group that respects each other and works well together; even if we have diverse viewpoints on several issues, I think that our mutual respect for one another will help us face any issues that we will deal with this year. I think that we have a great educational system and a management team that is constantly working to improve its outcomes. In the end, we have to support our teachers with a budget and policies that allow them to do what is the central task of any public school system: phenomenal classroom instruction.”
Kevin Piskadlo was chosen as the new vice chairman, while Melissa Quinn was chosen the warrant signer to sign requests for payments. Ingalls describes it as an unsung role.
Reorganization was an agenda item at meetings May and 27 after town elections and Town Meeting, but was delayed because not all the members were at those meetings as is required for action.