On Saturday, April 12, the Belmont High School Belmontian Club – the school‘s Community Service group – and Belmont Car Wash at 521 Trapelo Rd., sponsored the annual spring car wash to benefit Cradles to Crayons, which helps poor and homeless children in Massachusetts.
The club raised $1, 390.60 at this event, and, overall, more than $4,100 for the non-profit in a variety of activities, beginning in February.
Here’s a quick list of yard sales going on in Belmont this weekend.
• 27 Dean St., Saturday, May 10, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• 29 Jonathan St., Saturday, May 10, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• The Habitat Intergenerational Program is holding its 13th annual herb sale on Saturday, May 10 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Habitat Visitor Center at 10 Juniper Rd. just off Somerset Street on Belmont Hill. Here’s your chance to purchase parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, oregano, basil, chives, mint, dill, cilantro and lavender along with vegetables and more!
Come early to get the best selection.
Proceeds used to fund HIP projects including the Chenery Middle School courtyard gardens, Habitat butterfly garden, weekly programs for women and children in a homeless shelter, family bird walks, Trails Days and more!
• The Friends of Belmont Softball will be hosting their annual Mother’s Day Flower Sale at the Lions Club at the foot of the MBTA Commuter Rail station just off Common Street on Royal Road in Belmont Center Saturday, May 10, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, May 11, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Saturday is the last night of the annual Belmont Pops concerts. The entertainment, by Belmont High School musicians, will begin at 7 p.m., Saturday. May 10, the the school’s Lunch Room. Sales from tickets benefit POMS, Parents of Music Students.
• The Belmont Gallery of Art Spring 2014 exhibit, “Books on the Charles – 25 years of Charlesbridge Picture Book Illustrators” will be open Saturday, May 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday, May 11 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. This special exhibit celebrates 15 New England-area picture book artists who have created art for Charlesbridge Publishing, Watertown’s award-winning children’s book publisher. The Belmont Gallery of Art is located in the Homer Bldg., Town Hall Complex, 19 Moore St., Belmont Center (just off Leonard St., behind Belmont Savings Bank).
The Friends of Belmont Softball will be hosting their annual Mother’s Day Flower Sale at the Lions Club at the foot of the MBTA Commuter Rail station just off Common Street on Royal Road in Belmont Center.
Come by to purchase beautiful flowers and support the Belmont High School Varsity and Junior Varsity Softball teams.
The flowers will be on sale starting today, Friday, May 9 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, May 10 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, May 11, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• It’s the annual Belmont Pops Concerts where the Belmont High School cafeteria is transformed into a “Pops”-style arrangement with table seating where audience members will be entertained by Belmont High musicians while having light snacks and other refreshments. There are two concerts, today at 7 p.m. and on Saturday. Sales from tickets benefit POMS, Parents of Music Students.
• The Beech Street Center’s Senior Book Discussion group will meet at 11 a.m. at the Center, 266 Beech St. to discuss “Sons and Lovers” – Chapters 1 through 7 – by D.H. Lawrence.
• What to do on a rainy Friday in Belmont? The Belmont Gallery of Art Spring 2014 exhibit, “Books on the Charles – 25 years of Charlesbridge Picture Book Illustrators” will be open today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This special exhibit celebrates 15 New England-area picture book artists who have created art for Charlesbridge Publishing, Watertown’s award-winning children’s book publisher. The Belmont Gallery of Art is located in the Homer Bldg., Town Hall Complex, 19 Moore St., Belmont Center (just off Leonard St., behind Belmont Savings Bank).
• Belmont High School Varsity Softball will be home against Reading at 3:45 p.m. while Boys’ Lacrosse will take on Lexington at Harris Field at 5 p.m.
The Belmont Gallery of Art Spring 2014 exhibit, “Books on the Charles – 25 years of Charlesbridge Picture Book Illustrators” continues now through May 17. This special exhibit celebrates 15 New England-area picture book artists who have created art for Charlesbridge Publishing, Watertown’s award-winning children’s book publisher.
Featured illustrators in “Books on the Charles” include Jef Czekaj, David McPhail, Jamie Hogan, Robin Brickman, Tim Jones, Ryan O’Rourke, Brian Lies, David Hyde Costello, Wayne Geehan, Rob Bolster, Alan Witschonke, Judy Love, Leslie Evans, Ralph Masiello and Nicole Wong.
“We’re so pleased to be working with the Belmont Gallery of Art,” says Donna Spurlock, Marketing Director for Charlesbridge Publishing.
“For 25 years we’ve been very lucky to be working with extremely talented artists creating beautiful picture books for young readers. It’s wonderful to see so much of their work displayed in this show celebrating the unique art of children’s book illustration.”
The nearly 100 original works – many for sale – in “Books on the Charles” showcase a wide range of artistic techniques and visual storytelling styles ranging from whimsical pen and ink drawings to three-dimensional collages to delicate impressionistic watercolors to bold and realistic acrylic paintings to textured linocuts, with each page displayed reflecting that particular artist’s unique approach to bringing the reader inside the world of a picture book.
The BGA’s Books on the Charles show also includes several special exhibit events, including a visit with author/illustrator Leslie Evans taking place at the Belmont Public Library, Wednesday, May 14 during Children’s Book Week.
The Belmont Gallery of Art is located in the Homer Bldg., Town Hall Complex, 19 Moore St., Belmont Center (just off Leonard St., behind Belmont Savings Bank).
Gallery hours are Thursday, and Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday., 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The gallery is wheelchair accessible.
You can also visit the Belmont Gallery of Art’s website at www.belmontgallery.org for more details.
• The Chenery Middle School’s 7th and 8th Grade Band Concert will take place on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Chenery’s auditorium.
• A day after Town Meeting members voted to approve the money to build the new Underwood Pool complex, the Underwood Pool Building Committee is meeting at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall’s conference room 2 to set a project schedule so the pool can be completed by June 2015 as well as sign contracts with the architect and owner’s project manager.
• Belmont Against Racism will discuss the book “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson on Thursday, May 8 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
• The Beech Street Center’s women’s musical group, the Bel Aires, get together on Thursdays at 1:30 p.m. for a little singing. A suggested donation of $2 is requested to defray the cost of the leader and pianist.
• Belmont High School Girls’ Varsity Tennis takes on Wakefield High today at 3:30 p.m. on the tennis courts adjacent to the high school parking lot.
• On this day in 1945, V-E Day (Victory in Europe) is declared as combat ends after German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
7 p.m.: Welcome to the second night of the 155th edition of the Belmont Town Meeting here at the Belmont High School auditorium.
Tonight will see the – hopefully – the final night for non-budget articles.
First up is an update report on the “quaint” Belmont Center reconstruction being presented by Glenn Clancy, director of Community Development and Selectmen chair Andy Rojas. The days of doing nothing or just fixing the pavement is not what is needed, said Clancy.
The work, costing around $2.6 million, could be funded with a state grant, capital funds from the Cushing Square parking lot ($850,000) and the Woodfall Road payment (just north of $2 million), a debt exclusion, Chapter 90 fund, town reserves or existing pavement management funds, said Town Administrator David Kale. The town will come back at the fall Special Town Meeting on how to pay for it.
This presentation is the first volley by the town in the public campaign for funding.
7:35 p.m.: Long-term Town Meeting members are being honored. And Marty Cohen, 39 years of service, speaks before his colleagues on the differences from when he first came to the meeting in 1974 including that women now constitutes 50 percent of Town Meeeting. Speak loud and learn the rules, is his advice.
Dave Rogers, our active State Rep., is going over what’s happening on Beacon Hill impacting Belmont. There is largely good news with an increase in state aid for general government and schools along with special funding for energy efficient buildings.
7:50 p.m.: First up for debate and a vote tonight will be the two articles concerning the funding of the proposed new Underwood Pools complex scheduled to replace in June, 2015 the 102-year-old swimming “pond” adjacent to the Belmont Public Library at the corner of Concord Avenue.
Members will vote on a $2 million grant from the town’s Community Preservation Committee as well as allowing the town to borrow $2.9 million the town’s voters approved by 62 percent on Town Election on April 1.
Selectmen Chair Andy Rojas wants to give an update on some design changes after the April 1 vote. Rojas said that the design voters selected is a preliminary one so new revisions and changes can be made with a “more rigorous” process. This process could save money, but please note there will be more public comment on the pool. “Tell us what your thought are.”
Ann Paulsen, the Pool Building Chair, is presenting the history of the design process. She highlights that there were many meetings, multiple changes the committee made with other groups, and a design that has won the approval of the Underwood family. “This will keep a community amenity for the next 50 years.”
8 p.m.: “Let’s dive in,” said Underwood Pool Building Committee member Adam Dash – to a collective groan – who is reviewing the design and changes that will be made.
Much of what Dash is explaining has been reported in the Belmontonian, including a detail of the current design – a two pool complex (a “kiddy” pool and a more “adult” oriented one with laps and a diving pool) with updated bathhouses on both ends, greater green space, and a revamped parking lot design.
For more information, go to the Underwood Pool Building Committee Facebook page.
This is what people wanted to see [in the pool design]” said Dash.
Now for something different: the first image of the new design for the bath houses, on a more historic theme. With HIP roof, nice airy design, easy to clean and a “Belmont” feel. And the view from Concord Avenue is “inviting.”
Dash also explains how the money is coming from. “We got our monies worth out of the pool,” he said. Will he get a hand for his presentation? He does.
Questions? Jim Stanton, Pct. 1, asks why there is a historic preservation element in the CPA funding when the bath house is being razed? Floyd Carman, town treasurer and vice chair of the CPC, said the committee just doesn’t look at small bits of money but how it effects Belmont as a whole. Stanton, who said he will be voting for the pool, said the CPA is a “law” and it should be followed and is “not for us to decide the Belmont way” in interpreting the law. Paulsen then comes up and said that what is historic is that the site is the location of the first outdoor municipal pool in the country “and we are maintaining the site that is historic.”
Funny moment: Dash explaining why two pools: “If there is a child has an ‘accident’ in the kiddy pool, and let the record show that I am using air quotes when referring to ‘accident’,” to the laughter of the members.
The article is called and is passed with a single “no” vote.
8:44 p.m.: Now up is article 17 allowing the town to borrow $2.9 million from the town election. It will cost residents $48 but that will be offset by a $108 reduction with the expiration of the Chenery Middle School debt to considerable cheers.
The article is called and easily passes the 2/3 barrier to applause. The town officially has a new pool!
8:48 p.m.: Now up, CPA grants. You can approve or deny, said CPC chair Paul Solomon.
Five grants to be approved:
Early in the celebration honoring him as the 2015 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year on Tuesday, May 6, Dr. Jeff Shea gave the impression that he would have liked to be anywhere BUT sitting at center court of Belmont High School’s Wenner Field House.
With the entire student population and teachers in the bleachers, a brass band and chorus serenading him, a gym adorn with dozens of large signs of congratulations, and school, local and state officials gathered to honor him being named the state’s top teacher, Shea pensively sat next to his wife, Valerie, under an oversized banner proclaiming him the state’s teacher of the year.
“It was nerve wracking,” Shea said later. “Like your first day in the classroom.”
On, appropriately, National Teachers Recognition Day, Shea was presented with the title before the entire Belmont High community.
“Wow,” Shea said when he got to the podium, later noting that “I wouldn’t have chosen to get everyone together here for this particular reason.”
“I see this award not so much as a personal award but certainly as a reflection of the strength of our community,” said Shea, an Arlington resident who attended Andover High School before matriculating at Tulane University.
From golf pro (Shea taught on the greens in western Massachusetts and on Maui) to educational professional, the Belmont High School social studies teacher creating and leading the popular global leadership courses for 11th and 12th graders, his help introducing new technology – such as iPods to 9th grade freshmen entering the High School in September – to spur learning “and his overall ability to inspire merits him this particular recognition,” Dr. Thomas Kingston, Belmont’s school superintendent, told the assembly.
A 10-year Belmont district veteran who also coaches the resurgent Boy’s Golf team, Shea “is the kind of teacher that marries the passion for teaching … to a greater understanding of the subjects he loves and knows,” said Kingston. “It’s pretty wonderful to have someone like [Shea] on our faculty because … he represents the best in all of us,” he said.
Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Dr. Mitchell Chester – who also recognized the other teachers in the Field House “who are second to none in the world” – said “this is the place to be” as the state honors Shea. Shea will also speak before the legislature in June and will be the state’s nominee for National Teacher of the Year.
Calling him a continuous learner who is “very reflective” on educational issues, Chester said he could not think of a more important area of study today than Shea’s interest and teaching of global leadership because “increasingly where you grow up is going to be less … determinative of your opportunities” so it important “to understand the global world in which we live.”
“I am deeply humbled and extremely honored” to win the award, said Shea who gave special recognition to his “mentor and very close friend” recently retired sixth grade teacher Joanne Coffey who took Shea under her wing at Belmont’s Chenery Middle School.
Shea noted one of the major strengths Belmont has to resulted in his award and Belmont High’s high academic reputation “is the commitment parents … have made to their children’s education” having benefited from that effort which included the “generosity” of the Foundation for Belmont Education.
And despite the considerable accolades the district has received – last week, Belmont High was ranked the top open enrollment public high school in Massachusetts and 151st in the country by US News & World Report – the administration “is still trying to move us forward.”
He also took time to point to his colleagues, “so many amazing teachers in the room, so many deserving teachers” that Shea suggested Chester be provided a parking pass as he could return next year to make the same presentation.
Shea finally spoke to his former and present students, those he taught at the Chenery, in his High School classroom or coached on the golf course.
“The trait that most defines the students at Belmont High School is your curiosity and that will lead you to many successes in the past and will lead you to many successes in the future. It also makes teaching a lot of fun” with students who “want to learn is incredibly important.”
“So I would be remise if I did not say at this point that I apologize to students and facility for the interruption in teaching and learning this morning,” he said.
“[Teaching] is a great profession because it is so very challenging and trying to overcome challenges, I think, is life,” he said.
