Graduation On The Remote: 329 Belmont High Students Honored In Virtual Ceremony

Photo: Belmont High 2020 Class President Caroline Findlay addresses her classmates during the remote graduation broadcast Sunday, June 7.

There were the expected chestnuts of a Belmont High School graduation ceremony as the 329 members of the Class of 2020 were conferred their diplomas on Sunday, June 7.

The speeches, the national anthem – beautifully sung by Valentin Reynolds – the awards, a cappella singers performing, and the walk up to the stage to have a photo taken with the well-earned sheepskin.

Just that it didn’t take place in the normally sweltering confines of the Wenner Field House but on a computer or television screen.

There wasn’t the nervous march into the Field House, the beach balls, the cigars hidden in some young men’s suit jackets, shaking hands with school committee members while receiving their diploma, the caps thrown high and the gathering outside for photos (and cigars) with family. That experience, along with the prom and other graduation week activities, were struck down weeks before by the same pandemic effecting the world for the past four months.

It was a new normal for the Class of 2020 – a remote graduation in a virtual setting.

Class President Caroline Findlay spoke about the void her class was feeling saying “[t]here is no way to speak to you today without acknowledging the fact that our class has lost so much this year. Missing the supposed best three months of the last 13 years has been truly difficult because it has meant the loss of our final moments together as a class.”

The main message coming from her classmates, said Findlay, was that “we have each other.”

“We have encourage this message throughout our time in high school but over the past two years it has solidified what it’s meant to be a member of the Class of 2020. It is through this adversity that we faced, instead of focusing solely on ourselves as individuals, we all have shown up in supporting one another.”

“If you think about it, the challenges that our classes face over the past two years have provided us with an incredible set of tools to lean on as we force our path in our journey that lies ahead,” said Findlay.

Findlay and Belmont High Principal Isaac Taylor noted the passing of classmate Cleo Theodoropulos in 2019 and chorus teacher Sean Landers early in 2020.

“I watched as you the ways that you kept your beloved friend and classmate, close memory alive, showing love for her and her friends,” while being “moved by the respectful and loving kindness that so many of you showed, to the passing of a teacher, a friend and a fellow human being,” said Isaac, overseeing his first graduation in Belmont.

Noting that a “great teacher gets to know her student by getting beneath the surface, finding the insecurities and helping to strengthen them, noticing the gaps, and sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly teaching the skills to fill them,” Isaac said while the graduates had wonderful teachers that are proud of each student, “you are all pretty great teachers yourselves.”

“You have used your heart and your wisdom to guide one another through the loss of a friend and the loss of a teacher. Through the pandemic. Through the lockdown. You have supported each other through tragic tragedy and loss and uncertainty. You have gone beneath the surface and listened, understood, you have taught your parents and the faculty and staff at Belmont High School,” he said.

Belmont High School’s Senior A Cappella

The Belmont School Committee bestowed its annual awards for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship to Samantha Widdison and Cynthia Lu.

“We are graduating during a pandemic, which hasn’t occurred in 100 years and in an economy as bad as the Great Depression. There are people in the streets fighting for justice, with intensity not seen since the 1960s,” said Widdison, who will be attending Tufts in the fall.

“We all have plans, our expectations for the future. It is up to us to decide what we make of unexpected situations. Whether we view them as obstacles or opportunities for personal growth. I use the opportunity of grades being pass fail this spring to fully embrace senior ‘slide.’ As we move on to the next chapter of our lives, let’s take one day at a time. Don’t worry about the unexpected. You are currently surviving a pandemic being quarantined with your family. You can survive anything,” she said.

Harvard-bound Lu told her classmates that “happiness doesn’t always have to come at a price or a sacrifice.”

“We are never too old to find delight in a snowman or a charity popsicle, or to dive headfirst into something new the way we used to jump into swimming pools, exploring new subjects and activities, meet new people and wander to new places, and soon you’ll find new homes.”

“While growing up often seems like a process of discomfort and less. I hope we remember that even when we fall and scrape our knees. We’ll have each other to help us up,” said Lu.

The ceremony proceeded and concluded with each graduate coming on stage in alphabetical order – which occurred a few weeks previous – to have their moment in the spotlight. If a viewer didn’t know Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March in D” they would after hearing it repeated to the nth degree during the presentation.

One theme that was highlighted throughout the celebration was that of shared hope. Findlay referenced the writer and encourager Nikki Banas on what can get her classmates through even the toughest times.

“Let it be hope that you are stronger than any challenge that comes your way. Let it be hope that you are exactly where you’re meant to be right now, and that you’re on the path to where you are meant to be. Because during these times hope will be the very thing that carries you through,” said Findlay.

Rollin’ Thru Belmont With The Class Of 2020 [Photos]

Photo: A Belmont High grad with his crew on hand.

How could it be any better? Sunny skies, summer temperatures, the roads open by a police and fire escort while residents, friends and family cheering all the way. Yes, the rolling rally for Belmont High School’s Class of 2020 was a success for a group of students who saw so much of their final days in school closed down due to the world wide coronavirus pandemic.

With nearly the entire traditional graduation script – from skip day to prom, the class cruise and receiving their diplomas in front of family in the school’s field house – wiped clean, it was clearly a time for the town and high school to think beyond the normal celebrations to honor the tow’s 328 graduating seniors.

So taking the cue from other communities, the high school administration and Belmont public safety arrived with an event that has proven a hit with Boston sports teams: the rolling rally. Instead of the town coming to a specific location to cheer on the class, have the class come to them as vehicles with the student’s on board ride through town, driving through Belmont’s business center’s and passing by the town’s four elementary and the Chenery Middle schools.

Starting at noon from the Boston Temple, the caravan was greeted the entire way by applause and shouts from family and strangers. The rally snaked through the Center, into Waverley and up to Cushing before heading back to the high school.

Belmont Police Chief James MacIssac said that earlier in the day the number of vehicle topped 160 with more coming just as the rally was beginning. He said no incidents or complaints from the public occurred.

With near universal approval from everyone involved, could a rally become a graduation tradition?

Belmont Joins Hundreds Of Communities Worldwide Marching Against Injustice [VIDEO]

Photo: Residents marching into Belmont Center protesting the death of George Floyd and seeking racial justice. (all photos credit Lisa Sotir)

Hundreds of Belmont residents of all ages and races marched on Wednesday, June 3 from the Belmont Green through the town’s center as “The Town of Homes” joining hundreds of communities nationwide and around the world protesting the death of George Floyd and seeking racial justice.

Carrying signs proclaiming “White silence = violence”, “End Police Brutality” and “Black Lives Matter,” the marchers gathered first at the historic Wellington Station to hear speeches from organizers such as Mitchell Pereira and from incoming Belmont High senior Preston Jackson-Stephens before heading through Belmont Center.

Preston Jackson-Stephens speaking to protesters at Belmont’s Wellington Station. (Lisa Sotir video)

“I wanted to start this because a lot of our surrounding communities were taking part in protesting and I knew that many people in our town wanted to do it as well,” said Pereira, a 2019 graduate of Belmont High.

The march was a viral moment as organizers took to Instagram and asked friends to share their plans and, from there, the word spread.

“I was super surprised and happy with how many people ended up coming,” said Pereira.

For the organizers, the rally’s goal was as a starting point for all Belmont residents to consider how racial injustice effects their lives and the community.

I think it’s our duty to call out injustice and to try and better our society and community,” he said.

“This happened because of everyone and that everyone deserves credit and deserves to be proud of themselves. I’m just a small part of it, it’s really the community who made this happen,” said Pereira.

A Running Fundraiser To Aid The Fight For Racial Equality

Photo: Logo for the fundraiser.

For James Fitzpatrick, a captain on the Belmont High School track team, the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbreys, and Breonna Taylor have made it abundantly clear things need to change in our country.  

To help aid in this movement, the Belmont High School Track Team will attempt to run 500 miles in one week in order to raise funds for Black Lives Matter Boston. The challenge will begin this week.

The site for the fundraiser is here.

“I came up with the idea to create a fundraiser after hearing about all of the terrible instances of white supremacy and police brutality towards African-Americans in recent weeks,” said Fitzgerald.

“I think that as a White American right now, it is super important to be an ally for the Black community so I read a lot of articles about ways in which White people can help in this fight,” he said.

One of the most impactful is through donating to organizations that are actively working to fight for equality in America and Black Lives Matter Boston is just one of these organizations.  

“They have three main principles: working to end police brutality against African-Americans, empowering young Black people so that they can grow up to make change, and also creating change from inside the Black community.  They are also a local group so I felt like raising money for them would be directly impactful,” Fitzgerald said.

“I am hopeful that we see a changed America in the future,” he said.

Please consider donating and helping us to help others in the best way we can right now.

Belmont Farmers Market Season Opener Thursday, June 4

Photo: The Belmont Farmers Market opens this week

Summer is almost here and that means a Belmont institution, the Farmers Market, is opening for the 2020 season at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 4 in the Belmont Center municipal parking lot with the ringing of the market bell and the cutting of the tomato ribbon.

But this year, due to the ongoing pandemic, there will be changes to how patrons will be able to shop. This season, the market will operate more like an outdoor supermarket without the typical social events that residents have grown accustomed to and safety measures have been developed and will be implemented in consultation with the Belmont Health Department.

The shopping area will be limited to 40 shoppers, and there will be a one-way flow through the area, with a single entrance and a single exit. Vendor tents will be spaced six feet apart instead of being adjacent to each other, and there is a limit of three people standing at any tent. The entrance and vendor areas will have markings to ensure that shoppers stand six feet from each other.

Face masks and gloves will be required for vendors and Market staff. Shoppers must wear face masks, and are asked to shop alone. Shoppers may not touch products until they are paid for, and they will be encouraged to preorder or use credit/debit cards when they pay at the Market.

Vendors may not handle reusable bags, and must provide extra space or a screen between themselves and shoppers. Hand washing stations will be provided, and a portable toilet will be available for Market staff and volunteers. Extra volunteers will be on hand to manage the flow of shoppers. Vendors must check the health of themselves and their staff, and the Market managers will monitor the health of their staff.

Questions about the Belmont Farmers’ Market can be directed to: belmontfarmersmarket@gmail.com

Belmont Saves Millions Waiting To Sell $100M Bonds On Middle/High School, Police HQ Projects

Photo: The Belmont Police Headquarters renovation.

Patience is a virtue and, in the case of Belmont, a way to pocket a few million dollars.

By holding off selling more than $103.5 million in municipal bonds on a pair of building projects from March to May, Belmont will reap a $6 to $7 million savings to taxpayers, according to Belmont’s Town Treasurer Floyd Carman as the Belmont Select Board voted to approve the bond sale at its remote meeting on Monday, June 1.

Originally, the sale of the triple-A rated, 30-year municipal bond to finance a portion of the $240 million Belmont Middle and High School project and the Police Headquarters renovation was schedule for mid-March. At the time, the financial markets began reeling due to the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Initial interest was anemic; just two firms showed any

Rather than chance an auction during rising volatility in the market, Carman pulled the paper and proceeded to reaffirm the town’s top status with the credit rating agencies.

Due to its long-standing policy of conservative budgeting and spending, a small default rate by homeowners and a willingness to payoff long-standing debt and keeping cash reserves – free cash – above what agencies require, Belmont is seen as having a high level of creditworthiness resulting in the coveted top ranking.

Belmont is one of just 11 municipalities in Massachusetts and one of fifty nationwide in which two of the three rating agencies – Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s – declared its “paper” at a AAA rate, the highest possible rating that may be assigned to an issuer’s bonds.

“We are truly in a category of our own,” Carman told Select Board Member Tom Caputo.

By retreating to the sidelines, Belmont could afford to bide its time toward a recovery and a more receptive market.

By late May, according to Carman, the number of bidders drawn to Belmont’s triple-A muni spiked to 10 and the resulting auction resulted in a “fantastic rate” of 2.178 percent – sold to JP Morgan Securities – a whopping 1.124 percent decrease from the 3.302 percent the town received at last year’s $111 million bond sale to support the middle/high school.

“Let me thank Carman for just a wonderful job … bringing these bonds to market and achieving a terrific result that the auction,” said Select Board Chair Roy Epstein who noted the sale occurred during the depressed state of the bond market in the last few months.

Educators Support Belmont Families And Children

Photo: The logo of the Belmont Education Association

In light of the COVID-19 crisis, the Belmont Education Association announced the donation of $2,000 to a pair of organizations supporting families and children in need.

The donation was split evenly between ​The Belmont Food Pantry and ​Massachussetts Child​, a charitable corporation created by the Massachusetts Teachers Association to provide funds to local associations in order to help students in need.

“We recognize the impact that the pandemic has had on the Belmont community and we are happy to contribute what we can,” said John Sullivan, BEA president.

“We are all affected by the harsh reality of this virus,” he said. “We hope our donations can contribute to the well-being and safety of our students and families in the Belmont community.”

Belmont Reopens Tennis, Track, Parks; Playgrounds, BBall Will Have To Wait

Photo: Alan Palm and his son Sawyer in the newly reopened Grove Street Playground.

On a warm Tuesday with willowy clouds overhead, Alan Palm and his son, Sawyer, are on the newly installed walkway that meanders around the Grove Street Playground; Palm père on his skateboard while Palm fils is riding his balance bike.

For the first time since mid-March, Grove Street is back open to the public and the Palms are taking advantage of the return to “normal” in the park.

“I’m very happy that the park is open,” said Palm. “I think we have to find ways to be able to maintain our health and safety.”

What attracts Palms to Grove is the expansive spaces a park provides, “where it’s possible for people to be social distance apart as opposed to just crowding onto the sidewalk. People need to take advantage of that.”

In the most visible examples of a return to normalcy since the sudden closure of many activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, Belmont is reopening several public spaces effective Tuesday, June 2.

The Belmont Select Board voted unanimously at its Monday, June 1 remote meeting to immediately begin a restart of the town’s public parks and athletic fields limited to passive activities such as walking and running, according to Jon Marshall, the assistant town administrator and Recreation Department director. Arrangements are being made with the School Department to allow use of the track around Harris Field.

In addition, the padlocks will be taken off the town’s tennis courts to permit singles action as well as doubles as long as the pairs are from the same household.

“First off, I want to thank all the residents for their patience. I know it hasn’t been an easy time with all the parks being closed,” said Jon Marshall, the assistant town administrator and Recreation Department director who coordinated the openings with other town departments.

The Department of Public Works is working to create and place signs with new rules and what activities are allowed at each site.

While the parks and fields are now open, residents will still be under state and town orders on minimizing human contact.

“We’re still looking at public safety as our main concern and social distancing and face masks are critical at this time,” said Marshall who said people should not congregate at these locations.

Board Chair Roy Epstein said residents should follow the guidelines of putting on a mask when you’re with six feet of a person not in your household, “if you’re off by yourself or can maintain six feet when they’re outdoor, a mask is a good idea but it’s not obligatory.”

But many activities will remain shuttered for the time being. Remaining off limits will be basketball courts due to likely contact between players. The town will not be issuing athletic permits for organized “pick-up” games such as soccer. Playground equipment aimed at young children will remain closed due to the difficulty in sanitizing the apparatus.

Marshall told the board that the Recreation Commission will discuss at its next meeting on June 10 on how and when to open the courts and fields as most of these activities will be allowed under a Phase II Commonwealth’s Re-Opening Plan from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration.

Marshall told the Board his department could reimpose bans if residents do not abide by state and town regulations.

“We want to keep in mind that there’s still a pandemic going on … so we need to be very prudent in terms of the decisions that are made,” said Marshall.

Belmont Woman Dies Hiking In New Hampshire

Photo: Mount Israel via Wentworth Trail.

A Belmont resident died while hiking in New Hampshire on Saturday, May 30, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Shortly before noon, 911 received a call regarding a hiker who was experiencing chest pain on the Wentworth Trail in Sandwich. A number of emergency services arrived to find Aida Repuh Grabovac, 48, from Long Avenue unresponsive.

“She was hiking with several friends and started experiencing chest pain approximately a half mile from the trailhead. Rescuers arrived on the scene and attempted to resuscitate her, but were unsuccessful,” said Lt. Bradley R. Morse of Fish and Game.

“She was pronounced deceased and carried by litter to the trailhead parking area. The incident is still under investigation and no further information is available.”

Letter To The Editor: Belmont Against Racism Asks ‘Why And How We Can Accept This?’

Photo: A vigil at First Church Belmont

To the editor:

The Board of Belmont Against Racism is saddened, anguished and, yes, angry at the taking of Black lives in our country by law enforcement officers over these past several weeks, culminating in the death of George Floyd. The COVID-19 pandemic will be overcome by our scientists, medical leaders and public officials. We ask why this same focus and determination has not and still will not be applied to eradicating racial hatreds, injustice and violence. 

Belmont Against Racism was begun 28 years ago as a sad, anguished and angry response to the police brutality directed at Rodney King on another spring day in Los Angeles. And many of us in 1992 recalled too well the events of the 1960s and the Kerner Commission report which declared that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” So very little has changed and so it is time that we ask each other and our civic and community leaders why and how we can accept this and call ourselves a civil society whose laws and structures protect everyone, not just those whose skin tone happens to be white.

Stephen Carter, a Yale Law Professor and former clerk of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, stated in an interview on NPR this week that this hatred, injustice and violence will continue until our country can forsake our belief in the inherent superiority of white people and inherent inferiority of black people. We believe he is right. In “These Truths,” her history of the country, Jill Lepore observes the many ways we have failed to ever really be faithful to the words from the Declaration of Independence in each generation as nativism, nationalism and white supremacy have too often contradicted the aspirations that neither the founders nor we have ever lived up to. She quotes Abraham Lincoln, who said in 1862, “We must disenthrall ourselves and, and then we shall save the country.” More than 150 years later, it seems we have barely begun to do this.

Some will be tempted to focus on the protests, riots and burning. While we too regret that so many small businesses and communities are ravaged as well by the rages that are swirling, this is not the core problem now, nor was it in 1992, nor in the 1960s. It is too easy to let our sympathy and support for those who are the rage’s victims become “the story” and not the underlying cause of racism. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes this point in his op-ed piece in today’s Los Angeles Times. He quotes Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem:” 

What happens to a dream deferred?

…Maybe it sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

We are fortunate in Belmont to have leadership in our Town’s Police Department who have embraced The 21st Century Policing Principles and are demonstrating their commitment to anti-racist policing in our town.  Some in BAR can recall times and incidents when such principles were not adhered to as well. But, we have made progress in our community. Belmont is not Minneapolis, LA, St. Louis or any of the larger cities where police violence against blacks are too common and until the age of the smartphone often unseen, unless you happened to be the black victims. 

But, if we can make progress in our small town, we must retain some hope that it can be done elsewhere. However, focusing just on law enforcement is also a mistake. We who are white must continue the work to become disenthralled. It is done in small and large ways. We must pick ourselves up from these ashes and recommit to creating a country that someday will see beyond the color of our skins.

Michael Collins

BAR Board Member