All Belmont Public Students Are Back In School On Last Week Of April

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Photo: Belmont student will be in classrooms after the Spring break. (Credit: Pixabay)

After two months of in-house analysis and some pressure from the state, all Belmont students will be back in school on the final week of April, according to John Phelan, Belmont superintendent of schools.

“We believe that we’re making really, really good progress so we appreciate everyone’s patience [during the pandemic],” said Phelan, at the Tuesday, April 13 Belmont School Committee meeting.

Chenery Middle School students and teachers will return full time on Wednesday, April 28 and those attending Belmont High School will be back in the on Thursday, April 29. Each school will reopen after the two student cohorts at the Chenery and High School are combined in the hybrid schedule.

Those students learning remotely will attend classes via live stream.

Students in Belmont’s four elementary schools have been in classes both in class and remotely since April 5, an experience so far, Phelan said, “students are doing very well, some kinks to work out for sure.”

Currently 83 percent of students district wide have elected to return to in-person learning at the six Belmont schools. Approximately 17 percent will continue to be taught remotely. Elementary students have the greatest in-person attendance at 91 percent while high schoolers are split 70-30 in-class vs remote.

Phelan told the committee that the district has taken “a real close eye on” the level of community transmission of the COVID-19 before moving towards a full return to in-class education.

In announcing the dates for the reopening, Phelan acknowledged the effort of the 32-member Return to In-Person Learning Working Group which over eight meeting since February drafted sets of “rolling” recommendations to the School Committee and District outlining the steps both in terms of public health and navigating logistic concerns that led to the return of full-time classroom education.

The group – made up of educators, students, parents, members of the Board of Health, School Committee and community – included:

“We truly appreciate the role that everybody brought to this work; the feedback, the healthy suggestions, the debate, the disagreement, and there was disagreement in this committee. There were recommendations that folks felt really good about, and there were recommendations that folks struggle with a little bit in these were hard discussions within our subgroups,” said Phelan.

“This was not all smiles in fun. This was work. This was debate, review and reflection. But ultimately we came up with an outcome that that put students in school in the month of April, to some degree ahead of time. So we’re thankful for their work,” said Phelan, who pointed to the leadership of the Working Group’s facilitators, Harvard-based Michelle Rinehart and Dr. Drew Echelson, who provided the analysis and just the hand-holding required to shepherd the group in its mission.

While finished with its initial goal, the work group will reconvene in May to tackle issues such as remote learning, creating contingency plans in the event of another surge and mapping out a seasonal strategy.

“We did do a little bit of reflecting on what this group could do better next time. How this type of work can serve the district well in any other type of challenge or with any other issues that need to be worked out with community support and feedback. So we think we have a pretty good format for future use,” said Phelan.

Registration Underway For Underwood Pool Summer Season

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Registration for Belmont residents to purchase membership to the Underwood Pool is now underway. Any remaining passes will be released to non-residents on June 1 at 8 a.m.

Opening day at the Underwood is currently scheduled for Wednesday, June 23. The closing day of the pool is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 1. 

Belmont Recreation Commission’s video on the new summer season at the Underwood Pool

Public swim block will take place from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily while the pool is opened. Each public swim block will last for 1 hour and 50 minutes and will include a 10 minute transition. 

  • 10 a.m. – Noon
  • Noon – 2 p.m.
  • 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
  • 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
  • 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. 

There will be two primary options for gaining access to the pool:

  • Memberships passes
  • Daily Drop-in passes

MEMBERSHIPS: Under the current COVID-19 state guidelines, the Underwood pool capacity is limited to 50 percent of the bather load or 165 people at the pool at a time. If the restrictions loosen, we will be able to register residents for more passes and guarantee more visits per week.

FAMILY ($305): We have 520 FAMILY passes available. These are family passes that admits everyone in your household account

INDIVIDUAL ($110): We have 82 of these available. These passes are singular passes for one person

SENIOR ($50): We  have 25 of these available. These are individual passes for people 65 years of age and older.

Passes will be available to resident to purchase though out the summer until we sell out. On June 1, if there are any membership passes remaining, Non-residents will be allowed to purchase the remaining passes. If a waitlist forms, residents will be given priority.  

NON-RESIDENT FEES:

FAMILY – ($610)INDIVIDUAL – ($220) There is no Senior option.

DAILY DROP-IN PASSES
There are 40 drop in spots available per time block
Child Resident: $10
Adult Resident: $15
Child Non-Resident: $20
Adult Non-Resident: $25

Pool members are guaranteed a minimum of two visits to the pool per week. Reservations for any given week will be open to members the Monday morning at 8 a.m. the week prior. They will remain open until they are sold out or until that morning.

On the morning of any given day, Belmont Recreation will release any un-claimed member slots back to all member. This will enable members to book additional time at the pool. It is possible for a member to attend the pool more than twice a week depending on the demand and availability. 

Drop in passes will open three days in advance of any given date to Belmont resident. They will open two day in advance for Non-residents.

Letter To The Editor: Designate At Least One Day To Honor Indigenous Peoples

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To the editor:

In third grade, my Winn Brook class went on a field trip to Plymouth Plantation. Furious that I got separated from my best friend, I stomped through the English village where costumed colonists wished us a “Good morrow.” At the Wampanoag Homesite, we watched Indigenous women dressed in deerskins cooking next to a bark-covered wetu (house). Exhausted, I breathed in the warm smokey air, recalling my preschool Thanksgiving crafts: the black Pilgrim hat and the colorful turkey shaped like my little hand. My teacher taught us that the Native people had saved the Pilgrims from starvation and celebrated the first Thanksgiving together.  

Four years later, I attended the first of many powwows – a large gathering of Indigenous people dancing, singing, and celebrating traditions – organized by the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness. At Claudia Fox Tree’s workshops, my re-education about American history began. I learned about famous Indigenous people and contemporary issues like the struggle against denigrating Native mascots. As I watched Aquayah Peters in her vibrant jingle dress and the Edmond brothers’ joyful dance, I understood that the Wampanoags at Plymouth were not actors in historic costumes or relics of the past. They were living on their own homelands, preserving their way of life. 

For me, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about the past and the present. It is an opportunity to acknowledge that Belmont is located in the homelands of the Massachusett and the Pawtucket. Reminders of Indigenous presence are everywhere: place names like Pequossette Park on Trapelo Road, Native artifacts discovered near School and Grove Streets, and a burial mound on land bordering Pleasant Street. Indigenous narratives were mainly absent from my Belmont education. On my own, I read about the devastating violence of colonial history like the Pequot massacre of 1637 celebrated at the first officially proclaimed Thanksgiving, and ongoing harms to Indigenous communities. The poet Mary Ruefle observes: “[L]istening is a kind of knowledge, or as close as one can come.” The students of Belmont deserve to hear truthful historical narratives.

We can also celebrate the knowledge of Indigenous peoples who have lived in harmony with the natural world for centuries and are at the forefront of climate justice. Belmont readers can discuss books by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Terese Marie Mailhot, and Tommy Orange. We can choose to honor Indigenous people on at least one designated day.

Natalia Freeze, Leicester Road

Final Day Of The 2020-21 School Year Is …

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Now for a little math or maths as it’s known in other English-speaking countries. If students are required to attend 180 days of school and each school districts adds 5 ‘snow’ days to the calendar and there were a pair of actual days cancelled due to weather but the state did not give permission to add 10 days to the beginning of the school year so the required number of days is 170, what is the last day of the 2020-21 school year?

OK, all you need to know that it’s earlier than normal: Wednesday, June 16.

That’s, of course, if there are no more snow days from now until the third week in June. “We’ll knock on wood as we say that. If it snows, I’m sorry,” said Janice Darias, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Veterans Site At Clay Pit Pond Gets A New Name

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Photo: The dedication of the Belmont Veterans Memorial, Nov. 3, 2019.

The memorial on the bank of Clay Pit Pond that recognize Belmont residents who serviced in the US Armed Services has received a new name. The Select Board on Monday, April 12, voted unanimously to honor a request by the Veterans Memorial Committee to rename the site as the Belmont Veterans Memorial Park.

“If anyone’s gone by there or taken a look in the past 18 months, you can see what that has transformed into,” said Michael Callahan, a retired US Marine Corp colonel who was co-chair of the Memorial Committee told the board. “It’s something we’re very proud of.”

To give the memorial greater permanence, the committee asked the board to designate the site – a triangular area encompassing all of the monuments elements leading up to the pond – as the Belmont Veterans Memorial Park.

The memorial was dedicated on Nov. 2, 2019 on the site of a flag pole set up in 1940 to remember service members.

“We’re doing so and requesting this to formalize our commitment to care for the area. For some 70 odd years, it wasn’t take care for properly. We’re very proud of [the new memorial]. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” said Callahan.

Checkoway Named School Committee Chair. Vice Chair? Let’s Wait On That

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Photo: A Zoom capture of Amy Checkoway

Amy Checkoway was unanimously elected chair of the Belmont School Committee at its organizational meeting a week after the Town Election. She takes over the reins of the six member board from Andrea Prestwich.

An education policy researcher for a large international consulting firm, Checkoway enters her third year on the committee having won a seat in 2019.

“I’m really committed to building and fostering really strong working relationships with all members of the committee, with our town leaders and perhaps most importantly with our community,” said the Pequossette Road resident, adding there is also a need to improve the committee’s governance structure, decision making and communications.

“I don’t think I have all the answers. I recognize what a challenging time this is, and the trust that needs to be repaired on many fronts,” she told the committee.

Newcomer Meg Moriarty was named the committee’s secretary.

A request to create the position of vice chair to the committee never got a chance to be voted as the committee decided to spend the fortnight between gatherings to allow the proposal to sit and wait.

Committee member Mike Crowley noted the need for the new post was necessary due to the avalanche of work Prestwich undertook during the height of the pandemic without a designated second in line to help manage it.

“The role of the chair in ordinary times, it can be an overwhelming amount of workload,” said Crowley. “It would be very helpful to be able to share the work that the chair currently has as their responsibility in order for this committee to be more effective,” said Crowley.

Prestwich, who led the committee for nearly the past year, said it was not just the volume of work but also the wide range of meetings – executive, negotiating, finance – that requires coverage.

While the vice chair position would be similar to the Select Board’s post, Moriarty wondered if anyone would wish to undertake the position noting that no one was eager to step into the secretary’s role – Moriarty was nominated for the role and accepted after one member deferred and the four remaining members were left quietly eyeing the others resembling a scene from the western “Deadwood.”

“That’s a very fair point,” said Checkoway.

While she acknowledges the need for the position, member Kate Bowen felt it would be helpful to have clearer guidance about the leadership roles and spreading the authority.

While Crowley pointed to an urgency to vote to add the vice chair position since the burden and volume facing the chair remains considerable, the measure was tabled as there are two new members who weren’t involved in previous dialogue, and despite having been discussed in the past, some agreed with an obscure parliamentary point that it wasn’t listed as an item in past meeting agendas.

Memorial Day Observance Set For Belmont Cemetery At 11 AM, May 31

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Photo: The 2019 Memorial Day observance at Belmont Cemetery

After being cancelled due in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual Memorial Day Observance returns in 2021 as Belmont honors those residents who fell defending the country.

The observance will take place at Belmont Cemetery adjacent Grove Street on Monday, May 31, at 11 a.m. Following the state’s guidelines on outside gatherings, the event will be limited to 150 participants, according to Belmont’s Veteran’s Services Officer Bob Upton who spoke to the Select Board on Monday, April 12.

Due to the continued coronavirus emergency in the state, the parade from Cushing Square to the cemetery that usually precedes the observance has been cancelled, said Upton.

“Although the parade is traditional event and we’d like to see it continue, I think at this point it may not be possible to do that,” said Upton.

A Q Adieu: Belmont High Football Head Coach Yann Kumin Stepping Down

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Photo: Coach Q

Yann Kumin, who seven years ago took over a faltering football program and restored a sense of pride and a return to winning at Belmont High School, announced Tuesday, April 13 he was stepping down as head coach of the Marauders effective after the final game vs Arlington High of the shortened Fall 2 season.

The game against the SpyPonders takes place on Saturday, April 17 at 1 p.m. at Harris Field.

“I am so terrifically honored and humbled to have been to be the Head Coach of the Marauders for the last 7 years,” he said in a prepared statement on Facebook.

“Becoming so was the realization of 10 years of work and of a lifelong goal. I cannot put into words how much this experience has meant to me personally, how much I have learned, and most importantly, there is no way to thank all the wonderful human beings I have met.”

Kumin – known affectionately by players, parents, and friends as “Coach Q” – said after 17 years of coaching that requires a year-long commitment to do well, “I have reached a point in my life where I very much wish to experience some of the other paths and offerings that this existence has available to me.”

Kumin’s most successful season came in the fall of 2019 when the team finished 6-4 to give the program its first winning season in a decade, secured a place in the Division 3 North sectionals playoffs for consecutive years, and defeated arch-rival Watertown on Thanksgiving at Victory Field. He accomplished those feats after a cancer diagnosis, surgery and coaching while undergoing chemotherapy.

He said his health is good and was not the reason he left his post in Belmont.

A graduate of Harvard College with a degree in English, Kumin brought his own unique outlook onto the field and in his life. Below is his message to the team:

COVID Update: Nearly 1 In 4 Belmont Residents Vaccinated; Town Providing Shots To The Housebound

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Photo: COVID update for April 12

Nearly one in four Belmont residents – approximately 24 percent – have received a complete round of a COVID-19 vaccine, running at a slightly higher rate than the state’s 22.5 percent, according to a Belmont Health official in the department’s update before the Select Board Monday evening, April 12.

Assistant Health Director Diana Ekman told the board that 40 percent of the population had received at least one shot of the vaccine, while 74 percent of Belmont residents 75 and older have been vaccinated.

“So we are making progress,” Ekman said.

Shots for the housebound

Ekman revealed that Belmont Fire and Belmont Health department personnel conducted a second round of vaccinations to about 50 housebound residents. With additional vaccine supplies on the way in the next week, Ekman said her department would welcome to hear from family member and neighbors of resident who are confined indoors to place them on the list.

Contact the Belmont Health Department at 617-993-2720.

Ekman said the Health Department has been working with staff at the Council on Aging who has been assisting in connecting her department with other agencies “just to try to cover the bases as much as possible.”

Slight surge in COVID cases but Belmont remains ‘Green’

The rate of positive cases originating in Belmont continues to trail the mini-surge occurring statewide in data collected by the state’s Department of Public Health.

But the same information shows the two-week average daily incidence per 100,000 residents of 8.5 percent has risen to its highest level since Nov. 20 when the rate was at 9.2.

Belmont retains a state color calculation of “green” which refers to less than 10 average cases per 100,000 residents in communities with a population between 10,000 and 50,000.

As of April 9, Belmont has registered 1,080 positive cases of COVID-19 with 80 deaths attributed to the coronavirus.

Town Meeting Warrant Briefing Set For Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m.

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Photo: Poster for the April 15 Warrant Briefing

The Warrant Committee and Belmont League of Women Voters will co-sponsor a Warrant Briefing for Town Meeting Segment A to introduce Town Meeting Members to the articles in the warrant for the first section of the annual 2021 Town Meeting on Thursday, April 15 at 7 p.m.  

For new Town Meeting Members, the warrant is the legal notice of the Town Meeting, showing the agenda that will be discussed and voted by the Town Meeting assembly beginning Monday, May 3. 

The Warrant Briefing is not an open debate or detailed discussion, nor is it a replacement for the full debate/airing that must take place at Town Meeting. It’s an opportunity for the Warrant Committee Chair Laurie Slap to briefly explain the goal of the article and Town Meeting Members can ask a question to help everyone better understand the intention of the sponsor of the article in putting it on the warrant. It’s a very valuable meeting to attend, this year exclusively by Zoom.

The Zoom viewing options are:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86589919600 Zoom meeting ID: 865 8991 9600

Live broadcast: Belmont Ch 8 (Comcast); Ch 28 (Verizon) Livestream or on-demand: belmontmedia.org/watch/govtv

The warrant and all associated documents will be emailed to Town Meeting Members either Tuesday or Wednesday. If you are newly elected and have not provided a contact sheet with your current email for Town Meeting please do so right away so you don’t miss the mailings.