Photo: Dedicating the new Belmont Middle and High School

One thousand, six hundred and eight days. That’s the distance of time from May 2019, when the official groundbreaking for Belmont’s newest school took place in the parking lot of what was then the High School, to this past weekend in October 2023, when the town came together again, this time to celebrate the official dedication of the newly-completed Belmont Middle and High School.

The numbers say a lot about the new school: $295 million – $212 million raised from taxpayers – to construct a 450,000 square foot 7th to 12th-grade campus and renovate the existing field house and pool, with four new athletic fields, 200 plus parking spaces, and nearly 2,000 solar panels, as it houses 2,200 students.

But for Bill Lovallo, who headed the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee since its inception, the number that stands out – besides the 166 public meetings the building committee held – will be the students who will benefit from learning in Belmont’s state-of-the-art for more than a half-century.

“Today, we celebrate the name Belmont Middle and High School. Two schools coming together under one roof for the first time in Belmont,” Lovallo said to the assembled officials from the town, schools, and state legislature, along with members of the building committee and the community who gathered in the school’s auditorium/theater.

“A place to learn, to grow individually and together in knowledge and maturity. To be curious and ask questions, to be safe, to take challenges, to go places never expected, to be thoughtful and caring of others,” he said.

While the rainy conditions tamped down the number of participants, those who attended Saturday’s celebration had the opportunity to explore which, until recently, was one of the largest public school projects in the state that committee member Bob McLaughlin proudly foretold, “is on time and budget.”

As host, Lovallo highlighted the numerous committees, volunteers, and firms who had a hand in building the schools, with special recognition for Building Committee Vice Chair Pat Brusch, who has been involved as a member of three school building committees and the chair of the Chenery committee three decades ago.

“You are a steady hand in an erratic project environment,” he said. “You give unselfishly of your time and talents and Belmont is better for it.”

Others praised were the architectural firm Perkins+Will and the general contractor Skanska, which kept the project on an aggressive schedule despite the onset of Covid-19, which shut down most other construction projects.

State Rep. Dave Rogers noted hearing from Lovallo and others. “you just realize what an amazing team effort … [and] the importance of collaboration.” That included when the public insisted on the importance of solar power and cost increases forced some painful value engineering.

While compromising and having to make hard decisions ends in no one getting their way all the time, “Yet you have to keep working together,” which resulted in a first-class structure that Rogers said rivals many buildings at the state’s public universities and colleges.

School Committee Chair Meghan Moriarty believed L Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is the perfect analogy for the day’s celebration. On entering Oz, Dorothy is given special glasses so as not to be blinded by the city’s brilliance. It was later she discovers it was the glasses that gave the city its dazzling green appearance.

Dorothy learns “Oz is really special … is because of the relationships, how important community is,” said Moriarty. The brilliance of the open design and the learning spaces of the new school with a commitment to the needs of students now and in the future is “how this building is actually transforming the culture of teaching and learning in Belmont.”

Remembering his first day of high school in 2021, Belmont High Junior Class President Mark Brazilian spoke of the awe “how spectacular [the school] was and how lucky I was to be able to go to school and learning in such a new and state of the art school.”

“I’m certain that students are using these facilities to their fullest and I, along with the entire student body, are very thankful for all that this new school offers.”

Lovallo made a point several times to thank the community as a whole for taking on the burden of financing the project.

“Citizens of Belmont, we can’t thank you enough for your vote of confidence in 2018 when in overwhelming numbers, you endorsed this project saying ‘Yes. We need this. It is right for Belmont … [b]ecause this community is committed to investing in our future, particularly the future involving our children.”

“Today is a celebration for you,” he said.