A Request For Your Vote: Tara Donner, School Committee

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Photo: Tara Donner is the incumbent in the race for a seat on the Belmont School Committee

The Belmontonian is providing candidates/campaigners of ballot questions in contested races the opportunity to make a request for votes in the final week of the election race.

All students deserve an excellent education. 

This last year has created unprecedented challenges, tremendous inequities, and unparalleled obstacles for the education system beyond any we have known. 

I am running for re-election to the Belmont School Committee because my role as an active public school educator teaching in the COVID environment, a BPS parent, a long-time Town Meeting Member, and an experienced School Committee member give me a unique perspective to move the Belmont Public Schools forward now and post-pandemic.

An effective School Committee member needs not only passion and ideas, but also the experience and skills to translate that passion into action. From my time growing up in Milton when I served as the student representative to the School Committee and as a 21 year-old Town Meeting Member, through my 17 years teaching middle school, and in my 20 years in Belmont, including 14 as a Town Meeting member, I’ve cultivated deep perspective about the needs of a student-centered school system. My work as a teacher during COVID is paramount to my understanding of the challenges students are facing, and their broad range of pandemic experiences. Supporting students in a virtual learning environment gives me the skill set to listen effectively to all voices, including the quiet ones, and to seek out those voices that don’t feel empowered to speak up. 

The School Committee is facing many challenges. We must support the school department in executing a full return to in-person school over the next several weeks, while maintaining a meaningful remote learning program for families that need it. Even after the upcoming transition to full in-person learning, important work remains. The needs of each student will be larger than ever before, and it will take the careful oversight by experienced educators to make sure the district has a comprehensive plan of targeted support for each student. We must ensure summer school recovery programming is ready for students who have struggled this year. We must make sure that plans for the in-person opening of school for next year are educationally sound, as well as COVID-safe. 

Despite the scale of immediate concerns, we cannot lose sight of the non-pandemic educational vision for our district so that we continue to build 21st century skills in our learners. 

  • We need to decolonize our curriculum and establish a fully inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist community. The Equity Subcommittee, which I co-founded, is a good start. I’d like to continue what we started: completing the district Equity Audit, partnering with a wider range of community members, and making sure our teaching staff reflects the diversity of our community and wider world. 
  • Though we successfully eliminated full-day kindergarten fees this year for the first time since the program’s inception, our fees for music, athletics, transportation, and other activities remain quite high. I’d like to make further progress reducing the undue burden of fees on families with school-age children. 
  • We need to ensure after-school care is fully available for any family who needs it. The after school care programs have struggled tremendously during COVID, and the School Department must work with them so families have access to the after school care they need. 
  • The Chenery Middle School solar array installation must be completed as one piece of the school department’s role in meeting Belmont’s Climate Action Goals. 

My School Committee service has given me specific knowledge about the challenges our schools face. We need to pass the override, AND we need to resolve the structural funding deficit that limits the resources needed to educate our students and support the entire community with needed services. My years serving on Town Meeting give me a deep understanding of the budgetary needs of all the departments in town and the ways in which many of the services our town provides for all ages are impacted by limited funding. Diversifying our income stream as a town is critically important so that we can fully fund our schools and seniors can afford to stay in their homes. 

None of this is easy. With your vote, I will continue to devote myself to these goals as I have for the last three years. I would be honored to have your vote on April 6th.

A Request For Your Vote: Meg Moriarty, School Committee

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Photo: Meg Moriarty is running to fill a seat on the Belmont School Committee

The Belmontonian is providing candidates/campaigners of ballot questions in contested races the opportunity to make a request for votes in the final week of the election race.

The Belmont School Committee has lost the trust of the community. Since the COVID crisis began last year, they have been discussing options and obstacles instead of prioritizing learning. If there are problems, the School Committee must solve them. It must act to provide the best possible education for our children.

I am running for School Committee because I want to restore trust in the School Committee by solving the problems facing Belmont. I want to do this by engaging and being transparent with the community and by making our children’s education our highest priority. My experience in managing budgets, working with teachers and students of all abilities and cultural backgrounds, assessing educational programs, and serving as Butler PTA president and a Town Meeting Member makes me a strong candidate for the position.

The School Committee must also do its part to address Belmont’s fiscal crisis. It must identify and cut inefficiencies and collaborate with other town committees. And it must explain to the Belmont community how it uses town financial resources to fulfill its mission of educating our students.

Parents, friends, and former School Committee members have encouraged me to run because of my deep involvement in educational issues as a parent, volunteer, and owner of a small education consulting business. For three years, I served on the Butler PTA, including two years as president, where I worked with other parents, teachers, and administrators to build a strong community. I understand school and town concerns and our financial constraints. And as owner of an education research and evaluation business, I have experience planning, creating partnerships, and budgets. 

In addition, I have more than twenty years’ experience in the Massachusetts education community and a doctorate in education. Early in my career, I ran a Boston University science outreach program for middle and high school students that served dozens of Massachusetts school districts. Later, at the Museum of Science in Boston, I wrote grants and managed outreach programs for underrepresented students and teacher professional development. Today, I teach best teaching practices to MIT graduate students and I own and run an education research and evaluation business, consulting for school districts, universities, and private organizations. I will bring these skills and experience to the School Committee.

Our School Committee has not responded to the COVID-19 crisis with urgency or vision. Last May, school committees in nearby towns began planning for students to return to school, declaring that they could not wait for guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to get kids safely back in school. They presented preliminary re-opening plans in July and August. Other Massachusetts school districts created remote learning academies with administrators and teachers dedicated to teaching remote students. In contrast, the Belmont School Committee voted to start with remote instruction in September and it appears they are moving to full in-person learning for students only in response to orders from DESE. Their delayed planning has forced students who must remain remote due largely to health reasons into classes taught by new teachers.

Our students have suffered academically and emotionally because of the School Committee’s inability to act and its broken decision-making process. Throughout this year, families and teachers have learned of decisions through last-minute emails about scheduling. The School Committee also oversaw elimination of the Chenery Middle School math acceleration program without explaining upfront why the program was eliminated. School Committee meetings have lacked open discussion and debate among the members, making it difficult for the community to discern why they vote in favor or against these issues. 

Any decision affecting our students should be made after careful consideration of complete and correct data, community input, and open debate. Rather than engaging in open debate, consulting with neighboring school committees, learning best practices, or implementing effective plans, the Belmont School Committee continued to study, propose, and discard new schedules without implementing them. These delays have hindered teachers’ abilities to respond to the academic and social emotional needs of our students.  

Belmont has always supported its schools. It deserves a School Committee that preserves and enhances that tradition in a transparent, respectful, and decisive manner. I ask for your vote on Tuesday, April 6.

Meg Moriarty, Candidate for School Committee

www.electmegmoriarty.com

A Request For Your Vote: Timothy Flood, School Committee

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Photo: Tim Flood is running for school committee

The Belmontonian is providing candidates/campaigners of ballot questions in contested races the opportunity to make a request for votes in the final week of the election race.

My name is Timothy Flood and I am a candidate for the Belmont School Committee.  I currently serve as Co-Chair for the Belmont Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC), a member of the Belmont Age Friendly Advisory Council, and previously a member of the Chenery Middle School PTO. I differentiate myself as a military veteran, a local small business owner, and a NO vote NOW on Question 1.

As a SEPAC chair, my goals are centered around advocating for all our students’ free appropriate public education (FAPE) and supporting their families as best I can. I am running for school committee to continue to be an outspoken advocate for providing necessary resources to support our students, particularly our special needs students. If elected, these students will finally have a voice at the table that has long been absent. As a School Committee member, I would strive to ensure all our students excel academically, emotionally and socially, and that they are taught in safe and caring environment, whether online or in-person. 

As parents, we know our children best and act as their teachers, advocates, and cheerleaders. I understand firsthand what it feels like to fight for my child’s education. Recently I was told “my child is benefitting from a ‘safety net’ of out of district services.” Yet, I fought for 13 years to get the school system to support my child’s basic educational needs, to allow equitable access to the curriculum as per FAPE and the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). I do not want parents to feel as dejected and alone as I felt over the years simply trying to obtain my daughter’s basic rights. I do not want parents to have to fight to ensure their children receive the most basic supports. Public education is a promise of equal educational opportunity that allows all children to thrive.

My most successful professional and personal experiences are built on teamwork. Teamwork and diverse leadership experiences are the foundation for the good decision making that is needed on the School Committee. I appreciate open, thoughtful dialogue with varying viewpoints, even if critical.  I will make lines of communication with all parents my priority.  These conversations allow me to continue to learn, understand new perspectives, and make decisions that reflect our community. 

I am keenly aware that my opposition to the override on the ballot this April appears to put me in a contradictory position with my history of advocacy for special education students. Let me be clear, I do want to increase the school budget to better support all our students, as well as our teachers, and believe this is necessary for our future. However, I am genuinely concerned with the town-wide implications of the proposed override. As an example, at the November 19, 2019 School Finance Subcommittee meeting, $1.7 million was moved from the special education reserve allocation to help offset the town budget deficit to strengthen the town’s bond rating; the motion made and voted on without public comment. Replenishing this money in the school budget is included in the current override. I find it inexcusable that this kind of horse trading occurred, was swept under the rug, and that the town is now asking taxpayers to make up for their mismanagement while describing it as extra support for our schools. 

This override does not give additional funding to special education, it is merely asking taxpayers for what was already taken.  I have put in much time to research and understand the override and its benefits and drawbacks. This override effects our entire town, not only our schools. While I believe an override in necessary to correct the town and school’s financial course, this is simply not the right time and more work needs to be done to guarantee any override proposal truly supports the town.

Disagreements should not influence our unwavering support for our children’s education. I will work tirelessly and thoughtfully, to represent our entire educational community.  I am not afraid to ask hard questions, to speak out, while understanding the importance of listening. We need to be the leaders of today our children aspire to become tomorrow.  

Thank you for your support.

Timothy Flood, candidate for School Committee

A Request For Your Vote: Evelyn Gomez, School Committee

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Photo: Evelyn Gomez is running to retain her seat on the Belmont School Committee:

The Belmontonian is providing candidates/campaigners of ballot questions in contested races the opportunity to make a request for votes in the final week of the election race.

I am running for the school committee because I believe that every child deserves an education that develops their full potential. I was appointed to the school committee last June during the most disruptive public health and education crisis we have seen in generations. These months have felt like a trial by fire, but I have emerged more committed than ever and armed with the experience necessary to move our school district forward. I am seeking election to my first full term on the school committee to continue the work of making our district more transparent, equitable, and innovative.   

Since my appointment last summer, I aimed to communicate with empathy and transparency to help families adjust to the ever-changing conditions of this crisis. I quickly recognized that communication during a crisis is critical and actively worked to open dialogue between the school committee and the community. These are the concrete actions I took to improve communication and transparency:

  1. I held open office hours. When I proposed to hold a series of school committee sponsored roundtables with families this summer, I was told that was outside of my official duties. Undeterred, I started offering open office hours as an individual, including listening sessions with students. Later, the school committee came to realize the benefit of these and adopted the practice after all.
  2. I pushed for systematic data-collection. I advocated for district wide surveys to form a more complete picture of what families actually wanted from their schools and what students needed, rather than guessing as to what those needs might be.
  3. I advocated for parent and student voices in our decision making processes. Our community has volunteered their time, skills, and resources to help the district navigate the challenges of the pandemic. In the Fall, I convened parents to help inform my decision making process around health metrics and transmission mitigation strategies, and provide insight into how the committee weighed their options. 

Family engagement has never been higher and I want to focus this energy into positive change for our schools. Given our increasingly diverse student population, we have the opportunity to be proactive, keep parent engagement high, and actively seek out the voices that are often left out of decision making. I acknowledge that my decisions had a direct impact on thousands of students and families across our community; I feel that weight every day. I am willing to learn from my mistakes. Without increased transparency, we erode trust and goodwill with the community we represent.

As the child of immigrants and an English Language Learner, I am uniquely positioned to bring about the changes our schools need. I will focus on improving the educational experiences and outcomes for all of our children, with a particular focus on providing equal access to opportunities for all students. 

This is why I spearheaded the creation of the school committee’s new Equity Subcommittee in my first three months, with the goal of dismantling the systems that deny access to opportunities for some students and to bring accountability to a school system that is currently not serving all students equitably. Our district will soon initiate a district-wide equity audit to closely examine the systems and decision points that lead to inequity in students’ access to opportunities. 

As an engineer, I am trained to solve problems and make data-driven decisions. I firmly believe that decision-making is an iterative process and am committed to revisiting decisions when new data is available. I am an innovative thinker and bring a refreshingly new set of insights to the challenges we face in our schools. Since my appointment, I have proven that I will not shy away from challenging the school committee and our administrators to think creatively when approaching the issues we face, or even take an entirely different approach when necessary. That’s the kind of thinking the school committee needs. It’s the kind of leadership our schools need.

I’m nothing if not unapologetically persistent and relentlessly driven to have a positive impact in our community. Visit evelyngomez.org to learn more about my candidacy. I hope you will join me in this fight and respectfully ask for your vote on April 6. 

Evelyn Gómez, Belmont School Committee, Carleton Road

Town Clerk’s Quick Tips For Belmont’s Election Day, Tuesday, April 6

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Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman has written a list of “quick tips” for residents preparing to vote in the annual Town Election this Tuesday, April 6.

  • Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The polls are expected to be quite busy with in-person voters.
  • Wear your mask/face covering, maintain at least six feet of distance and be patient as you wait your turn to vote.
  • Election workers will be managing the lines to ensure adequate spacing of voters and workers within the polling place. Please dress appropriate for the weather; you may be asked to wait outside until it’s your turn.
  • Please note that some of the flow within the polling places has been changed to create one way traffic patterns. Follow signs and directions of election workers and Police officers and abide by the safety protocols.
  • Please be aware that April 6 is the second day for students of the Belmont elementary schools to return to school in person. Children will be excited to see their friends and arrival/departure patterns will still be new to them. Voters of Precincts 4, 7 and 8  at the Butler, Burbank and Winn Brook  are asked to consider avoiding the drop off and pick up times, 8:20 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. to 3 p.m.  allowing the students and their guardians space and time to perform the drop off or pick up. Please pay attention to the voter parking signs placed at each polling place and use them.

If you have any questions about your voting status, please feel  free to visit the State’s election resources page under the Voter Resources tab or contact the Belmont Town Clerk’s office at 617-993-2603  or voting@belmont-ma.gov

A Request For Your Vote: Yes For Belmont, Ballot Question

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Photo: Campaigners for the Yes for Belmont ballot question

The Belmontonian is providing candidates/campaigners of ballot questions in contested races the opportunity to make a request for votes in the final week of the election race.

Vote Yes on April 6. It’s up to us to support the future of Belmont.

For many of us in Belmont, the start of spring this month has come with a renewed sense of hope and optimism, as residents get vaccinated and schools begin to re-open more fully.

While there is good reason for all Belmontonians to feel hopeful about the future, we still have a lot of work ahead to heal our community, help Belmont bounce back from a tough year, and make sure Belmont is a place where all residents feel welcome and supported. 

On top of all this, our town is facing a looming fiscal crisis. Despite every effort to cut spending and increase revenue since 2015, what it costs to provide the basic minimum level of services continues to rise faster than our revenue. Even after assuming we spend down our cash reserves in a fiscally responsible way over three years, Belmont is still facing a $20 million deficit over the next three years.

We have a plan to address this looming crisis: Passing the override by voting Yes on April 6.

Supporting the override means we can address our structural deficit in a fiscally responsible way. It means we can preserve what we love about Belmont from our library programs to our parks and playgrounds. It means our students can return to school with the support they need and we can reduce Belmont’s notoriously large class sizes, which ballooned when more than 900 students enrolled in Belmont’s schools in the past 13 years.

Moreover, there is a cost to doing nothing. After the failed override of 2010, our roads and sidewalks fell apart and our high school students had classes replaced with “free periods.” If we don’t pass this override, we will face similar cuts beginning this summer; $3.45 million will be cut from our school and town budgets after depleting our cash reserves. That means a net loss of 21 school positions next year, erasing all the progress we’ve made since 2015 in reducing class sizes. It means reducing the budget for athletics, music, theater and the arts by 40 percent. These cuts and more will prolong the impact of the pandemic on our students, just when we’re all looking for a fresh start.

It also means cuts to the town services we all rely on every day. Our library will need to reduce hours, cut programs, and will be barely above the budget threshold it must meet to stay in the Minuteman Library Network. Our Department of Public Works will continue to plow the same number of streets, but with fewer resources, meaning delays for residents. Such cuts would be penny wise and pound foolish if they force our emergency response teams to rely on overtime rather than routine staffing to meet public safety needs. The cuts to our town services will impact the quality of life in Belmont for all of us.

Our structural deficit won’t be solved by one-time federal funds. The federal aid, while good for Belmont, is either restricted or is needed to pay for COVID expenses next year that were not included in the budget. Current estimates are that only $700,000 to $1.1 million of the federal aid could be used to cover our general operating expenses. That’s not nearly enough to address our $5.7 million deficit next year, let alone the $20 million gap over the next three years.  

And if we delay, our deficit will only continue to grow. A bigger deficit means we will need a bigger override in the future to keep the same services intact. It is more expensive to taxpayers if we wait. 

As we try to turn the page on a uniquely tough year, let’s join together as a community and take the steps needed to ensure our town can bounce back and face the challenges ahead of us on solid financial ground. Passing the override ensures we can preserve our town services, support our students and put Belmont on a fiscally responsible path for the future. It’s up to us to support the future of Belmont. It’s up to us to Vote Yes on April 6.

A Request For Your Vote: Jamal Saeh, School Committee

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Photo: Jamal Saeh for School Committee (Saeh For Schools Facebook Page)

The Belmontonian is providing candidates/campaigners of ballot questions in contested races the opportunity to make a request for votes in the final week of the election race.

I am running for Belmont School Committee because I want to bring a sense of urgency to tackle challenges, bring disciplined data-driven decision making and leverage my experience with budgeting and long-term planning to help Belmont public schools support every student in reaching their potential. I believe my background and experience bring needed skills and diversity to the committee. 

I am an immigrant, son of a teacher. I moved to the US for education and to Belmont to provide my two boys with the best public education. I understand the path a good education provides, specifically to marginalized communities.  

I believe in the vision of Belmont Public Schools that all students are capable of learning at a high level and that it’s the duty of the SC to provide leadership and oversight to ensure that we maintain that promise. 

In the near term, we must deal with the fundamental challenge of operating schools during the pandemic. This requires science-based, data-driven decisions at the intersection of health, policy, and quality that must be done within a budget envelope. That’s my day-to-day job. I believe my professional experience adds a unique perspective to the SC. I am an executive at a pharmaceutical company. As a scientist and a leader, I am accountable for the research and clinical development of innovative medicines for cancer patients, and I do it with the requisite sense of urgency that cancer patients deserve.  

I believe that good leaders identify and remove obstacles. In August, when it was clear that COVID testing could enable a safe return to in-person learning, I partnered with the community to offer solutions. I proposed a developmentally appropriate, cost-effective pooled testing proposal to the SC in September. It allowed us to get a baseline for all students and teachers and provide teachers with weekly testing and surveillance for the student population at all grades. It was ignored. Neighboring towns adopted it and operationalized it soon thereafter. The state implemented a similar program four months later. Belmont could have been a leader but chose not to act. Surveillance enabled schools to have data on the in-school transmission which enabled them to move to full in-person ahead of any Department of Elementary and Secondary Education mandate. As a member of the SC, I pledge to continue to collaborate with Belmont’s talented community to address new challenges and listen with authenticity to build creative solutions.  

It is also critical that mid and long-range planning be prioritized. With two new schools opening soon and a shift of fourth grade to the Chenery, a comprehensive plan needs to be in place to ensure these transitions are smooth for students and teachers. New opportunities will exist for 7-8 grade students when they are collocated with the high school, including access to the accelerated and collaborative curriculum. Clear budget decisions and oversight will be crucial in order to take advantage of these opportunities. I will work to ensure collaborative and stretch goals are in place, and outcomes routinely monitored.

I believe in greater transparency from the SC and School District. Transparency requires an open and honest decision-making process; it allows biases to be confronted and assumptions to be fully vetted. Transparency empowers the community and improves decisions and outcomes. Doing so rebuilds public trust, our biggest asset as leaders.

I pledge to protect excellence and equity for all students. I believe that we need to identify the causes of imbalance in access to parts of the Belmont Public School curriculum (e.g. uneven or ineffective communication with families; failure of earlier or prerequisite classes), confront and call out biases, revamp our curriculum where appropriate, and remedy the achievement gap.  I am encouraged that the Student Opportunity Act will more fully fund English Language Learner and Special Education programs and pledge to make sure the SC takes full advantage of this state program. I also believe that all students need to have the opportunity to find and pursue their passion. This means that we need to maintain or increase options in core and elective classes as well as extracurriculars that allow students to be sufficiently challenged in their areas of interest because it is then that they are really inspired and can learn and grow.

If elected on April 6th, I will bring my collaborative data-driven decision-making, and my focus on transparency and accountability to improve oversight and help keep BPS Belmont’s jewel in the crown.

Jamal Carlos Saeh, Watson Road, Precinct 1

Letter To The Editor: Donner’s Work on School Committee Is More Important Than Ever

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Photo: Tara Donner is running for re-election to the School Committee

Belmont is blessed with an amazing abundance of candidates for the School Committee this year, but Tara Donner, who has served three years is a standout incumbent who deserves your vote.

Transparency and community outreach are so important for our community. Under the crush of hours and hours of meetings and decisions to make, it’s been difficult to get outreach right. But Tara has always been an advocate for outreach and was instrumental in launching “office hours” for the School Committee. She’s been a regular there – talking with frustrated parents, taking questions, investigating issues raised, and talking solutions. The School Committee needs so much more of this, but Tara is showing how to get the work done.

We’ve always struggled with diversity and inclusion in our school district. This is why Tara’s work in establishing the School Committee’s Equity Subcommittee is so important. Even while our students and families grow more diverse, our educators are mostly White. While we’ve begun work on the curriculum, it needs much more attention to ensure that inclusiveness and the full diversity of Belmont are honored and represented in our children’s education. We need so much more work on student outcomes, which tilt unfavorably against our Black and LatinX students. Tara has been there from the beginning pushing this work forward.

We have a well-educated community. But, historically, the School Committee has drawn from parents and other community members who do not know teaching as a profession. This is where Tara’s experience is both unique and extremely helpful. Tara is both a parent and an educator in Winchester. With this experience, she’s able to converse with parents about what’s happening in the classroom in a way that no one else can. She’s also able to offer a learned perspective when it comes to classroom solutions. This has only been made doubly important during the pandemic, as the School Committee has navigated many transitions from remote learning to hybrid, and now to full in-person learning. Tara knows how to get this work done.

Tara is someone with a deep knowledge of and passion for education. She has more integrity than just about anyone I know. She’s also about the most compassionate and caring individual that serves in an elected position in Belmont. As we continue marching towards normal in our schools, Tara Donner’s work is more important than ever. She deserves your vote.

Mike Crowley, School Committee, Town Meeting Member Precinct 8

Public Meeting On Federal COVID Funds And State Aid Set For Wednesday, March 31

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Photo: Poster to the meeting

The $8.6 million Belmont will receive from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has been the topic of a heated debate ever since it was signed into law by President Biden on March 11.

In one corner are those who are attempting to defeat a $6.2 million Proposition 2 1/2 override who see the money filling town coffers with more than enough funds to render the override moot.

On the other side, proponents of the override contend that most of the cash is restricted to reimbursing town revenue lost due to COVID-19 and can’t be used to as a one-time stop gap for the town’s structural deficit.

And in the past three weeks, “I am seeing some things that are being misreported in regards to those numbers,” Town Administrator Patrice Garvin told the Select Board Monday, March 29.

In an attempt to provide a clearer picture of the funds and how they can be used for, the Financial Task Force II and Warrant Committee are inviting the public to a virtual presentation to share the latest information regarding the new Federal Aid Bill and also provide an update on projected state aid in the coming fiscal year 2022.

When: Wednesday, March 31
Time: 7 p.m.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87434286149

Questions will be taken at the conclusion of the presentation period
through the Q&A function. The meeting facilitator will inform those
attending when questions can be submitted.

Blazon Named Belmont’s Facilities Director

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Photo: David Blazon, Belmont’s new facilities director (LinkedIn)

David Blazon, who spent the past decade as the Director of Public Works and Recreation at the regional enterprise zone better known as Devens, was named Belmont’s director of facilities at the Select Board’s Monday, March 29 meeting.

Blazon replaces Steve Dorrance who left in November 2020 for the facility’s position in Haverhill.

“Thank you. Glad to be here,” Blazon told the Select Board.

According to Human Resources Director Shawna Healey, Blazon, who is not under a contract, is eligible for all town benefits in regards to health, dental, life insurance, and he will have a take-home vehicle. His annual salary is $125,000.

Town Administrator Patrice Garvin said she and Belmont Superintendent John Phelan received more than 30 resumes before whittling the hiring process down to Blazon.

The director is responsible for maintaining more than one million square feet of buildings and grounds under the control of the Select Board and the School Committee. In addition, the Facilities Department makes recommendations to the Capital Budget Committee for long-term improvements to the town and school buildings. Town Meeting approved the merger of the once separate town and school departments in 2011.

“I do want to express how excited I am that you’re on board,” said Board Chair Roy Epstein. “The facilities position is such a critical service in town that we look forward to working with you and to solve the many pressing facilities challenges that we have.”

A graduate of Lowell High School, Blazon matriculated at Wentworth Institute of Technology where he earned an associate’s degree in Architectural Engineering. After working as a project engineer designing state-of-the-art energy-efficient systems for a private non-profit, he spent 15 years in Lowell first as a site manager and then deputy commissioner in the Public Works Department.

In Devens, he managed with a staff of 15 the community’s infrastructure including building maintenance, custodial care, 500 acres of landscaping, and 60 miles of road and sidewalks along with snow and storm management.