Why I’m Running: Murat Bicer for School Committee

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Photo: Murat Bicer

Hello, I’m Murat Bicer and I’m running for School Committee. My family and I deeply value public school education and I’m grateful that my children will benefit from Belmont’s excellent schools.

Over the next term of office, the School Committee will be faced with a number of important challenges.

Primary among these challenges are:

  • The need to manage rapidly increasing enrollment
  • The opportunity to build a new high school and share the costs with the Commonwealth
  • Teacher contract negotiations

Some of these challenges are structural which means we need to find long-term, sustainable solutions, and not just short-term fixes. We need to stretch our override dollars as far as they will go and question all the assumptions in our budget.

As an experienced venture capitalist and a father of two, I believe I’m uniquely qualified to do just that. And that’s why I am running.

I have over a decade of professional experience in financial management, strategic planning, and contract negotiations. Specifically, I have served on the boards of over a dozen companies. I routinely review and approve financial and operational plans. I have negotiated numerous employment contracts, as well as investment deals. And finally, I’ve served as the Treasurer of my children’s preschool for the last five years.

It is this range of experience that I can bring to the School Committee to make a difference for the future of Belmont’s schools.

I appreciate your support and, if elected, look forward to working hard for Belmont.

Letter to the Editor: In His Work On Override, Paolillo Deserves Our Vote

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Correction: In my letter, I mistakenly attributed statements from supporters who are campaigning for Ruban to “the Ruban campaign.” Ms. Ruban did not make these claims. 

To the editor:

I care deeply about the Belmont schools. I rely on our town services. I feel strongly that we need to fix our crumbling infrastructure; roads, sidewalks, buildings, playgrounds, etc. 

The 2015 successful override advanced all of these priorities and provided greater financial security for our town.

We owe that to Mark Paolillo.

For me, it is a clear choice:

  • Choose a selectman with 22 years of experience on the Board of Selectmen, Warrant Committee, and Town Meeting.
  • Or choose a selectman in Alexandra Ruban whose only Belmont experience is voting in one town election.

This institutional knowledge that Paolillo brings to the Board of Selectmen is irreplaceable. 

Let’s take the override as an example of Mark’s knowledge and leadership. Most people only saw the seven-week campaign. We celebrated and congratulated each other for making it happen.

But I know, it wouldn’t have happened without Mark’s multi-year preparation, advocacy, and leadership.

How did the override come to be?

  • Mark did his homework. He determined that a key reason for the failure of the 2010 override was that we didn’t adequately show the voters why we were asking for more money.
  • He laid the groundwork. He and the selectmen upgraded the town’s administrative and financial staff so we could properly do the analysis.
  • He made the case. He created and led the financial task force which exhaustively evaluated all avenues to address the town’s financial challenges. 
  • He got it on the ballot. Many obstacles could have prevented putting the override on the April ballot, but Mark made it happen.
  • He advocated for the override. Mark made presentation after presentation explaining why the town needed an infusion of new revenue.
  • And in the last seven weeks, we – the community as a whole – launched a vigorous campaign. I don’t underestimate the importance of the campaign. But I won’t overestimate it either.

Passing an override is hard work. No one wants to pay more taxes. Residents will not pass an override without believing that everything else has been tried. And that requires hard work, experience, knowledge and leadership.

Experience means you know how to get things done. You know who has the skills to solve complex problems. You know what has been tried in the past, why it worked, or why it failed. You are ready to act. In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

It is not enough for our leaders to vote for our priorities. They need the experience to do the hard work that makes the vote possible.

I have only had one meeting with Ruban. I believe that she is smart and well-intentioned. But I also believe that she needs experience in Belmont town government before she is qualified to serve as a selectman.

I began my learning curve five years ago. After two years on the Warrant Committee, five years on Town Meeting, three years on the Underwood Pool Building Committee, and numerous other Belmont leadership roles (YES for Belmont, Joey’s Park, Winn Brook PTA, Belmont KidSpace), I am still on a learning curve. I do not believe it is possible to be the kind of selectman that Belmont deserves without prior experience.

Belmont has important challenges ahead: the high school project, continued enrollment growth, budgetary pressures, and quality of life projects that require Mark’s collaborative approach to complete. 

The future of Belmont’s children and seniors and everyone in between will be better served by retaining Mark Paolillo’s institutional knowledge, leadership and experience on the Board of Selectmen.

It is a clear choice.

Please join me in voting for Mark Paolillo on April 5.

Ellen Schreiber

Sandrick Road

PHOTOS: Unregistered Voters Get The Word Out For Their Candidates

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Photo: Getting out the vote.

Below is evidence that unregistered residents are supporting certain candidates for town-wide office in the upcoming Belmont Town Election on April 5. It should be noted that three are too young to vote and the other is a dog, but still … . Wait until Donald Trump learns about this!

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It should be noted that Kimberly O’Mahony not only has three girls, each has different hair colors – from left to right; Claire, redhead; Sheila, blonde and Maeve, brunette. What are the odds?

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Why I’m Running: Ellen O’Brien Cushman for Town Clerk

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Photo: At work with Ellen Cushman.

I am proud to be Belmont ‘s Town Clerk for the last six years and look forward to serving for another three years, following in the footsteps of some extraordinarily dedicated women and men.  April 5 I run unopposed for re-election but I want to provide a quick summary of some of accomplishments and changes in the Town Clerk’s office over the past couple of years to let you know how we’re doing. The two main goals for the Town Clerk’s office are simplifying transactions so we can continue to handle  growing demands  and accessibility of records and: 

Here are some transaction statistics that may startle you. During the calendar year 2015:   

  • 15, 029 people entered the Town Clerk’s office per our electronic door counters.  No, that’s not a typo, it’s 15,029 people who came into the office looking for information, help, documents!
  • The Town Clerk’s staff of four sent and received more than 31,800 emails
  • There is no system to record the number of incoming phone calls but that’s one of the most popular modes of communication so we can only guess at that number.
  • Daily, we issue residency verification for Belmont families to register children in our schools, that’s every single day we’re open, in 2015 totaling  814 children from  521 families.
  • Licensed 2400 pets, more than 20 percent renewed their pet licenses by paying online.
  • Posted 634 separate meetings from 53 separate governmental bodies, all compliant with the Commonwealth’s Open Meeting Law, and received the related minutes. 
  • Our revenues for Town Clerk activities totaled $100,500 in FY15, up 4 percent from FY14, and the average fee we collect is just $20;  so the total number of fee-based  transactions 5611. 
  • Introduced electronic voting at Town Meeting, getting accurate, fast results and high levels of satisfaction.
  • We issued 195 free Yard Sale Permits online using our self-serve software, up from 13 in its inception year 2014.
  • We distribute materials to Town Meeting Members via email and the Town’s website; at this point, all but six of the 294 Town Meeting Members receive  their documents by email, cutting cost and getting documents in the hands of Town Meeting Members sooner.
  • In FY15, we issued 1774 absentee ballots to qualified Belmont voters and processed 7,650 individual family census forms. 
  • Have had 105 fully trained election workers in 2015, and have just recruited and trained an additional 48, ready to deploy in 2016, an exceedingly busy election year. We’ve standardized our training, provided election worker manuals and re-educated our long-term workers.
  • During the school year, we benefited from 300 volunteer hours from Belmont High School students and another 380 hours over the summer of 2015 to help us with filing and organizing.  We love our volunteers and count on them.

Accessibility of Records: 

  • Pet Licensing System: We maintain all records electronically, in real-time and allow online payments for renewals. We make our data system available to the Animal Control Officer and Belmont Police.
  • Business licensing System: For licenses issued by the Board of Selectmen, we created an online licensing system that allows departments to review, share information and approve or deny a license online, cutting significantly the time from application to approval. In fall 2016 we will allow businesses to apply and pay online and the application processing fee will be waived for businesses do so.
  • Town Meeting Votes: The Town Clerk’s office is daily asked for information about votes by Town Meeting on an array of topics, often from decades ago. We have created an electronic index of the Town Meeting votes to show the result and allow us to locate the transcript of the specific Town Meeting article. At this time, the index covers 3,200 votes from 1955 to 2016; we continue to add votes every chance we get with the goal to have ALL votes back to 1859 indexed and available.
  • Public Records Requests: Under the Massachusetts Public Records law, we receive hundreds of these requests each year, some requiring quick responses, some require extensive research. We’ve formalized the process to keep track of the requests and responses with the goal of never missing a deadline. 
  • Archiving: One way to make records more accessible is to know what you have and where it is before you’re asked to produce it. We have created an online data system to help us keep track of all of our archive items.
  • Our project under the Community Preservation Act has allowed us to digitize Belmont’s more than 70,000 vital records of birth, death and marriage to preserve them, index them and allow us to issue images of these records upon demand. In addition, we are preserving the bound books of these original documents to assure they’ll be around for future generations of Belmontians.

I hope you’re happy with the service the Town Clerk’s office provides for Belmont. Feel free to send me your comments, good and bad. That’s how improvement happens. I would appreciate your vote on Tuesday, April 5. 

Ellen O’Brien Cushman, Town Clerk

Scott Road

Water/Sewer Rates Going Up Nearly 5 Percent in Fiscal 2017

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Photo: Water and sewage bills are going up.

Residential and commercial rate payers will see their combined water and sewer bill increase by nearly five percent in the coming fiscal year, as the as the Belmont Board of Selectmen approved the recommendations from the Belmont Department of Public Works for a rate increase on Monday, March 28.

The average Belmont homeowner who uses 3,000 cubic feet of water will see their quarterly bill jump by $19 – from the current $400 to $419 – pushing $1,700 for fiscal 2017 that begins July 1, 2016, according to Jay Marcotte, Belmont’s DPW director.

Those households and businesses the DPW dubbed as “heavy users” will see their bill increase by $38 per quarter.

The fiscal 2017 increase of 4.7 percent is nearly double last year’s 2.6 percent 

Marcotte said “the largest chunk” of Belmont’s rate increases is from the annual assessment from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which supplies the town with water and takes its sewage. And a significant percentage of the MWRA pricing – 57.7 percent in fiscal 2017 – is influenced by “the large amount of debt it holds.” 

And it is those large increases in scheduled debt payments is causing Belmont’s assessment to spike higher this coming fiscal year. 

The rate increases come as Belmont residents have steadily reduced their consumption of water usage over the past two decades. From a high of 1.05 billion gallons consumed in 1995, households and businesses have decreased their water usage to 767 million gallons in 2015.

But while households’ have become more efficient and consumption trends point downward, rates will need to increase to maintain and serve the public, said Marcotte as fixed costs of capital projects and operation costs continued to rise. 

A part of consumer’s bills is also directed towards Belmont’s largest capital reinvestment program – which began in 1995 – of replacing every water main installed before 1928 (which are unlined cast iron pipes) or about 38 miles. As of today, 25.6 miles – or 66 percent – of the work is complete. 

Learn the Social Host Laws at BHS Presentation Wednesday Night

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Photo: Know the law.

Prom, graduation and warm spring nights are just around the corner. And with them will come requests from many teens to host a party. It is up to parents to know what’s legal and what isn’t when it comes to having a social event at your house.

Middlesex District Attorney (and Belmont resident) Marian Ryan, in conjunction with the Belmont Police Department and the Belmont Public Schools, is hosting a presentation for parents on the state’s strict Social Host Law on Wednesday, March 30. 

The goal of the presentation is to educate parents on the laws related to furnishing alcohol to minors as well as the effects that drugs and alcohol have on underage children. The event will take place in the Little Theatre at Belmont High School beginning at 6:30 p.m.

League of Women Voters’ Candidate’s Night Starts at 6:30PM Wednesday

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Photo: Belmont League of Women Voters’ is sponsoring Candidate’s Night.

The Belmont League of Women Voters’ annual Candidates’ Night – being held tonight, Wednesday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. in the Chenery Middle School auditorium – will give residents the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates seeking seats on the Belmont Board of Selectmen, School Committee and the contested seat on the Housing Authority.

Tonight’s schedule is:

  • 6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Meet incumbent and new Town Meeting candidates in the lobby of the auditorium. 
  • 7 p.m.: Town Meeting Members will introduce themselves in order of precinct number. No speeches just a quick greeting.
  • 7:45  p.m.: Candidates for town-wide office will speak and answer questions from a moderator on the stage.
  • Selectmen: Incumbent Mark Paolillo and challenger Alexandra Ruban.
  • School Committee: Each are first-time candidates for two seats; Sabri Murat Bicer, Kimberly O’Mahony and Andrea Prestwich.
  • Housing Authority: Tomi Olson and Paul Rickter are vying for the one three-year seat.

The night’s events will be broadcast by the Belmont Media Center.

Automated ‘Smart’ Water Meters in Belmont By 2020

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Photo: A typical automated water meter.

You can do your banking, book a vacation and buy your groceries with your smartphone. So, the town of Belmont want to know, why not pay a monthly water bill while monitoring your water usage all via the same phone?

By 2020, Belmont residents will have that option as the Water Division of the town’s Department of Public Works replaces the old manual-recorded meters currently in use with “smart” meters over the next three years. The new meters will be installed at no cost to consumers.

The plan, announced by DPW chief Jay Marcotte at Board of Selectmen’s meeting, Monday, March 28, will piggyback existing technology created by Belmont Light in its metering system, reading data via radio frequencies. 

The $2.75 million project – paid through the Water Division’s retained earnings – will take between 12 to 18 months to implement as contractors install between 20 to 30 new meters each business day, said Marcotte.

Other communities are moving towards wireless reading including Melrose, Lincoln, Wellesley and Woburn. 

The advantage of using 21st-century technology in recording utility usage is “a no-brainer,” said Mike Bishop, Water Division manager. For his department, it will bring efficiencies such as reading meters from a central location rather than sending meter readers to each residence or business. It will also be used as an “early warning system” to identify possible leaking pipes when a spike in usage levels.

For customers, it will allow for monthly billing which will provide resident and commercial users more reliable data on water consumption.

“It will allow our customers to do things like creating ‘red flags’ in which the meter will inform you if you exceed a certain usage level for a specific month. You then will be able to monitor a history of what you are using on your smartphone which will improve conservation of water in town,” said Bishop. 

School Committee QW: Where Do You Stand on High Stakes Testing?

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Photo: The candidates: Bicer, O’Mahoney, Prestwich.
The Question of the Week (QW) for the School Committee candidates:
There is a bill in the legislature (H 340) sponsored by the state’s teachers union to halt statewide student testing, calling for a three-year moratorium on the implementation of PARCC – which Belmont has been a test community – and to remove the “high stakes” nature of the existing MCAS tests, ie. in which high school senior would no longer need to pass MCAS to graduate. Teachers say tests take too much time away from educating and don’t reveal just how much a student has learned. Opponents say removing MCAS and other tests could lead to a return of lack of standards and accountability. As members of the school committee, you may well be asked your opinion on this measure. Question: Where do you stand on high stakes testing?

Andrea Prestwich

The MCAS has been to used fulfill the requirements of the Federal No Child Left Behind act (NCLB). NCLB was enacted with the best of intentions: to use rigorous standardized tests to ensure that all children receive a good education. Tests were used to track individual students progress, evaluate teachers and identify “failing” schools. The stakes were high: schools that did not make sufficient progress were closed, teachers fired, and students prevented from graduating.

Unfortunately, NCLB was a failure. Kids from wealthy families did better on the test than poor kids. Teachers were penalized for working with disadvantaged kids! To improve scores, teachers would focus on test preparation to the extent that other areas of the curriculum suffered. There were reports that struggling high school students were pressured into dropping out to make the average scores better. The tests are extremely stressful for students.

One of the few issues our hideously divided congress could agree on is that NCLB is a failure. Last year congress replaced NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act with overwhelming bipartisan support. The ESSA maintains the requirement for states to test, but gives states more freedom to define “school quality” and “accountability”. Given the new responsibilities under ESSA, I support the H340 requirement that the Commonwealth establish a task force to review the use of MCAS or PARCC data. Previous policies have failed, and it is time to re-evaulate what use we make of standardized tests. I also support the moratorium. Test results should not be used for teacher evaluation or student graduation while the task force does its job. To clarify: I fully support standardized testing. Standardized testing is crucial to identify problem areas and measure progress. However, we need to take a break and think about how test data is used in view of the failures of the past decade.

Murat Bicer

I am not generally in favor of standardized testing. Research shows that test results correlate above all to socio-economic conditions and may be unable to parse the quality of education at the individual or classroom level.  Many tests are criticized for being biased and the system of test taking disadvantages students who have difficulties with structured, timed activities. I believe that multiple-choice tests are not a good indicator of how much a student has learned, or whether that student has the qualities that good students should have – like creativity, critical thinking, and curiosity. Any student who is struggling with basic skills should be identified and supported well before a test result points out his deficiencies. It is true, however, that Belmont has in the past used test results to identify areas of relatively weaker performance and make positive changes in those areas.  

The Massachusetts Education Reform Laws of 1993 necessitate “a variety of assessment instruments” whose purpose is to evaluate student performance and to “improve the effectiveness of curriculum and instruction.” Tests have been credited with ensuring a certain quality standard across the state, but they’re imperfect. Unfortunately for all, many of the other “assessment instruments” such as descriptive reporting and subjective, essay-based testing are more difficult to administer and often put additional burden on the teachers, and that’s likely why testing has become the primary “instrument.”  

We can probably all agree that accountability and adherence to a basic standard curriculum is necessary, but that needs to happen on a day to day basis within the school community, not as a result of, or in pursuit of, a test score.

Kimberly O’Mahoney

Personally, I have never been a big fan of standardized tests,  but my only experience has been in the seat of a test-taker.  I never felt that the tests provided the “bigger picture” of my educational experience and abilities. The testing also is narrowed to only include certain subjects, leaving behind the notion that a well-rounded educational experience (including extra-curricular areas) is most beneficial to the children. That being said, there are also benefits to the testing that is being administered. It does help support accountability and possibly identify those areas in the curriculum that may need review and reinforcement. Belmont, though, has always prided itself on the high quality of education that it affords the children in the District. With or without standardized tests, Belmont will keep this a priority. I don’t believe that the high standards that our educators are held to will diminish if this moratorium is put in place. It may allow for greater flexibility in instruction and allow classes to delve further into subject areas without the constraints of focusing on and preparing for the “test material.”

School Committee Drop Religious Holidays from Calendar, Start Year Post Labor Day

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Photo: Speaker at the School Committee meeting. Dr. David Alper is at right.

A year after joining most neighboring communities by adding Yom Kippur and keeping Good Friday as school holidays, the Belmont School Committee did a complete “about face” and voted on Tuesday, March 22 to rid the 2016-17 school calendar of all days off for religious observation.

The board voted 5-0 to strip out existing Christian and Jewish observations which were installed on a one-year “pilot” basis. 

The reversal came after the committee and School District heard from a large number of parents – including many first-generation Asian residents – who declared the policy disruptive to the educational process and did not reflect the growing diversity within Belmont’s schools.

“I would hate for the message to be that Belmont hates religion” but rather a vote is a nod to the growing pluralism in the district, said School Committee member Tom Caputo. 

“This is about being respectful and not anti-holiday,” said member Lisa Fiore. “That’s the headline, that we must respect you whether you are 87 percent or three percent of the population,” she said.

“But we also need to make steps towards making it as easy as practically possible to observe religious holidays,” Caputo said, saying the district should now embrace the opportunity to explain why these days are important and why students observe them. 

Before this year, district policy was Jewish students were not “penalized” for taking the High Holidays as an unexcused absence. 

The board also decided, 3-2, to support taking an official day off for the quadrennial Presidential election day including the one this November for “safety concerns” as three elementary schools – Winn Brook, Butler, and Burbank – are home to one of eight precinct polling locations. 

In a separate decision, the committee bowed to parents by rejecting a proposal to start the school year before Labor Day on the last week in August. Sponsored by Belmont Superintendent John Phelan and backed by district teachers and several national studies, starting pre-Labor Day provides an easier transition into the school year by “easing” into educating then having a three-day Labour Day holiday before moving directly into teaching post-Labor Day. But family vacation and summer plans trumped the idea on an online survey.

Residents spoke to keep the current “pilot” schedule including Dr. David Alper, who led the drive last year to recognize Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the holiest day of the year in Judaism, which a significant number of students observe.

Alper stressed the nature of the observance, a day of fasting and prayer in Temple and at house, which requires students to miss a day early in the school year – the high holiday occurs between early September to mid-October – and despite assurances from principals, teachers will schedule tests and new work on and after that day.

But for the sizable number of first-generation Asian residents – an unusual step of engagement from a group largely in the background in town politics and policy – who sent statements to the Superintendents office and voted to end all religious observations on an online poll, the issue was educational rather than spiritual. 

Speaking before the committee and after the meeting with the Belmontonian, Jie Lu said what brought Chinese, Korean, and South Asian parents to speak out on the issue was its direct impact on the educational process.

While noting the importance of religion in many person lives, Lu said he is supportive of parents taking children out of school and teachers taking a personal day to celebrate with their family.

“But I don’t agree [to close] the entire system because it’s disruptive and a lot of [a] burden for lots of other families,” said the Concord Avenue resident and parent of children in the district. 

Phelan and some school committee members noted that disruptions could continue these days as a significant number of teachers have expressed a wish to take off on Good Friday and to a lesser extent Yom Kippur. While the remaining students will be in school, it won’t be a “typical” day with no new work or exams and substitute teachers employed.

Other parents spoke of the exclusion of other “not-too-big-groups” that celebrate important religious dates such as Ramadan for Muslims or cultural celebrations like Chinese New Year in which celebrants are expected to stay up all night “which would be hard for children to attend then school the next day.”

Judi Hamparian said by adding one religion’s observation, such as Good Friday, it would “be opening a Pandor’s box” if the district would attempt to be as inclusive as it should, noting the Armenian Genocide is an important historical event that many in Belmont observe as a solemn occasion.

“Why not also a day [for recognizing the geneocide]?” she said. 

After the vote outside the meeting, Lu and Alper discussed their positions.

“We are not trying to argue should we have holiday or [not]. The important thing is how do we observe the religious and how do we let the children know there are different religions, and everyone should respect them,” said Lu. 

“The major concern is that we will have soon too many religious celebrations and that we disrupt the education,” he said. 

While there will be a break in the teaching with children and students out, Alper believes religious observations “is an opportunity for educating these kids that will last a lifetime.”  

“I don’t mind seeing [Yom Kippur] not observed as long as “the school committee and superintendent follow through by acknowledging these holidays and especially in the elementary schools that these children are taught that David and Rachel are not here today because they need to be in temple and fast and Mr. Lu’s children will not be in school because they are celebrating New Year,” said Alper, who said he will be vigilant that the committee follows through on its promise. 

“I agree that if the kids learn then they can tell their parents. That’s how I know about Yom Kippur, my kids told me because their teacher told them,” said Lu. 

“We need to make this less a calendar change and make it a teachable moment,” said Alper.