‘A Brave Decision’: Selectmen Place $4.5M Override Vote on Town Election Ballot

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Photo: Belmont Superintendent John Phelan speaking to the Belmont Board of Selectmen and the School Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

The Belmont Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Tuesday night, Feb. 18, to place before voters a $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override that will coincide with the annual Town Election set for Tuesday, April 7.

“I think we should make a brave decision to place the appropriate override on the ballot,” said Selectman Sami Baghdady as the three-member board decided not to delay a decision on the override until next week’s selectmen’s meeting.

“There, it’s on the ballot,” said Andy Rojas, chair of the board to the applause from two dozen residents and members of the Belmont Education Association, the union representing teachers and staff in the district.

This is the first override question facing Belmont voters since the unsuccessful attempt in June 2010 when residents rejected a $2.5 million initiative targeting schools and roads, 53 percent to 47 percent. A $2 million roads override was defeated by the same percentage in 2008.

The vote came after a joint meeting of the Selectmen and Belmont School Committee which heard Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan present the stark budgetary options facing the school district in the coming fiscal year which starts on July 1.

Under a budget relying on anticipated revenues for fiscal 2016, the school district will face a $1.7 million funding gap that will be resolved by eliminating 22 full-time teaching and staff positions, allow class sizes to exceed the district’s benchmarks for effective teaching and increase fees for all student activities.

“We really felt that this was important for Belmont,” Rojas told the Belmontonian after the vote.

“We hear all sides [of the override issue], and I certainly understand and we will try to mitigate the impact on the elderly and those on fixed incomes. However, once you see the presentation by [Phelan] and where the available budget leads you, it’s almost negligent not to consider an override,” said Rojas.

“Whatever the outcome of the vote, the efforts of the Financial Task Force will not die,” said Baghdady.

Before voting for the measure, the selectmen each spoke of the override as just one component of a wider approach to tackling the structural deficit facing the town and schools, recommendations raised in the final report of the Financial Task Force, the Selectmen appointed committee that spent a year analyzing Belmont’s long-range financial outlook.

“We are taking all the Task Force’s recommendations very seriously. It will include reforms both structurally and non-structural, it’s creativity on how we run both government and schools and, of course, making sure we fund the programs that are obviously the key part of the override,” said Rojas.

The vote came after a joint meeting of the Selectmen, and Belmont School Committee heard Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan present the budgetary options facing the school district in the coming fiscal year which starts on July 1.

“I should know this as this is the fourth time in six days I’ve made the presentation,” said Phelan told the joint meeting.

Reiterating in detail the pressures facing the school district in his meeting with the School Committee last Thursday, Feb. 12, (see “Belmont Schools Face ‘Significant, Negative Impact’ in Fiscal ’16 Budget; Loss of 22 Positions, Larger Class Sizes” Feb. 12) Phelan presented a stark reality for education in Belmont under an available revenue budget in the next school year: Staff cuts, greater class sizes, less material and supplies, an increase in free time and study halls for middle and high school students and higher fees for students and parents.

Speaking of the student fee increase, families with two children in athletics, a club, and the arts, “you very quickly get to $6,000 to $7,000,” said Phelan.

Phelan told the board the cuts will have a human face to them at next week’s School Committee when he and the Leadership Council – made up of senior staff, principals and department and curriculum heads – pinpoint specific positions and areas which will be eliminated.

“It’s a very disturbing picture,” said Phelan, noting that 80 percent of the school budget “is people so the biggest part of the cuts will be from there.”

As with the previous presentations, Phelan told the meeting the Task Force’s recommendation of a $4.5 million override to stabilize town expenditures will allow the district to keep existing staff and teachers, meet state-mandated required hirings due to a doubling of students requiring English Learning tutoring as well as new hires to meet the exploding enrollment and reduce the free time an ever increasing number of middle and high school students are handed.

“There are no new bikes” in the budget with the $4.5 million increase, said Phelan; the district will not introduce new classes, only retaining the current level of instruction.

“We do believe that we are at a crossroads,” Phelan said of the district, adding that he and the Leadership Council “believe the town needs to make an investment in the schools.”

During a citizen comment period, several teachers and residents expressed their support for the override to assist them in educating Belmont students.

“We teach children, I teach children,” said Dori Pulizzi, a seven-year veteran teacher at the Chenery Middle School. But the only way to effectively do so is with a ratio that she can meet the social/emotional needs of each student. With 28 in a class, Pulizzi said she can only give each student a minute of her time within a 50-minute class after providing the class lesson.

Suzanne Pomponio, a third grade teacher at the Winn Brook with 23 students in her class, said teaching “is just getting harder for students to do what is expected with the demands of Common Core [being introduced to Belmont schools].”

“It’s more stressful for the students, and they need that emotional support but we have less and less time to provide it,” said Pomponio.

After the vote, John Sullivan, the president of the BEA and a Belmont resident, said a vote for the override “is a chance to maintain quality of our outstanding schools.”

“Now we need to get community support, to work together to provide Belmont teachers what they need,” said Sullivan.

 

Belmont Food Holding Cooking Classes for Kids and Adults

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The Belmont Food Collaborative – the residents who run and manage the Belmont Farmers Market – will be holding a fun activity for parents and children as it teams up with Powisset Cooks! and The Trustees of the Reservations to hold two fun cooking classes for adults and kids where they will be cooking seasonal winter recipes here in Belmont.

A pair of cooking classes, taking place in the kitchen of the First Church of Belmont, 404 Concord Ave., will be held on Sunday, Feb. 22 and March 22 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The fee is $35 for an adult/child pair
. Each class is limited to seven pairs.

The first class is “One Potato, Two Potato, Lots of Potato Pancakes,” an exciting, hands-on exploration in potato-pancake making with Powisset Cooks! culinary educator, Rachel Kaplan. The group will experiment with making and eating a variety of potato pancake recipes.

The second class is “Late Winter Soup,” is for soup lovers! Kaplan will guide the pairs through making and sampling a few soup recipes, and you’ll learn more about local, seasonal vegetables along the way.

Register online here. Please register by Wednesday, Feb. 18.

Belmont Business Leader Backs School District as Selectmen Discuss Override Tonight

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Photo: Robert Mahoney (right) of Belmont Savings Bank with Ellen Schreiber. 

As the Belmont Board of Selectmen prepare to discuss tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 17, a recommendation from the Financial Task Force for a possible property tax increase to fund the town’s structural budget deficit, one of Belmont’s leading business leaders has threw his support behind the town’s school district as it faces substantial cuts in staff and programs under current budget assumptions for next year.

Belmont Savings Bank’s President and CEO Robert Mahoney wrote a comment to an article in the Belmontonian (Belmont Schools Face ‘Significant, Negative Impact’ in Fiscal ’16 Budget; Loss of 22 Positions, Larger Class Sizes, Feb. 12) that highlighted a pending $1.7 million gap in the district’s fiscal 2016 budget if the schools are required to work within the available revenue that the town has calculated for next year.

Mahoney is the first prominent individual outside of the district to speak out concerning the negative impact on Belmont from possible inaction in securing the necessary funding to keep town schools high ranked.

“[Belmont Superintendent] John Phelan is so right. It took decades for Belmont’s schools to become top tier. At the rate we are going we will be third tier soon,” Mahoney bluntly wrote in a comment posted Feb. 14.

“Once the parents of high potential students move out, and they will, the biggest economic engine in Belmont will sputter to mediocrity and property values will quickly follow the schools down. This is not theory. This pattern has happened over and over in short-sighted communities that have not invested in their future,” Mahoney wrote.

In the past few years, Belmont Savings has become more involved in Belmont, starting a foundation to assist organizations and individuals funding community activities. The most prominent of those was the foundation’s donation of $200,000 this fall that jump started a community drive to raise $400,000 to start construction of a new Underwood Pool adjacent to Concord Avenue.

At Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting – at 6 p.m. in the Selectmen’s room at Town Hall – the board will join up with the Belmont School Committee for a presentation from the district concerning the pending $1.7 million deficit in the pending fiscal ’16 available revenue budget totaling $47.5 million. In two previous public meetings to discuss the budget, Phelan has said the rapid increase in enrollment over the past five years and for years to come has sent expenses skyrocketing as the district. Phelan has advocated the selectmen call for, and voters pass a three-year, $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override to fund the gap.

After the budget meeting, the Selectmen will reconvene to discuss placing an override before voters. If it decides to move in that direction, the board will also have to set a date for the override vote.

 

 

This Week: Maple Sugar and Concert Tuesday, Book Reading Thursday

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• On the government end of the things, the Board of Selectmen will meet today with the Belmont School Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. to discuss next year’s school district budget. The selectmen will also discuss the recommendation of the Financial Task Force to schedule a Prop. 2 1/2 override. 

• The Belmont Public Library is holding a maple sugaring program for kids on Tuesday, Feb. 17 from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the Assembly Room.

• Staff from US Rep. Katherine Clark‘s office will be holding office hours at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., on Tuesday, Feb. 17 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

• Pianist Kathryn Rosenbach will present a free concert titled “Exploring the Fantasie” at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.  A native Belmontian who teaches at the Powers Music School, Rosenbach will present a program of Bach, Chopin and Schumer.

• Belmont author Len Abram will read from his new book, The Medallion, Thursday, Feb. 19, from 7:30 p.m,. to 9 p.m. in the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room. Sasha Denisov, a Ukrainian immigrant and Chechen war veteran, drives a Boston cab, dreaming of buying his own taxi medallion and remarrying Ani, a Russian immigrant, whom he first married to get a green card and then fell in love with. This free program is part of the Library Friends Author Series. All are welcome to attend.  Books will be available for purchase and signing.
• State Sen. Will Brownsberger‘s staff will be holding office hours at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., on on Friday, Feb. 20, at 10 a.m. 
• The Beech Street Center’s Movie Of the Month for February is “Waking Ned Devine,” on Friday, Feb. 20, at 1 p.m. The comedy is about Ned Devine, aresident of a tiny Irish town, who wins the lottery … but who his neighbors discover have died clutching the winning ticket. This puts the townspeople in a spot, since, if lottery officials discover Ned dead, the money is forfeited. When the community comes together in hopes of splitting the winnings 51 ways, they learn the importance of friendship and the value of money.

Freshman Krafian Leads Belmont at Div. 3 State Indoor Track Championships

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Photo: Freshman Carey Allard handing off to anchor sophomore Marley Williams in the 4×200 meter relay in the MIAA Division 3 state championships held on Feb. 13, 2015.

Anoush Krafian has been on the high school track and field circuit for less than three months but the Belmont High School freshman has made it known that she is a young force to be reckoned with after a series of strong performances in league and class races.

On the biggest stage she’s been on so far on Friday afternoon at the MIAA Division 3 indoor track and field state championships at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Krafian showed off her prodigious talents by nearly pulled off a stunning result, just miss winning a high jump state championship placing runner up to Chicopee High junior Mia Facchini. Facchini, Krafian and third place Meaghan Kelley from Tantasqua Regional High School all cleared 5 feet, 2 inches but their placements were determined by the number of jumps taken during the competition. 

With that second place and another great result in the 55 meter hurdles, Krafian led Belmont High School Girls’ Indoor Track and Field team to a 9th place finish totaling 19 points, 12 coming from the freshman.

Krafian was the only 9th grader in the entire 24 competitor field for the 55-meter hurdles, reaching the finals after qualifying in the top eight. In the finals against seniors and juniors, Krafian sped over the five hurdles to a fifth-place finish, breaking the line in 9.05 seconds, an event won by defending champ senior Isabella DiMare from Notre Dame Hingham (who also won the 55-meter dash and placed third in the 300 meters) who took the top spot in 8.57.

Belmont’s other points came in two relays with the 4×200 meter with sophomore Julia Cella, junior Meggie MacAuley, freshman Carey Allard and sophomore Marley Williams taking third in 1:48.34 and the 4×400 with sophomore Alexandra Bailey, senior Lizzie Frick, sophomore Jenna Magno and junior Katherine Ognibene coming home in 4:21.59 for eighth place.

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The Marauders brought a young team that could make considerably more noise next year as several individuals gained great experience:

  • Williams ran a 7.64 in the 55 meter dash.
  • Cella (43.02) finished 9th, Allard (43.29) 10th and MacAuley (44.38) 15th in the 300 meters.
  • Bailey finished 11th (1:42.19) in the 600 meters.
  • Sophomore Amelia Rasmussen ran a 3:13.36 in the 1,000 meters for 11th.
  • Klimasmith took 10th in the 2 mile in 12:16.62.
  • Joining Krafin in the hurdles were junior Samantha Kelts in 11th (9.63) and sophomore Rachel Berets in 18th in 9.8.
  • Belmont’s 4×800 relay (junior Meredith Hughes, Klimasmith, sophomore Ally Meringer and Rasmussen) ran a 10:21.3 for 11th.

Over in the boys’ meet, a pair of seniors scored the eight points placing Belmont in a tie for 19th place.

Owen Madden came home in 5th in the 300 meters in 37.18, five one-hundreths of second out of fourth while Ari Silverfine ran a 2:36.86 to take 5th in the 1,000 meters. Both of Belmont’s relay teams just missed the points by finishing in 9th: 4×800 meter team of seniors Dan Rizzo, Charles Smith and Silverfine along with freshman Zach Tseng in 8:33.93 and the 4×400 meter of seniors John Decoulos, Madden, Silverfine and freshman Calvin Perkins coming home in 3:40.58, just a hundredth of a second behind Stoughton in eighth.

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Photos: The Aftermath of Belmont’s Latest Winter Storm

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Sunday’s winter storm brought Belmont to a halt as more than a foot of snow was deposited on top of five feet of snow that has fallen in the past three weeks.

3 Up, 3 Down, Tournament Bound: Belmont Girls’ Hoops Strides into Post-Season

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Three games in three days is a tough proposition for most professional teams. For a squad of high schoolers, a trio of games in as many days is a daunting prospect.

So when the Belmont High School Girls’ Basketball team was forced because of the numerous snow storms to play a triple header – two of the opponents playoff-bound with double digit wins – at the end of last week, the coaching staff was a bit concerned how the team would stand up to playing 96 minutes within 48 hours.

“It’s not what we are looking to end our [Middlesex] league schedule and get into the playoffs,” said Melissa Hart, Belmont’s head coach as the team was coming off a two-game losing streak and standing a single game from making the post-season.

But by 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13, the Marauders had completed a three-peat, defeating Lexington, Wakefield and Winchester to stride into the Div. 2 North Sectional playoffs. With a pair of post-season tournament games on Monday and Tuesday remaining, Belmont has upped its record to 12-5, one of the team’s best marks in the past decade.

“It’s nice to be [in the playoffs] so some of the pressure will be off the team,” said Hart, after the team’s victory against 12-win Lexington, 51-45, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, giving the team its 10th victory and an automatic entry into the sectional tournament.

The match-up was the return of Lexington’s superstar Anna Kelly, the junior guard who scored 52 points the last time she visited Belmont’s Wenner Field House a year ago. But this time, Kelly picked up two quick fouls and sat on the Lexington bench for most of the first half.

Without their all-star point scoring and directing the squad, Lexington could not break Belmont’s unrelenting defense and the Marauders’ took the game to the Minutemen.

The game for Belmont was a tale of two players in the two halves. In the first 16 minutes, junior forward Sarah Stewart took charge, on the defensive side with four defensive rebounds, two blocks, a steal and several examples of court diving at loose balls and offensively by going three for five from beyond the 3-point line for  to power Belmont to a 28-10 lead at the half.

“Making [3 point shots] was unknown land for me,” said Steward, who said she has been encouraged by the coaches to throw up trey when she’s open.

“I now have a new home,” said Steward, who is known as Stewy by her teammates.

It was only a matter of time before Kelly would reemerge, and she did in a big way in the second half. The 5’6″ three year starter is a natural on the hardwood and she came out with a vengeance, throwing up threes and sweeping underhanded scoop shots, scoring 11 of her game-high 22 points in the third quarter to led the Minutemen back to 35-28 with the final eight minutes to play.

Soon after Stewart started the fourth with her third 3 pointer, the school’s fire alarm went off, sending players, coaches, the crowd and a collection of very young swimmers from the adjacent Higginbottom Pool out into the frigid cold for a few minutes before it was decided for everyone’s health that it was better to wait by the gym’s doors.

While many of the other players may have cooled off, freshman point guard Carly Christofori got hot for the Marauders. The 9th grader put a first-class steal on Kelly as the all-star was driving to hoop – one of Christofori’s three steals in the quarter – before racing to the offensive end to hit a trio of driving layups and going 3 for 4 from the charity stripe to score 11 of the teams 16 points in the quarter to secure the victory.

“To play against someone as good as [Kelly] and succeed some of the time is great,” said Christofori, who said the team needed to stay focus once the fire alarm went off “so we could concentrate on keeping the lead and securing the win.

Belmont’s trademark aggressive defense has been frustrating opponents who has met the Marauders for the first time and that was the case Thursday, Feb. 12 when Belmont handily defeated Wakefield, 51-30, on Seniors’ Night at the Wenner.

The Marauders pressured the Warriors – who came into the game with an identical 10-5 record – up and down the court, at times triple teaming the second Wakefield player to handle the ball. The result was 12 steals (four each from seniors Sophia Eschenbach-Smith and Elena Bragg) in a game that was the closest to a total “team” win this season. Ten Marauders’ scored and each of the 15 varsity players got time on the court.

Belmont led after the first quarter, 14-4, and 23-10 at the half with freshman Jenny Call hit two of her three 3-point in both the first and second quarter and senior center Linda Herlihy‘s mid-range jumper. The Marauders blew the game wide open with a 22-point third quarter with Stewart hitting all four of her shots.

By Friday’s away game, fatigue appeared to set in as the Marauders carried themselves over the finish line by defeating Winchester, 38-20, in a game that Hart described as “ugly.”

“Friday the 13th for both teams shooting,” she said.

Just how poor was it? Belmont led at the half 13-1. Herlihy scored a third of Belmont’s points finishing with 12 points, all from near the basket, while Call and Bragg each had 6 points.

Belmont now heads for a pair of games at the 2015 Spartan Classic in Lynn – the first against Bedford – before finishing the season with a home game Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 11 a.m. against Worcester North.

Parking Ban Lifted at 7AM, Monday; Followed by Partial Parking Ban

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The full Snow Emergency Parking Ban will be lifted at 7 a.m., Monday, Feb. 16. Until that time, a full parking ban will be in effect, including a ban on on-street parking as well as municipal and school parking lots. Violators will be ticketed and towed.

After 7 a.m., the partial Snow Emergency Parking Rules will be in effect which limits parking on most streets to the odd-numbered side of the street.

Trash will be picked up on normal schedule which due to the President’s Day holiday, will not begin until Tuesday, Feb. 17.

And parents will not have to fear a sixth snow day being declared; Belmont schools are on February recess for the entire week.

Snow Ends Noon Sunday, Now the Cold and Dangerous Wind Chill

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After more than a foot of snow has in Belmont in the past 18 hours, the fourth storm in the past three weeks is expected to end at noon, Sunday, Feb. 15 with a peek of sunshine expected this afternoon.

Nearby Lexington picked up 16.6 inches of snow while Winchester saw 13 inches fall, according to the National Weather Service.

But the departing storm will open the door for some of the coldest temperatures in recent history as well as wind chills reaching -30 to -45 below Sunday night that will make it dangerous to be outside for any period of time.

The National Weather Service has issued a wind chill warning, which is issued when the wind chill index is likely to fall to -25 degrees or colder for at least 3 hours. A wind chill index below -30 can bring about frostbite in as little as 10 minutes. 

Residents can expect lows below zero tonight, Sunday and Monday, Feb. 16, with northwest winds blowing steadily at 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 65 mph.

The NWS advises that outdoor exposure should be limited. If you are heading outdoors, dress in layers and keep your hands and head covered to protect against frostbite.