Two Weeks To Go: Voting In Person, Voting By Mail

Photo: You can stuff your ballot in the drop box outside Town Hall up to and including election day, Tuesday, April 6 at 8 p.m.

Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman wants eligible voters to know there are three ways to cast your ballot for the annual Town Election being held on Tuesday, April 6.

Vote by Mail Options

Absentee Voting or Early Vote by Mail
Voters who are unable to go to the polls to vote on Election Day, or are worried about the COVID impacts, may request that a ballot be mailed to them. Requests must be in writing containing the voter’s signature and are due to the Town Clerk by 5 p.m., March 31 (per a change made by the Legislature).

An Absentee ballot application was included in every household’s February Belmont Light Bill and just this week, the Massachusetts Legislature extended availability of Early Vote by Mail to municipal elections held this spring. The ballot is the same for Early Vote by Mail and Absentee Voting so please only file one request per voter so we can fulfill all requests in a timely way; if you’ve already filed an application to receive an Absentee ballot, do not file an Early Vote by Mail request. Applications can be dropped off or emailed to voting@belmont-ma.gov

The ballot will be mailed to the voter using the US Postal Service; The Town Clerk asks voters to file requests early to avoid delays. Voted ballots may be mailed back or deposited in our secure Town Clerk Drop Box at the bottom of the steps to Town Hall, parking lot level. All ballots must be received by 8 p.m., close of polls on Election Day, April 6.

Voting In Person

Registered voters may cast their ballots in person only on Election Day; polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the usual polling locations:

  • Precinct One: Belmont Memorial Library, Assembly Room, 336 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct Two: Belmont Town Hall, Select Board Room, 455 Concord Ave.
  • Precinct Three: Beech Street Center , 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct Four: Daniel Butler School Gym, 90 White St.
  • Precinct Five: Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
  • Precinct Six: Belmont Fire Headquarters, 299 Trapelo Rd.
  • Precinct Seven: Burbank School Gym, 266 School St.
  • Precinct Eight: Winn Brook School Gym, 97 Waterhouse Rd., Enter From Cross Street

To see the specimen ballots or download an Absentee or vote by mail application, please visit the Town Clerk’s web page:

http://www.belmont-ma.gov/town-clerk

Belmont To Receive $8.6M From American Rescue Plan … With COVID Strings Attached

Photo: President Joe Biden signing the American Rescue Plan. Creator: Adam Schultz | Credit: White House

Not only will most Belmont residents receive a $1,400 check from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden on March 11, but their Town of Homes is also set to be a beneficiary from the same stimulus package created to lessen the economic repercussions of COVID-19.

According to State Sen. Will Brownsberger, preliminary information from the state shows Belmont will receive approximately $8.6 million from the Rescue Plan with $1 million of the total targeted to Belmont schools.

“I would just like to underline that most of this money is coming from the federal government,” Brownsberger told the Belmont Select Board at its meeting held virtually on Monday, March 15. “This is rain comes falling from US Sen. [Elizabeth] Warren, Sen. [Ed] Markey and US Rep. [Katherine] Clark, so credit to them.”

In addition, both Brownsberger and State Rep. Dave Rogers, also at the meeting, said due to revenues coming into state coffers stronger than expected despite the pandemic’s economic downturn due to the pandemic, state aid to cities and towns will be greater than earlier forecast.

But before anyone in Town Hall or the school department begins spending this one-time windfall, Brownsberger told the board “that aid comes with a number of strings in terms of … how it can be used.” And nearly all of the threads have to do with COVID.

Brownsberger said the funding comes with defined eligibility criteria that will determine “how much of that money can be used for general government purposes and how much of it can be used only for particular projects” related to COVID relief.

According to preliminary reports, the money can be spent on one of four categories which includes:

  • Reimburse town funds spent responding to the public health emergency of COVID,
  • Lessen the negative economic impact on the community, (“So it could be broadly used to provide aid to small businesses, households,” Brownsberger said.)
  • Replace town revenue lost to the COVID recession, and
  • Make investments in water, sewer, or broadband.

To receive the funds, the town will commit to a certification process – rather than applying for the money – in which the town tells the state (which is running the program for the federal government for municipalities smaller than 50,000 people) that it understands the constraints of how the funds will be used.

Rogers said regulations are still being written by the US Treasury “on how the money can be spent as much of it is earmarked and targeted in very specific ways.”

Patrice Garvin, Belmont’s town administrator, said she has “not received enough information on how this money can be used.”

On the state side of the fiscal ledger, Rogers said the state budget is “in reasonably good shape given everything that has happened” and the legislature is now expected to have the ability to fund Chapter 70 general education aid formula at a level above Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s estimate for state aid announced on Jan. 27.

“We’re very committed to funding the Student Opportunity Act designed to increase local school aid to a level that’s really commensurate with a town’s need or actual spending, particularly for Belmont on the cost of health care and special education,” said Brownsberger. The end result is Belmont could see “maybe a few $100,000” more in Chapter 70 aid in fiscal 22.

One area the state is advising cities and towns not to do is make concrete fiscal decisions using these figures.

“[The Secretary of State’s office which distributed the data] said the information … should be viewed as preliminary and subject to change,” said Brownsberger reading from notes. “We’d strongly advise against the town making plans based on this preliminary information as the US Treasury will ultimately calculate the final amounts. So towns should not make plans about overrides based on these estimates.”

And that is the word coming from the campaigners seeking to pass the override on April 6.

Unfortunately, the stimulus money “doesn’t change the fundamentals concerning Belmont’s structural deficit, which is projected to be almost $20 million over three years even after spending down our cash reserves,” said Nicole Dorn, co-chair of Yes for Belmont which is advocating for the passage of a $6.2 million Prop 2 1/2 override on the April 6 town election ballot.

“This one-time infusion of funds won’t cover our operating expenses because it is restricted to certain programs or needed for COVID-related expenses. Every year we delay addressing our budget issues only makes our structural deficit worse, and means we’ll need a bigger override that is more expensive for taxpayers,” she said.

Belmont Readies For Schools Reopening As District Defends Restart Process; A Question of Whose Mandate

Photo: The elementary schools will be open for business on April 5 … if not sooner.

Days after the state’s education set dates for reopening of elementary schools, the Belmont School District revealed on Tuesday, March 9 its plan that will allow the district’s youngest students to return to full-time in-school classes on Monday, April 6.

Created from recommendations by the Return to In-Person Learning Working Group, the blueprint will provide an educational experience for children in Kindergarten to 4th grade lacking since exactly a year ago this week.

“Our administrators and administrative team at the central office have been working hard on this for over a month and a half and we’re glad we are making progress … and to let our families know that as we try to finish this year as strong as possible, that we are prepared to have a goal of opening [schools] in-person learning next year,” said John Phelan, superintendent of Belmont District Schools as he presented the plan to the School Committee at its regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting.

The new plan was being developed by the Working Group when the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) which oversees public education in Massachusetts, issued an edict requiring districts to replace their hybrid systems in elementary schools with full-day in-school classes.

The plan for in-person schooling at the town’s four elementary schools has been discussed for the past two weeks by the working group, school committee and district with the final recommendations released Tuesday:

  • Students in school 5 days/week with the same timing as our pre-Covid school schedule;
  • Offer academics, specials (art, physical education), lunch, and snacks as part of the school day. Lunch and some electives classes will be made possible by setting up large wedding tents at each elementary school and a pair at the Chenery Middle and Belmont High schools.
  • Include specialized instruction for students with disabilities and students who are English learners; 
  • Provide bus transportation to all student in accordance with DESE guidance;
  • Implement classroom capacity, individual distancing, and quarantining requirements from CDC and DESE guidance.

Parents who’ll choose to have their children attend classes remotely will also attend school five days per week. Yet one “trade-off” of moving to a full-time school day will be the end of live streaming that allowed for in-class and at-home students to learn together. This will likely require many remote students to “loss” their current teachers who will transition to in-class teaching, replaced by remote-only educators.

“These are some of the challenges that we are facing in order to be able to provide these two learning models,” said Phelan.

Parents were sent a survey last week on which learning model they would choose for their students which will, in turn, determine how many teachers would be in the classroom and those teaching online.

More specific information on in-school elementary education can be found in the form of a PowerPoint presentation at the Belmont Public School website which was presented at the Tuesday School Committee meeting.

You can see the March 9 Belmont School Committee meeting at Belmont Media Center here.

Phelan noted DESE is requiring middle schools to follow the elementary schools in full-time in-school learning by April 28. And even though the state has not made any time certain for high school students, Phelan said the Working Group will be moving forward on recommendations for reopening the middle and high school.

Tuesday also provided an opportunity for Phelan to defend the district and school committee’s deliberative approach to reopening the schools to the criticism from many residents who felt the superintendent and committee members were ignoring physical data compiled by parents indicating students could have safely returned to classrooms earlier in the school year.

“Why in person now versus earlier in the school year than in the winter,” Phelan asked as he spoke of the success of the Return to In-Person Learning Working Group in formulating the recommendations using data and information gathered internally. The superintendent pointed out that the following guidance from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that only within the past few weeks had it become the optimum time “about bringing more students back to schools.”

“But back in February and January, that was not the case,” he said.

Whose mandate is it anyways?

In a sidebar to the meeting, a question of who has the mandate to speak for educating Belmont students could preview issues facing the Belmont School Committee after Town Election when new members come on board.

Committee member Mike Crowley chided the emergency mandate from DESE Commissioner (and Belmont High alum) Jeffrey Riley directing children back in the classroom either absent of any guidance on a number of issues including the social distancing for unmasked activities and conflicts with union bargaining agreements or “that “DESE guidance seems to be updated about every five minutes,” said Andrea Prestwich, school committee chair.

“I do not like that DESE has usurped the authority of the school committee to make decisions about these planning efforts. This is work that we asked for,” said Crowley, a sentiment seconded by Prestwich, saying she was “holding my tongue about my feelings about DESE, but you did say it nicely.”

Crowley’s statement is hardly a lone voice in the wilderness as many school committees, teacher unions and associations came out to pan Riley’s seeming overreach into local governance. Phelan joined a large group of nearby superintendents in signing a letter asking DESE to work with school districts to come up with a more concrete plan for a return to school, including joining the effort to vaccinate school staff.

While current members were expressing disappointment with the state, School Committee candidate Jamal Saeh, whose run for office is fueled by a growing populism among a segment of the community critical of what they perceive as unwarranted delays in reopening schools, wasted little time in castigating Crowley for his critical take on the state’s intrusion in the running of local government.

“When I hear a school committee member say that DESE usurped the authority of the school committee, I feel compelled to amplify the voice of those parents’ opinion of the school committee [that it] is not the mandate of the community,” said Saeh.

Saeh’s apparently offhand comment was interesting in so much that an elected school board, by state law, was provided a mandate by voters to run the municipality’s schools including managing its own budget, independent hiring practices, and creating policies on how to educate its students.

New ‘Fast Food’ Eatery, Market Coming To Former Seta’s Site On Belmont Street

Photo: The former Seta’s will soon become a “fast food” eatery with a new market/convenience store next door

An establishment doling out “fast food” will be opening in the next few weeks on Belmont Street at the corner of Newton. But don’t expect another Dunkins’ or a franchise operation coming to the Town of Homes.

To owner Zohreh Beheshti, the fast food she’ll be serving is an eclectic variety of specialty dishes – fried chicken, deli sandwiches, dairy samples, falafel “and maybe hamburgers … and coffee.”

On Monday, March 8, the Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously approved a special permit under the zoning bylaws to operate a fast-food restaurant, joining an international market the couple are about to open next door.

The store – which will sell Middle Eastern staples and spices along with the usual convenience store fare – is located at 273-5 Belmont and the 16-seat restaurant will be at 271 Belmont taking over the former Seta’s Cafe (which closed in September 2019) located across Newton Street from Sophia’s Greek Pantry. The businesses will be connected in the rear so employees can move between the two locations.

Parking will be in the rear of the building off of Newton. The town said the new store will run on the same hours as Seta’s: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Beheshti and her husband are running Roksana’s Persian Foods, a small 800-square foot storefront at 509 Mt. Auburn in Watertown.

“My customers actually pushed me to do this and that’s why we’re doing this,” said Beheshti

Even before opening, Beheshti has her fans in town as the board was bombarded with supportive emails and one town employee can attest to the food she sells.

“I’m just gonna warn everyone here that anything from her store that’s called gata is very fattening,” said Ara Yogurtian, assistant director of the town’s Planning Division. “It’s full of butter, full of sugar; it’s so tasty that once you begin [you can’t stop],” he said.

Belmont World Film 19th International (Virtual) Film Series Begins March 16

Photo: A scene from Majid Majidi’s “Sun Children,” which is representing Iran in at the 2021 Academy Awards.

Belmont World Film announced the lineup of its 19th annual International Film Series, running March 16-May 10, and featuring the virtual screening of eight of the world’s top films accompanied by online discussions with filmmakers or expert speakers.

Entitled “Family Ties,” the series features films from Belgium, Bhutan, the Czech Republic, Cuba, France, Iran, and Tunisia that focus on the varied definitions and configurations of family.

More than a third of the films are directed by women and half the films are carried over from last year’s Series, which was canceled at the last minute due to the pandemic; half are completely new films screened recently at leading international film festivals.

Of the eight films, previous Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland’s (Europa, Europa) The Charlatan from the Czech Republic is currently shortlisted for this year’s Oscar for Best International Feature Film. Previous Oscar nominee Majid Majidi’s (Children of Heaven) Sun Children from Iran and first-time director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Lunana from Bhutan were also their countries’ submissions for that Oscar category.

“We feel fortunate that we are able to continue to bring this annual film tradition to our audience members, even though we won’t be together in a theater and especially since we had to cancel last year’s Series just two days prior to its start,” says BWF Executive Director Ellen Gitelman.

“The few Zoom discussions we’ve had over the past year have confirmed that our audience members crave the opportunity to reflect upon, discuss, and understand the films’ both individual and universal topics.”

Seven of the eight films will be available for streaming for one week each, starting Tuesdays at 12:01 a.m. until the following Monday at 9 p.m.; A Son will only be available for streaming for 72 hours, starting Friday, April 2, at 7:30 p.m. until Monday, April 5, at 9 p.m. Each week concludes with a moderated discussion with an expert speaker or a Q&A with the film’s director on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom. Films can be watched as many times as desired during a 48-hour period.

This year’s line-up includes:

  • March 16-22: Lunana directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji (Bhutan) New England premiere. An aspiring singer, living with his grandmother in the capital of Bhutan, dreams of getting a visa to relocate to Australia, but first must serve at the most remote school in the world, located in a glacial village in the Himalayas.
  • March 24-30: Charlatan directed by Agnieszka Holland (Czech Republic, Ireland, Slovakia, Poland) New England premiere. Oscar nominee Holland (Europa, Europa) directs this true story of a natural healer caught in the crosshairs of the former Czechoslovakia’s totalitarian regime in the 1950s.
  • April 2-5: A Son directed by Mehdi Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Lebanon, Qatar) New England premiere. In the summer of 2011, in the immediate aftermath of Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution,” an upper middle-class family spends a weekend in southern Tunisia. A surprising story unfolds, resulting in an examination of the family’s liberal and modern lifestyle, as well as how religious traditions impact established medical practices.
  • April 6-12: Surprise Screening
  • April 13-19: The Dazzled directed by Sarah Suco (France) East Coast premiere. A 12-year-old girl’s parents join a controlling religious commune in southwestern France, making her on outcast at school and dashing her dreams of becoming a circus acrobat. Based largely on the director’s experience growing up in a community that espoused sharing and solidarity, this feature debut portrays the damaging effects such cults can have on family members, effectively brainwashing them into giving up their true selves for what appears to be a greater spiritual calling.
  • April 20-26: Sun Children directed by Majid Majidi (Iran) New England premiere Previous Oscar nominee Majidi directs this story about a 12-year-old boy and three friends who work to support their families by committing petty crimes to make fast money. When they are given the job of finding an underground treasure by the local crime boss, they must enroll in a charitable school that will give them access to an underground tunnel.
  • April 27-May 3: Gloria Mundi directed by Robert Guédiguian (France, Italy) New England premiere. Guédiguian (Snows of Kilimanjaro, BWF 2012) reunites his regular cast of actors in this family drama about surviving in today’s gig economy. Set in Marseille, the story centers around the birth of baby Gloria. Despite the family’s joy, some family members have fallen on hard times, pinning their hopes on the baby’s uncle when he opens a successful business.
  • May 3-10: Agosto directed by Armando Capó (Cuba, Costa Rica, France) New England premiere. A Cuban teenager, the primary caretaker for his beloved grandmother, develops his first crush during the summer of 1994, when the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing shortage of food, supplies, and electricity compel people to make the perilous journey to the US by boat. Set in the director’s rural hometown of Gibara and loosely based on his experiences.

The festival is funded in part by a generous grant from the Belmont Cultural Council and is sponsored by the Belmont Food Collaborative. Community partners include the Boston Latino International Film Festival, Café Czech, the Czech and Slovak Association in Boston, and Iranians in Boston.

Individual film tickets are $14 each. A “Passport” includes eight films for $85 (as much as $3.37 savings per film). Memberships, which include complimentary tickets or passports and other benefits, are also available. EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholder tickets and passports are half price.

To purchase tickets and passes, or for more information visit www.belmontworldfilm.org or call 617-484-3980. Like us at www.Facebook.com/BelmontWorldFilm or follow us on Instagram @Belmont_World_Film or Twitter at @BelmntWorldFilm

One Way Leonard: Town Seeks Comments On A Return To One Lane Traffic

Photo: Leonard Street down to one lane last summer

The Select Board will hold a public meeting to discuss a proposal to restrict Leonard Street to one lane of traffic between Moore Street and Alexander Avenue from April through October. The virtual meeting will take place on Monday, March 8 at 7 p.m.

“The town is eager to hear comments and get feedback to determine the level of interest of this proposal,” according to the announcement sent by the Town Clerk’s Office.

Last year, the Select Board instituted the one way traffic plan to allow restaurants to expand their al fresco dining area onto Leonard Street to assist those business owners impacted by COVID-19 restrictions on indoor operations. While many enjoyed the increased pedestrian opportunities created by the measure, retail shops said the loss of parking spaces on Belmont’s main commercial center hampered their businesses.

Join Zoom Meeting 

Meeting ID: 882 0940 4357 

To join by telephone, Call:  1 (929) 205 6099 

When prompted, enter: 88209404357

When prompted, enter # 

To ask a question or raise your hand, enter *9 on your phone. 

Moving Day: Belmont Police Returning To Renovated Headquarters On Monday

Photo: The Belmont Police Headquarters ready for the move Monday

The painting is done, the new furniture is in place, and come Monday, March 8, the staff and officers of the Belmont Police Department will be moving back to its long-time headquarters at the corner of Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue.

And the change of addresses from the temporary headquarters – located in modulars on Woodland Street they entered in August 2019 – is scheduled to take just one day to accomplish.

“Overall, the project is in very good shape; the interiors are wrapping up and we should have a final [town] inspection Friday,” said Ted Galante, the principal of the Galante Architecture Studio in Cambridge which designed the police headquarters’ extension and interior as well as revamped the Department of Public Works structure.

For those who oversaw the building project, the return of the department to its headquarters is a success story despite a few bumps in the road.

“It looks fantastic from where we started,” said Ann Marie Mahoney, the chair of the Building Committee and as long time head of the Capital Budget Committee who had spearheaded for more than a decade the drive within Town Meeting to provide “a humane place” for both the Police and Department of Public Works employees to work from.

While the year-and-a-half-year construction project was the rehabilitation and expansion of the now 90-year-old original structure, it will be a whole new experience for the men and women who endured its famously cramped and antiquated depths.

Where once were constricted spaces with no storage will be rooms with accompanying filing and cabinets. Rather than just a single stairway leading to the second floor, an elevator has been installed. The men’s locker rooms are expanded while female officers will have their first dedicated changing space and showers instead of a jerry-rigged set up they had languished with. The once constricted booking area – where the cells are – is now an expanded space, secured with an internal sally port to safely transfer detainees.

“The furniture has all been installed and … the little bit the punch list (the to-do’s list that need to be completed before a project can be considered finished) on the interior of the building has been cleaned up,” said Galante, who said the town’s certificate of occupancy was expected to be issued on Friday, March 5.

The project did not meet its scheduled opening day in October due to a COVID-19 delay receiving the charcoal black terra cotta panels (installed on the newly built extension) when the Italian manufacturer was forced to close shop last summer.

Finally, the landscaping and any leftover exterior work will be completed by the spring.

While the physical portion of the project is all-but completed, there still remains work to be done bringing the work in on a budget of just south of $11.8 million. And while she said the project was “a little bit on fumes,” Mahoney is confident that “when the project is presented to Town Meeting, every penny will be accounted for.”

What started as a $6.7 million renovation and expansion in 2018 ballooned to nearly $12 million a year later when the project’s scope changed to include a complete interior rehab, requiring a special town meeting vote for an added $3.76 million. While there were some grumblings at Town Meeting of a “bait and switch,” the additional funds were approved easily.

With a few “soft” costs remaining, the committee is sitting on about $31,500 in unencumbered funds with a commitment from the Capital Budget Committee to pay for “whatever odds and ends that may need funding,” said Mahoney.

Mahoney said a major reason the new headquarters will come in on budget is due to a shade under $30,000 in private contributions from residents and groups such as the Richard Lane Foundation, named after the late Belmont assistant Police Chief which will be paying for landscaping, a new flag pole and equipping rooms to be used by officers.

Actually the project will be returning approximately $35,000 to the Community Preservation Committee of the $100,000 it requested for exterior work such as masonry work while sending back to the Warrant Committee about $50,000 from a $250,000 transfer to repair a retaining wall and mitigate the “junk” soil on the site.

“This is fabulous,” said Building Committee member Stephen Rosales. “It’s close but it’s in the black.”

Healey Named Belmont’s New HR Director

Photo: Shawna Healey, Belmont’s new HR director

Shawna Healey can take the “acting” from her title as Town Administrator Patrice Garvin announced this week that the Woburn native has been named Belmont’s new director of Human Resources.

“Shawna was the obvious candidate [for the position],” said Garvin to the Select Board. “She’s experienced, solid and has the support of the staff.”

As the acting director, “she hasn’t missed a beat under some pretty hard stuff. She has been able to succeed and meet and surpass all those expectations,” said Garvin.

Healey has been the acting director since the departure of Jessica Porter in October. A non-contractional appointment, her annual salary is $108,000 with a start date of March 2. Phelan said the salary was selected after reviewing comparable salaries in surrounding towns.

Healy grew up and currently resides in Woburn. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business with a Human Resources concentration from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire and a Masters in Business Administration in Human Resources from Southern New Hampshire University. Healey obtained a Society for Human Resource Management-Senior Certified Professional certificate in February 2020.  

Healey previously worked for Partners HealthCare in various human resource positions for five years before to coming to work in Belmont in September 2017.

As District Works Towards Full-Time In-School For K-4; Phelan Commits To ‘Fully In-Person Start’ Of ’21 School Year

Photo: The Belmont School District is working to bring K-4 students back to full-time in-the-classroom instruction by April

Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan reiterated his stance from last week that the district is actively working to derive a program to safely send elementary school students back to the classroom full time in April, according to a press release dated Thursday, March 4.

Rather than add in-person hours to the existing hybrid plan for those attending Belmont’s four elementary schools, “we are now developing a plan for a full, in-person option for K-4 students,” said Phelan.

Phelan also used the release to acknowledge the strain the pandemic has had on residents and students for the past year and his personal pledge to “a strong fully in-person start of the school year in September 2021.”

“I am committed to finishing this school year better than we started. I am committed to returning students back to school as safely and quickly as possible starting with our youngest learners at the elementary schools,” he said. “I will be working tirelessly, along with the entire Belmont Public School community, to deliver on these commitments.”

As he stated in his release of Feb. 26, Phelan said the district has shifted its focus following the announcement by Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley who said on Feb. 23 that he will ask state permission to yank the hybrid option for the state’s youngest students.

In response, the district’s Return to In-Person Learning Working Group – the nearly 30 member group created last month to manage the transition to full-time in-school learning – had shifted its focus to now “building recommendations in subgroups which focused on physical distancing and classroom capacity, lunch and snack, specials and specialized instruction, remote-only options, and transportation,” said Phelan.

Monday, March 8: Working Group meeting and possible recommendations
Tuesday, March 9: Recommendations presented to at School Committee Meeting
Thursday, March 11: Q&A session with school administrators
Friday, March 12: Survey to all K-4 parents asking for remote/in-person choice
Wednesday, March 17: Survey due by 5 p.m.

And as Phelan promised when the group was formed, the working group has begun making “rolling recommendations” to the district on meeting his new goal. After its meeting on Monday, March 1, Phelan along with school principals and central office staff have begun reviewing emerging recommendations focusing on creating guidelines for social distancing in classrooms and non-learning spaces in the four elementary schools.

One of the leading constraints identified last summer hampering a return to full-time in-school learning throughout the district has been the lack of physical learning space required for 100 percent student participation with a required six-foot separation between students.

In addition to social distancing, the working group has also focused on addressing concerns related to the remote-only experience for those students and families that select to remain remote for the rest of the year, and taking stock of current PPE equipment, and make any recommendations so the schools are ready for a return to increased in-person learning.

The Working Group will meet again on Monday, March 8, and could issue recommendations at that time. If there are proposals from the Group, they will be made public at the School Committee the next day, March 9.

In an attempt to have families fully briefed on each learning option – in-person or remote – Phelan said the district will hold a Q&A session with school administrators on Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. 

The district will send a survey to parents on Friday, March 12, on whether they would like to choose the remote or in-person option for their child.  The survey will be due Wednesday, March 17 and this selection will be binding for the remainder of the school year.

After the Working Group has completed its K-4 recommendations, it will then move into discussions of how to increase in-person learning at the middle and high schools. Initially, the Working Group will start with grade 5 by leveraging their recommendations from the K-4 given the self-contained grade 5 model which is more similar to our elementary schools.

On a personal note, Phelan said he was well aware of the considerable hardship the school community – students, staff, parents – has taken on since the pandemic halted in-school learning in March 2020.

“I want to recognize that this has been a difficult year for students, as well as for parents and families. It has also been the most significant challenge our educators have ever faced. There are no easy answers as we battle COVID-19,” said Phelan.

“I appreciate and acknowledge that change can be disruptive and that these plans will be met with happiness by some and concern by others. I look forward to working together to deliver on three big commitments: finish the year better than we started; return more students to in-person learning this spring, and focus on a full in-person start to the year in the fall.”

“I … want to thank the families of Belmont for the grace they have shown–and continue to show–as we work through this devastating public health crisis,” said Phelan.

Driver Killed In Single-Vehicle Truck Accident on Common Street [Video]

Photo: An accident on Common Street involving a box truck left the driver dead

The driver of a box truck was killed in an early-morning one-vehicle accident on Common Street on Thursday, March 4.

According to Belmont Fire Capt. Rick Nohl, Belmont Police and Fire arrived at the scene near the World War 1 memorial triangle at Dunbarton Road after receiving a 911 call at 2:50 a.m. They found a white box truck on its side and a 45-year-old man dead inside the severely damaged diver’s compartment.

It is believe the driver lost control of the vehicle and rolled it over while driving on Common Street, said Belmont Police Chief James MacIsaac in a press release.

Nohl said his department began a recovery operation which took some time to retrieve the body. By daybreak, two large recovery trucks uprighted the truck, which was fully loaded with produce, before it was taken from the scene around 8:30 a.m.

The accident is under investigation by Belmont Police and the Massachusetts State Police’s Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit, according to Nohl.