Belmont Education Association Holds Forum On State Ed Funding Reform

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Photo: Merrie Najimy, Barbara Barry, and Lindi DeLorio discuss improving education by recalculating the formula to calculate state educational aid.

A major component of the Massachusetts education reform law past in 1993 known as Chapter 70 was the state’s “foundation budget” formula, used to determine the cost of educating students in each district.

But for many, the more than a quarter-century old formula is now badly out of date.

On Thursday, Feb. 28, the Belmont Education Association held a Fund Our Future Forum at the Chenery Middle School with Cliff Gallant, a teacher at Burbank Elementary, leading a panel discussion on the foundation budget formula. According to a 2015 report by the Foundation Budget Review Commission, the state is underfunding our public schools by more than $1 billion a year. Of that total, Belmont would receive $3,5 million in additional annual funding. 

Butler Elementary teacher Lindi DeLorio, Chenery parent Barbara Barry, Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy and Vice President Max Page discussed the improved opportunities for our students which could be provided with the additional state funds to support class sizes, music, and art programs. Funds could also be used to provide needed staff such as classroom aides, nurses, counselors and librarians.

Snow Day: Belmont Public Schools Closed Monday; Late Opening For Town Offices

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Photo: Snow day

Due to the heavy snow expected to fall overnight, all Belmont public schools are closed tomorrow, Monday, March 4th, according to Belmont town officials.
Town offices, the Belmont Public Library, the Beech Street Center and the school administration offices will open at 10:30 a.m.  All evening meetings, including the Board of Selectmen’s meeting, will be held as scheduled.

North Middlesex Regional’s Taylor Named Belmont High’s New Principal

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Photo: Isaac Taylor inspecting the new school housing North Middlesex Regional.

Isaac Taylor, whose teaching and leadership career spans an ocean and three decades, has been named the next principal of Belmont High School, according to the Belmont School District. Taylor starts his tenure on July 1.

“I have 14 years experience in raising standards, maximizing student learning and engagement and ensuring accountability,” wrote Taylor in his LinkedIn profile. “I am passionate about working to help all students and staff reach their potential, enjoy challenging themselves, and become life long learners.”

Taylor comes to Belmont High after four and a half years as principal of North Middlesex Regional, a 9-12 high school located hard on the New Hampshire border servicing the towns of Townsend, Pepperell, and Ashby.

During his stay at North Middlesex, Taylor guided the school community’s move into a new $89 million structure in the fall of 2017. He also had to contend on that opening day with a threat against the school requiring students and staff to pass through metal detectors to enter the building.

According to an article in the Nashoba Valley Voice, Taylor spent part of his childhood in the U.K., and part in Acton, Mass. After receiving his BA in Liberal Arts from the Harvard University Extension School, Taylor began is teaching career in 2001 across the Atlantic in the historic cathedral town of Canterbury in southeast England. He spent three years as an English teacher at Canterbury High School (now Canterbury Academy) while earning a teacher certification from Canterbury Christ Church University College.

Beginning in 2004, Taylor was a teacher and administrator for nine years at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School in Canterbury for the next nine years, five as an English and Physiology teacher and four as assistant principal. During that time, he obtained a master’s in school and education management from King’s College, London.

In the fall of 2013, Taylor enrolled at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education where he earned a Master of Education with a concentration in school leadership, while serving a principal internship at Boston Latin Academy. 

Norton Not Seeking Return To School Committee … This Election

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Photo: Jill Norton, Belmont School Committee

Five took out nomination papers for three seats on the Belmont School Committee but four will be the maximum number of candidates  on the April   ballot.

Appointed member Jill Norton will not seek a return to the board

“I’m sorry to say that I won’t be coming back this time,” Norton told the Belmontonian at the end of Tuesday. Feb. 5 school committee meeting. She said the dual challenges of having her youngest child about to enter the Belmont schools and a chance to volunteer at her church placed too much on her plate to continue as a full-time committee member.

“I just felt I wouldn’t have the time to meet the responsibilities” needed for the role, said Norton.

Norton was appointed in May 2018 by a joint meeting of the Selectmen and the School Committee after co-finalist Michael Crowley stepped aside after the group tied 4-4 after the first round of voting.

Coincidentally, Crowley is expected to submit his nomination papers to serve on the committee before the Feb. 12 deadline.

Incumbent Andrea Prestwich and newcomer Peter Pantazopoulos have passed in their papers while Amy Checkoway, a senior associate at Abt Associates (where she is a co-worker of Norton) and an active member of the Wellington Student Care Program, has still not submitted her papers to the Town Clerk’s office.

And  don’t write off Norton’s name from the list of future candidates seeking a seat on the committee. She said her youngest will be in the first group of fourth graders to enter the newly configured 4th-6th grade Chenery facility.

“I will have a big reason to be involve,” said Norton.

Belmont ’19-’20 School Year Opening Wednesday, Sept. 4

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Photo: It’s already out; the ’19-’20 school calendar.

While the current school term is barely halfway completed, the Belmont School Committee has its eyes on next year’s calendar.

The school district presented the “final” version of the 2019-2020 calendar which the committee appeared to approve unanimously at its Jan. 8 meeting. Keeping with tradition, Belmont will begin its school year after the Labor Day holiday, unlike a growing number of districts which starts its academic term the last week of August.

Below are the highlights which will assist families in their preparation of long-range vacation plans: 

  • The 2019-2020 school year for 1-12 grades will begin on Wednesday, Sept. 4, with a half day at each school. Half of the kindergarten students will be starting either on Sept. 5 or 6 for a half day.
  • The winter recess begins at dismissal on Friday, Dec. 20 and runs until school reopens on Thursday, Jan. 2.
  • February school break is during the week of Feb. 17.
  • Belmont schools will be closed for the Massachusetts Presidential Primary election on Tuesday, March 3.
  • April recess is the week of April 20.
  • Graduation will take place on Sunday, June 7; just where the ceremony will take place could be tricky as the new 7-12 school building project will be nine months into construction of the “high school” section where the Wenner Field House is located.
  • And if the school district declares the average five snow days in 2019-2020, the final day of school before summer recess will be Tuesday, June 23.

Public Meeting On New Rink Set (Sort Of) For Jan. 22

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Photo: A new facility will replace the “Skip” Viglirolo rink adjacent to Harris Field.

The public will get its opportunity to listen and speak up on a new skating rink as a tentative date was presented at the Belmont School Committee meeting Tuesday, Jan. 8.

“Now is the time to take the next step” on the future of a possible public/private rink which could be located on school department property, said Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan, as he proposed the committee to request the Belmont Board of Selectmen to conduct a joint meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 22. The meeting will likely take place at the Chenery Middle School.

But the date is tentative as it may change if more members of both groups can attend at an alternative date and time.

Phelan said the first part of the meeting will be a listing of the pros and cons of placing the rink along Concord Avenue across from the Underwood Pools or at the closed incinerator location on upper Concord Avenue near the Lexington town line, as well as an explanation of the RFP – request for proposal – process.

The meeting will then become an open forum for the public to participate and “can have some dialogue” that could influence what will be included as public benefits and what it will expect from a new rink design including parking and traffic access, said Phelan.

At Monday’s, Jan 7, Board of Selectmen meeting, member Tom Caputo – the board’s liaison to the rink discussions – said while two locations remain in the running, past discussions and analysis of the upper Concord Avenue site by an environmental consultant revealed the incinerator parcel “might not be the best site” for a building housing a rink as it would be “more challenging” to build on ground that first needs to be capped.

In addition, a rink could not be built at the incinerator site for up to five years as the land will be used as a staging area for the construction of the new 7-12 school building.

Phelan said if the school committee – which last month agreed to move forward towards a possible acceptance of a rink– votes to accept an RFP utilizing school property, it will advantageous that “everything is ready to go” involving the project such as having a partner selected and a list of public benefits written out when a proposal is presented to Town Meeting in May.

While the RFP has yet to be written or placed out for a bid, the leading contender to run the facility is Belmont Youth Hockey which has been guiding  the effort to build a replacement for the “Skip” Viglirolo Skating Rink adjacent to Harris Field for the better part of a decade. It has released draft architectural designs and a list of public amenities such as locker rooms that can be used by home and away teams playing at Harris Field.

The site will be constructed as a public/private partnership in which the school department land would be leased at no cost for 30 years to the entity running the rink with specific language in the RFP requiring an allotment of time for youth hockey, both high school teams, and public uses. The town would be given the opportunity to take ownership of the structure at the end of the lease.

Campaign To Name HS Basketball Court After Legendary Coach Lyons

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Photo: Paul Lyons at a recent Belmont High hockey game.

For David Ramsey, the proposal he and his colleague Ralph Jones are promoting “is a layup to me.”

Officials with the Marauder Basketball Association, Ramsey and  Jones believe it’s time for the town to honor one of its great coaches and residents, former Belmont High Boys’ Basketball headman Paul Lyons. And what more appropriate place than where he did most of his work.

If approved by the committee, the plan is to place a banner with Lyons name and achievements on the Wenner Field House wall and name the field house the “Home of Coach Lyons Court.” The campaigners said there would be no wording applied to the court surface, and the new name would only be mentioned when an announcer welcomes teams and fans to the site.

The pair came before the Belmont School Committee on Dec. 18 to have Lyons lionized for his sports leadership abilities and character. A one-time player at Boston College, Lyons coached the Belmont High boys’ basketball team for a quarter century and led them to the state championship in 1993 on top of five Middlesex League titles. By the end of his Belmont career, Lyons had racked up 335 victories (and 473 overall) and was installed in the Massachusetts Basketball Association’s Hall of Fame.

His legacy continues as one of the founders of the Belmont Youth Basketball Association in 1977 and the Marauders Basketball Association in 1986 which has supported both the high school teams as well as introduced thousands of elementary and middle school-aged children to the game. Nearly all the players of the current undefeated boys and girls high school teams started playing hoops in the BYBA.

But Ramsey and Jones also said they wanted Lyons to be known for how he coached, always with sportsmanship and teamwork in mind. 

“He was very competitive and always wanted to win, but [Lyons] did so with a great deal of class and integrity,” said Jones, who is a former selectman and noted local basketball historian whose daughters played.

The committee, as its policy, would not respond to the motion at last week’s meeting. According to district policy, the School Committee has sole authority over naming or re-naming buildings, interior facilities and grounds to a person whose “work or service has contributed significantly to the Belmont Public Schools or to the Belmont community.”

As for Lyons, he continues to display his modest demeanor when pressed during a chance interview at the Belmont/Woburn hockey match Saturday, Dec. 22 at the Skip.

“We’ll see,” he said.

School Committee Says ‘Yes’ On Interest To Host New Rink Along Concord Avenue

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Photo: A new rink would likely be built in this location near the present rink (in photo).

The pieces are beginning to fall into place pointing to a new skating rink coming to Belmont in the next two years.

And while there are a pair of locations where the replacement for the ancient “Skip” Viglirolo rink is expected to be sited, there is growing support over the past month pointing to Belmont School District property along Concord Avenue across from the Underwood Pool as the likely spot, beating out a facility at the former incinerator site on upper Concord Avenue on the Lexington town line.

In an important step that would keep the rink adjacent to Harris Field, the Belmont School Committee vote unanimously at its Tuesday, Dec. 19, meeting to proceed with a Request for Proposal (RFP), which will solicit proposals through a bidding process.

“This is a town project, not just a schools project,” said Belmont Superintendent John Phelan at the meeting.

The School Committee Chair Susan Burgess-Cox said while moving forward with a RFP, the committee would be open to all suggestions and comments from the public on developing the site which will have its chance to express its opinion at a January community meeting on the future of the incinerator site that will impact the rink development.

While hardly the size of a new public/private venture in New York City that will house nine skating rinks, Belmont Youth Hockey in a presentation before the School Committee in April proposed a space with an ice sheet-and-a-half (with the half ice sheet covered for nine months and used by spring, summer and fall youth and high school sports teams) with recreational open space, an indoor track and locker rooms that can be used by indoor and outdoor sports teams.

(A public/private rink to replace the aged “Skip” is not a recent concept as it has been talk about around town since 2015.)

While no decision has been made by either the School Committee – which owns the property – and the Board of Selectmen which has final say what will go on the incinerator land, recently presented analysis of the two locations appearing to give the clear edge to the school’s site.

At the school committee meeting Tuesday, Phelan presented a pro and con comparison of the two sites. Noting that the 1970s-era “Skip” is well-passed its useful working life and is only kept running with “McGyver”-style hacks to the ice-making machinery, Phelan said a new rink built through a public/private partnership – in past schemes, Belmont Youth Hockey would manage the rink that is constructed on land provided free of charge by the town or schools – would provide local access to ice time for the community and the Belmont High School ice hockey teams. Under this scenario, the direct cost to town ratepayers would be zero.

As for the pro’s of the high school site, it would be convenient for the school’s teams, it would increase locker space for boys and girls teams who play at Harris Field, it would not need state regulatory approval and just town zoning permits and there would finally be on-site parking as opposed to using  Concord Avenue and several side streets.

“There’s a nice energy of uses if it was on the high school site that would complement the new fields,” said Phelan.

One big con would be the potential loss of playing field space during and after the building is completed, additional traffic and the possible congestion created as the rink will be constructed while the 7-12 school is being built less than a quarter mile away “would be challenging,” said Phelan. 

The incinerator site does have its pro’s as in less traffic impact on the local neighborhood, doesn’t interfere with new school’s construction site and there is enough land to build a rink with two full-size ice sheets.

But the cons at the incinerator are steep: school teams would need to take one bus to and from practice at a cost of approximately $400 daily or $2,000 each week for up to 14-16 weeks. Because there are state-issued conditions on what can be placed at the incinerator location and environmental issues, it is expected to take up to four years before the first shovel is put into the ground, which will also require the town to pick up maintenance costs and likely repairs at the old rink until construction is completed. There is the issue of capping the toxic landfill site which will cost the town approximately $3.5 to $4 million, an amount a non-profit rink organization would find daunting to help pay and would force up rental fees. Finally, there are concerns that a foundation for the building and ice sheet on ground that is infill and close to wetlands could be prohibitively expensive.

While a number of committee members voiced some concern about the loss of fields for high school sports teams (depends what the winning RFP bid specifies) and would a new rink replace the locker room space lost when the White Field House is demolished (“yes,” said Phelan), they also felt the added transportation costs and far-off location of an incinerator-located rink were less than attractive.

By the end of the presentation, the committee was ready to put the school district’s stake in the ground for new rink. But while interested in building on the property, the district and committee “[are] not yet committed to doing so,” until the public process is completed, said member Andrea Prestwich.

 

Pantazopoulos Pulls Papers For Predicted School Committee Push

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Photo: Peter Pantazopoulos (Linkedin)

Peter Pantazopoulos doesn’t know which Belmont School Committee seat he’ll be seeking at Town Election in April.

But he will be running.

“I haven’t made a decision yet if I will run for three years or one-year term,” said the Winslow Street resident in an email interview. “I plan on making that decision when I turn in my nomination papers on Feb. 12” the deadline to turn in papers to the Town Clerk. 
The father of two “impressionable boys” and an 18 year resident with his wife Olga, Pantazopoulos said his run for one of the two open seats on the six-member board came about after he asked himself “how can I best serve my community.” 
“I have heard parents express their passion to me surrounding the Belmont School system. As I echoed their concerns, I decided the parent’s need a voice on the School Committee that they can trust and will be transparent with them on the intentions of the committee’s decisions that we make.” 
Pantazopoulos is an account executive at Weston-based Apps Associates. He matriculated at Bentley University (BA Accounting) and earned an Executive MBA from Suffolk and an MSIT from Bentley. Pantazopoulos is currently not a Town Meeting member.  
Pantazopoulos’ overall philosophy on education is based on “the passion that all parents have to ensure that their children will have a proper and fulfilling education.
“I want to see all children get the preparation they need to attend a higher education. That journey may require some students to have IEPs [Individualized Education Programs] to develop their social and learning developmental skills,” he noted.   
Pantazopoulos poised several questions which he believes need to be asked of and than answered by the school committee:
  • Are we doing enough for those children and getting them the assistance that they need to enjoy learning and socializing with their peers? 
  • Are students that are on a fast track in learning getting challenged in their studies and do we have the state of the art facilities to foster that hunger to learn? 
  • Do we have the right class sizes and the right grade levels in each facility? 
  • Are we being fiscally responsible in using the taxpayer’s dollars to fund large-scale projects and are these projects being done with the voice of the parents and community members?

He also got Belmont-specific on a pair of fronts. 

“Belmont will be making key decisions in the coming years with building a new 7-12 school. The committee needs someone with experience in managing complex budgets, understanding mandated, fixed and soft costs. Understanding policy and procedures and trusting compliance but verifying we are doing the right thing for the parents, children and the tax payers who are funding these projects with their hard-earned tax dollars.”
“I want to make sure we are starting school at a reasonable time and that working families have high quality after school care for their children at an affordable price,” he said.
Nomination deadline for town-wide and Town Meeting seats is Feb. 12.

Drillin’ for … Thermals As 7-12 School Project Gets Underway

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Photo: They’re drillin’ on the rugby field, lookin’ for geothermal heat.

It could have been mistaken for an oil derrick drillin’ for Texas Tea (1960s cultural reference) a few meters from the track at Harris Field adjacent Concord Avenue.

But what the team was boring 500 feet into the earth since Dec. 12 was to measure the underground thermal properties and used that information to design the geothermal system as part of the heating and cooling system for the new 7-12 grade school building on the site of Belmont High School set for completion in 2023.

It is just one part of a handful of on-site projects now underway under the care of Skanska, the multinational firm which was selected the project’s construction manager this past May.

According to Skanska, preliminary work on the new building is underway to prepare for the beginning of construction in June 2019:

  • Less than a week after town voters approved a $213 million debt exclusion to construct the new school, a complete survey of the entire campus site began on Nov. 14 and ran through Nov. 30.
  • The geothermal test wells will run through Jan. 11, 2019
  • On the same day as the drilling commenced, a trailer housing the project team was moved into the rear of Belmont High School and will remain through June 2019 when construction of the site begins.
  • And the day after the school goes on winter recess, the entryway to the Wenner Field House – from the outside doors near the weight room to the field house – will be closed as the ceiling is removed and fireproofing abatement begins, lasting until New Year’s Eve 2018. 

As for the derricks on the rugby field, three geothermal wells will be installed around the existing Belmont High School for testing. A closed loop HDPE pipe will be installed inside the borehole and the borehole will be completely grouted to form the geothermal well and thermal conductivity testing will begin. A temporary manhole cover will be set over each of the geothermal wells and the area around will be restored upon completion.