Performance Arts Season Begins With ‘Broadway Night 2018’ On Friday, Saturday

By Leave a Comment

Photo: This year’s poster for Broadway Night 2018.

The Great White Way finds its way to the Town of Homes as Belmont High School Performing Arts Company presents its annual musical theater showcase Broadway Night 2018 at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12 and Saturday, Oct. 13 in the Little Theater at Belmont High School.

Students will perform classic show tunes and contemporary works in an evening of song, dance, and storytelling featuring solos duets, and group songs, with a mix of humor, heart, romance and high-energy fun.

Broadway Night represents the core mission of the PAC, with an emphasis on showcasing student work. The performers have selected, staged and rehearsed the songs almost entirely on their own. Also, the lighting design is done entirely by students, and the show traditionally ends with a student-directed number featuring the whole company.

Tickets are $5 for students, $12 for adults and can be purchased online at bhs-pac.org or at Champions Sporting Goods on Leonard Street in Belmont Center. Performances ALWAYS sell out, so be sure to get tickets in advance!

State OKs $80.6M Grant To Build New 7-12 School; Critical Debt Vote In November

By 5 Comments

Photo: The design of the new Belmont 7-12 High School.

The future of the new 7-12 High School is now in the hands of Belmont voters.

Last Wednesday, Aug. 29, the Massachusetts School Building Authority approved a $80.6 million grant towards the $295.2 million Belmont High School Building Project, endorsing more than two years of collaboration by the authority, the Belmont High School Building Committee, the Belmont School Department, citizens, town committees and boards, and various town departments, according to the head of the Building Committee.

“We are incredibly pleased that the MSBA has voted to approve funding for the Belmont High School Building Project,” said William Lovallo, Building Committee chair.

The next step in the project process is the all-important town-wide vote on Election Day, Nov. 6, where voters will decide to approve a debt exclusion of $214.6 million to fund the balance of the project, an amount for which Belmont’s taxpayers will be responsible.

If the town votes in favor of the debt exclusion, the project will move forward with the first evidence of construction occurring in the Spring of 2019. The current project timeline is to complete installation and open the 9-12 High School portion of the school in September 2021 and to open the 7-8 grade portion of the school in September 2023.

“We are especially grateful for the support of State Sen. Will Brownsberger and State Rep. Dave Rogers, who attended multiple MSBA board meetings and were strong advocates for the Belmont High School Project. The project has reached this stage thanks to the collective efforts of so many throughout the town, and it is a testament to how invested Belmont’s citizens are in the continued success of our schools,” said Lovallo.

The BHSBC was formed to explore solutions to the Belmont High School building deficits, including an aging infrastructure and space constraints due to overcrowding. In January 2018, after more than 50 public meetings, forums, and workshops, the Belmont School Committee voted for a 7-12 grade configuration for the school. Also, at that time, the BHSBC determined that a school design with a significant addition and minor renovation would most appropriately and effectively address the educational and facility-related needs of Belmont’s students, and would support continued enrollment growth and evolving teaching models, according to a press release from the Building Committee.

Go to belmonthighschoolproject.org for additional information on the Belmont High School Building Project and to view interior and site designs, and to follow the project journey.

Belmont High Girls Rugby To Be Honored By Red Sox Aug. 20: Get Your Tickets

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont High’s Girls’ Rugby team.

The Boston Red Sox organization will honor the Belmont High School 2018 Girls Varsity Rugby Team after winning the 2018 MIAA Division 1 State Championship in a pre-game ceremony at Fenway Park before its game against the Cleveland Indians on Monday, Aug. 20. 

The Marauders won its second consecutive state championship defeating Lincoln-Sudbury Regional, 20-10, on June 23.

The Red Sox has made available for the Belmont community to purchase tickets and support the team and school. Please go to the website listed below to purchase tickets: https://groupmatics.events/BelmontHSChamps

Last Day Of Classes At Belmont’s Public Schools Today, June 20

By Leave a Comment

Photo: The final walk out of school at the Wellington.

Do you hear the pupils sing? Singing the songs of no more school.

Unless it snows today, Wednesday, June 20 is the final day of the 2017-18 school year in Belmont. Coincidentally, it’s also the final day of spring as the summer solstice occurs on June 21 at 6:07 a.m. (for any druid who needs to know).

And students won’t be spending the entire day in class as Wednesday is an early release day for all grades. Some of the elementary schools will have a final walk out of school of the “graduating” 4th graders who will be heading to the Chenery Middle School in the fall. 

While school is officially “out for summer,” there is one final student event of the year taking place on Saturday, June 23 as Belmont High’s boys’ and girls’ rugby squads will complete in the state championships at Newton South High School.

And for parents, it’s only 77 days until the first day of the 2018-19 school year on Wednesday, Sept. 5.

 

2018 Belmont High Graduation In Words And Pictures

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Mortarboard saying

With a cool 60-degrees outside keeping the temp ceremony below the usual sweltering conditions of past graduations, the Wenner Field House was packed with family, relatives, and friends who witnessed a record 331 seniors from the class of 2018  graduate from Belmont High School on Sunday, June 3.

The afternoon was filled with pomp and circumstance, a cappella singing, thoughtful remarks, senior pranks, an hour of presentation of diplomas and throwing of hats at the conclusion of the ceremony. 

Three students addressed their classmates and the audience: 

Class President Benjamin Brody

“As we sit where we are, right now, we are on the precipice of the old and the new. We can look retrospectively on our lives as high school students as we look prospectively on whatever comes next. … When we get to the beginning of the next part our prospective journeys, that same confident, that same level of comfort, that same feeling of belonging and of ‘I’ve made it’, all the stuff that makes up our right foot, our best foot, our ‘pedidextrous’ … it can all stay with us if we put our minds to it. … All us can look to the future and put our best foot forward … take on this journey with the same zeal and confidence that I know we will all have as we walk across this very stage.

Kosta Tingos, School Committee Award for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship

“It isn’t a fluke that his class of 2018 is special. I believe we were not born this way but instead we fought for every inch of our success and made a mark at BHS and our greater community. … Today we find ourselves facing a similar transition, one from high school to a new chapter in our lives, whether it be college, career, gap year, or some other pursuit. We have been through a lot and accomplished a lot and now we have an opportunity to start fresh and do what we love and dream of. Everything is possible, and relish all the unexpected twist and turns. … Go into the world, wear your heart on your sleeve, win your own championship and, most importantly, enjoy your life. 

Sofia Schlozman, School Committee Award for Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship

“As we step away from the familiar routines of Belmont High School and the next stages of our lives, we will all encounter setbacks. There will be moments when we will feel small, confused and a little bit lost. But while the prospect of these challenges  [is] truly frightening, there is also excitement and the opportunity to work for something new and to learn from the moments that don’t immediately go our way. … Let’s learn to embrace the difficult moments and to celebrate what we accomplished, whether the outcome is as perfect as we hoped it would be or not. After all, the beauty of things that don’t come easily is that they always matter more.”

A Cruise For Graduating Seniors At The Annual All Night Party

By Leave a Comment

Photo: All Aboard. 

Entering Belmont High School less than three hours after graduation last Sunday, June 3, you’d have found yourself on the gangplank to a voyage into the future.

The 44th annual Belmont High School All Night Party transformed the hallways, the lunchroom and the school’s auditorium into a cruise ship – “USS Marauder” – with shuffleboard, casino games, Karaoke in the auditorium, a DJ and lots of food in the cafeteria and Pitch Perfect 3 on the widescreen. 

The annual eight hour-long party allowed Belmont High seniors a night to celebrate their graduation with their friends in a controlled, alcohol-free environment rather than going out on their own for unsupervised activities. Starting at 9 p.m. on June 3 and concluding at 5 a.m. on June 4, the “All Nighter” provided games, contests, dances, entertainment, music, food, refreshments and good times.

Thanks to the effort by the All Night Party Executive Committee, run by junior and underclass parents, which met for more than a year, and with the help of business supporters and food contributors, the committee undertook the monumental task of building out and decorating the rooms and cafeteria, organizing a boatload of volunteers, keeping the kids fed and raise the money – think north of $20,000 – to put it all together.

“Wow it’s hard to send our beautiful Belmont kids off to college next fall but I was lucky enough to be asked to be the lead sponsor of the year-end bash where the kids could wrap up the year together in a variety of fun and friendly and exciting events….while being safe,” said Anne Mahon. “Having coached some of these kids in basketball and soccer and worked with them in our after school program all I can say is the world is a better place when them in it and I’m so glad I got to know so many of these great kids.”

Dismissal Of Well-Liked Teacher Leads To Call By Students To Reinstate Educator [VIDEO]

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Belmont High seniors Haley Brown (left) and Eva Hill are working to reinstate popular English teacher Roanne Bosch whose contract was not extended after two years.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Belmont High School student who didn’t enjoy having Roanne Bosch as their English teacher.

“She’s everything a teacher should be, noted Brown; passionate, driven, compassionate and true understanding of all of our needs,” said senior Haley Brown, who with fellow 12th grader Eva Hill took Bosch’s junior honors class – which focuses on American writers – the year before and came back this school year to be her teaching assistants.

“She’s universally loved in a school which is hard to do with such diverse population,” said Brown.

The reason for such high praise for someone at Belmont High for only the past two years, is “this innate talent that’s not commonly found, it’s about her character that makes students really want to learn,” said Brown. “She really cares what each person say in class then asks them more questions, treating us like mature young adults with ideas that are valid,” said Hill.

The result is student’s care about the material rather than completing it by rote, said Hill.

With a growing number of students drawn to her teaching approach and lessons, it would appear that Belmont High had discovered an educator with that something special that every district is seeking to teach in their schools.

But Bosch’s classes will be filled by another educator in September as the school district declined to extend the English teacher’s contract for a third year.

For students, parents and some fellow teachers, the news came as a bolt from the blue.

“All of the blood left my head. I was in shock,” said Brown after hearing that Bosch was not asked to come back

“I saw a Facebook page that said Miss Bosch was leaving and I thought it was a [prank],” said Hill.

It’s not that Bosch lacks experience in the field; a third generation teacher, she joined Teach For America after graduating from the State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry and earned a master’s in education from Harvard. Bosch taught at Lexington High School in the mid-2000s and earned professional status there in 2011 before teaching at Belmont. 

While Bosch quietly told students about her status, the news got out to the hallways and across the school in a flash. 

“The response has been incredibly passionate,” said Brown, which included a student writing “#freebosch” on his arm. 

Students rallied to come up with a plan to allow Bosch to come back for the next year. Brown and Hill joined others to create a petition on change.org in which 705 students, parents and others are calling the Belmont School Committee to rehire Bosch. Parents began discussing possible tactic to remedy what they see is a problem in fairly evaluating staff. 

What is troubling to Brown, Hill and other students is that no reason has been provided by the district for why Bosch was terminated. “We don’t know how many people were part of the decision, who they were and what was the criteria they used. It seems pretty arbitrary since all we know is how engaged and great she was in the classroom,” said Hill.

Belmont School District Superintendent John Phelan told the Belmontonian in an email “[t]he district respectfully will not comment on employment and personnel matters.”

If a teacher of Ms. Bosch’s caliber can be let go without a second thought, it worries us about the future, said Hill.

“It’s evident to us that the district’s decision was a mistake,” she said.

The students and their supporters will take their cause to the Belmont School Committee at its Tuesday, May 22 meeting at the Chenery Middle School with the ultimate goal of seeing their teacher back at Belmont High in the fall.

“We want to make a difference and reinstate Miss Bosch,” said Hill

As they have been working on the effort, the goal is now bigger than just bringing back Bosch, said Brown. “How is an educator who will be in the same position in the future to know how to do better in the future?” she said.

“We want to foster an environment where more teachers aren’t afraid to try new things and engage with all their students and treat them like they deserve to be there no matter how academically talented they may be,” said Brown.

“Why would a teacher who is an innovator want to come to Belmont when they fire the ones they have here already?” said Hill.

After A Gesture Of Goodwill, Norton Appointed To Fill Final School Committee Seat

By Leave a Comment

Photo: Jill Norton of the Belmont School Committee.

It was a political gesture that’s hardly seen in an age of insulting opponents and demeaning the process.

A vote to fill the vacant seat on the Belmont School Committee by a joint meeting of the Belmont Board of Selectmen and the School Committee, on Friday, May 11, resulted in a four-to-four deadlock between Jill Norton and Michael Crowley, two of the four candidates seeking the position.

As the selectmen and committee were prepared for the second round of voting between the two, Crowley told the board he wished to “make things easy.”

“I appreciate that Jill got out and ran and I’ve talked to her a number of times … and she would do a fabulous job on the school committee,” as he graciously step aside, withdrawing his nomination to allow Norton, who unsuccessfully ran for a term on the committee, to serve the remaining two years of Thomas Caputo’s term after he was elected to the Board of Selectmen in April. 

The act caught the boards and residents by surprise as the Clark Street resident was unanimously approved by the board.

Crowley said his decision was not due to any sense of doing “the honorable thing.”

“I like [Norton] and it felt right,” said the Warrant Committee member. “I didn’t want to see any quibbling or arguing which I did see any benefit in that.” 

For Norton, Crowley’s reaction thwarted her own thoughts of ceding her votes to her opponent.

“It’s funny because I potentially was thinking of doing the same thing Michael did but he got there first,” she said, noting a financial background is important as the schools make up nearly half of the town’s annual budget.

The closeness of the vote showed the group were of two minds on the skills the School Committee would need in the coming years. The first four votes were for Crowley, emphasizing his budgetary and financial background as well as his membership on the town’s financial watchdog agency.

“There’s sort of a void in that hardcore, number crunching [skill set],” said Adam Dash, selectmen chair.

Norton, who received the final four votes, was seen bringing a policy approach while each of members who selected her said she deserved credit for stepping up and running a good campaign and were vetted by the voters.

“I do give a lot of credit who put themselves out there for the election,” said Susan Burgess-Cox, chair of the School Committee.

But the differences were made mute when Crowley abandoned the race.

As for the newest member, Norton has experience on the policy side of the education field. For the past two years, Norton has worked as Director of Education Policy at Cambridge-based Abt Associates, to help develop and execute a strategy for the firm’s Education Practice. Previously, she was a Senior Policy Adviser for the state’s Executive Office of Education and Executive Director of the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, a Cambridge-based think tank, having started her career as a classroom teacher.

Norton matriculated at Michigan State University where she earned a BA in Elementary Education and received her Master’s in Education from Harvard. A 16 year Belmont resident, her oldest child attends Belmont’s public school.

Norton told the Belmontonian that her priority is to listen to the constituencies – teachers, students, parents, and administrators – within the districts before she brings proposals before the committee, “and is there any possible connection between our needs and funding and grant opportunities that the governor’s office is considering.” 

Norton said her family’s involvement with the cadre of educators teaching her son as well as her background in the classroom “intensifies my inclination to connect with teachers and support all the good work that they are doing and do whatever I can because that’s where the rubber meets the road.”

Excellence In High School Senior Writing Honored At Blacker Prizes May 16

By Leave a Comment

Photo: The annual Blacker Prizes will be bestowed on Wednesday, May 16.

The Belmont High School English Department will present the annual Lillian F. Blacker Prizes for Excellence in Writing on Wednesday evening, May 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the Peter Holland Library at Belmont High School. This year, we will honor seniors James Kitch, Mirilla Zhu, and Nanako Tokuo for their outstanding writing.  Belmont residents are cordially invited to attend.

Family and friends established the Blacker Prizes more than 20 years ago in memory of Lillian F. Blacker, a longtime Belmont resident who was very active in community affairs and was director of the Harvard Medical News Office. She is remembered by the school and the community as a true lover of literature and language.

The Blacker Prizes are presented each year to three seniors for outstanding writing ability on their senior theses.  Each senior reads, researches, and writes a lengthy thesis paper investigating a literary topic. English faculty members determine the winners after an extensive reading process.

At the awards ceremony, the three Blacker Prize winners will read from their papers and discuss the evolution of their ideas. A panel of seniors will discuss their topics and the senior thesis process. Teachers, parents, administrators, and friends are invited. Underclassmen are encouraged to attend the ceremony to learn more about the senior thesis process. Refreshments will be served.

Skanska Named New High School Construction Manager; Completes Project ‘Team’

By 1 Comment

Photo: Skanska USA named construction manager of the new high school.

A familiar face will construct the new Belmont High School as Skanska USA was selected as the project’s Construction Manager by a subcommittee of the Belmont High School Building Committee on Tuesday, May 8.

Subcommittee Chair Patricia Brusch told the Belmontonian the multinational construction and development company headquartered in Sweden with an office in Boston will be officially on board the project “very quickly. Just a matter of days.” 

Skanska is no stranger to Belmont having managed the construction of the 84,000 square-foot Wellington Elementary School on Orchard Street between 2010 to 2011. 

Besides upfront payments, Skanska will receive a two percent of the total cost of the project as its fee, said Brusch.

Brusch said the three candidate firms – Skanska, Suffolk Construction, and Gilbane Building Co. – interviewed on Monday, May 7, were close in the subcommittee’s evaluation and in the bids submitted. But the subcommittee members ranked Skanska first in each category, said Brusch, who indicated the firm’s positive experience building the Wellington was likely the edge that won it the job.

“Each [firm] said they would do what was asked of them, but we knew that Skanska actually did it,” said Brusch, who recalled one example where the firm shut down operations at the Wellington whenever a funeral or memorial service took place at nearly by St. Joseph’s Church without being asked. 

With Skanska’s selection, the major players to build the estimated $290 million project has now been assembled with Skanska joining Daedalus Projects of Boston as Project Manager and Boston’s Perkins+Will as architect/designer.