They’re Back! First Day of School in Belmont Wednesday, Sept. 2

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Photo: Crossing the street at the Burbank. 

Remember the alarm clock? It probably hasn’t been heard since the last week in June; but starting today, it returns as a weekday companion for parents and children as Wednesday, Sept. 2, marks the first day of school in Belmont for student in 1st through 12th grades.

Kindergarten students get to sleep in for a week, as the youngest Belmont students start on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 8 and 9.

Belmont High School starts at 7:35 a.m.; Chenery Middle School at 7:55 a.m.; the Burbank, Butler and Wellington elementary schools at 8:40 a.m.; and the Winn Brook at 8:50 a.m. 

For school hours, the school-year calendar, bus routes, lunch menus, and more information, go to www.belmont.k12.ma.us/bps/

With students being greeted by temperatures reaching the lower 90s on both days – and with several schools lacking adequate air conditioning – school officials are suggesting students come to school with water and stay hydrated.

On these first two days of the 2015-16 year – the six Belmont public schools will be closed Friday, Sept. 4 through Monday, Sept. 7 for the Labor Day holiday – Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan is asking for parents and students to be safe and patient.

Phelan said due to street closures and road construction throughout the town, drivers learning new routes and parents giving long goodbyes to children on their first days, buses will likely be delayed. 

Parents driving their children to school along with students driving to Belmont High School are also being asked to be patient while each school’s administration works out the kinks of their drop-off and pick-up plans.

In addition, Phelan and the Belmont Police are asking all drivers “to be mindful of our students who are walking or biking to school.”  

“The sidewalks, streets,  and parking lots will be congested and we want to make sure all can share the road safely,” said Phelan. 

Beginning this year following a suggestion by Phelan, the district has adopted a pre-Labor Day opening to the school year. Phelan hopes starting school for two days, followed by the four-day Labor Day holiday and four days of school “will facilitate a smooth transition for our children.”

“This gradual start will give our students a chance to meet their teachers this week, find out expectations for the year, and set up their school routines,” said Phelan in his opening day memo sent to parents and teachers.

“Then, hopefully, they can spend the four-day weekend stress-free and return to school Tuesday refreshed and prepared to learn,” he noted.

Registration Now Open for Scharfman Memorial Run

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Photo: A scene from last year’s Dan Scharfman road race.

Runners and residents can now register for the Foundation for Belmont Education‘s third annual Dan Scharfman Memorial Run being held on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 9:30 a.m. at Belmont High School’s Harris Field, 221 Concord Ave.

What is now a fall staple on the road running calendar, this family-friendly event offers a 5k and a 2k course that takes runners through a scenic route past many of the town’s schools as well as the Payson Park Reservoir and Clay Pit Pond. Awards follow each race’s end, including prizes for children of all ages.

The race is held in memorial of Dan Scharfman, a Belmont School Committee member, long-time runner and a dedicated advocate of technology and innovation in education. Last year, more than 500 runners raised $25,000 for the Dan Scharfman Education Innovation Fund in support of the FBE’s Innovative Teaching Initiative, a multi-year, $450,000 program providing teachers with the training resources that support math, science and reading instruction.

Registration for the USATF-certified and sanctioned event is available through the FBE website: www.fbe-belmont.org/race.

Contact: Amanda Theodoropulos, Foundation for Belmont Education, amanda.maria.mccarthy@gmail.com or call 617-947-4633.

 

High School Students Continue to Make Their Garden Grow [Video]

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Photo: Olivia Cronin and Ann Pan cutting the ribbon at the Belmont High School Food Justice Club’s Garden.

Looking for the dedicated plot of land – with its new fence, plants and a whole lot vegetables growing adjacent to the Grant Baseball Field at Belmont High School – Olivia Cronin thinks back a little more than a year ago when she and Maggie O’Brien decided to start a garden on campus. 

“It’s very nostalgic, I’ll have a hard time letting go,” said the 18-year-old this past Monday, as she prepares to matriculate at McGill University in the next few weeks.

Olivia Cronin at the ribbon cutting.

Olivia Cronin at the ribbon cutting.

“But the four girls taking over, it’s in good hands,” she said. 

In its second growing season, the Belmont High School Garden and Food Justice Club held a ribbon cutting ceremony this past Monday, Aug. 17, to hail the garden’s success and recent improvements.

“It’s a celebration of the past two years where we saw a lot of improvement and success in the garden,” said Cronin, who along with fellow recent Belmont High graduate O’Brien, symbolically handed off the garden to the next group of student volunteers.

[Source: Video thanks Lucas Tragos/Belmont Media Center]

The student-led club founded the school’s first vegetable garden in the spring of 2014 “with the practical purpose was supplying food to the [Belmont] Food Pantry,” said Cronin, noting that all the food in the pantry is canned goods, so “it’s nice to have the fresh food,” including eggplants, beans and tomatoes.

“When they first came to us last year, they would have a small box with a few tomatoes and some beans. Now a year later, they came in yesterday with eight eggplants and two huge zucchinis,” said Food Pantry Director Patty Mihelich, whose non-profit receives the bounty of the student’s garden.

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“I had a new person come to the pantry and she was so excited the fact that we had fresh produce which is so expensive at the stores,” said Mihelich.

The BHS Garden is cared for by students during the school year and summer and during the non-growing season the club hosts a Winter Food Drive, as well as other projects and trips.

During its first summer, the garden’s four beds hosted tomatoes, eggplant, bush beans, broccoli and beets, with seedling donations from Belmont Acres Farms.

In its second season, the garden received a grant from The Whole Kids Foundation to finance a cedar post fencing and blueberry bushes that will give the four garden beds some durability.

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Ann Pan picking a tomato from the garden.

The student garden is now in the hands of Ammu Dinesh, Brett Koslowsky, Alena Jaeger and Ann Pan, with a goal of continue expanding, increasing the school’s involvement in the garden and promoting conversation about sustainable growing and food insecurity in Belmont.

“We hope to see the garden expand in the future,” said Cronin, “since this brings the whole community together, high school students providing for other community members in the same area.”

Cronin noted assistance from Belmont High Principal Dan Richards and Fred Domenici, the school’s head of grounds, Mike Chase of Belmont Acres Farm for seedling donations; Joan Teebagy of the Belmont Food Collaborative for writing The Whole Kids Grant; Suzanne Johannet of the Belmont Food Collaborative for her guidance and practical support; and Michael LaPierre of ML Fencing for donating the fence installation labor.

For Richards, the plot is an opening to broaden students outlook.

“The kids deserve all the credit for the garden from the very beginning in my office to today where they have faced all the challenges of keeping this going,” he said. “I think they learned a great deal of project-based planning and responsibility as well as giving back to the community.”

“And it’s another way for the kids to think about hunger and how to support people in need,” said Mihelich.

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Young Professionals Wanted for Belmont High’s ‘Real World Career Night’

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Photo: The poster for Real World Career Day.
For Belmont High Schoool Senior Tess Hayner, last year’s first-ever “Real World Career Day” – her idea of having young professionals discuss with high school students the ins and outs of finding a career – is well worth holding again. 
 
“Based on positive feedback, I know the students appreciated the chance to interact with relatively recent college graduates, now working in the real world.” said Hayner 
 
The second annual “Real World Career Events” will take place on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Belmont High School cafeteria

“We were thrilled with the wide variety of professions that attended last year’s event, and now hope to recruit even more professionals from different fields,” said Hayner, who is managing this year’s event  with junior coordinator Anya Sondhi.

And like last year, the event is seeking a wide-array of workers in their 20s and the early 30s who graduated from any high school between the years of 1999-2011, to volunteer and hold short, informal conversations with Belmont High juniors and seniors.

“My goal is by the end of the night, after many conversations with various young professionals, the juniors and seniors of Belmont High School will feel less intimidated, and perhaps inspired when it comes to turning their hobbies and interests into lifetime careers,” said Hayner.

All professions are welcome. Business people, educators, graphic artists, technicians, medical workers, scientists, accountants, you name it!

An introductory video and volunteer entry form can be found here, or email Tess and Anya at rwcareernight@gmail.com for more information.

“Whether you’re in your dream job, working towards your dream job, or still unsure of what that dream job even is, we want to hear from all of you,” she said. 

Freshman Orientation at BHS Set for Thursday, Aug. 27

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Photo: Mr. Marauder.

The first day of school is always daunting, especially when it’s in a new building with people you don’t know.

In an attempt to ease those anxieties and make the transition from middle school a tad less stressful, the Belmont High School Connectors Program is sponsoring a Freshman Orientation for the approximate 300 raising 9th graders entering the High School on Thursday, Aug. 27, from 5 p.m. to  7:15 p.m. 

There will be a smaller Connectors event for upper-class transfer students on Friday, Aug. 28 at lunch time.

Events for the new students will include:

  • A student-led tour of the building,
  • Group meetings with guidance counselors,
  • Joining current students for a pizza dinner,
  • Parents are welcome for the opening panel from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
  • Pre-registration or sign-up is unnecessary. 

The Connectors is a joint program of staff, teachers, students and the High School’s PTO to provide information, support and companionship so a new student’s adjustment to high school will go smoothly.

Tearin’ Up the Wenner Floor! Installation of New Court Underway

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Photo: Crew from American Sport Floors preparing for a new surface at Belmont High School’s Wenner Field House.

When former athletes heard that the basketball courts at Belmont High School’s Wenner Field House was being torn out, former players began coming to see the crew taking the surface out with requests.

They wanted their own section as a keepsake.

OK, the slippery, threadbare vinyl surface was deemed by Belmont players and opponents alike as the worst court in the Middlesex League. But Ryan, the supervisor of the crew from Rockland-based American Sport Floors, said students and alum were asking for floor samples as souvenirs, especially the painted section around the free-throw line. 

As of Tuesday, July 28, the only recognizable section remaining of the former court was the Marauders logo that once stood at center court, cut out to be saved as a memento.  

Since last week, Ryan and his workers have been physically peeling off the nearly three-decade old vinyl surface as part of a private/public partnership financing the installation of a new textured and padded synthetic surface at Belmont High School.

As the workers heap strips of the former floor in piles, Ryan points to places on the bare cement foundation.

“You can see where the glue never took hold,” he said.

“There was nothing holding the old surface in place since it was laid,” said Ryan.

Led by Belmont Savings Bank, Belmont Youth Basketball and Belmont Boosters, the removal and installing of the new varsity volleyball/basketball court began with the official groundbreaking held this past Monday, July 20.

At the event, Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan and Belmont High Principal Dan Richards were thankful and appreciative of all the donors and especially for the additional time and effort put in by the original committee made up of John Carson, Paula Christofori, Jon Baldi, Chris Messer and David Ramsey.

The new stone grey and dark blue court – which will be inaugurated by Belmont High’s Volleyball team in September – is being financed with private funds, including a pair of $35,000 contributions, one from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation and the other from the Belmont Youth Basketball Association. An additional $5,000 was collected at a fundraiser held at Hopkinton Country Club.  

A $100,000 appropriation from the Capital Budget Committee was approved by Town Meeting to complete the adjacent JV court and the surrounding area in 2016.

 

Originally the focus was just the varsity court but a substantial contribution of $15,000 by the Belmont Boosters will allow the the surface surrounding the court, out to the inner track, to be completed.

According to American Sport Floors, the court should be installed and painted by the start of the new school year in late August/September.

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Those responsible for the new court at Wenner Field House: John Carson; Committee Member, Michael DiMarco; Belmont Savings, Jim Reynolds; Belmont Boosters President, David Ramsey; Committee Member, Chris Messer; Committee Member, Hal Tovin; Belmont Savings, Matt Cubstead; BYBA President, John Phelan; Superintendent of Schools, Dan Richards; Belmont High School principal. Absent from the organizing committee are Jon Baldi and Paula Christofori.

For Stone, Taking A Gap To Focus on the Practice of Programming

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Photo: Jack Stone showing elementary age students is app for the classroom.

By Mengjia Xu

Wearing a black T-shirt and white pants, Jack Stone – who graduated from Belmont High School in June – is both informal and approachable, just like the apps he creates.

(An app is a software program that’s designed to perform a specific function directly for the user, such as a map, games or reviewing when the next MBTA bus will arrive at your stop).

During his time at Belmont High, Stone started the school’s first computer club and helped write the curriculum for the coding course currently being offered.

Though the school does not necessarily have to teach specific programming languages, “the underline principles of computer science rather than programming” would be beneficial to students “in all facets of life,” he said.

Stone believes high school students should have a background in computer science and the Belmont School District should establish more courses in this field in both the middle and high schools to reach this goal.

“It’s the most efficient way of solving problems,” arguing that computer science is a different way of critical thinking that can be applied in all fields of learning. 

Jack’s interest in programming traces back to eighth grade at the Chenery Middle School when he created his first computer games. While he loved computer games, Stone realized he did not just want to “use someone else’s work,” but to “create [his] own.”

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Jack Stone.

 

Creating apps blends Jack’s favorite things about programming because he likes to do everything: write the frontend and backend, design interface, marketing and packaging. Inspirations sometimes stream through Jack’s mind when he’s “sitting on a couch.”

Once he starts working on a project, he dives through the process on his own. An app usually takes a week or two to create, followed by a lot of revisions as he relies on his friends’ feedback.

Some of Stone’s apps include a physics equations solver and a JavaScript screen recorder, each sharing features of practical convenience and easy use, with polished interfaces and functionality. 

“What I strive to do with my projects is to improve people’s lives,” said Stone.

Growing up with parents not versed in programming, Jack picked up programming online and through books, integrating theory with practice. 

As a self-taught programmer, he sometimes struggles when confronted with technical difficulties, and Google search is his first and only way to get help. Since Belmont does not offer AP Computer Science, it is hard to find a programming expert, be they teacher or student, to consult. 

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Jack Stone.

To gain more practical experience in computer work, Stone is taking a “gap” year to intern at a software firm before attending Harvard College in the fall of 2016.               

For Stone, the coming year will be a chance to “get a break from working incredibly hard in the past four years.” It will also give him an opportunity to focus on music and traveling. A nationally-recognized bass trombonist, Stone is seeking to improve his playing before auditioning for Harvard’s orchestra.

Devoting a year to explore his interests will not only boost his competitiveness in college, but also lay the foundation for a future career. Working at software companies will allow him to gain real-world experiences such as writing code for collaborative projects and establishing interpersonal networks. 

Stone hopes to gain “fresh perspectives” that can help him to develop his new software that “simplifies the sharing of information between people.”

Custodians, Cafeteria Workers Strike Three-Year Deal with Schools

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Photo: Custodians at work.

The men and women who keep Belmont’s six schools clean and tidy and help feed 4,100 students will be getting a small pay raise after the Belmont School Committee approved a three-year contract with the union representing the workers.

The committee unanimously approved the memorandum of agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) which represents the 33 employees – 18 custodians and 15 cafeteria workers employed more than 20 hours.

The compensation package, retroactive to July 1, 2014 and running through 2017, will see workers receive wage increases of:

  • 0.5 percent as of July 1, 2014,
  • 2.25 percent as of July 1, 2015,
  • 2 percent as of July 1, 2016, and 
  • 0.25 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2017.

The agreement also includes a performance review and how the workers account for snow days. 

Taking the Happy (and Scary) Walk from Elementary to Middle School

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Photo: Students during Wellington Elementary’s final walk for its 4th graders on the final day of school, Tuesday, June 22.

Sitting on the turf field outside the entrance to the Roger Wellington Elementary School on a muggy, warm last day of school, fourth-grade teacher Jessica Endres was holding court one final time with her 24 students.

“Don’t forget to come back to visit me because I’ll miss each one of you,” she told her class.

Then, with a final good-bye, Endres saw her elementary student become official middle schoolers.

“We had a great year, and it’s sad that it’s coming to an end,” she said between receiving hugs and bouquets. “They were an excellent class.”

In what has become an annual event at Belmont, students moving into new schools are given an opportunity to have a “final exit” from their current building. At the Wellington, the four classes of fourth graders are led out the school’s front entrance by Principal Amy Spangler and their teachers – Endres, Samantha McCabe, Steven Tenhor and Christina Westfall – in front of parents and family.

It’s an emotional day, for sure,” said Spangler, as the students either briskly hurried down the sidewalk or spent the time waving, saluting, dancing or blowing kisses.

“Today our kids are mixed with emotion, excited about Middle School and they’re also terrified about Middle School,” she said.

In preparation for their big move, the fourth graders spent a day at the Chenery where they were allowed them to ask any question “which is super helpful because then [Chenery Middle School Principal] Kristen [St. George] and her team can prepare the kids with real frank answers.”

As she said farewell to students she had been with for four or five years, Spangler said the end of term is always bittersweet but especially with those leaving for the final time.

“Whether it was an easy class or a challenging one, at the end of the year you know we accomplished something, they accomplished something, and we’ll miss them,” Spangler said.

“They grow on you. They’re our babies.”

Cool and Dark: Belmont High’s New Court Design Unveiled

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Photo: The new basketball/volleyball court at Belmont High School will be ready for the volleyball season in September. 

Stone gray and midnight blue will color the new varsity court at the Wenner Field House as Belmont Athletic Director Jim Davis unveiled the new design to the School Committee at the final committee meeting of the school year on Monday, June 22 at the Chenery Middle School.

Replacing the long threadbare 20-year-old vinyl court will be a padded, modern synthetic court displaying the school’s mascot in the center circle and “Belmont” “Marauders” on either end. Construction will begin in late-July and be completed at the end of August.

The darkish color scheme will complement Belmont’s home “white” kits.

Along with the new court, the rims on the varsity court will be repaired or replaced.

The new court – which will be inaugurated with a game by Belmont High’s Volleyball team in September – was financed by a $100,000 appropriation from the Capital Budget Committee and private funds, chiefly from duel $35,000 contributions from the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation and the Belmont Youth Basketball Association. An additional $5,000 was raised at a fundraiser at Hopkinton Country Club.

Originally the focus was just the varsity court but a substantial contribution of $15,000 by the Belmont Boosters will allow the the surface surrounding the court, out to the inner track, to be completed.

The adjacent junior variety court will be completed in the summer of 2016.