Tickets ‘On Sail’ for Performing Arts Company’s Musical ‘Anything Goes’

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What do I hear? Is that spring in the air?

It must be as tickets are now on sale for Belmont High School’s Performing Arts Company’s spring musical, Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.”

The story consists of a series of madcap antics between a stowaway, a heiress, a nobleman, a nightclub singer and “Public Enemy #13 Moonface Martin” all aboard an ocean liner heading from New York to London. The list of popular songs in the musical includes “Anything Goes,” “You’re the Top,” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.

Performances

  • Thursday and Friday, March 26 and 27, at 7 p.m.
  • Saturday, March 28; a matinee at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets

  • Adults: $15 in advance/$18 at the door.
  • Students: $10
  • Chenery 8th grade students: $5
  • Belmont Schools staff: reserve a free ticket online with coupon code BPSSTAFF or by e-mailing tickets@bhs-pac.org 

Buy tickets online here, at the door and at Champions Sports in Belmont Center.

Limited Tickets Remain For Foundation for Belmont Education’s Spring Fling

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Photo: The highly entertaining Neal Fay will be this year’s auctioneer at the Foundation for Belmont Education’s 16th annual Spring Dinner.

Don’t be left out in the snow: a limited number of tickets are still available to the Foundation for Belmont Education’s 16th annual Spring Dinner set for Saturday, March 21.

And it would be wise to get those tickets soon as the price of tickets will increases March 2, from $125 to $150.  

You can obtain tickets here.

“Mad for Education” is this year’s theme for a night of dinner, dancing and a fast-paced auction led by Neal J. Fay.

The event takes place at the Belmont Hill School from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

For more information, e-mail the FBE at springdinner@fbe-belmont.org

Schools Budget Deficit Fix: Teacher Layoffs, Increased Class Sizes, Lost Ground

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Photo: The Wellington Elementary School will lose a third-grade teacher with the acceptance of the available revenue budget in fiscal year 2016.

When asked her reaction to the presentation by Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan on the details of cuts facing the district, Jamie Shea at first just shook her head.

For Shea and others who attended the Belmont School Committee meeting Tuesday night, Feb. 24, the impact on education in bridging the anticipated $1.7 million facing the district in the coming fiscal year was akin to listening to an eulogy for the reputation of a proud district.

“It’s extremely sobering to hear the potential cuts we all are facing,” said Shea, who is the current president of the Foundation for Belmont Education, the group that supports excellence and enrichment in Belmont’s six schools.

“It would be transformative to the district. It will impact every single student in the district. Every single one,” she said.

Phelan said the district – which he has been in charge since July – will not be the same to the one which many families moved to Belmont to attend.

“The Belmont Public Schools will struggle deeply to meet the expectations of their students and families that they so rightly deserve. If there were a headline from this presentation, it would be ‘Available Budget Impact Students Experiences Negatively,” Phelan told the Belmontonian after the meeting.

The cuts are necessary due to a historic surge in enrollment, higher expenditures for special education and unfunded state mandates.

During Tuesday meeting, Phelan walked the committee and residents through the components in each school group – elementary, middle school and high school – where savings will be made.

The cuts, which were compiled by the Leadership Council – made up of school principals, senior staff and curriculum directors – are significant and deep by most measures.

(The presentation can be found on the school district’s website.)

Most of the retrenchment, $1.3 million, will come in personnel with the elimination of 22 full-time equivalent professional positions, with the remaining amount coming in less support for instructional material, personal development and facilities and increase fees for student actives and full-day kindergarten.
The cuts include:

  • In the elementary schools, the elimination of more than seven aides, the Butler, Burbank and Wellington will lose guidance counselors, a reduction in music education and physical education and the firing of a third grade teacher at the Wellington.
  • At the Chenery, there will be wholesale cuts to the long-standing team teaching model in English, math, science social studies and world language in sixth through eighth grades, the eliminate of all eighth grade music and art electives, cutting sections of small group reading and a large reduction in library services.
  • Belmont High School will see the elimination of English, math, social studies and fine and performing arts teacher while all the World Language teachers will be reduced to part-timers.

District wide, the science director will be let go as will a preschool teacher. A reduction of instructional material and supplies, facilities, and professional development while student and rental fees are increased.

In total, Belmont will lose more than 14 teaching positions and nearly ten aides.

For classroom teachers, the cuts will fundamentally change the relationship with their students, said John Sullivan, the president of the Belmont Education Association, which represents Belmont teachers and aides in salary negotiations.

“You can’t get to know [your students] personally, to know when they are upset about something and then reach out to support them. It changes the entire student experience,” said the Belmont resident who teaches at Belmont High School.

While the cuts in teaching staff and other savings will drain the system of its red ink, the impact on students will be significant, said Phelan. For example:

  • Three of every four elementary students, about 1,300, will be in taught in classes exceeding the school committee’s guidelines for effective education.
  • Junior and seniors in high school – more than 600 pupils currently enrolled – will be limited to five courses in a seven-course schedule.
  • The average class size for math and English at the high school will be more than 27, effecting 1,250 students.
  • More than 300 seniors will be unable to take courses that will impact their chances being accepted at high-performing colleges and universities.
  • More than 300 students in the middle school will be heading to study halls due to the cuts in fine and performing arts.

The cut of the science director will seriously delay the district’s plan to move forward with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-related courses which national leaders are calling crucial for all citizens to know.

And the loss of aides and guidance councilors in the four elementary schools will reduce the effectiveness of the district’s Response to Intervention services that identifies educational challenges for young students as well as addressing the social and emotional needs of students.

The magnitude of the cuts was unsettling for those who oversee education in Belmont.

“I think it has the potential to really decimate the system,” said Laurie Slap, School Committee Chair.

“What struck me was that one of our colleagues said that it was so sad to see educational opportunities just shrink for our students from K to 12 especially in the high school. Five courses? That isn’t what anyone expects from this district.”

Phelan said the district, and especially Belmont High School, has been worn down over time by trimming courses and reducing staff. With this major hit

“The reductions we are proposing and the elimination of positions are rooted in the methodology in what we need to do first and what we would like to do second. Our ‘likes to do’ are now are stables and cores – the everyday things – in districts that surround us. We will lose even more ground with the proposed budget,” said Phelan.

For Phelan, the School Committee and many attending the meeting, the only way to preserve the district’s reputation is for the passage of a $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override recommended by the Financial Task Force in January.

“I support the Task Force’s recommendation for the fiscal health of the entire town. If that fiscal health is brought back to a certain level through an injection of funds that goes to sidewalks streets police, fire, and schools, the whole town is a better place,” said Phelan.

At the end of the meeting, Slap said that everyone in town needs to know what the choices they face and everyone needs to get informed to understand what the cuts means to the district.

“It’s important that people get informed and understand what the reductions will bring if we do not pass the … override and get to the polls,” Shea told the Belmontonian.

“Hopefully we can get a coalition of different coalition of different constituent groups that can work cooperatively to make sure our students get the best education they can,” said Sullivan.

Belmont Schools Face ‘Significant, Negative Impact’ in Fiscal ’16 Budget; Loss of 22 Positions, Larger Class Sizes

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Photo: Teacher and staff represented by the Belmont Education Association listening to District Superintendent John Phelan present the fiscal 2016 school budget to the Belmont School Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

Belmont students will face “significant and negative impacts” if the Belmont School Committee approves an available revenue budget for the next fiscal year leaving the town’s top-rated schools with an anticipated $1.7 million shortfall, according to Belmont District Superintendent John Phelan.

The current budget would force Phelan to eliminate up to 22 full-time positions including teachers and staff, allow classroom sizes in all grades to exceed the School Committee’s own benchmarks for effective teaching and increase the number of “frees” and study halls for middle and high school students.

“It would be problematic for the district to function as a Tier 1 district under this budget,” Phelan told the Belmontonian Thursday, Feb. 12.

Making the first public presentation of the fiscal 2016 budget before the School Committee and approximately 75 teachers and staff at the Chenery Middle School, Phelan presented an overview of its fiscal year 2016 budget in which the district would run on the best estimates of the available revenue from state and town sources.

Under the town’s estimates, the schools will receive $47.5 million in fiscal ’16 under the current Town Meeting approved 58/42 budget “split” in which the district receives 58 percent of total revenues.

Belmont is already doing a great deal of what it has, said Phelan. Where the average annual expenditure per student statewide is $14,571, Belmont has become an educational destination for homebuyers spending roughly $12,800 a year.

In the presentation, Phelan told the committee the district finds itself facing several “pressure points,” the most immediate is the skyrocketing increase in enrollment. In just the past five years – 2009 to 2014 – the student population in kindergarten to 12th grade has increased by 317 students to 4,222 in October, 2014.

And the forecast is that an additional 408 students will enter the district by 2019, a ten-year increase of 723 pupils. For comparison, the Wellington Elementary School has approximately 440 students.

Phelen said the increasing population has also bumped up the number of students requiring assistance in English Language learning by nearly double in two years, 117 in 2013 to 222 in 2015. Because about 80 of those students are not very proficient in English, the state requires Belmont to hire new staff to provide 2.5 hours of “small group instruction.”

Also in the overall population is a growing number special education students. The major component of the current year’s $500,000 school deficit is nearly $950,000 in unanticipated costs associated with special education. And those costs will increase in fiscal 2016 with the rising number of students entering the district.

When calculating the new costs required to the current “pressure points” and moving the current level of staff and teachers into the new year, the schools will need $49.2 million just to “stay current.”

But with rising costs and stagnate revenue, Phelan said schools will be unable to meet the demands of the residents and students for a top-tier education as it attempts to fill the $1.7 million gap.

“With enrollments going up, and the number of positions staying steady if not being reduced, I would be hard pressed to say we can continue what we are doing,” Phelan told the Belmontonian.

The cuts would be deep and substantial: 22 full-time positions from teaching, staff and aids would be cut, a further reduction in material and supplies, trimming professional development, forego building maintenance, increase the fees to rent school property and a large increase in student and family fees for sports, clubs and full-time kindergarten.

What isn’t seen in the cost cutting will be more students in each classroom, less programs and idle teens “sitting on benches in the high school and in study halls at the Chenery,” said Phelan.

“This can only negatively impact student learning.”

The solution in Phelan’s eye and, in previous discussions with the School Committee, is to enthusiastically support the proposal outlined last month by the Financial Task Force to request the Board of Selectmen to place a three-year, $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override on the ballot to fund the enrollment issues facing the district.

“That is the solution,” he said.

John Sullivan, a Palfrey Road resident, Belmont teacher and president of the Belmont Education Association which represents district teachers in union negotiations, told the board that despite a highly trained and capable staff, class size impacts the day-to-day experience of students.

“If Belmont wants to maintain a high-quality student experience, one that puts Belmont High in the top 10 percent of high school state-wide, then the fiscal year ’16 budget, and future budgets, need to address the increase in enrollment,” said Sullivan.

NEW DATE: PJ Wearing Belmont High Students Out to Help Needy Kids

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If your child heads off to the high school in their PJs tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 13, don’t worry – in fact, that just might be their daily routine – they aren’t late and in a rush to make their first class of the day.

Tomorrow Belmont High will hold its annual “Pajamarama,” the day for students, the administration staff and teachers to wear their “jammies” to class in exchange for a donation of money or nice, new children’s sleepwear to the “PJ Drive for Cradles to Crayons,” a Brighton non-profit organization, which provides gently-used clothes and gear for needy Massachusetts children.

For this drive, sponsored by the Boston Bruins, the school’s  is collecting both monetary donations and pairs of new, warm pj’s in sizes from newborn to 18.

For students, parents and residents who would like to help, drop off any new pj’s – please keep the tags on! – in the main office by Wednesday, Feb.25.  

Monetary donations – checks made out to Cradles to Crayons – may either be brought to the office or mailed to:

Alice Melnikoff

Belmont High School

221 Concord Ave.

Belmont, MA  02478.

 

Bursting Enrollment Makes Modular Classrooms Likely at Belmont Schools by 2016

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Photo: An example of modular classrooms in Needham, Massachusetts.

In the past two years, Belmont town and school officials have used the idiom that the school district has been “bursting at the seams” with the rapid increase in student enrollment – 330 more students – since 2009.

Now that figurative phrase is becoming literally true as the number of pupils continue rocketing upward will likely require the district to begin using modular classrooms – single-story prefabricated buildings most notably used in Belmont to house Wellington Elementary students as the new school was being built – to house the surge of children, according to Belmont Superintendent John Phelan.

Phelan made the observation at two recent meeting in January when the executive summary report of the Belmont Financial Task Force was presented to the public and the Belmont Board of Selectmen.

It doesn’t require a lengthy report to realize that with any increase in enrollment, “the need for increased classroom space is inevitable,” said Phelan.

The first steps to quantify the impact on school buildings began more than a year ago under former Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston who established a Space Task Force. One of the first actions taken was hiring a local architectural firm to project the district’s building requirements with the space it had and the estimated number of students coming into the system.

The study concluded for Belmont to keep within its appropriate class-size range, the elementary schools will require an additional class from kindergarten through 4th grade.

“This would result in the need for modular classrooms … by September 2016” for the elementary schools, said Phelan.

The report bluntly stated the Chenery Middle School “does not have enough space to support the current level of student enrollment” and won’t be able to fit the large classes funneling from the four elementary schools in the next five years.

The solution “will result in the need for modular classrooms” by the beginning of the 2016-17 school year.

Nor is the situation at the aging Belmont High School any better. The school is currently “out of space,” said the report, with 31 rooms shared by two teachers and four rooms by three teachers.

With the demand for additional class offerings and “the wave” of enrollment increases coming each year,” the need for space at the High School is becoming critical,” said Phelan.

The “wave” Phelan talked about is evident comparing the 260 students who graduated in 2014 with the 354 students who entered Kindergarten that same year. And those numbers are not seen dropping as “[h]istorical enrollment trends indicate there is little if any, net loss of enrollment over the grade spans.”

In its long-term plan to meet the sky-high enrollment issues facing Belmont, the school district will request hiring an additional 20 teachers over three years beginning in the 2015-16 school year, all dependent on the passage of a $4.5 million Proposition 2 1/2 override sometime in the spring.

A major new initiative by Phelan will be to target eight of the new teachers to reduce the chronic issue of student either sitting in large study halls in the middle school and having idle time at the high school known as “frees.”

The Board of Selectmen has yet to approve or set a date for the override as of Feb. 11.

Even with a successful override vote, space will continue to be a glaring handicap for the schools.

“If you want to increase the number of teachers at the middle or high school to reduce the amount of unstructured, non-educational time … the district will struggle with the ability to do so, without adding temporary space or building more permanent space,” warned Phelan.

 

Belmont Schools Scheduled to Finish June 23, IF No More Snow Days

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If – and that’s a big “if” – today, Tuesday, Feb. 10, turns out to be the final snow day for Belmont public school students this school year, the district is scheduled to close shop “on schedule” on Tuesday, June 23, according to Belmont’s school superintendent.

After declaring five “snow” days due to the two weeks of record snow fall, the reason the schools will not be closing with the Fourth of July fireworks in the background is that the school district “pockets” five days into each school year’s calendar for school closures, said Belmont Superintendent John Phelan.

“The district works backwards from the pending final day to determine the actual final day of school,” said Phelan.
“Right now, we are not adding any days,” said Phelan.

The final day, two days into summer, is the latest Belmont schools will close in several years. The last day in 2014 was Friday, June 20.

While parents and students will not have to make changes to summer plans, the most immediate effect of five snow days in the past fortnight “disrupts the rhythm of teaching,” said Phelan.

“It’s problematic for teachers and students to be removed from a planned schedule,” said Phelan, noting that teachers map out an educational program that leads to the February break then “smoothly transitions into seven to eight weeks of teaching until the April recess.”

And if additional snow days are destined for Belmont, don’t expect to see either the state’s school commissioner or the district stray from the 180 days of school required under state law.

Mitchell Chester, the state’s Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, stated in a memo to school officials statewide that, “[s]chool districts may decide to cancel or shorten the April vacation period, convert scheduled professional development days into school days for students, hold school on Saturday, keep school open on Good Friday, or add days later in June beyond the originally scheduled last day of school.”

“We will have 180 days of school in Belmont,” said Phelan.

Belmont High, Chenery Musicians Earn All-State, District Honors

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Despite snow and cold, the Massachusetts Music Educators Association held auditions over the past two weeks for its annual All-State Festival, as well as for the MMEA Northeast Junior District Festival.

This year, 10 students from Belmont High School were selected to perform in the All-State Festival, a three-day event to be held at the Boston Convention Center, honoring the highest achieving high-school musicians in the state and invites them to perform in the All-State band, chorus orchestra and jazz ensemble.

  • Devon Carter, chorus
  • Lucas Cmok-Kehoe, chorus
  • Andrew Eurdolian, oboe
  • Eunice Lee, flute
  • Hannah Messenger, French horn
  • Zoe Miner, chorus
  • Connor Quinn, chorus
  • Hannah Read, flute
  • Jack Stone, bass trombone
  • Thomas Zembowicz, chorus

The Junior District Festival honors the younger music students, selecting the most outstanding musicians in 7th to 9th grades throughout northeastern Massachusetts. Students will have the opportunity to perform in the honor band, chorus, orchestra or jazz ensemble under the direction of high-profile conductors during the three day festival at Lowell High School in April. This year, 59 students from Chenery Middle and Belmont High schools were selected to participate.

From Belmont High School:

  • Naomi Arsenault, oboe
  • Belle Carbeck, chorus
  • Elana Chen, flute
  • Miriam Cubstead, chorus
  • Caleb Harris, cello
  • Wan Young Jang, euphonium
  • Owen Loveluck, cello
  • Andrew Mazzone, string bass
  • Linnea Metelmann, French horn
  • Georgia Sundahl, chorus
  • Evan Wagner, trumpet, jazz ensemble

From Chenery Middle:                                                                                                                            

  • Idris Abercrombie, trombone
  • Jason Ackerson, trombone
  • Zoe Armstrong, chorus
  • Hoon Baeg, cello
  • Renuka Balakrishnan, chorus
  • Christina Cahaly, chorus
  • Jackson Carter, cello
  • Aristotelis Chaniotakis, chorus
  • Jonah Covell, cello
  • Phoebe Derba, string bass
  • Justin Dong, clarinet
  • Garrett Eagar, trombone
  • Valentina Garcia-Martinez, chorus
  • Chris Giron, bassoon
  • Rachel Hong, chorus
  • Jackie Jiang, flute
  • Ethan Jin, trumpet
  • Nate Jones, trombone
  • Brandon Kim, violin
  • Isabelle Kim, violin
  • Madeline Kitch, chorus
  • Daniel Klingbeil, cello
  • Edward Lee, chorus
  • Luna Lee, chorus
  • Parker Lutz, chorus
  • Philip Lynch, trumpet
  • Clare Martin, alto saxophone
  • Abby Mohr, chorus
  • Viola Monovitch, guitar , jazz ensemble
  • Alex Park, trumpet
  • Chloe Park, trumpet
  • Audrey Quinn, violin
  • Kate Sandage, clarinet
  • Annalise Schlaug, cello
  • Lila Searls, alto saxophone
  • Eric Shen, violin
  • Aarya Tavshikar, bassoon
  • Mayura Thomas, chorus
  • Joshua Wan, trumpet
  • Alex Wilk, viola
  • Naina Woker, chorus
  • Yanzhe Xu, clarinet
  • Abby Yu, chorus
  • Lara Zeng, violin
  • Isabelle Zheng, cello
  • Tiancheng Zheng, clarinet

 

Belmont High’s Jazz Combo Presents All Kinds of Music Friday Night

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Five talented senior musicians will premier their chops tonight, Friday, Jan. 30 as the Belmont High School Jazz Combo presents “Jazz of All Kinds” in the High School’s Little Theatre at 7 p.m.
The members – Max Davidowitz, drums; Mary Yeh, bass; Charlie Smith, piano; Rowan Wolf, tenor saxophone and Zoe Miner  vocals – have been part of ensembles in the past few years which have several gold medals from the Massachusetts Association of Jazz Educators for performances in the Northeast District Jazz Festival held each spring. They have also performed at Jazz Night and POPS concerts in Belmont as well as at the Hatch Shell in Boston. Friday’s concert is a first of its kind for the combo.
Under the direction of jazz pianist Maxim Lubarsky, the combo have been rehearsing weekly after school; in the past week, they have rehearsed extensively at members homes.
Special guests for Friday’s performance include Sa-Sa Gutterman, Riley Grant, Alex Sun and the BHS Jazz Choir directed by Sean Landers.
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