Belmont High Musicians Score Record Number at District Auditions

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A record 66 Belmont High School student musicians – from singers to those who play the Euphonium (that’s a tenor tuba) – were accepted into the Massachusetts Music Educators Association’s Northeastern Senior District Honor Ensembles for band, orchestra, chorus and jazz ensemble after a day of auditions on Saturday, Nov. 15 at North Andover High School.

Those musicians will perform at the MMEA Northeastern District Festival on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015 at Lowell High School. 

In addition, just under half, 32, of the musicians had audition scored high enough to earn an All-State recommendation, which gives them the opportunity to audition for the state-wide festival later this winter.

A total of 158 students from Belmont High School auditioned for the district festival. What the results do not show was the dozens of students who auditioned and missed the cutoff for acceptance by just a few points. Thirty-four missed the cutoff score by less than five points, and 10 of those by a single point.

“This illustrates the fact that all of the students who auditioned on Nov. 15 are ‘senior district caliber’ musicians who deserve to be honored for their work and their level of musicianship,” said Arto Asadoorian, director of Fine & Performing Arts for the Belmont Public Schools.

“These outstanding district results once again place Belmont High School among elite company statewide when we look at student achievement in music. It is a testament to the dedication, work-ethic and level of artistry our students have achieved with the help of the excellent music educators who work with them each day,” said Asadoorian.

“Belmont prides itself on the quality of education it provides to their children, and music and art education have always played a central role in our curriculum. These results are a reflection of our community’s unwavering support of arts education in our schools,” he said.

The following students for their acceptance into the 2015 MMEA Northeastern Senior District Festival: (*Denotes an All-State recommendation.)

Ben Ackerson, trumpet; Kate Amrein, chorus*; Yilei Bai, alto saxophone*; Sam Bastille, chorus; Sami Belkadi, trumpet*; Erin Cantor, viola; Eleanor Carlile, French horn*; Devon Carter, chorus*; Jessica Chen, viola; Lucas Cmok-Kehoe, chorus*; Ben Crocker, chorus; Olivia Cronin, bassoon; Jocelyn Cubstead, chorus; Eli Dearden, chorus*; Jack Decoulos, violin; Chloe Derba, clarinet; David Dignan, chorus*; Ammu Dinesh, bassoon*; Andrew Eurdolian, oboe*; Julia Fontana, cello*; Mary Galstian, chorus; Riley Grant, trumpet*; Tenny Gregorian, chorus; Sa-Sa Gutterman, trombone*; Eva Hill, chorus; Kiara Holm, clarinet; Haig Hovsepian, alto saxophone; David Johnson, chorus*; Noah Johnston, chorus; Eliza Jones, French horn; Ryan Keeth, snare drum; Helena Kim, euphonium*; Elizabeth Knight, string bass; David Korn, chorus*; Daniel Lay, violin*; Eunice Lee, flute*; Oliver Leeb, chorus; Stephen Lucas, clarinet; Anna Makar-Limanov, chorus*; Solomon Mankin, viola; Eli Martin, trombone; Hannah Messenger, French horn*; Noah Miller-Medzon, chorus; Zoe Miner, chorus*; Sarah Montoya, string bass; Neal Mulani, chorus; Nicholas Osborn, French horn*; Yeonjae Park, cello; Guy Parsons, chorus; Calvin Perkins, trumpet; Connor Quinn, chorus*; Hannah Read, flute/piccolo*; Michael Rodriguez, chorus; Bryan Scordino, chorus; Ned Searls, trumpet*; Edward Stafford, chorus; Jack Stone, bass trombone*; Dongmin Sung, cello; Rafi Wagner, trombone*; Tina Wang, Euphonium; Jasper Wolf, jazz trumpet*; Rowan Wolf, jazz tenor saxophone*; Mary Yeh, string bass*; Thomas Zembowicz, chorus*; Andy Zhang, clarinet and Stephanie Zhang, violin*.

Cityside Subaru ‘Shares the Love’ with Foundation for Belmont Education

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Belmont’s Cityside Subaru has selected the Foundation for Belmont Education as its first local non-profit organization to benefit from the Subaru “Share the Love” fundraiser, a national initiative by the car manufacturer that has donated more than $25 million to local charities across the U.S. during the past four years.

Under the program, consumers who purchase or lease a new vehicle can select the Foundation as their charity of choice, and Subaru will donate $250 to the foundation, which supports educational excellence and enrichment in the Belmont public schools. The “Share the Love” event began Friday, Nov. 20 and runs through Friday, Jan. 2, 2015.

The FBE is one of five charities that area residents can choose to give to and the only local option; the remaining four are national charities selected by the car manufacturer.

Subaru is aiming to raise $10 million this year for charities across the U.S., double last year’s donation. Over the past four years, the Share the Love program has raised $25 million. Cityside Subaru has contributed approximately $260,000 to that effort.

“We are excited to be able to provide local residents with an opportunity to directly give back to their community through Subaru’s Share the Love program,” said Rick White, Cityside’s general manager and co-owner. “We are proud to be part of the Belmont community, and are pleased that through this innovative fundraising initiative we can show our support of its fantastic school system.”

In partnership with the Belmont Public School system, the Foundation for Belmont Education supports the community’s interest in ensuring that educators and students alike are given the best tools, technology and training that foster innovation and love of learning. The FBE’s partnership with Cityside Subaru is reflective of how the Belmont community is coming together to support innovative curriculum enrichment across the school system.

Named Subaru Dealer of the Year in 2010 by DealerRater.com, Cityside Subaru is located at 790 Pleasant St. (Rt 60). www.citysidesubaru.com.

A New Belmont High Around the Corner? A ‘Senior Study’ Suggests Good Odds

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Is a “new” Belmont High School just around the corner?

While a decision by the state authority which supplies critical funding which assists municipalities in the construction of school buildings is about a month away, a hint of heightened interest in Belmont’s plan to revamp the increasingly threadbare building on the banks of Clay Pit Pond is an indication, the state is taking a hard look at the Belmont School District’s 2014 Statement of Interest application for a new high school.

And if a letter from a Cape Cod educator is correct, Belmont’s odds of receiving a favorable nod from the state has increased considerably to begin the long process of constructing a 21st century school.

Two days before Halloween, on Oct. 29, a team of architects and engineers associated with the Massachusetts School Building Authority conducted a “senior study” of the 44-year-old brick and concrete structure, asking a lot of questions of school and town officials while poking around the building.

Belmont is one of about two dozen locations around the state where senior studies have been conducted since September, according to the Building Authority’s Facebook account.

“The Building Authority selects applications from within the Statement of Interest ‘bucket’ and choose some for a [senior] study,” Belmont’s superintendent of schools John Phelan told the Belmontonian after the meeting of the Belmont School Committee on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

“We want to review every SOI as part of the review process,” said Massachusetts School Building Authority spokesman Dan Collins. 

While the Authority and District are remaining quiet on the reason Belmont was selected for the study, a letter from the head of another school district seeking the same MSBA funding was more forthcoming.

In a letter to a Brewster town official dated Oct. 27, 2014, Robert Sanborn, the superintendent/director of the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, said the MSBA conducted a senior study at the Harwich-based school earlier in the month.

“At the meeting, we were informed [by the MSBA] that out of one hundred and eight SIOs submitted, Cape Cod Tech was one of twenty-five (25) schools designated for a senior study,”

“From the 25, a substantial percentage of districts will be recommended to move forward with an invitation into the MSBA eligibility period,” wrote Sanborn.

If the same number of districts, 13, are accepted for reimbursement funding by the MSBA as was in 2013, the odds of Belmont’s SOI being selected has increased considerably.

For more than a decade, the Belmont School District has faithfully submitted a SOI to the MSBA appealing for state funds to begin the renovation of Belmont High School and the construction of a new 35,000 sq.-ft. science wing.

The projected cost of a “new” Belmont High School building is estimated by the district at between $90 and $100 million. For a comparison, the cost for the renovation of and new structures at Winchester High School is $101 million in construction costs (the entire project is pegged at $130 million) with the state providing a grant of $44.5 million.

Each year since the early 2000s, Belmont has received only the yearly, “Thanks, try again next year” response from the authority.

But for the first time, the MSBA decided to conduct a more extensive review of not only the SOI but of the existing school building.

A “senior study“ is requested by the MSBA for “some of the district identified priority schools for which a Statement of Interest has been submitted,” according to the authority’s website.

The study allows the authority to perform several types of assessments depending on the school building deficiencies noted in the district’s SOI. The study also includes reviewing the SOI and all supporting documents as well as dig into historical enrollment trends and the educational programs provided at the school.

The visit (which is not a mandatory part of the senior study) includes a tour of the school by experienced architects and engineers who examine both the condition of the building as well as programmatic issues – such as evidence of overcrowding in classrooms and design features – that affect the delivery of the district’s educational program.

Before touring the school, the MSBA team interviews the superintendent, principal, facilities manager and other school personnel on areas such as confirming information about school building deficiencies as stated in the SOI and obtain a close-hand look at the current campus and see how that adversely impacts a student’s education.

“The MSBA’s goal is to collaborate with the district to find the right-sized, most fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate solution to the facility’s problems,” said the website.

“The information acquired during the study will help the MSBA determine the next steps in the process,” said Collins.

Despite dispensing hopeful answers, Collins made clear being selected for a study “certainly doesn’t signal that your SOI will be accepted this cycle.”

With a cap of $250 million per year over the next five years, only one-in-eight SOI’s targeting extensive renovations or a new school are accepted each year, said Collins.

Tom Caputo Named to Fill Vacancy on Belmont School Committee

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Photo: Newly-appointed School Committee member Thomas Caputo (right) is congratulated by Belmont School District Asst. Superintendent Janice Darias. Belmont Superintendent John Phelan is in the center of the photo. 

Technology expert Thomas Caputo was appointed to the Belmont School Committee this morning, Monday, Nov. 17 to fill the vacancy created when Kevin Cunningham resigned from the six-member board last month.

“This is a great honor and I’m proud to have been selected,” said Caputo, who has been for the past two years the Chief Product Officer at FIKSU, a technology start up providing mobile marketing technology to app developers, game publishers and advertisers.

Caputo will serve on the committee until the Belmont Town Election in April 2015 when he can seek to fill the remaining two-years of Cunningham’s term.

The Richmond Road resident – who has lived in Belmont with his wife, Sarah and their eight-year-old, third grade twin daughters for the past seven years – was selected by a joint committee of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee from eight candidates who had applied for the position.

What guided the majority of the Selectmen and School Committee to Caputo was his experience in finance and technology.

“I think the entrepreneurial and tech specialization along with the venture capital … [is the type of] analytical study of these important issues, particularly around enrollment, [is] critical for the school committee,” said Selectmen Chair Andy Rojas.

“It is the nexus of the technology and business solutions that really spoke to me,” said Laurie Slap, school committee chair.

A dual major (graduating with a BA in computer science and biophysical chemistry) while matriculating at Dartmouth, Caputo also has a MBA from Stanford.

After working in finance in Boston and London, Caputo became a group product manager at Microsoft’s main office in Redmond, Wash. for four years. He come back east to work in venture capital, product management for a software startup in New York before joining the senior execution team at Boston-based FIKSU.

“There is an incredible wave of really interesting start ups as well as established companies that are bringing new education technologies to the market that are … helping school districts across the country to find more efficient and effective ways to educate students,” Caputo told the Belmontonian.

“I do believe that, much the way we’ve seen technology disruptions shaping a lot of industries … Belmont needs to be on the forefront of finding ways to pick the best technology programs, bring them into the school system, train the teachers and administrators to use them effectively and executing all that for the benefit of the students,” said Caputo, who looks the part of the tech pro; wearing a smart blazer over a tie-less pattern shirt, skinny jeans and nifty shoes to the joint meeting.

But Caputo told the Belmontonian that bringing technology to the classroom is not simply “supplying everyone an iPad.”

“It’s great to have the infrastructure but that alone will not solve the issues we’re facing. It’s really about … the iPad and its integration into the curriculum, the selection of the right application and tools and the manner in which it’s all used,” he said.

Caputo pointed to his background in start ups as a plus when the committee faces the challenges of finding adequate funding to maintain the district’s first-rate education reputation.

“What start ups are able to do is find efficient, creative solutions to addressing otherwise challenging problems. I will bring a little bit of that culture to the school committee; to find ways to collaborate, to identify solutions and to look at things in, maybe, a little different way,” he said.

“It won’t be easy. It will require contributions from many different groups and constituents from across the town to make that effective. I hope I can contribute in that way,” Caputo said.

 

Eight Residents In the Running to Fill Vacant School Committee Position

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A past candidate and seven other residents were named by the Belmont School Committee on Friday, Nov. 14 as the applicants seeking to fill the seat left vacant after Kevin Cunningham announced his resignation from the committee last month.

The eight candidates are:

  • Susan Burgess-Cox
  • Tom Caputo
  • Tara Donner
  • Maura Fennelly
  • Jamie Kang (who ran for the committee in 2013)
  • Kimberly O’Mahony
  • Ike Papadopoulos
  • Erica Zidel

The collection of applicants will be presented to and interviewed by a joint meeting of Belmont Board of Selectmen and School Committee on Monday, Nov. 17 at 8 a.m. in the Selectmen’s Room in Belmont Town Hall.

After the candidates are interviewed by the panel, the joint committee will vote for the appointee they feel will best fill the seat during the very busy five months until the April Town Election.

Under state law, the appointee’s term lasts only until the Town Election when they will have the opportunity to seek election to serve the remaining two years of Cunningham’s tenure.

While there will not be time for questions from the audience, suggestions or comments can be sent to School Committee Chair Laurie Slap at lslap@belmont.k12.ma.us

“Each candidate brings strengths and accomplishments and we are all pleased that this vacancy has elicited such interest. We are looking forward to the interviews on Monday and are excited to welcome another colleague at the table to help us as we continue the very important work of providing the best educational experience for all of our students,” said Slap.

Field Hockey’s Coach Smith Name to Alma Mater’s Hall of Fame

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When asked to describe her field hockey coach, Belmont High School senior co-captain Suzanne Noone said that Jessica Smith “is one of the most important adults I’ve had in my life.”

“She taught me so much, yelling at me to keep my stick down,” laughed Noone, who was recently named a Middlesex League All-Star and will likely play college field hockey next fall.

“Jess is a big reason I’ve been successful on and off the field.”

Smith, at the helm of the successful field hockey program for the past 11 season, has earned almost universal praise from players and parents as a mentor and supporter to the students who take up the crooked stick as their athletic pursuit. Many times with her three, small children in tow, Smith is on the sidelines at games or practice yelling encouragement to her charges.

So it wouldn’t be surprising to discover that Smith learned about leading a team when she was an accomplished young high school athlete two decades ago.

That past athletic prowess was recognized Saturday, Nov. 8 as Smith and 15 others were inducted as the first-ever class into the Joel Barlow High School Athletic Hall of Fame in Redding, Connecticut. (Smith was not the only Massachusetts field hockey coach honored as she entered with Salem High School’s Wizzie Crocker Phelps.)

“She was an incredible teammate, a remarkable athlete, as well as an outstanding academic student,” read the announcement of the honor.

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A member of the class of 1994 (and then known as Jess MacLellan), Smith played field hockey for the Falcons throughout high school, was a captain her senior year and was named the team’s MVP as a junior and senior. She was on the All-Western Connecticut Conference (WCC) team from 1992 – 1994, and was 1st team All- State in 1993 and 1994. She led the Falcons to the WCC tournament championships in 1993.

Smith was also a standout in tennis. During her four years at Barlow, the Falcons won the Class S State tournament in which she played first singles her final three years. She was a team captain and competed in the quarterfinals of the state individual tournament as a senior.

At Tufts University in Medford, Smith continued to play field hockey and pursued lacrosse where she became a captain of both sports and MVP during her senior year. In field hockey, she was All-American, First-Team All-New England, and All-NESCAC. In lacrosse, she was All-New England and All-NESCAC. In 1998, she won the Hester L. Sargent Award as Tufts’ outstanding female athlete.

Always the athlete, Smith has ran the New York City marathon in 3 hours, 20 minutes and the BAA marathon in 3:25.

Smith was hired as an occupational therapist by the Belmont School District in 2002 and currently covers the Winn Brook, Butler, High School and Wellington pre-school. She lives in Charlestown with her husband and their three rambunctious children.

At the induction ceremony, Smith said she often thinks of Karissa Niehoff, her field hockey coach, who made practice fun and instilled the values of hard work and fitness.

Butler Students, Superheroes Fun Run for Enrichment

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The dank, misty conditions this past Friday was no match for the likes of Batman and Captain America as the superheroes stood superhero like in the middle of the Butler Elementary School playground.

Nor was a mere 1 mile jog around the grounds of the Waverley Square school going to stop the duo from assisting Butler’s entire student population of 340 in running the same distance.

“This is a fantastic idea,” said Ann Ozawa, who came with her husband to cheer on her third grader, Zoe, as she did laps around the schoolyard.

“The kids were up and ready to go this morning and all the kids were here early,” she said as groups of parents cheered on the kids.

Yet the morning run was not some collective act of super-dopper strength, but part of a school-wide Fun Run fundraiser that exceeded the goals of students and staff.

With a goal of raising $10,000, the students – through online pledges from family, relatives and friends – smashed the objective and took in more than $18,000 with an extra $3,400 from corporate sponsors.

“The kids really surprised us. They really came through and really amazingly,” said Butler PTA’s Miriam Lapson.

(In fact, the only act of bravery was that of Butler Principal Michael McAllister who wore the Batman outfit for the entire morning as part of an agreement to get into a super hero costume if the fundraiser exceeded its goal.)

In past years, the school’s Parent Teacher Association ran an auction every three year to raise funds, said Lapson, who was on the fun run committee.

But with the school’s population changing demographics – the Butler students are more multicultural and have a wider income disparity than the other five schools in the district – “an auction just wasn’t going to work,” she said.

“We wanted something that everyone could take part in, whether you could or could not contribute, your parents don’t have to speak English. The only qualification was that you are a student at the school,” said Lapson.

That’s when the group thought of the fun run, said Lapson, which would have the added benefit of being a healthy activity and promoting physical education.

With help from The Original Get Movin’ Crew, a fun-run company based in Milford, Michigan, Butler students collected the $10,000 goal with three days to spare.

The funds raised will provide for two years of enrichment programs such as field trips, in-school enrichment, library books, teacher supplies and professional development for the Butler staff.

One superhero said the funds raised are greatly needed by staff and teachers.

“It’s huge for us. It allows us to purchase things and offer opportunities to kids we wouldn’t otherwise,” said Batman/McAllister.

“Unfortunately, some of the enrichment funding has been pulled out as we standardize our curriculum,” said McAllister. “The PTA comes through for us on that front.”

Duty, Honor, Country: Schools Salute Vets in Remembrance Observances

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The Chenery Middle School Wind Band played patriotic music, the chorus sang the “National Anthem” and several students made speeches and recited poems to their classmates and the two dozen men – many slowed with age – sitting on chairs on the side of the stage.

They were an array of armed forces veterans from Belmont and surrounding communities, coming to the school as the living embodiment of the commitment and sacrifice they gave to the country.

The school-wide assembly, held on Monday, Nov. 10 in the Chenery auditorium, is an annual commemoration of the service of all veterans and those currently in uniform.

“I want to thank all of you for showing up today because twice a year, we feel like rock stars,” said Kip Gaudet, commander of Belmont’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post on Trapelo Road.

“We come here to represent those who can’t be here, who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms that we enjoy today,” said Gaudet, who was awarded a bronze star for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service” as a radio man in Vietnam.

Chenery’s Principal Kristen St. George advised students to take a moment on the holiday to personally reach out and thank a veteran “for their contribution … for fighting for things that are important to us and our country.”

St. George read the names of veterans with a connection to the “Chenery community” and for the student to simply “listen and to reflect.” Included in the names were of Chenery teacher Ryan Schmitt and Army Spc. Jonathan Curtis, an alumni who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.

Gaudet read the names of the veterans who stood to receive the applause from the auditorium, including Frank Morrissey, a 96-year-old vet from the US Navy.

“Hopefully these events reminds the students of freedom’s cost,” said Gaudet after the service, before leaving with his fellow veterans for visits at the Butler and Winn Brook elementary schools before a lunch at the VFW post.

“The veterans get appreciated for their service and the kids learn something, so this morning is like a two-way street,” he said.

The highlight of the ceremony was the reading and a musical rendition of the poem, “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae who wrote the poem on May 3, 1915, moments after presiding over the funeral of his friend, Alexis Helmer.

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

“We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

“Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.”

‘Scintillating’ Spelling By Young Wordsmiths At This Year’s Bee

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Just like its namesake, the winning team at the 2014 Foundation for Belmont Education’s Spelling Bee “killed it” when it came to correctly spelling words that would stump many adults in the audience.

The Killer Bees – Chenery sixth graders Oliver and Harrison Hees, Loick Marion and Ben Prenderville from teacher Bhuvana Kaushik’s homeroom – capped a successful night by correctly spelling “scintillating” to win the crown over runners-up Chenery Spellers – Will Harkness, Jackson Mann, Maulik Bairathi and Edward Patrick Lee – after both teams survived a near-record 19 rounds of ever challenging words to spell.

“It was stressful,” said Marion who performed most of writing on the white board which was then shown to the judges.

Marion and his teammates took home a $100 savings account from the Belmont Savings Bank and a “star” trophy.

For more than six hours, a multitude of Belmont’s youngest wordsmiths – in teams of two to four – from the town’s four elementary schools and the middle school tackled words ranging from “dog” to “croissant” in the Belmont High School auditorium, cheered on by proud parents taking photos of their spellers.

More than 700 students – a record number – participated in this year’s event, raising $20,000 for the Foundation for Belmont Education. The spellers from the elementary schools were in the non-competitive “swarms” while the wordsmiths from the Chenery Lower School (fifth and sixth grades) were part of the competitive swarms battling to participate in the finals.

Under the smooth direction of long-time MC Greg Stone, the volunteers – pronouncers Laurie Graham and Anne Mahon, time keepers Kevin Cunningham and Anne Lougee along with umpires Suzanne Alcock and Joanna Kaselis Tzouvelis all led by Bee chairs Christa Bauge and Karin Lehr – pulled off the annual feat of patience personified.

The money raised Saturday by the Foundation will support projects initiated and organized by administrators, teachers and staff in the six Belmont public schools.

 

Rising Enrollment, Structural Faults Puts Schools Half-a-Million in Red

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It isn’t “the happiest news” the Belmont School Department wanted to give anytime, especially less than two months into the school year, said Laurie Slap, chair of the Belmont School Committee.

If expenditures and trends continue on their current trajectories, the fiscal year 2015 school budget will end the year approximately $500,000 in the red, according to the school’s Director of Finance and Administration Anthony DiCologero.

The forecast, present to the Belmont School Committee at its Tuesday night meeting on Oct. 28, “is not a deficit in any item,” said DiCologero. 

While there isn’t one specific cause, there is an overriding theme to the shortfall facing Belmont’s public schools: the well-noted increase of students entering the system. 

Kevin Cunningham, at his final committee meeting as he will be replaced by the next meeting on Nov. 18, said the expense spike is “enrollment driven” – with the surge of students has come the need for more services “that is driving costs.”

Due to the rapid rise in total enrollment in all grade levels, a jump in children who are English Language Learners and an increase in students requiring special education instruction has placed the budget under pressure as salaries are nearly $225,000 above the $31.4 million budgeted for the fiscal year, noted DiCologero. 

The deficit comes from adding instructors to address enrollment and ELL needs as well increasing the number of special education aides, tutors and occupational therapists.

The remaining $360,000 of the total deficit is the result of an increase in special education expenses such as $125,000 for tuition for six additional out-of-district students (Belmont pupils who are determined will be educated outside the public schools) and $60,000 in added transportation costs.

John Phelan, Belmont’s first-year school superintendent, said he has spoken to administrators, principals and staff on the need “slow down” expenditures such as bringing new technology into the schools and to “prioritize spending.”

But, said Phelan, the “big picture” is “what we need to do differently next year” to prevent repeating the same steps in fiscal 2016.

“These are structural issues,” said Cunningham. And while “this year we’ll strategically shrink it” the deficits will only continue unless expenses are placed in a more long-term context.”