Largest Belmont High Freshmen Orientation Wednesday at 5 PM

The largest entering freshman class in recent Belmont High School history will have a chance to tour the halls and learn more about their next four years at Freshman Orientation today, Wednesday, Aug. 27 beginning at 5 p.m. at the High School. 

Approximately 325 incoming ninth graders will learn from upperclassmen how to get around the school before the first day of school in one week’s time on Sept. 3. 

In addition, students will have group meetings with guidance counselors, get a tour of the building and join current students for a pizza dinner.

Parents are welcome for the opening panel from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Turning the White Field House from Dank to Swank

For generations of Belmont High School athletes, the White Field House was known for being a dank and dingy building where the lockers were old and narrow and the interior dark and smelly.

What a difference a summer of hard work – and approximately $100,000 in contributions and in-kind contributions – can do.

Through the efforts of parents of current athletes and past players, craftsmen and contractors, the interior of the nearly 83-year-old brick building on Concord Avenue has been transformed into a welcoming place for student athletes when school and town officials toured the Belmont School District-owned site on Monday, Aug. 25.

“Before you might have walked in and said ‘When are we going to tear this place down?’,” said Frederick Jones, who led the effort in renovating the site.

“The hope is that this will be an inspiration. Let’s make this the beginning of a commitment,” he said.

The walls in nearly every room in the two-story building are now lined with newly-installed lockers, the entire interior was thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned (for the first time in years), layers of paint stripped and replaced with a white coat, light fixtures replaced and modernized as floors were repaired and refurbished. Soon there will be an internet connection at the field house to allow the teams to review game film.

And the bronze memorial for James Paul White, a 19-year-old Belmont resident who died in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, was cleaned and polished, sparkling was it did in 1948 when the building was named in his honor.

“The good story is that at the beginning of the season, the town has a renovated White Field House and Harris Field, which are both town assets,” said David Kale, Belmont’s Town Administrator.

Led by Woodfall Road’s Jones, a small committee made up of Larry Christofori, and Bob Delhome and Eric Aulenback –both former Marauder football players and Belmont High graduates – spearheaded the work with both cash contributions and using their contacts to solicit both volunteers and contributions to the cause.

“There was a lot of sweat equity by the members of this group,” said Jones. Christofori said the monetary and the in-kind contributions – which totaled $100,000 – worked hand-in-hand in bringing the project to completion.

“There is leverage when you come up with $50,000 in cash contributions. People see that we had the wherewithal, and it attracts a whole lot more people. They see it being successful, and they want to be part of it,” said Christofori.

He pointed out a few individuals who took on the challenge: Bob Aiello of JDC Demolition took care of all demolition, absorbing that cost; Gene Vetrano, owner of EJ Vetrano Painting and Wallpapering, put in more than 400 hours of labor into the project with top-of-the-line material at substantially below his actual cost; and John Rumley, owner of Rumley Electric, took care of all electrical work, new lighting and safety lighting at substantially below cost.

In addition, Dennis Rocha of D.Rocha Construction, Tom Ferraro of Northeast Industrial Tech and Jon Baldi provided “jack-of-all trade” services on small, but challenging job when needed.

The group also took a look at the renovated Harris Field and Track, the main playing surface for multiple teams in Belmont. The project, financed by the continuation of a bond approved by a special Town Meeting in 2013, cost about $850,000, approximately $100,000 less than originally estimated, said Peter Castanino, director of the Department of Public Works. Besides a state-of-the-art padded artificial Turf field, the field has a new track surface, fencing and padding. New drain covers will be coming soon.

And it will be the athletes who will benefit from the improvements.

“Coming off the back of a difficult season last year, we’re very blessed to have these two new spaces and very grateful to all the people who did this out of the goodness of their hearts,” said Belmont Head Football Coach Yann Kumin.

Coffee Talk with Belmont’s New Schools Super This Monday

A tip of the hat to Belmont resident and author of the Blogging Belmont website Paul Roberts for this information. Newly-installed Belmont School District Superintendent John Phelan has been holding coffees with residents through the summer with the next date on Monday, Aug. 18 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Conference Room in the School Administration building located in the Town Hall complex in Belmont Center.

Phelan, who has a quarter century of experience as a teacher, principal and an assistant superintendent in the Boston and Milton Public Schools, has been organizing the forums to hear from parents and community members to help get up to speed on the issues of concern to community members while formulating a plan for the district going forward.

If you can’t attend Monday’s coffee, more are expected to be scheduled in September. In addition, residents can make an appointment to meet with Phelan individually by calling Cathy Grant at 617-993-5401.

Belmont Schools, Teachers Union Sign Three-Year Deal

Limitations to Belmont’s financial future and job security trumped demands for big pay increases as the Belmont School Committee and Andy Rojas, chair of the Belmont Board of Selectmen, approved three-year labor agreements with the four bargaining units represented by the Belmont Education Association on Tuesday, June 24.

“There’s been a relationship of honest communication and trust established that we can build upon,” BEA President John Sullivan told the Belmontonian after the committee’s regularly scheduled meeting held at the Chenery Middle School.

“We hope that the process producing these agreements has helped deepen relationships based on trust and mutual understanding that will support teaching and learning through the life of these contracts,” said a press release dated Wednesday, June 25 that was signed by Belmont School Committee chair Laurie Slap and Sullivan.

After a year-long negotiation, the union and the committee reached the tentative agreements on Thursday, June 12 with the BEA units approving the four respective agreements on Wednesday, June 18.

The four units comprise teachers (Unit A), directors and assistant principals (Unit B), clerical employees (Unit C) and paraprofessionals (Unit D).

On the salary front for teachers – that makes up the largest BEA unit with approximately 300 members – most of the increases over the next three years will be going to the most senior of the teachers. Those with 14 or more years of service, known as “top spots,” will receive the bulk of increase:

  • Year one, only the “top” educators will receive a 1 percent increase,
  • Year two a 2 percent increase for the top educators while those with 13 years or less will receive a 1 percent increase, and
  • Year three, top step educators will get a 2.5 percent with the less-senior educators receiving 1 percent again.

Yet those increases have been tampered down by the effective dates of the jump in salaries; increases in the first year will not begin showing up in pay packages until the 113th day of the year, with similar delays in the subsequent years; 109 days in year two and 121 days in year three.

“So the one percent increase in the first year is really about 80 cents to the dollar,” said Sullivan, a teacher at Belmont High School who led the union’s 10-member negotiating team.

“We believe the compensation picture has stayed within the projected available revenue that will be coming to the school department over the next three fiscal years,” said Belmont District Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston who participated in his final committee meeting before department from his three year “interim” position on June 30.

While the contract’s pay compensation increase is sparse for most teachers – two percent over two years – the membership approved the union’s package overwhelmingly, said Sullivan.

“We had a lot of questions on salaries in our meeting last week,” said Sullivan, having met with his membership for an hour before the votes was taken last week.

Modest increase in salary

“There was faith in the team and trusted the work that we had done with the school committee. … [the] compensation package allows Belmont to say competitive in retain and attract highly-qualified teachers,” said Sullivan.

In a recent Boston Business Journal report, Belmont teachers ranked 30th in state according to salary information from 2011 with an average teacher’s salary of just lower than $80,000.

“We remain on that upper level of compensation with other towns so we are competitive,” said Sullivan.

The relatively modest pay increases for Belmont teachers in this contract is based on the acceptance by both sides that the town is unlikely to see any appreciable increase in available revenue for the foreseeable future.

The realization Belmont relies heavily on residential property taxes – whose increases are limited to 2 1/2 percent annually – while lacking the capacity to generate tax revenue from new growth such as commercial real estate or fees restricted what the union could ask for and the town to give.

“The agreements provide for compensation in line with projected annual School Department revenues for fiscal years 2015, 2016, and 2017,” said the School Committee press release.

Both the committee and Sullivan said the most important issue facing the sides was that the district “remains committed to attract and retain a highly qualified staff that meets the needs of our students,” according the committee’s press release.

The other major agreement achieved in the contract is job protection for paraprofessional such as teacher’s aides. The new contract states that at the end of the 2015-16 school year, no [paraprofessional] who has successfully completed five years of service can only be dismissed with “good cause.” In addition, a new evaluation system will be jointly negotiated during the upcoming school year.

“We have a highly-dedicated group of professional aides that does a great job supporting students. It’s a sign of respect and [they] feel better with their position within the district,” said Sullivan.

In addition to the job protections for the aides, the agreements also provides the standardization of clerical personnel job classifications and pay-for-performance benefits to directors and assistant principals, said the press release.

The agreement continues the “step and lane” salary schedule in which teachers receive pay for years of service and education level they achieve.

Kingston said while he continues to believe “step and lane” compensation is “unsustainable,” he said this contracts mitigates the formula by acknowledging the limits on revenue growth.

Both sides agreed that employing in part the principles of interest-based bargaining – in which both sides expressed their underlying interests for each request – greatly assisted the negotiation process.

The committee and the town will also be created a Joint Labor-Management Committee to “continue addressing district-wide issues of mutual concern,” said the press release.

“It’s building on the relationships we’ve established so we won’t have as many items in three years with the next contract,” said Sullivan.

“We don’t want to put everything on hold for three years,” said Slap.

The specific details of the agreements are available on the Belmont School Department’s website under the School Committee tab in the next few days.

Moving on Up: Wellington 4th Graders Exit Towards Middle School

IMG_1323It was a bit past 11 a.m. on Friday, June 20, the last day of school for students at the Roger Wellington Elementary School, and the crowd of parents packed the edge of the school’s front walkway.

Smartphones were on camera mode, iPads held aloft and cameras at the ready as the school prepared to bid farewell to their latest batch of fourth graders as they would head up Goden Street next year to the Chenery Middle School with a “moving up” celebration for the “graduating” students.

In the tradition of graduation celebrations at the high school, elementary schools and the Chenery are incorporating final day of school events for fourth and eighth graders to help students transition to their next school, and saying goodbye to teachers and staff (and the school) one last time.

“It’s a very exciting day; he’s very excited to go into the Chenery,” said Rene Hudson, mom of fourth grader Bruce.

“It’s a big transition for him as he’s my oldest,” said Hudson who will be coming to two more celebrations when her pair of younger children move on in the next few years.

Finally, after touring the inside of the school one final time, the fourth graders emerged – many wearing “Exiting Wellington” blue T-shirts – led by Principal Amy Spangler and Gwen Irish was retiring Friday after 42 years as a second grade teacher at the school.

Moms and dads gave out flowers, kisses and high fives to the bemused students alternated between the happy state of being on summer recess and the melancholy of saying so long to teachers and friends.

“It’s sad because you’re leaving your teachers but going to the Chenery is exciting because of new teachers, new friends. That’s awesome,” said fourth grader Talia Fiore, while nearby a few students had tears in their eyes.

As students – now playing in the turf field and eating popsicles – were looking forward to a new school, teachers viewed the day as the culmination of one adventure.

The ocean was fourth grade teacher Samantha McCabe’s theme this year for her class at the Roger Wellington Elementary School on Orchard Street, with her students being her “little sea turtles.”

“I’m with the children at the best times of their lives,” said McCabe.

And on the final day of the school year, McCabe’s pupils finally reached the shore.

“So we’re all pretty emotional because they are graduating and moving on to a new part of their lives and I will always be a part of this moment.”

“It’s the most amazing moment of my life,” said the seven-year veteran as parents and student wanted one final hug with her.

School Committee, Teachers Set to Sign Three-Year Contract Tuesday

After nearly a year of weekly negotiations and late-night meetings, the Belmont School Committee and the Belmont Education Association, the agent for Belmont’s classroom instructors, will sign a new three-year memoranda of agreement at the committee’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, June 24.

The contact will be signed by BEA President John Sullivan. The BEA represents the district’s school teachers, assistant principals, coordinators, teacher aides/instructional support staff and campus monitors.

Sources contacted by the Belmontonian would not go into detail on the specifics in the contract including the percentage salary increase or whether the two sides have agreed to continue the “steps and lanes” salary schedule. Steps refer to how many years a teacher has been teaching, and lanes refer to how much education the teacher has.

Under the current three-year contract, set to expire on Aug. 31, first year teacher with a bachelor’s degree received $46,546 in fiscal year 2014 while a first year educator with a PhD would earn $55,788. At the top end, a PhD with 15 years of work experience makes just under $100,000.

Belmont School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston – who is leaving his position on June 30 – has been publicly critical of the steps and lanes schedules as pay increases are automatically given to educators without consideration for performance. Other critics contend an across-the-board pay increase would be a fair substitute of the current structure.

Supporters of the current pay schedule say that it provides transparency as they are based on easily quantifiable measures ensuring equitable salaries without biases towards teachers and allows those educators to plan for the future by giving them a reasonable assurance of their yearly income.

School’s Out! Summer Recess Begins; Town Clears Out

The calendar says that summer begins on Saturday, June 21.

But every Belmont parent or student knows that summer officially starts late in the morning of today, Friday, June 20 as the six public schools close their doors for the summer recess.

Several schools will have ceremonies on the final day of the school year with fourth graders and eighth graders marking their last day in elementary school and at the Chenery Middle School.

Today is an early-release day of the public schools. Here is the schedule:

• 10:30 a.m. for High School,

• 11 a.m. for Chenery Middle School and

• 11:40 a.m. for elementary schools with the exception of the Winn Brook which releases at 10 minutes until noon.

Today also marks the unofficial start of the summer get away as families and residents begin the annual extended vacations and trips away from the “Town of Homes.” It is reported that upwards of 10 percent of the population will be away from Belmont from July 1 to Aug. 31.

Fond Farewell for the Temporary, Interim, Long-Term Superintendent

When State Sen. Will Brownsberger read the proclamation for the Massachusetts Senate honoring Dr. Thomas Kingston, Belmont School District’s longest serving caretaker superintendent, it declared Kingston being “the semi-permenant, interim superintendent” of the school system he ran for the past three years.

“It says that,” said Kingston, before members of  the Belmont School Committee, town officials, educators and residents who came to the Belmont Gallery of Art on Monday, June 16 to thank the educator for his service to the town’s schools.

“It’s been a great three years in Belmont although I didn’t expecting three years in Belmont,” said Kingston, who received a proclamation from the House of Representatives from State Rep. Dave Rogers.

Kingston, who spent seven years as Chelsea’s Superintendent of Schools, was hired in June 2011 for a single year as interim superintendent who file the gap left with the departure of his predesessor George Entwistle.

Yet due to the lack of qualified candidates, his leadership skills and willingness to remain in the position, Kingston’s tenure stretched from one to three years, a time in which observers praised Kingston for his steady hand overseeing the district’s educators and steadying influence during three budget cycles.

“I really enjoyed the opportunity to work in this kind of community with this kind of dedication to education which in many ways was a complement to what I was doing in Chelsea,” said Kingston.

“One of the most meaningful things for all of us has not just been the counsel you gave to us but also that you sought the advice of school committee members, the leadership council and people in town about what this community is and that’s a very profound experience,” said Laurie Graham, school committee member who thanked Kingston’s wife, Sue, “for letting us have Tom for the past three years.”

After his extended stay in neighboring Belmont – Kingston is an Arlington resident – he will be working part-time with new superintendents, an experience he likens to being a “utility infielder.”

The celebration included parting gifts – a “Belmont Rocks” T-shirt, an altered magnet that now says “‘Exiting’ Belmont”, and a daily calendar of literary phrases – in addition to a cake that Kingston supervised its distribution.

 

Honoring Six Who Served In Belmont’s Schools

They taught, administered, kept the snow off outside stairs and brought the always interesting Belmont School Committee meetings to the public.

For six members of the greater Belmont Schools family, their long service for or to the district were honored by the Belmont School Committee on Tuesday, June 10 at the annual ceremony saluting their careers at their retirement with salutations and cake.

(from left) Paul Carey, Meg Hamilton, Gwen Irish and Robert McCorkle at the Belmont School Committee's annual reception for educators, staff and the public retiring from working for the public schools.

(from left) Paul Carey, Meg Hamilton, Gwen Irish and Robert McCorkle at the Belmont School Committee’s annual reception for educators, staff and the public retiring from working for the public schools.

The first person honored was a non-educator who brought the schools and the committee to the greater community. Paul Carey, who was the government and community producer at the Belmont Media Center, was faithfully behind the camera at nearly every School Committee meeting. Carey, who had a long career in media and advertising before becoming a producer, will be best known for his booming voice requesting both committee members and the public “to speak clearly into the microphone.”

Steven Chung Hau Wongassistant custodian at the Burbank Elementary for 12 years, will best be remembered for clearing snow from the back stairs leading to Gale Road. He was noticeably pleased when the stair were condemned a few years ago. 

A teacher in Belmont since 1981, Robert McCorkle, whose last position in the district was teaching third graders at the Winn Brook, brought poetry into the classroom and made it a regular ritual while being the school’s grammarian, a math whiz and history buff. He will end this years as in the past, leading a play in which “children behave as children; singing, giggling and assuming the identity of folk tale characters and occasionally forgetting a line … as Bob sings along.”

Gwen Irish has held just one position in her 42 years serving the Belmont School District: second-grade teacher at Wellington Elementary. There is no one who has as much tacit history about the schools or the town as Irish. Her knowledge in teaching and how to teach has been an ongoing asset to the children she taught and to the countless colleagues she has helped over the years. “She has always been willing to go the extra mile … and after 42 years that still rings true.”

Carol Cormier had two swings of the bat with the district, first as an office manager, then, after raising her family, coming back in 1994 first as a financial clerk where she processed the weekly accounts payable warrant entering $15 million of invoices over the year. She also lead the way in installing and using new financial software systems. 

Preschool Coordinator Marguerite “Meg” Hamilton began her service in the district in 1989 working part-time before becoming a preschool teacher for a decade. She then became a inclusion specialist, helping to create and implement the elementary autism inclusion program. In 2006, Hamilton became the early childhood coordinator working tirelessly to instruct educators and the public on the issues facing students.

“Most of all, Peg has represented what is truly best about special education; efforts to intervene early, efforts to include all children into the educational process regardless of challenges … and consummate dedication and professionalism working not only with some of our most vulnerable students but also their families.”

Belmont High’s Harris Field Closed Until August

Belmont High School’s Harris Field and its running track at the Concord Avenue Athletic Complex, a favorite destination in Belmont for youth teams, runners and for pickup games, are now officially “closed” for long-anticipated renovations beginning today, Monday, June 16, according to Judi Carmody, business manager of the Belmont Department of Public Works. 

The work is expected to last until Aug. 15, a week before the beginning of practice for the fall High School sports season. 

The $960,000 job, in which the synthetic turf “carpet” will be replaced, fencing and walkways repaired and the track resurfaced and relined, was authorized by the special Town Meeting in November 2013. The funding is coming from an extension of bonding that paid for the uni-vents at the High School. 

“We regret any inconvenience that these improvements may cause,” said Carmody. Residents who have any questions can call the DPW at 617-993-2680 or email at BelmontDPW@belmont-ma.gov