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Four Belmont High School student/athletes signed National Letters of Intent (NLI) to compete at the NCAA Division I or Division II level:
Photo: Back to green for Belmont in coronavirus cases
After a week in yellow, Belmont has returned to the state designated safer green level of COVID-19 infection, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in its weekly coronavirus update on Friday, Nov. 6.
The total number of positive cases in Belmont increased by 24 to 308 total cases (since March 13) in the past two weeks, according to the MDPH, resulting in a 4.4 average daily incidence rate per 100,000 over the same period which lies within the state’s green level, which indicates a low risk of infection within the community.
In the view of the state, Belmont has seen “No Change” in the number of new cases occurring over the current two-week period ending Nov. 5 compared to the previous two-week period.
In the first week of November, the Belmont School District reported five new cases at its six schools.
On Nov. 2, two members of the Belmont High School community (they can either be staff or students) were confirmed to have COVID-19. Both individuals were remote (not in the building) and unrelated to each other. In addition, each did not have contact with others in the district.
Three cases were reported on Nov. 5, one at Belmont High School and two at the Chenery Middle School. While the person at the high school and one of the cases at the middle school were not in the buildings and not in contact with others, the second middle school case was at the school and was in close contact with others. Those who were in contact with the person are in quarantine for the next two weeks.
Photo: The Youtube video of the parents explaining its proposal
Belmont High School students can and need to return to in-person learning. The hybrid model originally proposed and adopted by the School Committee resulted in an unacceptable loss of instruction time. There is a simple, inexpensive solution that can bring our children back to school now: Extend remote livestream to hybrid livestream in days.
Our proposal (by Sheryl Grace YouTube) is that teachers can livestream classes to all remote students so that both the in-person and remote students are learning together. Technically, this is no different than the Google Classes offered in the remote environment – teachers are using technology to teach their classes and they continue to do so. This approach has significant upside for both the students and teachers. Students are able to attend class in-person – they can see their peers and their teachers. They are in a more traditional school environment. Teachers can more clearly see their classes – what is working and what may need further explanation. And both groups are able to share an energy that cannot be transmitted online. Because the classes are live-streamed, teachers can avoid developing hours of asynchronous learning content. This model does not require months of meetings – it has been implemented by our fellow Middlesex County schools – it is working and it is ready for immediate adoption in Belmont.
In a surprising reversal of the previous school committee vote, the committee voted to delay again the start of hybrid in high school to an unspecified time, at best January. This decision was based on survey results which showed the community’s strong dislike of the proposed hybrid model and were willing to take a delay for a better model. We agree that the original hybrid model removed too much instruction time, but do not agree that we need months to fix it. Instead of looking to surrounding communities – many of which have brought their high school students back to school – the school committee decided to implement a task force with the goal of reopening in January – almost a full year after our schools were shut down.
A number of public schools have implemented a more comprehensive hybrid plan than BPS. The delay of Belmont hybrid affords us the opportunity to “copy&paste” rather than reinventing the wheel. Key to all these hybrid models is live streaming that maximizes in person learning and instructional time, while maximizing teacher safety by allowing those teachers who require it to teach from home. Some of us have implemented live streaming in our classrooms using solutions that are within the abilities of teachers, as well as the financial and technical support available in the district. Reducing instructional time is burdensome to teachers as it requires them to retool their lesson plans and curriculum. As teachers get visual feedback from students attending in-person, they are able to be more effective for the remote students as well. This is a solution where everyone wins.
The fear that drives school closures is understandable, but may also be exaggerated. In the past week, the infection rate among approximately 450,000 students and 75,000 teachers attending classes in person in Massachusetts was 0.029 percent and 0.09 percent respectively. The rate during the same period was similar to Massachusetts’ population at large and supports numerous studies that conclude that schools are not a vector of infection. A report in New York Times of COVID-19 infections in New York City public schools suggests that the risks in schools may be exaggerated.
Remote learning has many failings and asynchronous learning will only exacerbate the outcomes. In an interview with the Harvard Gazette, Prof. Joseph Allen, the lead author of Harvard’s T. H. Chan report, argues that remote learning is leading to a new phenomenon of “virtual dropouts” that will have lasting impact on children’s outcomes. “[W]e have virtual dropouts. We have major school districts in the U.S. where a third of the kids are not logging in every day.” The “virtual dropout” and lack of engagement is evident in Belmont High School which led the school principal to abruptly mandate students to turn the cameras on during class time.
We propose that Belmont adopt a tried and true hybrid plan now. This gets our students back to school while preserving their instruction time. It makes the jobs of our teachers easier and it does not cost the district much, if any, money. We can proceed with the task force to improve on this plan – but there is no reason to wait months when we have the answer. Time is of the essence for our children – we need to act now while the health metrics are good.
Jamal Carlos Saeh, Sheryl Grace, Danielle Lemack, Larry Schmidt, Christine McLaughlin, Martin Zwierlein, Anja Genia Meichsner, Patrick Whittemore, Karl Ivester, Maíra Rejane Marques Samary, Heather Ivester, Colleen Doherty-Minicozzi, Laurie Manjikian, Jane MacKinnon, Stephanie Hovsepian, Chris McLaughlin, Maysoun Shomali, Jill Callanan, Elizabeth Woo, Michael Callanan, Mikhail Zaslavskiy, Beth Halloran, Laura French, Ron Creamer, Nancy Quinn, Julie Meringer, Jacqueline Agular, Patrick J Murphy, David Thesmar, Fleur Thesmar, Olga Shyshko, Tamara Kefeyan, Katherine Hawko, Tim Halloran, Joe Quinn, Judy Dacey, Jennifer G. Ausrotas, Ray Ausrotas
Photo: Dress-up the Halloween With Belmont High’s UNICEF Club
Bummed about not being able to Trick-or-Treat this Halloween? Are you a parent whose kids are frustrated that they can’t show off their costumes? Well, Belmont High School’s UNICEF Club have some exciting news: While Halloween this year may look different, it’s far from canceled as Belmont High School’s UNICEF Club is hosting a virtual costume contest!
In past years, UNICEF has always held a Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF fundraiser during Halloween. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions this year, trick-or-treating may be canceled for many. As a replacement, the Belmont High School chapter of UNICEF is proud to host a virtual Halloween costume contest: Dress-up for UNICEF! Enter in this contest to win fabulous prizes (including candy!) while helping out children in need. This contest is open to ALL AGES.
Want to enter? Submit your entry here!
Dress-up for Halloween like usual, and enter your (or your child’s) costume in our costume contest! We are offering the option to donate to our virtual Trick-or-Treat box along with the contest—consider it an entry fee of sorts—but again, it is totally optional. You and your child’s donations are sent directly to UNICEF, who uses the proceeds to make a difference around the world. UNICEF recently ordered more than one million reusable masks for vulnerable communities, all manufactured locally to provide jobs. A little goes a long way:
Every contribution makes a difference! Last year, Belmont raised a grand total of $1,541 from Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. We’re hoping to raise as much, if not more, through this fundraiser, but we need YOUR support.
*THE CONTEST ENDS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND*
You can submit your entry and find out more about the contest regarding rules, categories, etc. here: http://bit.ly/dressupforunicef, or scan the QR Code below.
What is UNICEF?
UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, is a worldwide organization that works in more than 190 countries to help children by providing basic services like health care, education, food, water, protection, and more. This year, children need your help more than ever with COVID-19 impacting areas with little access to the resources that can help battle this pandemic.
Even if you don’t plan on participating in our contest, you can do your part by spreading the word through social media or simply through word of mouth! Attached below is a picture flyer you can share. UNICEF and children around the world are counting on you.
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A group of parents of Belmont High School students is trying to slam the brakes on the transition from remote to hybrid learning just two days before it is to occur.
The hastedly assembled group will present the results of a survey they created to the Belmont School Committee at its Tuesday, Oct. 20 meeting showing overwhelming opposition to the committee’s vote last week to move high school students into a hybrid instructional model.
In a statement that is accompanying the survey, the group – self described as “Concerned Parents” – says the upshot of the results is ‘[t]he community, that elected you to represent their interests, has spoken loud and clear – stop the move to this model of hybrid for our High School students.”
“We are providing you with the voice of the community who wants to work together to help pave a path forward. We are asking the school administration to take this feedback into serious consideration and reshape their approach,” the parents group stated.
The group’s objective is for the school committee to nullify its earlier vote and return students to the current remote model while creating an ad hoc partnership of parents and the district administration to return back to square one and reconstruct the hybrid model from scratch in the matter of weeks.
“Our goal is to provide insights and ideas to work with the school committee and the administration on paving a path forward, together with the community. We want to make this work and support our students, teachers and school administrators in this unprecedented time,” says the parent’s statement.
The statement’s signatories include Charlie Conroy, Wendy Conroy, Heather Barr, Christa Bauge, Rachel Bruno, David Palmer, Heather Rubeski and Clare Crawford.
The numbers from polls speak volumes, according to the parents: 88 percent of more than 600 respondants do not support the proposed hybrid model for the High School, and a near equal 87 percent are asking the School Committee to nullify their earlier vote and return to a remote model.
Part of the survey has also been dedicated to the views of students which the group contends is a “critical component that has been missing from this discussion so far.” More than 35 percent of survey respondents “overwhelmingly reject this model of [h]ybrid also,” reads the statement.
The parents group is laying forth two “requests” before the six member School Committee and the district administration:
The School Committee voted 5-1, to begin the hybrid instruction model on Thursday, Oct. 22. During the discussion before the vote, nearly all the members agreed that the approved hybrid plan was lacking in student instructional time.
Yet the committee members acknowledged at the Oct. 13 meeting there is an insufficiant number of personnel and staff needed to revamp or rebuild a new hybrid plan in the next few weeks. In addition, the district faces pressure from the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to begin in-school learning.
Rather than start over, Belmont School Superintendent John Phelan suggested the high school continues into the hybrid while collecting feedback and suggestions from educators, students and parents. That information would then be the foundation for alterations to the plan after the completion of the first two terms of the school year early in the new year.
The parents group also started its own communications with DESE officials to reaffirm long-standing department policy that while the state can “strongly recommends the implementation of an in-person model of instruction” a move from remote to hybrid models “is ultimately a local decision.”
“Given there is no mandate to move to a hybrid model, the fact that DESE has highlighted that our local school committee has the authority to make this choice, and the fact that our survey shows there is not community support for a transition to the proposed Belmont High School hybrid model, we are highlighting that the school committee has the authority, responsibility and community support to stop this move now,” said the group.
The school committee should act quickly and decisively in this regard and stop the transition to Hybrid for the High school that is scheduled for October 22nd. We have collected valuable community comments about what is expected in a Hybrid mode for the High School.
Photo: Belmont High School
Saying they felt “backed into a corner,” the Belmont School Committee voted “reluctantly” for students at Belmont High School to enter into the approved hybrid learning phase.
The proposal which passed 5-1 with Evelyn Gomez voting no, will become operational on Thursday, Oct. 22.
“I just don’t think for high school that the hybrid model of this type is the way we should be going and I’m very, very reluctant to support it,” said Andrea Prestwich, school committee chair who led the effort to seek changes to the hybrid plan that would increase instructional time.
Under the current plan, teaching time for each student will decrease from 180 minutes in the current remote learning phase to 95 minutes in hybrid with 55 minutes in class, limiting educators to teaching the most significant areas of a subject – how to propose and defend an argument and not the proper usage of commas and articles – and leaving high schoolers in AP courses to seek classes outside the school to prepare for the important tests.
But Prestwich acknowledged while the proposed schedule created by High School Principal Isaac Taylor is “the wrong hybrid and the wrong time” and it may be advantageous to stay in the remote system, “we don’t have that choice, in fact.” In September, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education singling out Belmont along with other districts that were considered “safe” to do so to place students in classrooms.
Several members also noted that Belmont is hampered in making quick changes to the model as it doesn’t have the resources in teaching personnel or staffing to set aside for such a project.
Saying she had received “many, many emails from people who have said, ‘How come Belmont can’t do it when Weston is doing this and Lexington is doing this,” Committee member Tara Donner commented that “I think its good to mention again that our amount of staffing compared to our student body” is far less than other communities. For example, Weston has a student/teacher ratio of 11.3 to 1, while Belmont stands at 16.5 to 1.
“I don’t think we have the staff capacity to start from scratch at this point,” said Donner. “I wish we did, I want to do it differently,” she said but the time for students to have “some kind of in person relationship established with teacher” for this school year is closing, so reiterating Prestwich’s statement, “I basically feel backed into a corner about it.”
While agreeing with the committee’s sentiment, School Superintendent John Phelan said it wasn’t feasible to attempt the changes suggested by the committee and many parents of high school students with the hybrid plan having just been implemented.
Phelan acknowledged that all districts statewide are “trying to maximize the instructional value” in their hybrid systems, he suggested the hybrid phase in Belmont continue as voted through the winter holiday break and into the New Year.
“The deserve to be implemented for a few weeks to a month to get a good handle on what’s work and what’s not … and really rehash where we are and make improvements where we can especially after the winter break and into terms three and four,” said Phelan.
“I honestly feel that when we give our educators a chance to be in a model for a period of time that the feed back we can recieve from family and students and from fellow educators, that creative idea will come from that,” said Phelan.
Student representative senior Alex Fick conducted a survey of the students and discovered that while 50 percent of his classmates would approve moving to a hybrid model in general, two-thirds would say “no” to the current hybrid system.
“They don’t think this hybrid model will suit our needs,” said Fick, who noted comments to the survey revealed that “remote is working well for students … and we should try to develop it more rather than ruining to a hybrid which seem to provide risk with no real benefit as we are losing instructional time.”
Committee member Kate Bowen felt that the approved hybrid system is “something to build on” as it’s like “any creative process and its difficult to go through it … “but I do think it’s important for student to meet their teachers in person to be in the building.”
As for those who worry on the reduction of teaching time, “take a little breather there and consider that those minutes may have a greater value than you can anticipate right now,” said Bowen, noting that a decade from now students will be surprised what they learned during this time and not “the precise minutes you spent in any one class.”
Gomez said if the committee is committed to building on something, it would make more sense to make those improvements while students remain in the remote phase “before we ask people to switch.”
And after hearing from Fick, Gomez believed the model was beyond repair “and I hate saying” that it made more sense to start over.
Member Amy Checkoway said she would also support making significant changes to the hybrid plan if it could be done within at most 10 days “but I don’t believe it’s possible.”
“I feel comfortable with moving forward because I think there’s some real mental health issues I know happening in some households with students that we haven’t probably talked about enough,” she said.
Yet in voting to support the move from remote to hybrid, Prestwich continued to advocate for major changes to the hybrid plan sayiing her vote was based on “an effort over the next couple of weeks to figure out how to increase the instructional time within the model.
“I don’t mean January, I don’t mean December. I mean the next couple of weeks. We need to look at every single way possible, to increase the instructional time within the context of that of the model,” she said, which could include streaming classes on line, hiring more teachers “so that we can move the curriculum along much more efficiently than in the current model.”
The final motion read “Moved, that the school committee approves the current plan to move the high school to hybrid by Oct. 22 provided that efforts are made to impove with a model, especially wih regard to instructional time, going forward.”
Photo: Belmont High School
The Belmont Health Department reported on Friday, Oct. 9 that a Belmont High School community member – either a student or a staff member – has been diagnosed with a confirmed case of COVID-19.
Friday’s notice is the second positive individual in the district, joining a Winn Brook Elementary School community member who was diagnosed on Sept. 28.
In an email message sent to the community by Belmont Superintendent John Phelan, Belmont Public School’s director of nursing Beth Rumley, RN, determined that the positive school community member was not present at school during their infectious period. The infectious period used for determining close contacts for COVID-19 is two days prior to becoming symptomatic or, if asymptomatic, two days prior to testing, up until the time the student/staff/teacher is isolated.
Therefore, no close contacts were identified among the school community in this situation.
Phelan said the district is taking the following steps:
“We are grateful to our families for their continued efforts to keep students at home at the first sign of symptoms. These measures, taken in combination, greatly reduce the risk of additional transmission,” said Phelan.
Photo: Belmont High’s Isabel Burger
It was looking like a promising start to the shortened season for Belmont High’s Girls’ Cross Country. Senior Isabel Burger surged in the final half mile to win going away the first dual meet against Lexington on a crisp Saturday morning Oct. 3.
Lexington’s first runner came by 15 seconds back. Lexington runners then came in third, fourth and fifth. “I know we had runners who were better than those runners,” said Belmont Head Coach Melissa Tkacs.
When each of Lexington’s seven runners in the first wave of the varsity race had crossed the finish line of the 3.1 mile race in Lexington’s Hastings Park with nary a Belmont Harrier insight, “I knew something was not right,” said Tkacs especially when the second Belmont runner across the lin started two-and-a-half minutes after the first wave.
Thankfully, about 12 minutes after their expected arrival time the team began appearing from the Bermuda Triangle known as the Lexington cross country course.
So what happened? It appears that the Belmont runners behind Burger where told to run a half mile loop not the one time as they were supposed to but two extra times resulting in the “Lost Six” logging 4.1 miles. The runners said that a course official kept sending them back on the loop.
Due to the incorrect instructions, the Minutemen took the meet, 20-41.
“The results won’t reflect what the girls are capable of,” said Tkacs. “They ran hard even though it was an extra mile and that a lot of extra running to do.”
“We’ll rally and do better at the next meet,” she said.
There has been conversations Belmont runners will return to the course to run and receive a time for the race.
Golf Hopes To Repeat Opening Win Against Always Tough Lexington
Belmont High’s golfers got off to a smart start in defense of its Middlesex League crown by defeating Arlington High’s SpyPonders, 41-31, at Winchester Country Club on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Head Coach Jeff Shea will lead his charges against visitors Lexington on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 3:30 p.m.
Field Hockey Discovers The Old Ways Won’t Work
Belmont High Field Hockey has long been known as a team that used precise passing and pressuring defense to reach the post season 13 times in 14 years.
But under the new rules – reducing the numbers of players on each team from 11 to 7, no penalty corners and social distancing between players among others – its once strengths have diminished to a more wide open game that a single player can dominate.
Against Belmont in the season opener on Saturday, that one player was Lexington’s Maddie Devine. Last year’s Middlesex League co-MVP who will be heading to BU next year, Devine quarterbacked a quick team that found space all over the field playing a long ball game.
“We went into the game with an offensive mindset because we looked good in practice,” said head coach Jess Smith. But early in the game, Lexington was able to send midfielders into the offensive end, creating odd man breaks where two or three Minutemen would be defended by a single Belmont back line player.
“No matter how much you practice, it’s only in the game where you saw how important long passes and speed have become,” said Smith.
Needing to quickly adjust their game, Belmont would revert back to playing as if it was 11 players against 11 with a reliance on short connecting passes. “But that’s wasn’t going to work,” said Smith.
It wasn’t pretty at the end as Belmont and Smith suffered its worst defeat since Smith arrived in 2004, losing 8-0.
“We’ll have to work on our defense and learn to adjust. But we’re just not there just yet,” said Smith.
Photo: Belmont High’s Katelyn Sawyer (9) and Grace Kane (3) in action against Lexington
Belmont High Boys’ and Girls’ Soccer squads got their respective seasons underway this past weekend.
Girls’: Belmont Hangs On To Secure Opener Victory
The Belmont High Marauders showed what a senior laden team can do best as it took maximum advantage of the opportunities given them to take home a 3-2 opening day victory against the host Lexington High Minutemen.
“I’m happy with the results because we lost twice of them last year. So that was a big one for us,” said of Belmont’s long time head coach Paul Graham.
The senior strike partnership of Kiki Christofori and Jenna Thomas joined sophomore midfielder Kiley Meringer with goals in the inaugural game of the shortened 10-game season.
Christofori scored midway though the first quarter off a hard shot that hit the Minuteman goalie’s shoulder and bounced in. Meringer lofted a floater that caught the goalie off her line and settled in at the 7:30 mark of the second quarter. Thomas slotted a shot that snuck into the net five minutes into the third to give Belmont a 3-0 lead.
It turned out that each goal was needed as the Minutemen grew stronger – they hit the crossbar twice in the game – as the game progressed led by its talented junior forward Kirsty Carnan who was a handful for the Marauders backline, a group that won Graham’s praise.
“I have to say my four defenders really played well, Graham said describing the workrate of sophomore Sabrina Spalls, senior Grace Kane – who moved from the midfield – and returning stalwarts junior Ally Landers and senior Ashley Green.
“You know they were very very strong, they’re tough to beat up,” said Graham who acknowledged senior Rachel November was a standout controlling the middle of the field.
Senior Abbie Moran kept a clean sheet in the first two quarters with a fine stop of a Carnan shot on her near side post. Junior Bridget Martin was busy for the entire second half giving up a Carnan goal in the final minute of the game to cut the margin of victory to one.
Belmont will host Lexington this Saturday, Oct. 11 at Harris Field at 4 p.m.
Boys’ Lacked Punch On The O Side Of The Ball Falling 2-0
While it was perfect fall weather to play a game – sunny in the upper 60s – it was a frustrating game for the Belmont High Boys Soccer as a lack of offense punch left the Marauders empty handed on the scoresheet falling to Lexington High Minutemen, 2-0, in the home and season opener on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Harris Field.
While Belmont’s midfielders and defenders kept the Minutemen at bay for the first two quarters, the Marauders – under new head coach Jean M Carlone Laforgue – couldn’t find the right combination of passes that would spring their forwards for clear shots.
Senior midfielder Ali Noorouzi had Belmont best chance when, in the second quarter, he ran onto a probing pass to the right of goal but couldn’t lift the ball over the on rushing goalie.
Noorouzi was Belmont’s Man of the Match whose work rate allowed the Marauders to hold the majority of possession in the first half. Senior center back Lars Gustav Bauerle controlled the turf in front of junior goalie Damon Reyes. Up front, senior forward Will Kivalatitu was the most threatening to the Minutemen backline.
Lexington where able to end the stalemate at 14:20 in the third through senior Lynn Jueppner from junior Eric Edmonds on a nice build up on the left wing. The same combination hit in the fourth as Jueppner got the brace from a strike in close between a pair of Belmont defenders at 14:26 in the fourth.
The remainder of the game saw Belmont attempting to find a way around a Lexington team packing the middle with little to show for their attempts.
Belmont visits Lexington at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10.
Photo: James Saidnawey during his time as head coach of Belmont High Boys Swim team
The coach who in 2018 led the Belmont High Boys Swimming and Diving team to its first Middlesex League regular season title in two decades was arrested last week in Eastham, Mass on charges that he took inappropriate photographs of teenage girls, according to a report in SwimSwam.
James Saidnawey, 29, has been charged with two counts of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity or sexual contact, Eastham police said in a statement. They also indicated that the investigation is ongoing and that additional charges may be filed.
Saidnawey was arraigned on Sept. 23 in Orleans District Court and was released on $1,000 bail. He is set to return to court on Nov. 23 for a pretrial hearing.
Police seized several electronic devices from Saidnawey’s home and interviewed multiple potential victims before making the arrest, according to the news report.
According to SwimSwam, Saidnawey was hired during the summer as a 4th grade teacher at Eastham Elementary School. Nauset Regional School District Superintendent Thomas Conrad reported that district officials knew about the investigation before classes started on Sept. 16, and while he participated in some staff meetings, Saidnawey never had any contact with students.
After his one year at Belmont High School, Saidnawey worked as a 5th grade teacher in Newton Public Schools and coached the Newton North High School girls swim team.