Banner Year: Belmont Girls’ Volleyball Takes First Middlesex Liberty Title, Set For Tournament Run

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Photo: Belmont High senior Isabella Radojevic is this season’s difference maker

The west wall of the Wenner Field House was recently festooned with brand new banners highlighting Belmont High School’s state, division, and league championship teams going as far back as the 1940s.

But one team is conspicuously missing from the wall of champions: Girls’ Volleyball, a program that has come close to bringing home silverware but could never seal the deal in the 30 years it’s been played.

But that was until this season.

“We’re about to put a banner up there,” said long-time Belmont head coach Jen Colture, as the Marauders swept aside the opposition in the Middlesex League Liberty Division to secure its first league title.

In a dominating 2023 season, Belmont went 14-1 in the league with an overall record of 17-2. This sets a new program record for overall wins and winning percentage, breaking the 16-4 record compiled in 2018. The team can match the best win total of 18 achieved during Belmont’s run to the Central East Division 1 section finals.

Ranked 9th in the MIAA Power Rankings, the Marauders roll into the Division playoffs on a 10-game winning streak, hosting a first-round match against 24-seed Lincoln-Sudbury (7-13) on Friday, Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m.

Belmont High senior Isabella Radojevic

With a make-up of senior and underclass players who each contribute to the team’s success, there is a Marauder that stands out, and appropriately enough, she wears the number 1 jersey.

On the court, you can spot senior Isabella Radojevic with her ever-present smile and bouncy personality. But Radojevic is all business during rallies, especially when she’s on the front row. She leads the team with 201 kills this season, resulting from a combination of power and placement, skillfully striking balls down the sidelines and in open spaces on the court. Add to that, an impressive service tally along with a complete set of skills and Radojevic is essential for the team’s march in the tournament.

Radojevic importance to the team was in evidence last month when she was sidelined for two games due to a nagging injury. Without her on the court, Belmont lost to a good Woburn team in straight sets and then lost in five sets to Concord-Carlisle, a team they handled easily in the preseason.

Colture spoke at the time that Radojevic’s loss was seen as an opportunity for her varsity and some junior varsity athletes to play in alternative roles against teams that could press them in a playoff setting.

While no one can underestimate Radojevic’s importance to the team, Belmont is stacked with top-notch players. Sophomore Sophia Qin, the team’s setter – who quarterbacks the attack – has collected 542 assists on 1,817 attempts while leading the team in service aces with 60.

On the backline, junior Gabriella Hashioka has 264 digs or about 14 per match while all-around skill player sophomore Wuyee Ke doesn’t just lead the team with 426 receiving serves and 210 digs, she’s second in kills with 182.

Three seniors anchor the front, Soyna Ivkovic has 16 solo and five combined blocks while Eva Grant has a total of 20, with Sydney Boulanger on 10.

Performing Arts Company’s 2023-4 Season Gets Underway With ‘Broadway Night,’ Oct. 13, 14

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Photo: Nicole Thoma singing “History of Wrong Guys” on Broadway Night, 2015

BROADWAY NIGHT 2023, the Performing Arts Company’s annual evening of musical theater cabaret, will take place Oct. 13 and 14, at 7 p.m. in the Belmont Middle and High School Main Theater.

TICKETS: $5 Students, $12 Adults BUY TICKETS FOR BROADWAY NIGHT

Advance Ticket Purchase online recommended. Some tickets will be available at the theater 30 minutes before each performance.

Broadway Night kicks off the theater season at Belmont High. Students perform classic show tunes and contemporary work from new musical theater composers in an evening of song, dance and storytelling. ​This year, the show features more than 40 solo, duet and group performers, with a mix of humor, heart, romance and high-energy fun, plus a dance number

Broadway Night represents the core mission of the PAC, with an emphasis on showcasing student work. The performers have selected, staged and rehearsed the songs almost entirely on their own, In addition, the lighting design is done entirely by students, and the show ends with a finale song featuring the entire company

Your Invitation: Dedication Ceremony For Completed Belmont Middle/High School Sat., Oct. 21

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Photo: The dedication of the completed Belmont Middle And High School will be on Saturday, Oct. 21

The Belmont Public Schools is inviting the town community to attend the dedication ceremony of the completed Belmont Middle and High School taking place on Saturday, Oct. 21.

The ceremony consists of a formal dedication program, an opportunity to view the new learning spaces and a tour the new BMHS Campus. The event will begin at the schools’ Auditorium at 11 a.m., where the district will thank the many partners who helped create the state-of-the-art school.

There will be an Open House from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., where members of the Belmont community will be able to see the student learning spaces.

In anticipation of high attendance for the event, the district requests attendees walk or car pool to the ceremony if possible and obey all campus, street and parking restrictions.

School Week: A Decade Of Work Ends With A Ribbon Cutting Opening Belmont’s New Middle And High School [Video]

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Photo: (In no particular order: Superintendent Dr. Jill Geiser; Jim McDonald, MSBA; School Committee Chair Meghan Moriarty; retired Superintendent John Phelan; Building Committee Chair Bill Lovallo; and BMHS students Charlie and Ellie Shea, Jane and Allison Caputo, Maybe Thurston, Elizabeth Zuccarello, and Sarah Lovallo cutting the ribbon opening the new Belmont Middle and High School on Sept. 6, 2023)

Under a blazing hot summer sun, a decade of planning, financing, and construction culminated in the ceremony cutting of the ribbon opening Belmont’s newest school, the Middle and High School, held on the opening day of the 2023-24 school year, Wednesday, Sept. 6.

“This is your building now. Congratulations,” Bill Lovallo, the Middle and High School Building Committee chair, told the assembled students and teachers. Lovallo, along with vice chair Pat Brusch, led the team that shepherded the project after 3/4 of town voters approved a $212 million debt exclusion in November 2018. Construction started in June 2019.

“Your vote made an impactful statement to Belmont and the surrounding communities, approving at the time one of the largest public school projects in the state,” said Lovallo. “Why? Because this community is committed to investing in our future, particularly the future involving our children.”

Costing $295 million to construct, the 450,000-square-foot building will house more than 2,300 students in grades 7-12. Including the hundreds of geothermal wells that will heat and cool the building, more than 2,000 solar panels will be a major electrical power source when its installation is completed at the beginning of 2024.

While the project – designed by Perkins+Will and constructed by Skanska USA – came in “on time and on budget,” according to the building committee, there currently is projected a $1.9 million deficit as a result of a reduction in the $83 million initially promised by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The shortfall – due to a dispute on what areas of construction are deemed reimbursable – will be resolved in the next 18 months.

Yet that is a future concern as Wednesday saw town and school department officials, employees, and dozens of middle and high school students celebrate the opening of the school year and the completed school held outside of the high school’s dining area overlooking Clay Pit Pond.

“It’s easy for us to see, looking at this building, that the physical spaces of teaching and learning have changed education,” said Meghan Moriarty, chair of the School Committee. “In the coming year, on behalf of the School Committee, we want to help the Belmont community to see how teaching and learning has changed to meet the needs of all of our Belmont students. And how this innovative space and our educators are catalysts in that change.”

In the end, seven Middle and High School students, along with officials, took scissors to ribbon and welcomed the newest school to the Belmont district.

On a side note, 12 years nearly to the day as a kindergartener helping cut the ribbon to open the new Wellington Elementary School in 2011, Sarah Lovallo joined six of her fellow schoolmates in the ribbon cutting for another new school.

The current members of the Belmont Middle and High School Building Committee are:

Amy ZuccarelloSchool Committee Member
Patricia BruschCommittee Vice Chair, Permanent Building Committee Chair, Capital Budget Committee
Thomas CaputoSelect Board Member, CMS parent
Joseph DeStefanoPlanning Board, construction experience, CMS and BHS parent
David BlazonDirector of Facilities
Patrice GarvinTown Administrator, MCPPO Certified
Bill LovalloCommittee Chair, Permanent Building Committee, engineering experience, CMS parent
Michael McAllisterPrincipal, Chenery Middle School
Robert McLaughlinPermanent Building Committee, Warrant Committee
Christopher MesserCommittee Secretary, operations and real estate experience, BHS parent
Diane MillerArchitecture experience, CMS and BHS parent
Joel MooneyPermanent Building Committee, engineering experience
Jill GeiserSuperintendent of Schools
Ellen SchreiberWarrant Committee Member, CMS Parent
Jamie SheaFoundation for Belmont Education, BHS teacher, Burbank, CMS, and BHS parent
Emma ThurstonCommittee Treasurer, business experience, BHS Parent

‘Milestone’: Building Committee Hands Ownership Of Belmont Middle And High School To School Committee, Town

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Photo: The Belmont Middle and High School is now the property of the Belmont School Committee.

“It’s a fairly simple meeting,” Bill Lovallo said of Wednesday’s virtual joint get-together of the Belmont School and Belmont Middle and High School Building committees.

And while it was straightforward, the gathering marked the culmination of seven-and-a-half years of planning, construction, and 163 meetings as the Building Committee turned over the 450,000 sq. ft. 7th to 12th-grade building to the School Committee and the Town of Belmont.

“It’s a meeting about a building, but it’s really so much more than a building,” Meghan Moriarty, chair of the Belmont School Committee. “It’s a really exciting opportunity for us. I’m so excited for our educators and our students.”

“I’m very pleased to say that we’ve come to a milestone here,” said Lovallo.

In a series of three votes, the Building Committee accepted the building from Skanska USA, the project’s chief contractor, before officially transferring ownership of the largest building in Belmont to the School Committee and town.

“This is incredible,” said Lovallo as the $295 million school building opens for the six grades it was designed. “Seven and a half years since we started this project with the building committee, working collaboratively with the school committee … and school department on visioning, working on budgets, working on scope, working on messaging. We’re working on engaging our community time and time again, to do the best thing we can for Belmont with the resources that we have.”

Lovallo issued thanks to Skanska, the architectural design team from Perkins+Will, Owner’s Project Manager CHA Companies, the Belmont School District, and residents who supported the project.

“I’m very proud of what the community has done. I’m very proud of people stepping up, community members providing their input, and comments, the building committee, and others, listening, and then delivering on our commitment. So thank you,” said Lovallo.

One member of the building committee will be a beneficiary every day from the nearly decade long process. Belmont High teacher Jamie Shea called the building “an amazing space.”

Flexible spacing allows innovative teaching

“I’m so thankful that we have that space for teaching and learning for our students. I love my classroom with a moveable wall that allows me to teach an integrated class with a math teacher, which is great. The flexible spacing in the building is allowing teachers to innovate and try new things in ways that were really hard to do in the old building.”

Shea also heralded the work of Lovallo, veteran building committee member Pat Brusch, and recently retired superintendent John Phelan. “This only happened with the three of you. I can’t even imagine the number of hours you spent beyond all the meetings we were at to ensure this happened.”

The town’s Office of Community Development is granting the school committee a temporary occupancy permit (TCO), representing the school building is ready for educators/staff and students to enter the building, said Moriarty. The paperwork to allow the building to open will completed in the next days.

The building committee will identify any remaining work on the “punch” list to be completed, like training for bells, the Public Address system, HVAC, and the solar arrays.

“[Punch list] doesn’t affect life safety account for those types of things, but it does affect 100 percent completeness. So … as we turn the building over, our team will be continuing to work on that,” said Lovallo, “We expect that to take probably about two months from now to get all those items complete.”

One item that will take more time to complete will be the installation of more than 2,200 solar photovoltaic arrays on the building’s roof. Delays due to cost and engineering delays will hold up the final full production mode until February 2024, according to Lovallo.

“I’ll say right here that we have not changed our commitment to flooding the entire roof with – probably is not the best word to use for a roof, but covering the entire roof with PV and that has not changed,” said Lovallo.

Moriarty said the Building Committee would track that work, hold the construction team responsible, and finish up payment and financial issues with the Massachusetts School Building Authority with support from the Town Administrator’s Office. While the project is nearly completed, the Building Committee will continue until the financial closeout is complete, which will take up to 18 months.

A short ribbon-cutting celebration will occur on opening day for Belmont schools, Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 8:30 a.m. outside of the high school lunch area. The district is planning guided tours for families of middle schoolers, just as was done for Phase 1 – high school – of the building completion.

A larger, town-wide celebration will take place in October.

As Middle School Preps For Next Year, There Are Changes In Leadership At Chenery And District

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Photo: Karla Koza at the topping off celebration of the new middle school section of the Belmont Middle and High School.

With the one-year countdown is underway for the opening of the new Middle School on Concord Avenue and the transformation of the Chenery into a town-wide 4-6 grade elementary school, there has been some major shuffling going on at the Middle School on Washington Street this summer.

In a series of press releases from the Belmont School District, Karla Koza has moved from being principal of the 5-8 grade school and is the working as director of the newly-created District Configuration Transition post effective Sept. 1. Koza was the Principal at the Chenery for the past two years.

The purpose of this one-year position was to dedicate a single “point person” to focus all of their time and attention on leading the evolution of a 9-12 Belmont High School building to a 7-12 Belmont Middle and High School building by September, 2023. 

Koza experience and expertise in Grades 7-12, especially, will serve her well as she works to ensure that all stakeholders involved with the district reconfiguration feel supported and successful.  Having already built strong relationships with many in our school community, she represents a trusted point of contact.  She is a valued member of our leadership council and we have confidence that she will be successful in this new capacity. 

In proposing this role, the district said it emphasized the importance of:

  • Taking input from stakeholders
  • Focusing on timelines, scheduling, and logistics
  • Handling all public communication

Koza joined the Belmont Public Schools in 2020. Prior to her Chenery principalship she was an educator in the Grafton Public Schools, working as a classroom teacher (15 years), English Department Head (6 years) and Assistant Principal (5 years), from 2003-2020. She also underwent a similar transition into a new building in that role, which she spoke about passionately during her interview. 

“Her experience and expertise in Grades 7-12, especially, will serve her well as she works to ensure that all stakeholders involved with the district reconfiguration feel supported and successful. Having already built strong relationships with many in our school community, she represents a trusted point of contact,” said the release.

Taking Koza’s place, Chenery’s former assistant principal Nicolette Foundas has been named the Interim 5-8 Chenery Middle School Principal for the 2022-2023 school year which is the final year for the Chenery as a middle school. The one-year appointment began effective Aug. 8. But Foundas will not need to clear out her desk when the one-year appointment ends as she was named the future Principal of the Chenery Upper Elementary School, Grades 4-6, which will start in the 2023-2024 year beginning next September.

Nicolette Foundas

Foundas began her career in public education as a Grade 4 classroom teacher in Hartford. She joined the Belmont Public Schools 2008 and has served as a Grade 5 classroom teacher for 10 years and as a member of our leadership team overseeing encore programming and Grades 5 and 6 for the last four years. 

Foundas’ prior experience in a similar interim capacity as the Chenery Principal in May and June of 2020, will serve her well as she works to ensure stability for students, family, and staff through this period of transition. 

“We have seen her work up close as a member of our own leadership council and have confidence that she will continue to thrive in this new role,” according to the release.

And the school district will soon be seeking the first leader of the new 7-8 middle school in the Concord Avenue facility.

In January, 2023, the district will post for a permanent principal for a July 1, 2023 start. The hiring for that position will follow our traditional process, including a screening team made up of teachers and parents/guardians, public interviews, and community input.

Concord Avenue’s New Traffic/Bike Lane Configuration Up And Running

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Photo: Drivers parking their vehicles in the new parking lane in front of the Post Office on Concord Avenue.

If you were startled recently seeing cars and SUVs seemingly abandoned in the middle of Concord Avenue, no, it’s not evidence of the beginning of a zombie apocalypse or the Rapture. What you have come across is the new traffic and parking scheme for one of Belmont’s busiest thoroughfares to promote safe cycling for bike commuters and students traveling to the new Belmont High School.

As part of the Concord Avenue restriping project, the Transportation Advisory Committee, in conjunction with designer Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates and Belmont’s Office of Community Development and the Department of Public Works, has reorient the road lines so the bike lane is closest to the curb, separated by a three-foot buffer, then the parking lane and then the travel lane, according to the TAC.

“The Department of Public Works expects to finish the painting [Thursday, Aug. 18],” said Glenn Clancy, director of Community Development. ”There will be green colored crossings added at side streets but likely not until September given DPW workload and constraints.”

Belmont Police graphic on new traffic/parking pattern for Concord Avenue

This new configuration is eastbound from the Unitarian Church to the Cambridge border at Blanchard Road and westbound from Underwood Street to just past the US Post Office.

The project came about when in 2021 the High School Traffic Working Group expressed a desire to explore the possibility of reconfiguring the bike lane and parking lane on Concord Avenue.

A deep dive into the year-long TAC process and the decisions made by the designers can be found here: Concord Avenue Striping Plan Briefing

With the striping complete, Belmont Police’s Traffic Division will now step in to help with the transition.

“In regards to enforcement, we have started educating drivers about the new pattern,” said Sgt. Paul Garabedian, supervisor of the department’s Traffic Divison.

“We will be giving out warnings and talking with people when we see a violation in hopes of people getting a better understanding. We will have officers on foot and bicycles to be able to talk with drivers over the new few weeks while people adjust to the new design,” said Garabedian.

So far, town officials have not heard much from the public on the new striping design.

“Other than occasional complaints that ‘Belmont is trying to look like Somerville and Cambridge’, I have not received any complaints about the new configuration,” said Clancy. In regards to inquires about the design, Garabedian directed those questions to the TAC Chair David Coleman “as they worked with the design team hired by the town on this project.” 

Where the discussion has been lively is on-line with comments to Police updates or Facebook pages running about 50/50 whether they love the new setup or hate it. One resident made a short video outside the Concord Avenue Post Office reportedly showing the danger in exiting adjacent the travel lane. Some residents were annoyed no notice was provided by the town of the change while others believe the new standards are confusing and unworkable.

Supporters, on the other hand, welcome what they consider provides a safer way along Concord Avenue.

Select Board Place More Streets Off Limits To Student HS Parking, Adding Spots Along Concord, Pool

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Photo: The Underwood Pool parking lot will be available for student parking this week.

Based on recommendations from the Middle and High School Traffic Working Group, the Belmont Select Board added three new streets to an expanding number of side streets in which High School students are banned from parking on school days while expending the time the existing “temporary” restricts will be in place by three weeks.

The new streets were added to the inventory of roadways at the board’s Jan. 24 meeting after residents complained their streets were impacted by students migrating from side streets placed under parking restrictions approved by the Select Board on Dec. 20.

“This announcement has generated quite a response,” said Roy Epstein, the Select Board’s vice chair who ran the meeting as Chair Adam Dash recused himself as he lives on one of the streets [Goden Street] under the regulations.

Epstein noted the Task Force recommendations are prompted by resident complaints of student drivers parking along side streets since the opening of the high school wing of the Belmont Middle and High School that is under construction.

“It has created a situation that we had to address. It made the streets dangerous for pedestrians and impassable for vehicles on numerous occasions and we felt we had to act,” said Epstein. The first set of restrictions – no parking from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. beginning on January 3 – were focused on Oak and Orchard streets off the southside of Concord Avenue.

The result of the initial action was students migrated over to nearby Stone and Louise roads. The reaction by those residents were as expected: move the kids.

The new streets with restricted parking bans include:

  • Stone Road,
  • Louise Road from Concord Avenue to the intersection with Emerson Street, and
  • Emerson Street from Concord Avenue to the intersection with Louise Road.

The ban takes effect Jan. 31.

The Board also extended the end date of the trial from Jan. 28 to Feb. 18 to allow the board to consider further recommendations from the Traffic Working Group to be presented on Valentines Day.

But Epstein wanted to make it clear: the committee’s aim is to disperse student parking and not to make it impossible for students to park. In recognition that parking options are being taken off the board on the three streets, the task force made three endorsements to make up for those lost spaces.

The first is to remove the reserved parking spaces on the north (or school) side of Concord Avenue from Underwood Street to the light pole across from Becket Road as “virtually no students have parked there since September,” said Epstein. The school administration provided 100 permits at the beginning of the school year to seniors with corresponding spaces. Yet only 50 to 55 of the spaces are filled on a daily basis, said Lawrence Link, one of the resident members of the working group.

While the committee did not speculate why the spaces were unused, there is some indication that many of the first time drivers find it unnerving to parallel park on a busy roadway such as Concord Avenue during the morning rush hour and feel safer sliding into a space on a quiet side street.

This action will allow more parking along Concord Avenue for students who did not receive permits and the public.

The second and third recommendations are to allow all-day parking in the Underwood Pool lot and on the Concord Avenue pool drop-off area stretching from Myrtle Street to the library exit, freeing up an additional 15 spaces.

While there has been some parents questioning the steps taken by the task force as targeting students, Link believes more parents will “now feel more comfortable because they know spots are available.”

Epstein said the committee’s expectation is to fill in the unused space on Concord Avenue and use new spots near the pool “to accommodate all of the students currently parking on the side streets.” If it becomes evident that more spaces are needed, there is a possibility the task force will recommend a limited number of student drivers via permits to park on side streets, said Epstein.

The adjustments will allow the Task Force ample time to conduct a complete evaluation before presenting final recommendations to the Select Board on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.

Restrictions On Side Streets To Control HS Student Parking Start Jan. 3

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Photo: Concord Avenue adjacent to the new Belmont Middle and High School

The Belmont Select Board on Monday, Dec. 20, approved a four-week trial plan to force the majority of high school students who drive to the new Belmont Middle and High School off of side streets and back to parking on the main thoroughfare that runs by the facility.

The proposal will take place from Monday, Jan. 3 to Friday, Jan. 28 afterwards the plan will be reviewed and extended, ended or revamped.

Advanced by the Traffic Working Group – Middle and High School, it comes after town officials heard an earful from local residents concerning throngs of high school pupils who found the best parking spaces to the building was right off the main road.

“One of the purposes of the proposal is to restore the status quo of students not parking on side streets,” said Martin November, a task force member who led the effort.

The high school’s parking plan for seniors and juniors is a temporary one itself as there will be no student parking on site until the middle school wing is built. One hundred spaces along the north side of Concord Avenue was allocated to students by the school through a lottery. The spaces are in two sections along Concord Avenue from Underwood Road to the Belmont Public Library with another 90 off-street parking spaces linked to a new skating rink that would be built on the west side of Harris Field.

But soon after the September opening of the new high school wing complaints from homeowners started that their streets were teeming with cars during school hours; parking close to driveways and intersections, creating pinch points where traffic can travel and making deliveries and trash collection much more difficult. When they did call to complain, police response was slow due to current staffing levels.

An October survey conducted by residents on behalf of the working group found approximately 120 student cars coming daily to the school with 56 parking on Concord, six on Goden Street, 12 on Oak Street, approximately 20 in the Orchard/Orchard Circle/Stone Road loop and 20 occupying the jug handle site opposite the library.

November told the Select Board’s Mark Paolillo and Roy Epstein – Select Board Chair Adam Dash recused himself from the discussion and vote as he lives on Goden Street – that students, some who possess reserved passes for the coveted 100 lottery spaces, were parking along adjacent roadways such as lower Orchard Street for a simple reason: it’s less of a trek to the school than parking on Concord Avenue closer to Harris Field and the skating rink.

“We do want them back on Concord (Avenue),” said Paolillo.

The proposal will consist of four steps:

  • Identify the side streets to be targeted.
  • No parking from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on school days unless the vehicle has a town-approved placard.
  • Commercial vehicles and those on public business will be exempt.
  • Residents will receive a placard that exempts them from the parking ban.

And the targeted streets are:

  • Goden Street below School
  • Oak Street
  • Orchard Street below School
  • Trowbridge Street
  • Underwood Street
  • Baker Street
  • Concord Street east bound (the southside of the roadway) from Cottage Street to Louise Road.

No parking signs will be placed on cones and on existing posts on the targeted streets.

Belmont High School’s ‘Gem’: Grand Opening Of New Theater With Bands and Boston Brass On Dec. 2 [Videos]

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Photo: Alley Lacasse, Belmont High’s Band Director, on stage at the school’s new theater and concert hall.

Alley Lacasse is snapping her fingers as she is standing at the front of the stage of the new Belmont Middle and High School theater. The Belmont High Band Director then begins slowly hand-clapping, all the while listening intently to the sound emulating from the hall.

“I’m listening to how the sound reverberates from the stage,” said Lacasse, in the midst of workers putting the initial finishing touches (there’s a few more touch-ups to come) to the town’s newest performance space.

Last week was a chance for Lacasse to get a feel of the place since, well, neither she or anyone else has had the opportunity to perform in what is the gem of the new Belmont Middle and High School: A spacious two-tier 700-seat theater that is a true concert hall with professional quality acoustics and equipped with up-to-date audio and light systems.

“I have never opened a new performance space as a performer [Lacasse is a professional flutist and chamber musician] or director so it’s going to be so special for all of us,” said Lacasse who is in her third year as

On Dec. 2 at 7 p.m., the theater will hold its grand opening concert featuring the school’s two band ensembles, the symphonic band, and the wind ensemble with special guest artists, Boston Brass. Tickets [General Admission: $15] can be purchased at the POMS website here.

The former auditorium – built in 1970 and demolished in the fall to make way for the new middle school section of the building – was far from the optimum site for holding the myriad of concerts and theatricals that were presented by a music program that has earned multiple local and national honors and awards.

“This space is going to accurately now reflect the quality of music and art in a theater that happens with the Belmont High School, performing arts department all the time. We finally have a space that matches that quality,” she said.

From a design by architects from Perkins+Will which has experience in theater and performance design and construction, the hall’s design and material used – from the wall panels to the fabric upholstered seats – was selected to enhance the listening experience. And getting the right sound begins on Dec. 1 when the bands officially arrive in their new home.

Boston Brass

“We’ll start with dress rehearsals where we’ll be doing a lot of sound checks. I’ll have people in the hall listening for me both at the orchestra level and upstairs just to see how balance is working. And it’ll be a lot of adjusting,” she said.

“But it’s kind of fun. It’s the music business. It’s a mystery until you actually do it and the audience is going to hear that for the first time.”

For Lacasse, the concert will also be an opportunity for her students to experience performing with “my personal dear friends,” the five-member Boston Brass, an ensemble with a worldwide reputation.

“They’re known for putting classical music on a concert stage but dressing it up and changing it up and kind of blending genres and giving the audience a really personal human experience. They’re high-energy and very funny. They’re some of the kindest people I know. And they most importantly, truly care about music education, and they love working with students,” Lacasse said.

While the concert will provide the highlight of this primer week, it will be the seemingly ordinary that Lacasse is anticipating.

“It’s gonna be a really magical moment the first time the ensembles steps on stage and we play the first chord or tuning note or just warm up. So it’s going to be a whole bunch of surprises. But it will be a beautiful, beautiful moment there.”