‘Big Number’: New Belmont High School Price Tag Likely Topping $300 Million

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Photo: Residents viewing designs for the new Belmont High School, Jan. 16.

It was always assumed a new or renovated Belmont High School would cost a pretty penny for taxpayers.

After Tuesday’s joint public meeting led by the Belmont High School Building Committee, residents now have a clearer idea of the price tag to build a new school will require a whole lot of pennies, as in about 31 billion one-cent coins.

That’s the outcome of the initial financial analysis by Daedalus Project Company’s Tom Gatzunis, the owner’s project manager for the Belmont High School Project, who presented his work to a joint meeting of the Building Committee, the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee as well as a number of residents at the Chenery Middle School on Jan. 16.

“We are giving you a brief snapshot of where we are of the cost of all the different scenarios,” said Gatzunis, pointing out the analysis presented initial cost projections for four designs – two that are minor renovation/major additions, a major renovation/minor addition and all new construction – in three grade configurations; 9th to 12th, 8th to 12th, and 7th to 12th grades.

With the focus of the joint committee on building a 7th to 12th-grade structure – which would not require the town to build a new elementary school if a 9th through 12th scheme is chosen or commit to costly revamping classrooms in an 8th through 12th grade blueprint – the project price tag for a new high school including construction and soft cost would come to approximately $310 million for a 410,000 sq.-ft. multi-story building housing 2,215 students.

Go to the Belmont High School Building Committee webpage to see an updated designs from architect Perkins+Will and financial data from Daedalus.

If approved by Town Meeting and voters through a debt exclusion vote, the new Belmont high school would be one of the most expensive ever built in the US, trailing only two mega schools in Los Angeles. Locally, it would top the current priciest high school in Somerville at $257 million and the proposed new building in Waltham at $283 million and dwarfing the controversial Newton North High School that came in at $197.5 million that opened in 2010.

Belmont will not be on the hook for the entire amount. About 36 percent of the construction cost or $81 million will be absorbed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority which is working closely with the Building Committee on the project. With the reimbursement calculated into the cost, Belmont’s share of the project comes to approximately $231 million.

What the $231 million expense means to taxpayers was explained by Town Treasurer Floyd Carman who said at 4 percent interest over 30 years of level payments, real estate property taxes would increase by $184 per $100,000 of assessed value beginning in 2020, the year construction would start. 

Below is a chart of the yearly real estate tax increase for homes at three assessed values:

  • $500,000 – $920
  • $750,000 – $1,387
  • $1 million (the average residential assessment in Belmont as of fiscal 2018) – $1,840

“The numbers are the numbers,” explained Carman.

There are less expensive options including renovating the existing school with not additions or new construction at $124 million with Belmont picking up $92 million. And a 9-12 school would be in the $180 million range, which does not include the cost of a new elementary school that Belmont Superintendent John Plehan has said would be required to meet the ever-increasing enrollment numbers in Belmont’s school.

Phelan said if any of the 9-12 designs are selected, the town would need to come up with between $72 million to $82.5 million for a new elementary school and renovations at three of the four elementary schools and the Chenery.

Whether it was sticker shock or the outcome of the analysis was expected, committee members and the public did not have any immediate reaction to the big numbers generated by the project. 

“Wow, I thought there would be a lot more questions,” said Building Committee Chair William Lovallo. He noted that the committee will not return to the cost component until mid-summer “when we will have better numbers.” 

The next joint meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 23 when the School Committee will vote on a grade configuration moving forward while the Building Committee will select a design scheme. 

Town Election ’18: School Committee’s Caputo Eyes William’s Selectman Seat

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Photo: Tom Caputo

Nearly a year after securing his first full three-year term on the Belmont School Committee, Tom Caputo is thinking of a higher calling having taken out nomination papers for the Board of Selectmen.

In a conversation with the Belmontonian, Caputo appears ready to start a campaign to wrest away the seat from its incumbent, Jim Williams. 

In his “elevator pitch” for the position, Caputo points to many challenges facing the board in the near future and his skills to find solutions. 

“Simply put, the town has a bunch of critical decisions that we need to make in the coming years, questions about the new high school, major capital projects, traffic and those will all require thoughtful, creative solutions where lots of people with different backgrounds come together to create workable solutions,” he said.

“It all has to be done under which will continue to be a challenging fiscal environment. My time on the school committee, my experience on the [Belmont] High School Building Committee has given me both an understanding of a lot of those key issues and a passion to do more and be a part of trying to solve those problems.”

“I’m excited to continue to contribute to the town and its residents,” he said.

Both Williams and Caputo have yet to return their nomination papers to the Town Clerk’s Office. All town-wide office seekers and town meeting candidates have until Feb. 13 at 5 p.m. In September 2017, Williams said he would not run for re-election but did so including several caveats that would change his decision. 

Caputo was appointed to the School Committee in Nov. 2014 to replace Kevin Cunningham who resigned. At the town election in April 2015, Caputo ran uncontested for the two-years remaining in Cunningham’s term. In April 2017, he won a three-year appointment with 3,014 votes running with Kate Bowen to fill two slots.

For the past year, Caputo has been senior vice president for product at Cambridge-based CarGurus, a publicly-traded online car shopping website founded in 2006 by Langley Steinert, co-founder of TripAdvisor.

Caputo matriculated at Dartmouth then headed to Stanford where he earned an MBA and MS in electrical engineering. He started his career at Microsoft.

A decade-long resident, Caputo lives on Richmond Road with his wife, Sarah, and 11-year-old twin daughters.

BREAKING: Teachers’ Union, School Committee Reach Tentative Contract Agreement

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Photo: Belmont Education Association logo.

After working without a contract for the past two and a half months, representatives from the union representing Belmont’s teachers and the School Committee told the Belmontonian they had reached a tentative multi-year contract.

While attorneys for both sides are hammering out the final wording, a contract will be presented to the union membership and the school committee members “soon,” said John Phelan, superintendent of the Belmont School District.

“We have come to an agreement,” said John Sullivan, president of the Belmont Education Association on Tuesday night.

A joint press release will be issued with the contract’s details including salary and benefits “before Thanksgiving.”

The contract will cover approximately 500 union members, of which 330 are teachers and educators in Belmont’s six public schools and those working in the district. The BEA employee contract is the largest in the town; at $26.2 million in fiscal year 2018, it just under half of the school budget of $53.0 million. 

The last three-year contract between teachers and the town ended on Aug. 31, just days before the school year began.

Sources said the delay in forming a contract was due to benefits and added responsibilities being asked of educators rather than salaries.

 

Belmont Educators Come Out In Mass To Support Contract Negotiations

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Photo: Kristen Bell speaking before the School Committee and her colleagues.

Approximately 125 teachers and educators jammed into the Community Room at the Chenery Middle School Tuesday night, Sept 26, to demonstrate its support of its union – the Belmont Education Association – before the Belmont School Committee as the two sides attempt to hammer out a multi-year contract in the next month.

“As educators and union members … we stand with our negotiators in support of our vision of the schools our students deserve,” said Kristen Bell, a first-grade teacher at the Wellington, Belmont resident and an official with the union, who spoke before a sea of colleagues in red T-shirts and school committee members during its scheduled meeting.

The past contract between teachers and the town ended on Aug. 31, just days before the school year began.

The BEA and the school committee have two remaining agreed-to negoitating sessions to resolve salary and benefit differences and craft a contract for the 500 union members, of which 330 are teachers in Belmont’s six public schools.

Bell said the union is seeking to:

  • Ensure curriculum-based learning is free from distractions and excessive mandates.
  • Allow time for educators to think, plan and collaborate in meaningful ways.
  • Provide educators the appropriate level of influence over decisions with their schools.
  • Maintain consistent and qualified instructional coverage for students, and 
  • Ensure the town continues to attract and maintain “exemplary educators.” 

While neither side would reveal how far apart they remain on wages and benefits, the union and school committee have only encouraging words about the talks. School committee members and teachers greeted each other with smiles and the amenity of friends. 

“We have faith and hope [the school committee] will reach agreement before the end of October,” said Bell. 

In a statement from the School Committee, Chair Lisa Fiore said she was glad to hear that the BEA supports the work on both sides.

“As with all union negotiations, the balance we always try to strike is supporting our educators and being accountable to our taxpayers,” she said.

Schools Asking $2.6 Million For Burbank Modulars At Special Town Meeting

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Photo: Modular classrooms.

The Belmont School Committee will seek $2.6 million from November’s Special Town meeting to purchase and install four modular classrooms and pay for long-anticipated repairs at the Burbank Elementary School.

The classrooms are expected to be up and running by the first day of the 2018-19 school year in September 2018, according to Belmont Schools Superintendent John Phelan who spoke before the Belmont School Committee Tuesday night, Sept. 26.

Phelan told the school committee his talk ‘is a preview of the presentation” he will be making to the 290 Town Meeting members on Nov. 13, which is an update of a report in June after the Burbank was selected to receive the modulars. 

The added short-term space is needed due to the rapid growth of student enrollment throughout the district. In the past year, 132 new students entered the system taking the school population to 4,540 as of September 2017. Additionally, there are more teachers in the elementary schools to help reduce class sizes that reach into the mid to high 20s.

The Burbank’s four modulars, which will cost $1,070,400, will be sited adjacent to the rear of the school building which will allow for a covered walkway between the two structures. A good chunk of the money – $1.1 million – will be dedicated to utility work including bringing electrical, water and gas from School Street to the rear of the school. 

The funds will also pay for the repair and expansion of the parking lot and the overhaul of the asphalt playground area, including possibly adding a turf playing surface at “Maeve’s Corner” a shaded area whose grass surface is turned muddy throughout the year.

“These upgrades at the Burbank were overdue. That back playground should have been replaced years ago. The parking has been insufficient,” said Phelan. 

As in June, the furniture, instructional materials and technology will be paid out of the department’s account rather than add to an already substantial request. 

‘We are asking a lot from the town by asking more money for the modulars, said Phelan. “We want to be mindful that we are advocating for the schools as part of the larger community.”                                    

Belmont School Budget Tops $60 Million With Town’s Share $53 Million

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Photo: The fiscal 2018 school budget

It got a bit more pricey to educate the kids in Belmont as the School Committee unanimously approved the fiscal 2018 school budget that tops $60 million.

Saying that there were “no surprises” in the final numbers, the School District’s Director of Finance, Business, and Operations Anthony DiCologero said the school department would request $52,969,484 million from Town Meeting in June when the town’s legislative body takes up financial articles.

With anticipated state and federal grants along with revolving fees, the total budget for the coming fiscal year just tops $60 million – actually $60,003,414, DiCologero told the board.

Compared to fiscal 2017, the town’s portion of the school budget increased by 5.7 percent, from $50.1 million to $53 million, an increase of $2.8 million.

Regarding total dollars, salary and wages increased by $2 million with cost of living increases and STEP adjustments moving higher from $185,903 in fiscal 2017 to $773,662 in the proposed 2018 budget, a $588,000 increase between the two years.

Also, health insurance premiums are budgeted to increase by nine percent – a little more than $500,000 – over the fiscal 2017 amount.

DiCologero told the committee the district were carrying forward all teaching positions from 2017 while adding five full-time equivalent positions as provided in the third year of the Financial Task Force Committee budget created the year of the $4.5 million override passed by town voters in April 2015.

Other budgetary issues of note:

  • One additional regular education school bus has been added to the seven bus fleet to accommodate the increase in enrollment.
  • User fees will remain the same in fiscal ’18.
  • General funds were increased by the index the Financial Task Force created.
  • All federal grants in fiscal ’18 are level funded from fiscal ’17 with small contractual increases for staff allocated to the subsidies.

Stay on Course: Fiore Retains Chair of School Committee

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Photo: Lisa Fiore.

While the Belmont Board of Selectmen made a significant change to its leadership after Town Election, the Belmont School Committee decided it would stay the course.

During a possibly record-setting meeting for brevity – the get-together took a mere 25 minutes which included the members having a new group portrait taken – the committee vote Tuesday, April 11 to retain Dr. Lisa Fiore as chair for a second consecutive term.

The professor and administrator at Leslie University helped shepherd the committee through this and last year’s budget process while leading the group as it dealt with issues related to increasing enrollment, the beginning of the course of renovating/building a new high school and the district’s exit from the Minuteman Tech agreement.

The members also voted Susan Burgess-Cox, a Belmont native, and attorney, as vice chair.

The committee Tuesday night welcomed Catherine (Kate) Bowen to the group, having won election to the group on April 4.

IMG_1459

Belmont School Committee’s Kate Bowen.

A program administrator at Harvard and chair of Sustainable Belmont, the Bartlett Avenue mother of two young students said she is looking forward to being a “voice for the Butler [Elementary] School community” on the committee, a neighborhood which she and many who live in and around Waverley Square believe has been missing for the past few years.

School Committee OKs Creation of Later Starting Time Task Force

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Photo: Freshmen Ella Serrano-Wu and Kate Devitt before the Belmont School Committee.

The Belmont School District is pushing forward with plans that could lead to a later starting time for Belmont High School students.

Last week, the Belmont School Committee heard Belmont Superintendent John Phelan layout a blueprint for forming a task force to review a proposal presented by a local chapter of a national group advocating starting the beginning of the school day for teens at a later hour.

“A realistic timeline would be to form a team by June with a game plan and allow it to work through the fall with a hope of presenting its findings to this body in late Fall,” said Phelan.

“I think there are parts of [the task force] that can move quickly such as an executive summary of the literature and best practices from comparable districts and identify the local ‘variables’ that could affect the proposal including the future grade alignment of the high school,” said Phelan.

Delaying the beginning of the school day is being prompted by Belmont Start School Later, which argues that high school students’ physical and mental health are impacted by the lack of deep sleep the majority receive, due in part to the early start time.

“If students only have sleep buttons that we could press so they would go to bed early would be perfect. But unfortunately, they don’t,” said School Committee member Andrea Prestwich, who started SSL in Belmont a few years ago.

In Belmont, the high school day begins at 7:35 a.m.

School committee members expressed support for the superintendent’s way forward.

“There are lessons learned from other communities that the task force can look at and sees what works for Belmont,” said Committee member Susan Burgess-Cox.

While there was uniform approval on the board to move forward, opposition to the time change was present at the meeting in the guise of two freshmen who brought a cardboard display board to explain their position. 

Freshmen Ella Serrano-Wu and Kate Devitt who started Belmont Same Start Time in January called the time change a “band-aid” approach to the issue of students being overburdened with homework and studying for highly challenging classes such as AP-level courses.

“We just don’t think the other side of the issue was being heard,” said Serrano-Wu, who hopes that either she or Devitt will be asked to participate some way in the task force.

While Prestwich said, the two ninth-graders raised “some very valid concerns that were raised in other districts” she reiterated that “[s]tarting school early has a huge number of advantages” that can not be ignored.

According to Phelan, the task force will “look into this with a very open mind and listening to all voices, especially to students, is the way forward.”

Same Time: Freshmen Pair Push Against Later BHS Start

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Photo:

When Belmont High School freshmen Ella Serrano-Wu and Kate Devitt recently heard there was a growing chorus of students and parents singing the praises of starting the school day later in the day, the friends had one common thought.

“Oh no!”

While it may appear counterintuitive – especially to parents – that you would find any teenager willingly reject the option to lounge in bed for an extra hour on a school day, Serrano-Wu and Devitt are asking the Belmont School Committee not to screw up the current schedule they believe is working just fine, thank you.

“When it was brought to our attention that a later start time for [Belmont High School] was under consideration, as student-athletes we became very concerned,” said Serrano-Wu, who is a gymnast and honor roll student while Devitt is a runner and a class officer.

“We realized the consequences that a delayed start time would have on after-school sports and extracurriculars and decided to take action,” she and Devitt said. 

So the pair of ninth graders decided to do what any social media savvy kids would do: They mounted an online campaign against it. The students’ Change.org petition – Belmont Same Start Time (B.S.S.T.) – states there are “many dire consequences to delaying school start time.” Just under 100 people have signed up supporting the students’ cause.

For the pair and many other Belmont High students, a delayed start date will throw a shoe in the schedule have things to do and places to go during their busy day.

“Some other students were talking about the petition to delay the start of school, and we were surprised to learn that the [School Committee] had already discussed this issue,” they said.

“We decided to make sure people heard both sides of the argument. We haven’t discussed this with our teachers and administrators, but we certainly plan to reach out to them and hear their thoughts,” said Serrano-Wu.

The counter effort to a later starting day comes as a popular campaign called Belmont Start School Later will come before the School Committee for a possible vote to create a task force to begin the process of installing a delayed start in the school day at the high school.

The problem with the later start time includes the loss of free periods which students used to do their homework or just relax;  the new hours will disrupt existing drop-off times for parents and make it difficult for high school students to pick up siblings in elementary schools; and discourage students taking extracurricular as scheduling practice hours for sports, the arts and clubs will be even more competitive

Just as the supporters of a later start time has scientific evidence that shows benefits of a delayed start, the opponents have collected its own evidence.

“Yes, there is certainly a lot of evidence saying longer sleep is good for adolescents,” said Serrano-Wu. “However, there is equally valid data showing that the gains in delayed start time are not long-term.”

Serrano-Wu points to research that found after several months of the late opening school system; teenagers fell back into the same hours of sleep they had before and showed little to no change in GPA or mental health.

Serrano-Wu and Devitt said solving the problem of lack of student sleep should include a discussion on making ‘Homework Free Weekend’s actually homework free or capping the number of APs a student can take.

“Sleep is a zero sum game,” said Serrano-Wu.
 
“More research has to be done on any long-term benefits of a later start, and we have to be careful not to draw conclusions too quickly. In talking with friends and relatives in other school districts, we know there are other good ideas on how to reduce student stress,” she added. 

Proposed ’18 Town Budget Tops $110 Million, Up 3.6%

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Photo: David Kale, Belmont Town Administrator

Belmont’s next budget will see healthy increases in both the town and schools with some hopeful news on “stretching out” the monies that came from the 2015 Proposition 2 1/2 override.

The proposed fiscal 2018 town-wide budget – which begins on July 1, 2017 – is pegged at $110,210,440, an increase of $3.9 million or 3.6 percent, according to outgoing Town Administrator David Kale who presented the budget before a joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen, School and Warrant committees at Town Hall on Monday, Feb. 13.

The presentation consisted of the first preliminary outline – albeit a relatively detailed blueprint – of the town’s financial balance sheet which will be voted on at the annual Town Meeting in June.

When asked by Selectman Jim Williams how complete an outline was before them, Kale affirmed it was more than “90 percent” complete, noting that changes will be coming to the town’s revenue line items. He pointed to state aid to cities and towns coming from Beacon Hill will not be finalized until later in the spring. Kale said it is likely that Belmont will see a small increase in the $600,000 forecast heading to Belmont from the State House.

The biggest component of the budget is, as it is every year, the public schools which will come in at $53.1 million, an increase of $3.1 million from 2017, a 6.0 percent jump. According to Belmont Superintendent John Phelan, the jump in costs are directly related to the continued unprecedented increase in students enrolling in Belmont schools. 

Phelan said annually 100 students are entering the Belmont system straining the district with the number of pupils in classrooms, the need for more teachers and staff as well as requiring the district to purchase a second set of modular classrooms in the coming year just to keep pace. 

Expenses from the “town” side of the budget – town services and public safety – will see a 4.2 percent increase (approximately $1.6 million) from 2017 to $38.4 million.

Fixed costs – debt payments, retirement assessments, road repair – which makes up 16 percent of the total budget will see an increase of $600,000 to $17.2 million.

On the revenue side, Kale said 90 cents of every dollar coming into the town’s coffers were from real estate and property taxes ($88.5 million, 80 percent) and state aid from the State House ($10 million, 9 percent). Total property taxes will see an increase of $3.2 million or 3.7 percent from 2017 figures.

Belmont is expecting to see in fiscal 2018 a boost in other revenue sources including $200,000 in meals, motor vehicle, and payments instead of taxes and another $200,000 in local receipts.

Kale, who is leaving for a position at the City of Cambridge in March, noted that due to favorable increases in “new growth” and state aid, the town will only require $1.3 million from the General Stabilization Fund, the $4.5 million in additional funds approved in a Prop 2 1/2 override in April 2015, to balance the budget.

Kale said through belt-tightening and a jump in revenue; budget planners were able to cut nearly in half the original $2.2 million they scheduled to take from the line item. He said that figure could be reduced further if added revenues come to Belmont. 

By reducing its reliance on the stabilization fund this year, Kale said the town could rely on it for more than the three years it was originally slated to last.