What can you do to show town leaders that you want to improve the quality of life in town and don’t want to see town and school services slashed any deeper? Here’s a check list of “to dos” over the coming weeks that will get you in the mix. It starts tonight with the Board of Selectmen’s meeting at Town Hall (7:15 PM). Put your body in the audience and let the Board of Selectmen know that you support putting a proposal for a Proposition 2 1/2 Override on the April town ballot.
Month: January 2011
Save Our Schools – Save Our Town Meeting Tonight
Just a heads up that there will be a meeting this evening (Sunday) to start organizing a town-wide effort to raise awareness within Belmont about the cuts facing our schools. Among other things, there’s a need for folks to serve…
Selectmen support smart parking meters
The Belmont Citizen Herald wrote up a story on a presentation I did for the Board of Selectmen this week on introducing smart parking meters around the commuter rail station. The BOS think its a great idea and want to move to a pilot. No Freeloader thinks its a terrible idea and that I’m a…wait for it…freeloader!!
The Board Room is Watching! The Board Room is Watching!
What are the long term impacts of the cuts we’re making now in public education?The Cassandras in the board room and executive offices are already telling us: warning that the U.S. education system is failing the country and that presages a loss of U.S. competitiveness and future generations with fewer economic opportunities.
Et tu, Ralph? Notes from last night’s budget meeting
Nobody was smiling at last night’s Warrant Committee meeting, least so the scores of concerned parents worried about cuts to music, art and foreign language instruction, who were told by Board of Selectmen Chair (and candidate) Ralph Jones that the School Administration and School Committee were lying to them, hiding money, and favoring grown ups (i.e school employees) over kids. None of it is true… Read on for more on last night’s meeting.
Warrant Committee views budgets tonight – Show Up!
A reminder that there’s a very important Warrant Committee meeting tonight, Jan. 19, in the Community Room at Chenery Middle School to hear presentations of the fiscal 2012 budgets from general government and school officials. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30pm. Show up and make it known that you oppose proposed cuts to school programs including art and music education!
Belmont indies? A way to support local businesses
Concord’s “Indies” program supports locally owned businesses. Is it a model that could work in Belmont, too?
Deep Cuts For 2012: Art, Music, Language Instruction Axed
A proposed budget using the Warrant Committee’s “Available Funds” for the school proposes eliminating five full time teaching positions, art and music instruction at the elementary school level, language instruction at the middle school level and steep cuts to support services district wide. Time to get angry, people!
Diary of a mean mommy
What’s the Chinese method of mothering? According to Yale Prof Amy Chua’s new book, its a kind of maternal totalitarianism that encompasses a numbing collection of do’s and even more don’ts. As in “Don’t…attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose (your) own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin AND not play the piano or violin.” These are her words, mind you, not mine.
We’ve come a long way, baby!
This is apropos of nothing at all, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway, as it was one of the ‘viral videos’ this week – albeit a pretty dated one. In any case – the back story here is…