There’s a rare bit of economic good news from the Belmont Cultural Council, which is expecting to have more money to distribute to worthy Belmontonians this year than last, according to Treasurer Juliet Jenkins.
Author: Paul Roberts
Single stream recycling = big boost in participation
A study suggests switching to single stream recycling (all your recyclables in one container) increases household participation and can save towns money, according to Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Reburbia: reimagining the suburbs
A contest from inhabitat.com and dwell asks folks to imagine ways to transform suburban space. The contest is down to 20 finalists, from 400 entries. Some ideas are zany…some are pretty darned cool!
Are textbooks going the way of the horse and buggy?
An interesting article in yesterday’s New York Times on changes coming to a classroom near you: digital textbooks. The article, by Tamar Lewin, talks about pilot projects in school districts in Arizona, Louisiana and California that are replacing traditional printed textbooks with online, digital equivalents, or even “open source” texts compiled from materials and lessons generated by teachers or from public (and reliable) sources of information online.
Belmont’s Clean Air Campaign: important meeting Wednesday
A meeting tomorrow evening at Belmont Public Library will update the community on plans from Sustainable Belmont to reduce air pollution in town. Come get involved!
Teaching jobs in Belmont: tougher (much) than getting into Harvard
At Winn Brook Elementary, for example, Principal Janet Carey wrote this week that she fielded around 700 applications for four open positions at that school to replace retiring staff or accomodate larger than expected classes: one first grade teacher, two, fourth grade teachers and an art teacher. That’s 175 applicants per position, or an acceptance rate of just over one half of one percent, on average. Compare that with Harvard University’s comparatively generous 7% acceptance rate (2,046 of 29,112 applicants) this year. No surprise: Belmont ended up with some top flight candidates to fill those open positions.
Proposed MBTA service cuts could hit Belmont
Courtesy of Rep. Will Brownsberger’s Web site: The MBTA’s 72 and 78 bus routes could be discontinued and weekday and weekend service cut in half on remaining routes to help the agency balance its books. The T will hold public hearings to discuss possible service cuts in the coming weeks.
Vigil in support of diversity, tolerance in Watertown this Saturday
Vandals burned a Rainbow flag flying in front of the Unitarian Church in Watertown. Was it a hate crime? The Church is sponsoring a vigil this Saturday evening (July 25) in support of tolerance and diversity.
Wellington goodness…not so good
I’ve heard from the Wellington Building Committee that my recent post on Wellington goodness which presented some artist’s renderings and site plans for the new Wellington Elementary presented site plans that are not the latest and greatest and that there’s some confusion about some of the content of those drawings. I’ve been asked to take down both the site plans and the artist’s renderings of the school interior to avoid further confusion, and complied with that request.
Meeting tomorrow (Thur) to review Wellington site plans
There will be a public meeting tomorrow evening to discuss the progress of the New Wellington Elementary project.