Tag: Belmont Public Schools

Upcoming events: critical school funding meeting and BSEAC documentary

A couple of notices for the next week that you in the B2 community should put on your calendars: joint School Committee, Warrant Committee and Board of Selectmen meeting on Feb 4 to discuss school funding cuts. And, on Feb 11, the Belmont Special Education Parents Advisory Committee will host a free screening of Including Samuel, a documentary that weaves together stories of five families’ efforts to include their children with disabilities in every facet of their lives.

State aid cuts to town could top $800k

Rep. Will Brownsberger says that pre-release figures from Gov. Deval Patrick’s office suggest that Belmont could be looking at a 10% cut in state aid, totalling more than $800,000. But will the Obama Administration ride to the rescue?

School Budget cuts would mean layoffs and fewer, larger classes

There were no smiling faces and no easy fixes as the School Committee walked through potential cuts, including the elimination of AP courses at the High School level, science instruction at the elementary level JV sports and community service programs.

Stand for Children: supporting Belmont’s schools from the grassroots

Going into 2009 Belmont’s schools are facing a tough budget crunch, and this is a great time for Belmont parents and supporters of the schools to get involved….Stand for Children is in the early stages of establishing a Belmont chapter, and we are looking for committed people to join the chapter and make a difference for Belmont kids.

The high costs of doing nothing

The town’s older schools are going to require capital investments that are 10x to 20x greater than the one new school (Chenery) in the next few years…and these are just the repairs that we know about.

Update: Important meetings on school budgeting start Tuesday

NOTE: The School Committee Meeting has changed locations. It will be held tonight (Tuesday) at 7:30 PM in the Wellington Elementary Music Room, not the Community Room at the Chenery, as indicated on the SC Web site. Those of you…

Whatever happened to Full Day Kindergarten, anyway?

I’ve heard, directly and indirectly, from a couple of parents in the last few days who wanted to know what the status was of Superintendent Holland’s proposal for full day kindergarten, so I thought I’d give the lo-down. If you…

Band of Mothers

With Belmont headed towards a likely override vote (or a few of them) in the coming days, I was interested to read this fine article in the Boston Globe on the phenomenon of “override moms” — concerned, suburban parents (generally…

School Committee weighing layoffs, other cuts

In brief: The Belmont School Committee met Tuesday evening to discuss proposed cuts of between $800,000 and $1.6 million to the FY 2009 budget. The Committee worked out various scenarios, but anticipated elimination of full time instructors at the Butler…

An open letter to the Board of Selectmen

I’m posting a copy of the e-mail message I sent last night to the Board of Selectman regarding the pending debate about funding for the School Dept. and Town, and the need for an operational budget override for 2009 to…