Tag: belmont schools

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!

Marathon Town Meeting ends with dramatic vote on free cash, library aides

An amendment by TM member Anne Mahon targeted at using free cash to preventing cuts at Belmont High School and preserving elementary library aides looked like a long shot, but won overwhelming support at Town Meeting last night. Where were you when you heard the Cat Leash speech?

Vote for Me for School Committee!

I’ve decided to run for what’s left of Diane Stafford’s three year term on School Committee.

Shovel ready? Roads, sewers on list of projects considered for bailout money

Town officials submitted no fewer than 17 shovel ready projects to the state, with a price tag north of $30 million. Road, sewer and other improvement to municipal buildings top the list and range from a $14m project to rebuild 2.5 miles of new roadway and improved drainage along Trapelo Rd. and Belmont St., to a $35 request for a fan to blow exhaust out of the town’s municipal garage.

BCH: School Committee taps Entwistle for Super

he Belmont Citizen Herald is reporting that the School Committee has tapped George Entwistle, the Superintendent of Falmouth, Maine, as its choice to head Belmont’s Public School system starting next year. Entwistle was one of two finalists, along with Ashland Superintendent Richard Hoffman, and won unanimous support from School Committee members, who responded especially to Entwistle’s record as a consensus builder in Falmouth, a highly ranked school district in the state that serves around 2,100 students.

LeClerc looking for compromise on budget, capital spending

With the town facing a swift economic contraction and the loss of state aid, even as it juggles multiple, competing spending issues, Selectman Dan LeClerc is hoping Belmont will steer a middle path: accepting some cuts in services while supporting important projects such as the construction of a new Wellington Elementary School and the preservation of teacher positions at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

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.

Will Gov. Patrick ride to the resKue?

Of course, while we here in Belmont sharpen our claws for the expected battle over school funding, including a 1% funding increase for full day kindergarten classes, there is the possibility (albeit remote) that we all may end up raising…