NRA Calls for 'Armed Security' Around Schools; Belmont's Super Question Role

Superintendent Kingston notes differences with School Resource Officers and armed guards in schools.

In a Friday morning press conference, the National Rifle Association broke its weeklong silence following the horrific shooting of 26 people at a school in Newtown, Conn., and called for a surge of gun-carrying "good guys" around American schools.  NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called for a new kind of American domestic security revolving around armed civilians, arguing that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." "We care about our president, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents," LaPierre said. "Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers. Yet, when it comes to our most beloved, innocent, and vulnerable members of the American family, our …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)
• Videos (1)

Being Efficient Has Its Reward for Belmont Schools

District awarded cost efficiency award and $2,500 to scholarship.

It was like old times at Tuesday's Belmont School Committee on June 19 as two former officials came to celebrate the Belmont School Districts' being honored for being actively prudent with its money. Dr. Gerry Missal, Belmont School's past director of finance, and former Belmont School Superintendent Dr. Peter Holland were on hand to accept an award from a group of school business officials for efficiently using school funds to provide money to students. The second Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials' Donald D. Johnson Cost Efficiency Award was presented to the Belmont district for implementing programs that began when Missal was the director that "increase efficiency in order to maximze the availability of resources for…

• Photos (1)

Schools Deficit Now A 'Very Livable' $69K

Added revenue, transfers sees nearly $800K in red ink drain away.

A combination of transferred funds, savings from health insurance changes and finding money here and there has resulted in the Belmont School Department reducing a mid-March $850,000 deficit in its fiscal 2013 budget into a "very livable" $68,000 funding gap, according to Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston. The announcement, made before a public hearing at the school department's weekly meeting at the Chenery Middle School Tuesday, April 10, will prevent the reduction of nearly 10 teaching positions had the funding not been discovered. "We have made considerable progress" in filling the funding gap, said Kingston to the nearly 30 people who attended the meeting, noting that the budget process "is always a fluid exercise" and the …

• Photos (2)

School Deficit Grows by $200K, Still 'Manageable'

Additional costs since first draft in January could lead to cuts in four teaching slots.

The price of everything is going up and so is the costs associated with running the Belmont School District. From the last time the school department presented a draft budget to the Belmont School Committee on Jan. 10 that showed the district being $509,000 in the red, level service expenses have now increased by $199,686 in the past two months, increasing the deficit facing schools by nearly 30 percent to approximately $709,000. The new assumptions shows available revenue in the fiscal 2013 budget at $42.7 million with the new level service budget – the funding the district requires to provide the same services from the previous year – creeping up to $43.4 million. According to Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston, the likely remedy…

• Photos (1)

Schools Budget Forums Tonight, Tomorrow

A pair of public meetings to review the coming fiscal year budget.

The Belmont School Committee and the Belmont School Department are holding a pair of public forums today and tomorrow to review the proposed fiscal 2013 schools budget that the School Department – by far the largest component to the town's budget – submitted to the Warrant Committee in January. The meetings are: • tonight, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., and • tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 16, 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Each meeting will be held in the Selectmen’s Room on the second floor of Belmont Town Hall. Each session will be broadcast live by the Belmont Media Center. "We look forward to hearing your questions, concerns and suggestions as we work together with other agencies in town to continue to provide excellence in education for …

• Photos (1)

Schools Holding Budget Forums Feb. 15, 16

A pair of public meetings to review the coming fiscal year budget.

The Belmont School Committee is announcing a pair of public forums to review the proposed fiscal 2103 budget that the School Department submitted to the Warrant Committee in January. "We look forward to hearing your questions, concerns and suggestions as we work together with other agencies in town to continue to provide excellence in education for all our students," said Laurie Graham, School Committee chairwoman. The Available Revenue allocated to the Belmont Public Schools is $42,739,922 while the current estimated Level Services budget is $43,249,144 resulting in a $509,222 deficit. The School Department has indentified potential areas of reduction to address the gap. Members of the School Department and the School Committee will be …

• Photos (1)

$80 Million to Renovate the High School? Well ...

Note in capital budget doc indicates an interest in the future of Belmont High School's building.

The handout provided by the Belmont School Department to the School Committee at its weekly Tuesday meeting, Jan. 31, was the standard request for capital improvements for the coming fiscal year, a "wish list" document of 23 proposed projects to be presented to the Capital Budget Committee for review.  There is $60,000 for the third-phase of network switching equipment, a pickup truck for $30,000, replace the interior corridor fire doors at the High School pegged at $40,000 and $79,579,984 for the renovation of Belmont High School. Come again? What's that about renovating the high school and for how much?  In reality, the nearly $80 million in "capital need" in the document has everything to do with the future than the here and now, …

•  14 Comments
• Photos (3)

David Chase

3:15 pm on Friday, February 3, 2012

John, I am not sure how much the Uplands work would affect it. I'm much more worried that it's already been demonstrated that our flood models are somehow out of whack -- given what has already happened, do you believe the mapped flood plains? The second issue has to do with (this will surely stir the pot) climate change predictions. Sea level is supposed to come up, and the official (IPCC) …   more ›

'Happy' Warrant Committee Accepts Budgets

Chairwoman Allison says committee will still analyze budgets "line item by line item."

After accepting the preliminary fiscal year 2013 budgets from the school department and town Wednesday, Jan. 11, Warrant Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Allison told representatives from both groups that their presentations made the committee quite "happy."  "It would be fair to say that many members are relieved with what was presented," said Allison after the meeting where the committee – the financial watch dog for the Town Meeting representatives who approve or reject the town budgets in May – and residents saw for the first time the combined $74.2 million level service budget. Allison's enthusiasm came after the schools and town departments revealed that their fiscal 2013 budget shortfalls they were facing were what Board of Selectmen …

• Photos (2)
• Documents (1)

Patch Facts

UPDATE: 5 Things You Need To Know Today: Sept. 13

Early release for all schools TOMORROW, Belmont Girls Soccer opener and storytime at the library.

Five Things You Need to Know Today is a Patch column that provides readers with essential, daily information at a glance. Check back later for more, and let us know what you think of the new feature in the comments section.  1. Tomorrow is Wednesday which means it's an early release for all schools. Here's the schedule: • Burbank, Butler and Wellington: 1:40 p.m. • Winn Brook: 1:50 p.m. • Chenery Middle School: 1:15 p.m.  • And it's an early release day for the High School students; they'll be getting out at 10:30 a.m.  2. The general public is welcomed to join members of the Belmont League of Women Voters as they hold their monthly Board meeting at the Belmont Public Library at 7 p.m. in the Flett Room (across from the Children's Room. …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)