Thursday, April 25, 2013
Superintendent lowers caution level of next year's school budget from "dire" to "constrained."
What was suppose to be a Belmont School Committee meeting Tuesday, April 23, to discuss "B" increasingly turned to talking about "O." That would be "B" for budget and "O" – the letter which one meeting participant used rather than speak out loud what they were thinking – as in override. The meeting in which the school committee voted to accept the latest variation of the coming fiscal-year budget – after an increase in state aid to Belmont in the legislatures budget and an infusion of money from town accounts will reduce the number of teacher position cuts by half – concerns voiced by parents with youngsters at the Wellington Elementary School moved the discussion on how to secure funds to keep teaching aids slated to be eliminated for …
42.38652
-71.17051
W. L. Chenery Middle School
95 Washington St, Belmont, MA
/articles/school-committee-approves-budget
157120
/locations/9312814
Monday, April 22, 2013
From the bombing on Marathon Monday to Friday's capture of a suspect, students may seek someone to talk to.
Dr. Thomas Kingston reiterated Monday, April 22 what students, parents and educators have been thinking for the past week. "Certainly this spring school vacation week has been different from any other," said Kingston as school resumed after the April recess, a time when mass targeted terrorism returned to the United States and they and their friends were locked down in their homes as a killer was being hunted down on the streets one town over. "[The bombings] may well have an impact on our children for weeks and months ahead," said Kingston, who said each school principal would be making special announcements on the subject on Monday. While the veteran educator made the pledge that "our schools continue to be safe places and refuges for …
42.39338
-71.1671
Belmont High School
221 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
/articles/belmont-schools-prepared-to-discuss-a-difficult-recess-week
230803
/locations/9287933
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
National foundation that supports music in schools recognizes Belmont's dedication to the arts.
Arto Asadoorian, the director of Fine and Performing Arts for the Belmont Public Schools, said that he's been contacted on several occasions by people moving to the Boston area and who were looking for a community to purchase or rent a home. Asadoorian said they were interested in learning about Belmont's music programs because they were using music as a measuring stick for a community’s support for public education: if a town was passionate about providing their children with high quality music education, then they could assume that there was also a high level of excellence in all other academic areas. "In one case in particular there was a family from Cincinnati choosing a place to live based upon the music program, and their children …
Town has not declared a snow emergency. Messy morning commute for Belmont.
Due to heavy snow that has fallen overnight and the promise of hazardous commute, all schools in the Belmont School District will be closed today, Tuesday, March 19, according to the School Department's website. There will be no classes at the town's four elementary schools – Wellington, Butler, Winn Brook and Burbank – the Chenery Middle School and Belmont High School. While the schools are closed, the Town of Belmont has not declared a snow emergency as of 4:30 a.m. which means that all town offices and the Belmont Public Library will be open while the town's municipal lots will be open. While on-street parking is allowed after 6 a.m., Police advise that residents keep the narrow streets clear for plows and emergency vehicles. Finally, …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
School District, Committee seeking interested businesses, firms to pay for a new court in the Wenner Field House.
Belmont High School Girls' Basketball Head Coach Melissa Hart goes to a portion of the court and begins to lift the layer of court from the floor of the Wenner Field House. "All you would need is a tool to bring the entire floor up," said Hart about the court that she once joked to a schools official if it was linoleum. It isn't – it's a synthetic vinyl – and the official wasn't amused with Hart's observation. Laid in 1990 – it was brand new when Belmont High won its most recent State Basketball championship in 1991 – the surface has long seen its best days pass after years of basketball practices, volleyball games, Recreation Department nights and just plan day-in and day-out use has made the court a threadbare ghost of what it once was…
42.39338
-71.1671
Belmont High School
221 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
/articles/welcome-to-put-your-name-here-basketball-court-just-150-000
230803
/locations/8944416
Friday, March 1, 2013
While impact on town is limited, Belmont schools could feel the brunt of a long, drawn-out fight in Washington.
Is a potential cut in federal spending to local education of a mere six percent really going to effect the education of Belmont students? Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston will tell those who ask, that, "Indeed, it does." As the deadlock between President Obama and Republicans in the House of Representatives appears likely to continue pass the Friday, March 1, deadline for the federal budget to make the automatic spending cuts under sequestration both sides eagerly agreed to in 2011, officials in school districts across the country are being told that annual federal grants will be hit by the coming sequester which could last until summer if not longer. "The political logjam in Washington has direct, local consequences," wrote …
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-71.17714
Belmont Town Hall
455 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
/articles/belmont-education-under-treat-by-sequester
157295
/locations/8921383
42.397231
-71.177119
Belmont School Superintendent's Office
644 Pleasant St, Belmont, MA
/articles/belmont-education-under-treat-by-sequester
230768
/locations/8921384
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Belmont Savings partners with Foundation for Belmont Education to support Common Core.
Foundation for Belmont Education announced Monday that the Belmont School District have been awarded $7,100 as part of the Belmont Savings Bank Textbook Fund, courtesy of Belmont Savings Bank and the Belmont Savings Bank Foundation. The funds will be used for curriculum changes to the middle school math program, allowing the School Department to purchase new textbooks for the seventh grade standard math course and help align the schools with the new state standards for mathematics. “We are grateful to the FBE and Belmont Savings Bank for supporting us in providing students and their teachers with the best resources to meet the goals of the curriculum,” said Janice Darias, Belmont's assistant superintendent. The Belmont Savings Bank …
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-71.17589
Belmont Savings Bank
2 Leonard St, Belmont, MA
/articles/banking-books-in-belmont-s-schools
156588
/locations/8810661
The thought process behind making the call to cancel school due to wind or snow.
"Snow day." Those two words on a typical school week elicit hosannas from grateful pupils but also starts a mad scramble by parents who need to dance around finding childcare and babysitters. Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston was asked several times this past week how he determines making the call to cancel school due to weather decision including his determination to hold off on opening schools this Monday, two days after the blizzard ended in Belmont. Kingston's wrote how he makes those decisions on his blog: "Whether or not to cancel school is a complex decision contingent on many factors. There are some superintendents who dread having to make the school/no school decision more than any other decisions they have to make (…
42.397231
-71.177119
Belmont School Superintendent's Office
644 Pleasant St, Belmont, MA
/articles/to-cancel-or-not-to-cancel-calling-a-snow-day-in-belmont
230768
/locations/8808749
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
An additional 90 students this year is creating worries for School District.
With the good can come the bad. And it appears that Belmont School District's long-stellar reputation for educational excellence has come back to bite Belmont's education pipeline as district classrooms are filled to the brim with students. There are 347 first graders in Belmont, the largest grade level in the entire district, numbers seen in other classes up and down the K-12 grade structure to where enrollment in Belmont's six schools has breached the 4,200 student mark, and is expected to jump again in the coming school year. But despite accepting data and a series of short-term staffing recommendations to stem the problems from an advisory group he established, Belmont School District Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston made a …
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Bare-bones budget could be "dire" for schools as possible teaching reductions, increase in average class size.
Before a joint meeting of the Belmont Board of Selectmen and Belmont School Committee on Monday night, Feb. 11, Town Administrator David Kale laid out the initial budget for the coming 2014 fiscal year. And while he is forecasting the use of rainy-day funds to keep the town's budget out of the red, black clouds are looming just a few years ahead as the town sees a dwindling number of revenue sources it can tap to match Belmont's expenses. Under current assumptions, the fiscal year 2014 town budget leaps over the $90 million mark to stand at $91,531,020, a $2.2 million increase from the final 2013 budget approved by Town Meeting last May. In this initial view, the 2014 "available revenue" budget for schools sees education spending …
42.39627
-71.17714
Belmont Town Hall
455 Concord Ave, Belmont, MA
/articles/initial-2014-town-budget-estimate-tops-91-5m
157295
/locations/8793574
Mike
12:04 pm on Saturday, February 16, 2013
In the 60's, the three fire stations had bright red horns attached to the outsides of the buildings. Usually, there was a long blast every Saturday at Noon. On snow days, the School Superintendent, John McGrath, would call the Fire Alarm Office with the cancellation notice. Wisely, the dispatcher would call Dr. McGrath right back to confirm the authenticity of the message. Then the special signal… more ›