Senior Writing Excellence Honored at Blacker Prizes Ceremony May 16

The best of Belmont High School senior theses highlighted next Wednesday.

When it comes to literary awards, you may have heard about the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Man Booker. And in Belmont, there are the Blacker Prizes, presented each year to three Belmont High School seniors for outstanding writing on their senior theses.  Next Wednesday, the High School's English Department will present the 14th annual Lillian F. Blacker Prizes for Excellence in Writing on May 16 at 7 p.m. in the Belmont High School library. Belmont residents and fellow students are invited to attend. More than 20 years ago, the family and friends established the prizes in memory of Blacker, a longtime Belmont resident and director of the Harvard Medical School News Office, who was active in several areas of the …

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Belmont School Lunches Getting Greener

New state standards will see more colored veggies, fruits, less corn and a hike in costs.

Did you eat your vegetables? Well, Belmont school children will, along with fruit, whole grains and whole wheat and less salt as the school district implements a state initiative to provide school children better meals, according the school's food guru. Before the School Committee's Tuesday meeting, April 24, Paul Browne, director of Belmont Public School's Food Services, spoke on the new state regulatory requirements all schools will implement in September. The new standards, bureaucratically titled "Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs," will, in short, will give students buying lunches, breakfasts at the High School or snacks "a lot of whole grains, whole wheat" more fruits and vegetables, said …

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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 …

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Graham Re-appointed School Committee Chair

Scharfman named Secretary for the coming year.

Laurie Graham will be keeping her seat next to School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston at Belmont School Committee meetings for the next year as her fellow members voted unanimously to give her a second term as the committee's chairwoman Tuesday night.  The school committee met for an organizational meeting to approve its new leadership team as well as review subcommittee assignments. Saying that the committee had been through "a very interesting year" – a last minute resolution to a $2 million budget deficit last year, the hiring of an interim superintendent and incremental movement towards a stronger relationship with the Board of Selectmen in budget matters – Graham said having a "very strong committee" will allow it to move forward …

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Thanks To Our Fans!

Remembering an outstanding Belmont High Girls' Hockey season.

A huge "thank you" from the Belmont High School Girls' Ice Hockey team for all the support from our fans this season. The highlights from the 16-win season includes: • Taking a win and a tie from the number-one team in the state, Woburn. • A pair of last-second goals against Woburn and Watertown to escape with ties. • Beating two state top-10 teams and an undefeated squad – Woburn, Lexington and Westwood – in as many games. • An eight-game winning streak. • A 12-2 home record. • Having one of the most potent offenses in the state (90 goals, nearly four goals a game) led by its first line of junior Alexandra Cellucci and seniors Erin O'Donovan and Caroline McCarthy.  • Four shutouts by junior goaltender Megan Foley and her stellar defense…

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The Candidate's Question of the Week

Question of the Week: School Candidates Discuss Khan Academy

Anne, Pascha and Matt have highly-different responses to Khan coming to Belmont.

Only six years old and currently used by a handful of elementary schools in California, Khan Academy, a free online tutoring site, is being called a model for the future of U.S. education. As seen on "60 Minutes" this month, utilizing 3,000 free videos and software that provides digital lessons and simple exercises, Khan Academy "flips the classroom"  where students watch Khan videos at home to understand a concept then at school do problem sets called modules to make sure they understand. Teachers are more mentors rather than lecturers, with software keeping track of each student's progress. Students learn at their own pace and teachers can be more effective using their time helping those in need and encouraging others. Bill Gates has …

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A Team On and Off the Ice

When not chasing pucks, Girls' helping out at New England's largest food bank.

It's been a highly successful year for Belmont High School Girls' Ice Hockey. Playing in arguably one of the toughest public school leagues in Massachusetts, if not the country, the Marauders have used senior leadership along with outstanding play from each of the offensive lines and defensive pairings to secure 16 wins and a place in the MIAA Division 2 state semi-finals vs Duxbury on Saturday night, March 10. But they are more than just teammates on the ice. The team got together to volunteering a shift at The Greater Boston Food Bank, the largest hunger-relief organization in New England, distributing 35 million pounds of food annually enough to provide meals to as many as 545,000 people at risk of hunger.

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Belmont Boys' Hoops Out in First Round

End season 11-10 after loss to Wakefield in Div. 2 North tournament.

On the first day of March, it was the warriors that came in like a lion. Belmont High School Boy's Basketball's run in the Division 2 North tournament was "one-and-done" as the Marauders fell to Middlesex League rivals, the Wakefield High School Warriors, 73-63, Thursday night, March 1.  The host Warriors avenged a 10-point Christmas-time home loss to Belmont, 54-44, with a double digit win on the snowy night in March. Belmont ends the season 11-10 and missed out on a chance to meet neighbors Arlington High School in the quarterfinals, after the Spy Ponders upset New Mission High School of Boston, 70-69 in overtime. The loss is also the last time seniors Sam Musler, Manny Cabral, John Craig, Jacob Deese, Greg Guebenlian, Angel Tejada, Jack…

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