Belmont School Committee 'Kills' New Library Proposal

Votes "no" on transferring school land to library project, town loses $7.5 million grant on $18.5 million proposal.

By a 5-0 margin with one abstention, the Belmont School Committee effectively killed the proposed $18.5 million town library project by voting not to transfer a portion of a playing field at Belmont High School that would have become the site of a new Belmont Public Library. The vote requires the town to return a $7.5 million state grant the Belmont Board of Library Trustees received last year.  What at times was an emotional meeting before approximately 40 residents, the School Committee members expressed reluctance to end nearly three years of active work by the Belmont Board of Library Trustees to construct a new 42,000 square foot library across Concord Avenue from the present site. But as a tearful Pascha Griffiths noted just before …

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School Committee Approves Budget, With An Overriding Message

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 …

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Belmont Town Election 2013

Belmont's Newest School Committee Member Focus on the Whole Student

Elyse Shuster elected to fill the seat once held by Dan Scharfman.

The celebration at Comella's Restaurant on Leonard Street on Tuesday night, April 2 included pizza, beer and a winning smile on Elyse Shuster's face. The first-time town-wide candidate not only won a seat on the Belmont School Committee but received the exact number of votes as incumbent Laurie Slap, 1,539, in the annual Belmont Town Election.  "It's a funny coincidence that our numbers were the same since Laurie [Slap's] numbers were really close in each precinct," said Shuster, who will take the seat occupied by Dan Scharfman who died in January. The 17-year Belmont resident and mother of three daughters, all who have or are attending Belmont public schools, Shuster said she feels very proud to equal Slap's vote count because "she's an …

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Slices of Life

Why I’m Voting for Elyse Shuster

Talking with a candidate for School Committee

While I typically do not explore matters pertaining to local politics in this column, I feel compelled this week to write a few words in support of School Committee candidate Elyse Shuster. Elyse and I first met when we served together on the Foundation for Belmont Education Program Committee. The charge of this committee is to read and rank the grants that have been submitted by teachers, principals, and administrators from across the system. Without question, Elyse’s insights into this process were among the most discerning and informative. She was able to draw on her educational background (a Masters degree in History and a teaching certificate in Middle School Social Studies), as well as her professional experience as an educator, in …

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Belmont Submits 'Interest' in Renovating High School

School Committee votes for plan to modernize structure, build a new science wing that could cost up to $100 million.

The first step in the renovation and expansion of the 40-year-plus Belmont High School was taken Tuesday night, March 19, as the Belmont School Committee voted to approve an application to the Massachusetts School Building Authority expressing its "interest" in being placed on the authority's waiting list of communities seeking state grants for a "new" school.  The recently-updated "Statement of Interest" also shows just how expensive delays are for taxpayers in remodeling the increasingly-threadbare structure. What was anticipated to cost $62.3 million in 2008 dollars to renovate the 257,000 square-foot structure and create a new science wing is now estimated to cost between $90.6 million to a high of $100.8 million if construction begins…

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Belmont Town Election 2013

All Quiet at Belmont's Candidates' Night

One contested race: for school committee; no need for sharp elbows.

After the past year of countless regular and special elections in which Belmont residents were running in contested races from President of the United States to Town Meeting representative, it would be expected that the "off year" election of 2013 would allow residents a bit of a respite to the seemingly endless rounds of campaign messages and lawn signs that bombarded the electorate in 2012. And Monday's night annual Candidates' Night sponsored by the Belmont League of Women Voters held at the Chenery Middle School March 11 appeared to bear the assumption out as it was deemed the "quickest and quietest" candidates gathering according to one long-time observer.  Outside the auditorium, an equal number of residents seeking to represent …

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'Welcome to [Pay $165,000 for Your Name Here] Basketball Court at Belmont High'

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…

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A Race for School Committee as Nomination Deadline Passes

Write ins will be elected in two of eight precinct races.

Hank Thidemann opened the door to the Town Clerk's office out of breath and a bit worried. The days after the blizzard that dumped 27 inches of snow on Belmont meant that "there was a lot of snow to clear" and the resident seeking to be a Town Meeting representative in Precinct 6 stretched the time to collect the necessary 25 signatures on his nomination papers to the last minute. Literally, the very last minute.  With the clock on the wall showing 5 p.m., out of breath and waving his nomination papers as he came through the door, Thidemann wondered aloud, "Did I make it in time?" Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman – who asked the visibly-sweating Thidemann if he needed some water – took the sheets of papers and put it into the time stamp …

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Dave

4:22 pm on Friday, February 15, 2013

The reason for the large number is supposed to be so that they can be well connected to their neighbors. I've lived in Belmont for 13 years, and have yet to be canvassed by a TM member. On just one occasion I did meet someone running, in a year when there was actual competition. The number should be cut by 1/2. Also, the TM members should be required to post their phone # and email address on the…   more ›

[Update] Dan Scharfman, Belmont School Committee Member, Dies at 55

Services for the School Street resident will be held Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 11 a.m. at Beth El Temple.

Daniel Scharfman, a long-time resident who brought an analytical mindset along with a wry sense of humor to the Belmont School Committee, died on Monday, Jan. 21 at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge after suffering a serious heart attack at his home last Tuesday. He was 55. The announcement of Scharfman's death was made at the annual Martin Luther King Community Breakfast at Belmont High School Monday morning.  "Dan was a deeply committed being who made broad contributions to the town and we all feel a deep sadness with his passing," said Town Moderator Michael Widmer.  "I'm terribly saddened to hear the news about Dan," said State Rep. Dave Rogers. "He was a great leader in the community as well as a very kind and decent human being."  "…

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School Committee's Scharfman Hospitalized after Heart-Related Incident

Selectman candidate last year is seeking re-election to Committee in April's Town Election.

Dan Scharfman, Belmont School Committee member and a Board of Selectmen candidate last year, is hospitalized after suffering a heart attack early Tuesday morning, Jan 15. "Dan suffered a severe heart attack early yesterday morning," said Merle Kummer, Scharfman's wife, in a statement released by the family Wednesday, Jan. 16. "With the help of the Belmont Fire Department EMTs, who did a terrific job, and a great team of doctors, he’s being closely monitored. But he remains in critical condition, and neither his doctors nor any of us will have any idea of the prognosis before this weekend, if then." "We’ll be sure to tell his many friends any definite information we have when we have it. But for now, we’re all waiting – and grateful not …

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