Our new school year is in full swing. Warm temperatures made for a challenging first few days, but we settled into the new school year nicely nevertheless. I will be providing a bi-monthly newsletter to keep you up to date as to what is happening here at the Belmont Schools. Welcome back to all the parents and caregivers using this site. I hope this is a useful source for all parents new to the district.
Our successful start was made possible by the 52-week staff preparing all summer long for opening day. Thanks to all and a special thanks to our facilities staff for not only doing the annual cleaning at each school but taking on the additional projects such as the new flooring for the high school field house and the upgraded fitness center at BHS.
Quote of the Month: “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.”
― Confucius
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
The first School Committee (SC) meeting of the school year was on September 8. The committee heard a presentation from Robert Mulroy on the early proposition of rebuilding our hockey rink, with the desire to have the rink near the high school adjacent to where it is currently located. This process is in the early stages. The SC will follow up with questions and clarifications before considering a vote. This will be a future SC agenda item. You can view documents under the SC public documents section in the Belmont Public Schools website.
TEACHING AND LEARNING
At that SC meeting, Assistant Superintendent Janice Darias presented on the topic of Social Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL will be the major initiative this year for our staff and students. This issue has been on the school departments agendas for several years. A modeling group identified this as a challenge two years ago, prompting the administration to have a SEL Task Force last year to unpack the modeling group summary and to operationalize what a successful SEL initiative would look like in our schools. Janice Darias and the SEL Task Force have worked tirelessly to provide a great blueprint for our principals and staff to receive professional development and support to learn, identify and implement these strategies in our schools--thus enhancing the culture of safe and productive learning environments for all. Please see the SEL power point presentation to learn more about it.
CHANGES AND THANK YOU
Thank you to the entire Belmont community for the override funds made possible by last spring's vote. These funds and the positions they provided have made a significant difference in how we can address class size needs and increase the amount of students engaged at our middle and high schools. As noted in my previous communication from August 25, the district was able to hire 10 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) positions for the 2015-2016 school year with these added funds. One position we did not hire was for kindergarten because our enrollment at that grade level did not justify the allocation. The administration decided to look at the most pressing needs of the district and reviewed the list of "year 2" positions needed as outlined in our Three Year Fiscal Plan. It was clear that the need at the middle school, which has grown to more than 1,320 students as of September 3, 2015, was in dire need of a guidance position as quickly as possible. The Chenery currently has only one guidance person for every 440 students. This ratio is unacceptable for a middle school and the students they serve. We are taking the kindergarten position off our year one list and putting it in the year 2 column in our fiscal plan in order to replace it with the hiring of the guidance position. We hope this added resource, originally planned for next year, will make an immediate and positive impact for our students, staff, and families at Chenery.
Belmont is a sought-after school district. As a result, new families are moving in and that means growing enrollment. New developments in the area will also put a pressure point on new students coming to Belmont. This year, the high school converted existing modular space behind the school into classrooms to address overflow, and in the middle school the computer lab was moved into the library so the lab could be used as a classroom. A formal enrollment presentation will be delivered at a School Committee meeting in October so we can compare our growth for the school year we are currently in as well as monitor enrollment over the next five years. We will be looking more into this issue of growing enrollment and the effect on space and teaching as the year progresses.
PARTNERSHIPS
- Library Card Sign-Up Month: We are fortunate to have a great partnership with Belmont Library Director Peter Struzziero and the Library staff. The school department and library staff have met over the summer and this week to collaborate. We want to let you know that September is "Library Card Sign Up Month". If you don't already have a library card--this is the month to get it done. visit the Belmont Public Library today or visit their website.
- Be Well Belmont: Belmont Public Schools is partnering with the "Be Well Belmont" group this year. Be Well Belmont is a project of the Belmont Food Collaborative that received grand funding to educate and support the entire community on the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity. You can find out more abut Be Well Belmont here.
FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD AND OTHER HELPFUL WEBSITES
This is the time of year when you have more emails in your inbox than you can go through, and we appreciate all your attention to them--including this newsletter! Please take a look at the BPS website for information on the front page as well as information under each tab. There you can go into individual schools for PTO/PTA and other school events, as well as keep up today with Athletics, Fine Arts, and news from your Principals. Other tabs show information on School Committee, information for Families, Administration news, etc.
As always our Food Service Team, led by Director Dustin O'Brien, is doing an outstanding job again this year. Always looking for innovative ways to feed, we look forward to this year's offerings. Please see the latest information at their website.
STAFF HIGHLIGHT
We welcome four new members to our Leadership staff:
Jonathan Hartunian is the new Lower School Assistant Principal at Chenery, filling the vacancy of Christopher Fleming last March. Jonathan was formerly a math teacher at Chenery.
Sarah Forrey is the new Assistant Principal at Wellington, filling the vacancy of Maureen Barnowski. She was an Assistant Principal with Somerville Public Schools, and she did her practicum at Belmont Public Schools.
Elizabeth Baker is the new Director of Science and Technology Education, replacing Jessica Baron. She was the Program Director of Science at the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science and Boston Latin Academy in Boston Public Schools.
Mary Conant -Cantor is the new Nurse Coordinator, and replaces Rosemary Peterson who retired last year. She comes to us from the Massachusetts Department of Health.
We welcome them all to their new leadership positions.
GOOD NEWS
- Five Belmont High School students were named 2016 National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists. The Semi-Finalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. These high school seniors have the opportunity to continue in the competition for merit scholarships award money offered next spring. Congratulations and best of luck to Belmont High School students Andrew Giorgio, Maggie Liu, Emma Pierce-Hoffman, Anya Zhang, and Kaiwen Zhang. See Principal Dan Richards blog and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation website for more information.
- Belmont High School (BHS) is offering a "Real World Career Night" on September 21 between 6:00 PM and 9:00PM. Working young adults will be there to have one-one-one casual conversations about steps they took and education required to be in their current occupation. This is coordinated by BHS Senior Tess Hayner and BHS Junior Anya Sonhi. Pre-registration was required for this event.
- Closing its second summer, the BHS student-led Garden and Food Justice Club held a ribbon cutting ceremony on August 17 to celebrate the garden's success and recent improvements. Students, BHS Principal Dan Richards and community supporters attended. With support from the Belmont Food Collaborative, the garden is part of the Collaborative's "Community Growing" project, and provides organically-raised produce for the local Belmont Food Pantry. The students care for the garden during the school year and summer months, and during the non-growing season the club hosts a Winter Food Drive in addition to other projects and trips. Recently the garden received a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation to finance cedar post fencing and blueberry bushes. As you can imagine, there are many people to thank with such an ambitious project. Please take a look here for pictures and the people involved in this great project.
- Congressional Medal of Honor recipients Tom Norris and William Swenson spoke to BHS sophomores on September 16. He is one of 78 living recipients of this high honor. The Medal of Honor convention is in Boston again this year, and they come to us through the Medal of Honor Character Development program. Director of Social Studies Deborah McDevitt says this gives students real word experience to add to their studies throughout the year. See the story and pictures on the BPS website and on Principal Dan Richards website.
- The new Burbank Garden, sponsored by the Burbank PTA and the Foundation for Belmont Education (FBE), had a bountiful June harvest. Read all about it here, and for volunteer opportunities in the garden. See the BHS website for information about the beginning of this project.
- Walking School Buses are back! Check with your schools PTO/PTA for their routes and days offered.
AND NOW A WORD FROM YOUR MOBILE DEVICE
Belmont Public Schools launched a new mobile app on September 21, an all-in-one information source for parents, students, staff and community. Belmont Schools App was developed specifically to provide direct access to the district’s most sought after information in the most convenient format -- your mobile device. Recognizing trends in social technology and the unprecedented use of smartphones and tablet devices, the Belmont Public Schools district has elected to create a mobile platform in order to better connect and collaborate with the community. To download the app, search for Belmont Public Schools in the App Store or Google Play. Other app features include: District and school news, allowing the user to select which schools they want to follow; calendar information for schools and district events, including the ability to add events from school calendars to the user’s device calendar; school and district websites; contact information for teachers, administrators and other staff; one news stream including calendar events, news, and district/PTO/PTA social media stream; Superintendent updates with the latest communications from the district; sports scores and team schedules; link to the online lunch payment system; access to the Edline parent and student portal. Thanks to Natasha Bochkov, from the BPS Technology Department, for her hard work on the App development.
SAVE THE DATE
- The third annual Dan Scharfman Memorial Run is on October 4 at the BHS track. Please join the Belmont community for a 5K race and a companion 2K run. Proceeds from the races fund the Dan Scharfman Educational Innovative Fund for the Foundation for Belmont Education's Innovative Teaching Initiative. For more information on registering, volunteering, or donating, please see the FBE's website.
- The Belmont Boosters Golf Tournament is again this year at Oakley Country Club in Watertown on September 28. The Boosters raise money to support Belmont High School Athletics. For more information please go here.
CALENDAR
Below are some of the numerous events for the end of September through the beginning of October. As always, please check the schools websites and communications for more events and any changes in dates, times, and/or venues:
DATE/TIME - PLACE/EVENT
9/21 - 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. - Career Night for BHS Students; Pre-registration was required for this event
9/21 - 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. K-2 and 7:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. Grades 3 & 4 - Burbank Curriculum Night
9/22 - 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. - Cafeteria - GHS Guidance 9th Grade Parent Conversation
9/23 - No School in Session/Yom Kippur
9/24 - 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. - BHS Instrument Rental Night
9/24 - 6:45 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. K-2 and 7:25 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Grades 3 & 4 - Winn Brook Curriculum Night
9/25 - 5:30 p.m. (Gym) and 6:30 p.m. (Cafeteria) Showing of the movie "Big Hero 6". Popcorn only at the 5:30 pm showing, all food permitted at the 6:30 pm showing. Popcorn, pizza and drinks will be available for purchase. Suggested donation for the event is $2/person or $10/family. Parents must accompany their children to movie night.
9/25 - 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. - BHS School Dance
9/28 - 11:30 a.m. check in and lunch/12:30 pm tee off/ dinner and guest speaker at 5:30 pm - Oakley Country Club in Watertown - Belmont Boosters Annual Golf Tournament
9/29 - 5:00 p.m. - Underwood Park - Wellington School Welcome Picnic. Bring your own picnic dinner or dine from participating vendors. Stay tuned for more details from the Wellington PTO.
9/29 - 7:00 pm - Chenery Large Community Room - School Committee Meeting
9/28 - 7:00 p.m. - Wellington Cafeteria - PTO Meeting
9/28 - 7:00 p.m. - Burbank Cafeteria - PTA Meeting
9/30 - 7:00 p.m. - Butler Library - PTA Meeting
9/30 - 7:00 p.m. - Winn Brook Cafeteria - PTA Meeting
9/30 - All Schools Early Release
9/30 - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. - BHS Guidance Senior Parent Information Night
10/1 - 6:30 p.m. - Chenery Upper School Back to School Night
10/4 - 9:30 a.m. for 5K run/10:45am for 2K Run - BHS Race Track - FBE's Dan Scharfman Memorial Run
10/6 - 7:00 p.m. - Chenery Large Community Room - School Committee Meeting
10/7 - 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. - BHS Guidance College Fair
10/8 - 6:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. PK, K, 1 and 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m Grades 2-4 - Wellington Curriculum Night
10/8 - 7:00 p.m. - Chenery Large Community Room - PTO Meeting