I’m passing along up to date information on where things stand with deliberations on the proposed cuts to the School and Town operating budgets for next year. As you know, at the Warrant Committee meeting on Wednesday, both the town and School Department presented a list of cuts they would be forced to make,...
I’m just back from the Warrant Committee meeting at the Chenery where both Town Administrator Tom Younger and Dr. Gerry Missal, the School Department’s Director of Finance and Administration, presented their best estimates of what kinds of cuts would be necessary to meet an expected 1.4m budget deficit. It wasn’t an upbeat meeting, as...
At the risk of muddying the water about what has and hasn’t happened yet re: the School Budget, School Committee member Ann Rittenburg has provided a detailed comment to my post from early this AM. Ann provides some more context to the budget debate and clarification of some key points, so I thought I’d...
In brief: The Belmont School Committee met Tuesday evening to discuss proposed cuts of between $800,000 and $1.6 million to the FY 2009 budget. The Committee worked out various scenarios, but anticipated elimination of full time instructors at the Butler (2nd grade) and Wellington (3rd grade) elementary schools, as well as proposed new teaching...
First off: there’s a School Committee meeting this evening at 7:30PM at the Chenery Middle School to discuss proposed cuts for the FY 09 School Budget, in advance of tomorrow’s Warrant Committee meeting. Please attend either or both! For those who may attend, here’s a quick rundown of the facts as they stand: As...
I just received an e-mail response from Selectman Dan LeClerc to B2′s open letter on the school budget cuts. When I last wrote, the figure being kicked around was $3m in cuts to square the school and town budgets with revenue. Since then, the figure has been trimmed to around $1.4m, with the School...
I’m posting a copy of the e-mail message I sent last night to the Board of Selectman regarding the pending debate about funding for the School Dept. and Town, and the need for an operational budget override for 2009 to make up the ~$3 million budget shortfall. I encourage all B2′s readers to take...
The latest news from Wednesday’s Warrant Committee meeting isn’t good, according to reports from those who were there. While we won’t get into the nitty gritty of the meeting itself (most of which appears to have revolved around how to spend the Town’s dwindling pile of free cash), the broad outlines should be enough...
I just received an automated phone call from the Belmont PD reporting an attempted abduction of a 10 year old boy near the Burbank School today. According to the message, the incident happened at 3:25 PM and the suspect — described as a 30 year old white man wearing a long black coat and...
