• Belmont has spent around $1m of its own $$$ to fund the redesign of Trapelo Road. Trapelo Road redesign is very highly rated road project state-wide. Transport planners think we’re awesome! Woot.
• Massachusetts already spends close to $.50 of every $1 on health care costs with 1 in 5 residents in the State on Medicaid. (Did I hear that right?)
• Federal funds are up in the air for next year, including healthcare reimbursements from the Feds and money for transportation.
• Municipal plan design reform: allowing the mayor or selectmen of the municipality to change a municipality’s health cae plan design or enter the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) without entering into collective bargaining. Will backs it – doesn’t think it will be a raw deal for municipal unions.
• Funding education, police, fire. “Issues of regionalization” will become more urgent in the coming years. Agreed on that. Go to willbrownsberger.com for more information!

UPDATE: We’re now hearing a report out from the Ad hoc Subcommittee on Town Meeting Communications. Bullet points:

• There’s an inconsistent level of detail about issues.
• TM members don’t really have enough time to consider issues up for discussion.
• Its not easy to address complex issues that can’t be addressed in one sitting

There are a bunch of suggestions:

1. Open and close Warrant in January instead of March
2. Star Annual Town Meeting in May so as not to conflict with school vacation.
3. Encourage precinct caucuses
4. Institutionalize separate budget and non-budget Warrant briefings
5. Schedule annual Community Forum to address vision issues.
6. Increase the use of electronic communications with Town Meeting members – e-mail and Website to include background information on Warrant articles.
7. Create Moderator appointed standing committee to improve information for Town Meeting members (print materials, electronic, etc. A resource for TM members).
8. Identify and clarify process on how TM can obtain more information on a topic and keep that topic alive so that TM members have all the information they need to make a proper decision.
9. Implement a TM member orientation handbook. Revise and distribute it to TM members.
10. Organize a TM Member Association to handle things outside of TM.

There’s a written report (I’ll try to post it on B2). Thanks TM Communications Subcommittee!! Great work.

UPDATE: Articles 14 and 15: Ralph Jones is explaining why we should agree to take 0% interest loans from MWRA for sewer and storm drain line improvements in town. Just smiles on this one. Both motions are approved unanimously. Thanks, MWRA. I think your tap water tastes yummy!

UPDATE: We’re now on to the next item: Article 11 – revised motion authorizing expenditure from the town’s Revolving Fund. Ralph Jones, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, is now explaining some last minute changes to this – $300,000 for the town’s Ambulance service will come out of the Capital Budget. Filing fees for Wetlands Protection – these fund administration and enforcement of the Wetlands Protection Act. This is confusing. I guess we don’t need to vote on this because its required by State law and there’s a separate fund to hold these accounts – this shouldn’t be part of the Town’s revolving account.

UPDATE: Article 6 – Appropriating $22,500 to provide non-contributory pensions for eligible employees of Town Depts…this concerns a single Town employee. Its approved unanimously.

UPDATE: Article 7: Appropriate $5.04m to provide contributory pensions and expenses in connection with Chapter 32 of MGL…Barbara Hagg, Town Accountant is speaking. The town’s pension is around 52% funded. Mark P. of BOS is saying it will be fully funded by 2028. Question from the floor: given that we’re behind – what did we pay in the past and what do we project we’ll pay over the next 10 years, given that our pension obligations won’t be fully funded. Barbara said she doesn’t have a 2010 actuarial study on this question. The amount we’ll have to shell out will increase 4.5% year on year, and we do new actuarial studies every couple years to see if our numbers are getting off course. This could be a big hit to town budgets in years to come, but there’s no way to know for sure. Its put to a vote and passes unanimously.

UPDATE: Angelo Firenze of BOS is introducing Article 8 – asking for approval of $532,410 for the repair, improvement and construction of highways within the Town. It is put a vote without any question and passes unanimously.

UPDATE: Ralph Jones of BOS introduces Article 5 appropriating funds to pay elected officials. Only two of these folks: the Town Clerk and Town Treasurer make any real money – $72,499 for the clerk and $89,145 for the Treasurer. The total assessment here is $185,586. There’s some interest here, as there’s a proposed amendment from the Warrant Committee to knock the Clerk’s salary down from $72k to $62k. BOS recommends approval of this. Ouch! Now Liz Allison, Chair of WC is speaking. TM allocated $60,000 last year. The 62,000 is a 4% increase. The Warrant is requesting a 20% increase and WC is calling bulls**t on that, it appears. Roy Epstein of WC is now addressing TM…Long and short is that average salary across similarly sized towns for Town Clerk is $60k. Also: TC gets a $2,500 stipend for sitting on the election board. Mass Municipal Association data also suggests a salary figure in the low $60k figure. Town Clerks Association data – which also tracks years on the job and total compensation (i.e. stipends). WC says when you correlate by size of town and years of service (in Belmont’s case: 2 years), the number is $65,000. Hmmm….doesn’t look good for Ellen!

Don Mercier is up to ask how big the Town Clerk staff at comparable towns. Good question!! Roy says they only considered full time clerks. Comparability of the office – Roy called around to different towns to ask about similarity of the job and seems satisfied that this is an apples:apples comparison in terms of job description and staffing. The discussion quickly gets heated, as defenders of our Town Clerk challenge the effort to knock down the salary level. Folks against this are saying 1) Ellen’s doing a great job (hard to argue), 2) Its a tough job – fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay 3) $72k is a living wage – this whole discussion is unseemly and not the way to do this, even though we can. I think folks like the idea of controlling salary growth, but singling out the two positions that TM actually controls isn’t going to accomplish that and the WC isjust  looking small and mean here. You’re a small, mean committee, Warrant Committee!! Mark P of the BOS is saying that the BOS is pursuing a top-down salary review of non-elected employees. Question: Town Clerk and Treasurer: how does oversight of those positions compare to non-elected town employees.

UPDATE: Oh G-d, this is such a flog. The motion passes by a narrow margin. I voted against it – Clerk should be appointed, not elected, same with the Treasurer. WC is trying to make a “point” here with this $10k salary increase – thereby missing the large “point” altogether.

UPDATE: Article 12: $150,000 transferred from the sale of cemetery plots. Passes unanimously. RIP.

UPDATE: Article 10: These are big $$ transfers from Sewer and Stormwater Enterpise Fund for water and sewer functions. These are fully funded from water and sewer rates – $5m and $7m. These are self sustaining funds, paid for by fees.  Both items pass unanimously.

UPDATE: Article 9: (Last one of the evening): Sum of $2m appropriated for public safety, public works, maintenance, etc. This is a dog’s dinner of different items – a boiler at BHS. Snow plow replacements, sidewalks and pavement management, networking equipment for the BPD, etc. etc. Site improvements: tennis court resealing. Hopefully we don’t go down a rabbit hole on this one.

Oh yeah…and No Freeloader says “Paul Roberts has never seen a Tax he didn’t want to raise to fund his progressive agenda. More money for the teachers’ union naturally, but if he’d go back to Watertown, whence he came, Belmont Taxpayers would save MORE than his parking meter proposal in per pupil costs.”

God, what an ass.

Stay tuned.

Elementary Schools – Art, Music, Phys Ed whacked, Two teachers laid off.

At the elementary school level, the School Department said on Tuesday that the available funds budget would require the elimination of both art and music instruction as well as the elimination of two full time teachers. Physical education instruction would be cut by 50% and there would be reduced levels of service for areas like reading, nursing, tutoring, clerical support, as well as supplies, textbooks and equipment. The elmentary library program – eliminated in the FY2011 budget – would not be restored.

Middle School: Foreign language instruction and three teacher positions gone

At the Middle School level, the biggest cuts proposed to meet the available funds target would be a reduction of three full time teaching positions and the elimination of foreign language instruction for grades 5 and 6. Middle school intramural sports, including cross country, will be eliminated. Beyond that, there will be a slew of service reductions: fine arts electives, tutoring and instructional support as well as supplies like text books and materials needed by teachers.

High School: Reduced graduation requirements, elimination of foreign language and social studies electives

Planned changes at the High School include the elimination of foreign language electives and social studies electives as well as the elimination of library aide and instructional aide positions, reduced supplies including textbooks and equipment. Freshmen sports will not be restored, though its unclear whether there will be other cuts to athletic programs.

District: curriculum director positions, instructional support positions and clerical positions eliminated

At the district level, the cuts will require the elimination of curriculum director positions – these are folks who help make sure that, say, math or foreign language is taught consistently across the district and who work on improving instruction and insuring quality instruction in the classroom. Curriculum director positions for foreign language, science and social studies are on the chopping block here. The central office staff will be further reduced (the public schools already jettisoned the critical Human Resources position last year).

I don’t think its overstating things to say that this “available funds” budget is the final leg in the stool that’s supporting what has been considered one of the finest and top performing school districts in the state – and even the country. The cuts to elementary music are an especially bitter pill to swallow. Belmont’s elementary music education program has been the jewel in the crown for the town for much of the past thirty years and our students regularly return from state- and national tournaments with awards and accolades – the product of superior music education that starts at an early age (third grade). This budget effectively ends that proud tradition, eliminating funding for elementary music education – which is already supported, in part, by fees – altogether.

The available funds budget is a disgrace and underscores, only more deeply, the need for the Belmont Board of Selectmen to put a Proposition 2 1/2 Override Question on the Town-wide ballot in April. Anything less than that would be an utter betrayal of working families in this town that rely on the public schools and the programs they provide, and who can hardly afford to reach into their pockets for yet more parental “use taxes” in the form of activities fees. Enough!

Fortunately, the Warrant Committee meeting at which this budget was to be presented was postponed due to the blizzard on Wednesday. I will let you know when that is rescheduled. We’ll need a big turnout of school supporters to make it clear to the powers that be that the “available funds” math doesn’t add up for families in this town.

The big problem is that those of us who care about preserving Belmont’s tradition of quality public education is that we’re going to have to fight even to get _this_ budget passed, as the Board of Selectmen and Warrant Committee seem in the mood to play hardball with numbers. As Dr. Entwistle told The Patch recently, the target budget – or Available Revenue budget – set out by the Warrant Committee in November – around $40,565,000 — isn’t adequate to support the core mission of the Belmont Public Schools.

“People need to pay attention to what the budget process is now,” Entwistle told Patch in an interview last week. “The Available Revenue budget will not sufficiently supply what we need to give our students,” Entwistle stated.

This week brings two important meetings: Tuesday’s meeting in which Entwistle will formally present the Available Funds Budget to the School Committee. On Wednesday, January 12, Dr. Entwistle will present the Available Funds budget and a separate Level Service budget to the Warrant Committee. The Level Service budget is basically the amount of money that will be needed to preserve the “level of service” in the school system for 2012 as we offered in 2011 and its likely to be larger than the Available Funds budget. (And remember, here, 2011 already brought with it significant cuts, including the end of district sponsored Freshmen athletics, the closure of elementary school libraries and staff and administrative layoffs at almost every level.) Its critical that B2 readers attend one or both of these meetings. I’m definitely going to attend the Jan 12 meeting to show my support for the Level Service budget, but both meetings are important.

Some other dates worth noting:
Jan 11, Tues, 7:30 pm @ Chenery Middle School Community Room (CMS) – Initial budget presentation to School Committee.
Jan 12, Wed, 7:30 pm @ Chenery Middle School Community Room (CMS) – Budget presentation to Warrant Committee
Jan 18, Tues, 7:30 pm @ CMS, budget update to School Committee
(Tentative) Feb 8, Tues, 7:30 pm, budget Q&A discussion with public
(Tentative) Feb 10, Thur, 9:00 am, budget Q&A discussion with public
Feb 15, Tues, 7:30 pm, @ CMS, budget update to School Committee
(Tentative) Mar 5, Sat – all day budget workshop
Mar 15, Tues, 7:30 pm – budget public hearing

Hey all. Apologies for a long hiatus on posting to B2. I wanted to write this evening to inform the B2 readership about two important events to put on your calendars. The first is a very important opportunity to discuss (and help shape) the future of our public schools at a community dialog hosted by the Belmont Public Schools on October 27 at the Field House at Belmont High School. The entire community is invited to participate in this: parents, school administration and staff, civic and business leaders and elected officials. There’s a great presentation from Superintendent Entwistle  available on the BPS Web site that explains the program. In short: participants will take part in both some directed “big topic” discussions on issues important to the future of our public schools, and then in short (50 minute) self-directed dialogs on educational and organizational topics suggested by participants themselves. This isn’t some empty “team building” exercise — the output of these sessions will be operationalized by the BPS leadership team and will help inform an 18 month improvement plan adopted by the School Department.

Take part in a Community Dialog on the future of the Public Schools

The dialog runs from 4:30 to 8:30 pm on the 27th, with a short break for dinner at around 5:00pm. The first Session begins at 5:35 pm.  and the second at 6:30 pm.  You must RSVP for the Dialog to attend. Call 617-993-5401 or by sending an e-mail to Cathy Grant - CGrant (at) belmont.k12.ma.us!!

The second event is an opportunity to speak with Massachusetts House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Murphy. He’ll be dropping in to Belmont on October 13 for a conversation with residents at 7:00pm in the Selectmen’s room in Belmont Town Hall. Murphy will be accompanied by State Representative Will Brownsberger. The Belmont Citizen Herald and Brownsberger are co-sponsoring the discussion, which is sure to hit on the State’s precarious finances and the impact that will likely have on local aide to Belmont and other towns.

Though the article is about preserving public libraries, rather than school libraries, it touches on many of the same issues that have come home to roost here in Belmont: falling property taxes that have historically been the lifespring of public libraries and the growth of the Internet as a source of information. Communities across the Bay State (including Belmont) are cutting funding to libraries, which have been forced to reduce hour. Some also question the value that public libraries provide. This despite figures that show library use is booming during this recession, as out of work employees queue up for access to computers and families look for an inexpensive source of books, movies and  other programming.

Bradbury is a lifelong advocate of public libraries. His most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel about a furture, authoritarian society where books and reading are banned. He wrote it on a pay typewriter in the basement of the UCLA library.

“Libraries raised me,” he’s quoted saying.  “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”

Here in Belmont, the issue of funding for library aides that keep our elementary school libraries functioning will be debated at a meeting of School Committee on Tuesday evening. But that debate is just a warm up to what the town will face in the fall, once planning starts for Fiscal Year 2011, with funding for both the town library and school libraries likely to be a point of contention. 

The amendment, proposed by Anne Mahon, was a political longshot when it was submitted last week. By the time it was considered, at around 10:00pm Monday evening, both the Board of Selectmen and Warrant Committee had voted unanimously not to recommend it to Town Meeting, and the School Committee split on the issue 3-2 with one member absent. (I voted in favor of the motion both on School Committee and in Town Meeting, as did fellow SC member Laurie Graham). The amendment, which proposed transferring around $175,000 from the town’s cash reserves to the BPS, was couched in terms of restoring proposed cuts to library aide positions at the elementary schools, and restoring positions that were slated for elimination at the High School. And that clearly touched a nerve within a Town Meeting, with members queing up three and four deep to speak on the issue and making clear that they did not support the proposed elimination of the library aide positions, or the cuts at the High School. Comments ran three or four to one in favor of the amendment in a debate that lasted for 90 minutes. The final vote wasn’t close — 116 to 84 in favor (someone check those numbers for me, please). There were impassioned speeches on both sides with town leaders arguing, in essence, that the Town faces steep declines in revenues in FY10 and especially FY 11 and won’t be able to count on federal stimulus money, which is being used to patch over shortfalls in state aid and a huge structural budget deficit this year. Supporters, including Mrs. Mahon argued that every cut to School Dept. programming just creates a new, low benchmark for “level funding,” and that programs– once cut — don’t return. Let me just say that I found that argument extremely, extremely persuasive.

Mahon was backed by a string of other notables — Fred Paulson, Monte Allen, Jack Weis, Kim Becker, former SC Chair John Bowe, many making a similar argument and speaking voluably for the restoration of likely cuts to Elementary Library Aide positions and Belmont High School positions. While the School Committee has made clear that it has full discretion to decide how the additional funds will be allocated, Town Meeting members last night made no secret of the fact that they expect it will used as intended: to restore Library Aide positions and positions at BHS.

There was also a clear sense, from those speaking in support, that town leaders — though earnest in their efforts to arrive at a sensible budget for the next fiscal year, had badly misjudged public sentiment in proposing elimination of the Library Aide positions, which will sharply curtail use of the libraries at the elementary schools and could result in their outright closure. (Principals have floated alternative ideas — book carts brought to classrooms, etc. — but most say that removing aides will greatly reduce use of the libraries.) In one of the more entertaining speeches of the evening, which might be remembered as the “Cat Leash” speech, TM member David Alper related a story about the Belmont Board of Health proposing the mandatory use of cat leashes to stem an outbreak of rabies in the early 1990s. Town Meeting “in its infinite wisdom” soundly rejected the idea, Alper recalled. “The powers that be made a decision that didn’t sit well with the town. It was a minor error of choice, and I think that’s what’s happened here,” he said. Great stuff.

Click To Play

Speaking against the measure, SC Chair Ann Rittenberg noted that significant one time funds had already been poured into this year’s budget to preserve programming, and that Belmont was already allowing stimulus money to go to the Schools with no offset in the allocation of town revenues, as other towns were requiring. Acting Superintendent Pat Aubin worried that the town was clinging onto threads of what used to be robust library programs, with full time librarians and library aides helping to support classroom programs and help students learn how to use library resources and find the information they need. But speaker after speaker urged the body to accept the measure, saying — in essence – -they’d rather have threads than go naked.

A handful of TM members spoke against the measure. Jeanne Widmer (wife of Moderator Mike Widmer) and Sherry Jones (wife of Selectman Ralph Jones) expressed sympathy for those seeking to avoid cuts to the schools, but argued that the measure was short sighted. Widmer suggested that its passage would jeapordize an upcoming debt exclusion vote on Wellington Elementary. That was not a view held widely, though a fuller discussion will almost certainly come Wednesday when Town Meeting votes to appropriate close to $40m for the design and construction of a new Wellington Elementary, subject to approval by voters in a town wide election. More than a few speakers urged town leaders to begin preparing voters for the necessity of a Prop 2 1/2 override, saying that the town’s main problem was a large structural budget deficit that had been allowed to grow, unchecked, in the last decade. “This deficit is structural. It won’t be fixed with free cash or bake sales by the PTA,” said TM member Monte Allen. “I call on the town’s leadership to exercise leadership on this issue and bring the town along with them.”

Craven, who left four young children in the care of her physician husband to attend the meeting, was given the opportunity to speak first and answer questions. Her message to the assembled was loud and clear: now is the time to do the Wellington. And, should Belmont fail to pass the debt exclusion, the town shouldn’t expect to see money like the $12.4m that’s being offered now anytime soon. In particular, Craven said that MSBA grants, which are funded directly from state sales tax revenue, have been based on an assumption that sales tax revenues will grow by around 3.5% annually, not drop, as they have in the last year. The result will be a steep decline in grants — if not an outright moratorium on state aid for school construction projects like the Wellington “by the middle of the next decade,” Craven said. The funding for Wellington has been set aside for Belmont and will be available to the town the minute voters fund the remainder of the project, she said. 

Asked (by me) what would happen to the $12.4m allocated for Belmont should the debt exclusion fail, Craven said that the money would be given to other towns. “Given the timing of these projects, it wouldn’t be fair to hold onto that money,” she said. 

Craven also pointed out that, based on the experiences of other towns such as Norwood, Belmont voters could be pleasantly surprised by the estimates returned by builders once the project is sent out to bid. Norwood, she said, estimated its new High School would cost $80m to build, but settled on a bid for just $66m — a sign of the buyers market for construction projects in state. 

The meeting also included presentations by School Committee Chairwoman Anne Rittenburg, Treasurer Floyd Carmen, Pat Brusch, Vice Chair of the Wellington Building Committee, Joel Mooney of the Permanent Building Committee, as well as Jonathan Levy architects and others. Questions from the audience were polite and treaded on familiar territory: managing cost overruns, the challenge of relocating Wellington students, alternatives to the proposed building plan. Selectman Angelo Firenze asked for a commitment that any savings in the project would not be used to expand the scope of the project — a pledge that Brush readily gave, while pointing out that the very building that hosted the event was an example of the town’s ability to do large school construction projects on time and under budget. The Chenery Building Committee will return more than $600,000 in unused construction bond funds to the town at an upcoming Town Meeting.

(*) I am a member of both Town Meeting and The Belmont School Committee.  Read the caveats about me and my opinions on the About page.

In short, this is Paul talking here.

OK, now that that’s over with, I wanted to thank our School Committee Chairwoman Anne Rittenburg for sending along a link to a pretty cogent analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center of the impact of the state revenue shortfall and the cuts that are being proposed by Beacon Hill lawmakers in response. The analysis looks at the impact of proposed cuts in a variety of areas, education being just one. It provides a nice overview of how bleak the news from Beacon Hill is, and how bad things might get without a strong effort to include new revenues in any effort to plug the hole in the state’s finances. Here are some (though by no means all) noted cuts that could impact Belmont:

• A cut of $79 million in Chapt. 70 local aid — a 2 percent reduction in state aid to each school district. The Mass Budget and Policy Center also notes that the Senate Ways and Means Committee is using a lower inflation figure to arrive at foundation budgets for school districts (3.04% vs. the 4.5% figure used by the House and the Governor). THis “saves” money, but also runs the risk of underestimating actual inflation, which could leave the state (and districts) caught short.
• Cuts to special education reimbursements to school districts that total $124.9 million compared with FY 2009 level. This will reduce the amount of state reimbursements districts receive for extraordinary special education costs, though federal IDEA grants may offset some of that.
• Cuts funding for the state’s Universal Pre-School program by $8.1 million from the FY 2009 levels. This money helps offset the costs of moving to full day kindergarten. As it stands, the Senate and House are far apart on this, with the Senate Ways and Means proposing a $4 millionand the House proposing a $9.8 million appropriation.
• Takes $61m out of the state’s School Building Assistance program, an almost 10% reduction.

Fortunately, there’s still time to lobby our representatives in Beacon Hill to push for revenue increases (sales tax, liquor tax and gas/carbon tax have all been proposed) so that drastic cuts in education programs are not necessary. You can find contact information for our state senator, Steve Tolman, here.  Our representative, Will Brownsberger, can be contacted by following this link.

Tuesday night there is a school committee meeting at Chenery at 7:30- please come.  We will not be given the opportunity to vote for an opperational override this year, unfortunately, but there will be a great need for one next year.  This is a statement I made last year as well.  We were promised an override this year to stop the bleeding, but the selectmen did not follow through.  Starting now, I believe, we need to let everyone know the cost this will have on the children in this community.

I am hopeful that Wellington will pass, but that too is not a done deal.  We need to get the community out in force to vote on June 8 to support the new Wellington.   — Kimberly Becker