I think the tenor of the debate has degraded. I think instead of being at issue level with some people, it gets to the personal level. It becomes attacking and they denigrate other people. My sense is that that's never helpful. When someone speaks to you in a personal way, you never forget that....
Voters in Belmont, Massachusetts sent a warning shot on Monday, voting down an effort to pass a Prop 2 1/2 override to fund road maintenance and reconstruction in the town. According to data posted on the Belmont Town Web site today by Town Clerk Delores Keefe, the vote was a close one with 2602...
The results of the first-ever bloggingbelmont readers’ poll are in, and they show strong (if statistically suspect) support for the upcoming roads override vote on June 9, as well as for the likely debt exclusion vote for Wellington Elementary. Forty four readers responded to our survey over the past three days. Of those, 25...
Those of you who have been following bloggingbelmont.com for the last couple months will, no doubt, recall the Eight Crazy Ideas (that just might work) for ’08 series we ran. This was an effort to throw some out of the box ideas about how to improve life in town to the proverbial wall and...
With Belmont headed towards a likely override vote (or a few of them) in the coming days, I was interested to read this fine article in the Boston Globe on the phenomenon of “override moms” — concerned, suburban parents (generally moms — but not always!) who are pushing their communities to right by their...
An impressive turnout by parents of Belmont Public School students and other concerned citizens put the issue of an operational override at the top of the town’s agenda Saturday, and may have set the stage for a vote on an override in May or June. Hundreds of people crammed into the Community Room at...
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,...
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...
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