We’re back at Belmont Town meeting and waiting to get going here. This should be an abbreviated meeting, with just three articles to consider: the vote on the Community Preservation Act (Article 21) that the Town approved in November. The other articles, #24 and 25 consider a request from Angelo the Board of Selectmen...
Nobody was smiling at last night's Warrant Committee meeting, least so the scores of concerned parents worried about cuts to music, art and foreign language instruction, who were told by Board of Selectmen Chair (and candidate) Ralph Jones that the School Administration and School Committee were lying to them, hiding money, and favoring grown...
A proposed budget using the Warrant Committee's "Available Funds" for the school proposes eliminating five full time teaching positions, art and music instruction at the elementary school level, language instruction at the middle school level and steep cuts to support services district wide. Time to get angry, people!
Just a heads up, y'all, that there are a slew of important budget meetings looming, starting this Tuesday evening, January 11, when School Superintendent, Dr. Entwistle will present the proposed FY 2012 budget to the School Committee. This meeting is in the Community Room at Chenery Middle School and will be the public's first...
Two events to put on your calendar: an October 13 chat with Massachusetts House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Murphy on the state of the State's budget. Then set aside the evening of October 27 for an important Community Dialog on the future direction of the public schools.
The Belmont Citizen Herald is reporting that Belmont's legal counsel has issued a response to the Middlesex District Attorney that claims town officials who met behind closed doors to formulate plans to discuss the consolidation of School and Town services were not doing so in violation of the State's Open Meeting Laws.
The Middlesex District Attorney's Office is inquiring into the doings of an informal, private gathering of some of the Town's top elected officials with questions about whether the group ran afoul of the State's Open Meeting Law, according to the Belmont Citizen Herald.
Belmont's latest consolidation plan is the product of an informal and closed door group of the Town's senior elected officials that some have dubbed the "Officers' Group." Is Belmont closing the doors on Open Government?
A letter from the Save Our Libraries Committee urges the School Committee to allocate funds recently diverted from the Town's free cash to maintain Library Aide positions. Read the full letter.
This year's marathon, multi-session Town Meeting might be best remembered for what wasn't heard last night: a single dissenting voice among the more than 200 assembled Town Meeting members to a motion to allocate more than $39 million for reconstruction of the Wellington Elementary School. The unanimous vote in favor was sweet victory for...
