An op-ed in the Citizen Herald charges that the O’Neil and Cushing Square developments will send more than 200 new children to our schools. But will they? A 2003 study suggests that the link between development and school population is difficult to make.
Author: bloggingbelmont
BloggingBelmont.com is a citizen-powered blog for Belmont, Massachusetts. Launched in 2007, BB providse a progressive voice in Belmont town politics.
The Override Playbook: Chill ‘Em then Kill ‘Em
There’s good reason to be very, very, very suspicious of the Board of Selectmen’s call to delay a vote on an override. In fact, the push to delay a vote on the override is part of a well worn strategy for sinking it, altogether.
Selectmen on override: 6 months, 180 degrees
The question for those of you who are planning to attend tonight’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen should be “what has changed” for Belmont since last Spring, when both Selectman Jones and Paolillo ardently supported passage of an Override. If the town needed it in June, why is it suddenly unworthy in January now that our budget deficit has grown and all-important one time funds, such as the Federal ARRA grants, have dried up?!
Globe Covers Override Effort
Just a note, for those of you who didn’t see the article in Friday’s Boston Globe, that there’s a good write up on the effort to get a Proposition 2 1/2 override on the ballot by Sarah Thomas. You can read the article on Boston.com.
Save Our Schools – Save Our Town Meeting Tonight
Just a heads up that there will be a meeting this evening (Sunday) to start organizing a town-wide effort to raise awareness within Belmont about the cuts facing our schools. Among other things, there’s a need for folks to serve…
Warrant Committee views budgets tonight – Show Up!
A reminder that there’s a very important Warrant Committee meeting tonight, Jan. 19, in the Community Room at Chenery Middle School to hear presentations of the fiscal 2012 budgets from general government and school officials. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30pm. Show up and make it known that you oppose proposed cuts to school programs including art and music education!
Belmont indies? A way to support local businesses
Concord’s “Indies” program supports locally owned businesses. Is it a model that could work in Belmont, too?
Deep Cuts For 2012: Art, Music, Language Instruction Axed
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!
Diary of a mean mommy
What’s the Chinese method of mothering? According to Yale Prof Amy Chua’s new book, its a kind of maternal totalitarianism that encompasses a numbing collection of do’s and even more don’ts. As in “Don’t…attend a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, complain about not being in a school play, watch TV or play computer games, choose (your) own extracurricular activities, get any grade less than an A, not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama, play any instrument other than the piano or violin AND not play the piano or violin.” These are her words, mind you, not mine.
We’ve come a long way, baby!
This is apropos of nothing at all, but I thought I’d pass it along anyway, as it was one of the ‘viral videos’ this week – albeit a pretty dated one. In any case – the back story here is…