Keeping it short for Thanksgiving….

Belmont Football plays Watertown in the 101^st Thanksgiving match up this Thursday 10am at Victory Field in Watertown. 

Geoff Lubien (Warrant Committee chair) has formed a committee to run for Select Board. Mark Paolillo is the incumbent whose seat is up, and he is not expected to run after a turbulent term. https://www.lubienforbelmont.com/news for more info. 

Belmont US Congress Representative Katherine Clark needed to be ushered to safety after an insurrection by a mob of violent Democrat Socialist of America protesters (advocating for the eradication of Israel) stormed DNC Headquarters. The pendulum is turning against the Socialists here in the US and they are becoming more aggressive and violent as a result. Just yesterday three Synagogues in Mass were the targets of hoax bomb threats. To his credit President Biden is not backing down and continues to support Israel although several staffers and loyalists are abandoning ship. His prior partner in crime (President Obama) has come out on the side of Hamas by implying equivalency exists when in reality if not for Obama allowing Iran to bypass the oil embargo… Hamas would have lacked the money to finance the barbaric assault on Israeli Women and Children. 

Good News… Town Meeting passed a couple of articles that potentially can reduce the burden on residential taxpayers. The first makes it easier for restaurants to open in Town and the other makes Belmont Country Club pay a fairer share in property tax. Small progress but better than nothing.

Christmas Tree Lighting… Mark your calendar as the Town Christmas Tree lighting takes place Thursday November 30^th between 5:30-8pm in Belmont Center. The Town will also host a Holiday Tree Lighting on November 32^nd at 2am somewhere on Mass and Cass street in Boston. 

RIP

Retired Police Chief Ronald Blanchette passed last week. Blanchette began his service in Belmont in 1970 and retired in 2002. 

“Higher home prices and higher taxes keep the riffraff out” was a recent opinion shared to me by a resident in response to why they support overrides. 

Just to clarify … riffraff means disreputable persons.  Apparently, Town Meeting members support the concept as they voted to make future new home development “wicked expensive” by adopting a “specialized energy code” that builders must abide by. One TMM’s decision was based on his belief that global warming/climate change/the environment is the greatest threat to mankind. I wanted to respond the greatest threat to mankind is Radical Islamist’s followed closely by China, but it was his opinion, so I suppressed the urge. 

Angus Abercrombie 

The young lad who is distinguished at Town Meeting by his age and that he wears a suit regularly is rumored to be exploring a run for School Committee.  Angus are you Team Israel or Team Hamas? Pro DEI (mediocrity) or Pro reaching each kid at their own level?

Belmont Elementary Schools

The grossly underfunded?? Belmont Schools were recently rated as follows … Winn Brook #2, Burbank #6, Butler #20, and Wellington #25 in the Top 100 elementary schools in Massachusetts as determined by US News and World report. These rankings again prove what many have been saying about Belmont Schools… the results are a combination of heavily invested Parents and quality Teachers. 

Notice I use the term quality and not quantity. It is one of the reasons I attended and supported the BEA rally when they were being strung along in contract negotiations by the Town. A well-paid Teacher will always strive to do their best whether they have 18 kids in a classroom or 26. A poorly compensated one will quickly reach the frustration point and move on. A highly trained Teacher costs more but the return on investment is greater.   

There is a push among School Committees statewide to dumb down Teacher mandated requirements and eliminate incentives like further education because it will increase the pool of Teachers and lower the cost. The obvious problem is better educated Teachers can identify the specific learning habits of the individual student while glorified substitutes can’t. If we are to accept lesser trained Teachers, we must dumb down the curriculum and focus on the whole and not the individual. We are seeing the early stages of this with one size fits all curriculum programs like Lucy Caulkins and DEI movements that fight against advanced math courses citing equity. The nationwide push to keep parents out of the classroom is not imagined. Pay attention parents as its your tax dollars, your children, and your responsibility. Rampant grade inflation is easily exposed when standardized test results don’t measure up. Your involvement and well trained Teachers are what makes the difference. 

Thanksgiving Dinner topics…

1. There were 8 people on the SS Minnow when it set sail yet only two crew and 5 passengers are mentioned in the theme song. Be creative as to who the 8^th person was and why they are missing? Bonus discussion? How did Mary Ann even afford to be on a cruise with the others? 
2. How did the alphabet get put in the order that it is?
3. For the Butler people…  What breaks as soon as you say its name? 
4. Why do we think people with more degrees are smart when they have to pay to have others teach them to be smart?

More signs…

Is it me or is Concord Ave starting to look like a long line of participation trophies? And School has been open since early September folks… if they don’t get the message to slow down by now the signs aren’t going to help. 

The Nasty….

I am working with Belmont Briefing to have the final roll call vote results for Article 8 posted online. 

This was possibly one of the worst displays of Union bashing and dereliction of responsibility in Town Meeting history. 

The skinny… The Select Board wants the Belmont Police out of Civil Service claiming a dearth of candidates. Chief MacIsaac let slip that 2 of 3 recent candidates chosen to move forward in the hiring process chose not to pursue the Belmont jobs. Their decision speaks volumes but not to a lemming filled Town Meeting. Civil Service was designed to prevent nepotism and excessive concentrated power in local Governments by having a defined and regulated hiring process paid for and performed by the State. Civil Service has guidelines for hiring, firing, and promoting officers and superior officers.

The Select Board commissioned a SCIG report that recommended the Town vote to leave Civil Service upon a successful collective bargaining with the Police Union on a replacement plan and a full analysis of the costs associated with leaving vs staying. Neither of these occurred. Speaker Widmer would not allow discussion on collective bargaining even though it was instrumental by the report’s conclusion and to most of the 100 who voted against the anti-worker action. 

So, at Town Meeting… (no joke here) 160 Town meeting members voted to kick the Belmont Police out of Civil Service with no known replacement plan and no known cost of a replacement plan (someone needs to pay those who are now going to do all the work the State did for free). They voted to remove any leverage the Union had in negotiating this change in contract and they did all this based on as Mark Paolillo said, “trust us”. 

You might wonder if the Yes voters consumed too many mushrooms on their way to selling out the working class by forcing a change in contract without negotiation. You might wonder why they pursued a Town Meeting position (the check and balance entity for the Town) when their actions are just a rubber stamp for the Select Board. Maybe you should ask them yourself. 

Will Townie Talk post the roll call? Yes. Soon and then prior to Town Meeting elections so the good folk can decide for themselves if their neighbors represent their own values and are diligent. Is this the end of the issue… No. More to follow. Police are generally disliked in Town until you need them for an emergency. Then they are the hero’s that keep you safe or comfort you when a loved one has passed. Now they could use your help by emailing the Select Board and expressing your disgust with this action. 

Again… 2023 has been an awful year and 2024 is looking even worse as the consumer cuts back and inflation starts to impact the labor force. Take advantage of celebrating the upcoming holidays. Be smart, be safe and speak up. 

Cheers, 

PJ Looney

Townie Talk 02478

“AMDG” “Never Again” Never Forget” 

The Belmont School Committee will be voting on the decision to hire a Superintendent tomorrow. This decision impacts every resident, student and staff member, yet the School Committee just revised the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting to remove “Citizen Concerns.” The agenda does not list any opportunity for the public to comment. This process has been deeply flawed from the outset and the School Committee must vote to stop the process at tomorrow’s meeting and begin anew.

On November 7, 2022, the School Committee chose to meet in private Executive Session to decide whether they should hire an Interim or permanent Superintendent. Executive Session is only allowed in particular instances and the deliberation over whether to hire an Interim or permanent position should have been made in public. The public was not given any opportunity to comment at that meeting. Those executive session minutes have not been published.

On November 14, 2022. the School Committee chose to again meet in private Executive Session to discuss the Superintendent hiring decision. The School Committee exited Executive Session and announced they were seeking a permanent replacement. It is unclear if they voted on that decision because those executive session minutes were not released to the public. The School Committee also announced that day that they had formed a Superintendent Search Subcommittee consisting of only 2 School Committee members. The Agenda for that meeting did not say that the School Committee would be discussing the formation of a Search Subcommittee and again, the public was not given any opportunity to comment at that meeting.

The School Committee determined, without seeking pubic input, that they planned to hire the new Superintendent before two current school committee members vacated their seats and two new School Committee members are elected on April 4, 2023. This begs the question of why the School Committee felt it was in the best interest of the Town to have two outgoing members vote on this decision less than a week before the election.

The Superintendent Search Subcommittee met 6 times between November 18, 2022 and January 5, 2023. Of those six meetings, only the first meeting agenda stated there was an opportunity for the public to comment. The remainder of the meetings listed no opportunity for public comment yet during that time the two member Subcommittee chose which consultant group to recommend, drafted the job listing and appointed the members of the Superintendent Screening Committee without making an open call for volunteers. The two members of the Subcommittee appointed themselves plus one more School Committee member to the Screening Committee. They did all of this before seeking any public input.The Subcommittee chose to record and post some of their meetings and not others. On the eve of the hiring decision, they still have not posted the minutes from their December 21 and 28 meetings.  

In other towns, search committees have surveyed the public before drafting job posting to ensure that the candidates sought are reflective of the will of the majority of the town. That did not occur here. The School Committee chose to put out a job posting that did not even require the applicant to have education experience.On January 23, 2023, there was a Joint meeting of the Search Subcommittee and the Superintendent Screening Committee they created, along with the search consultant. There was no opportunity for public comment.

On January 24, 2023, the School Committee voted to disband the Search Subcommittee. There was no agenda item listing any such vote so the public was not aware of any opportunity to comment. The Superintendent Screening Committee then met 5 times between January 28 and March 6, 2023. There was not a single opportunity for public comment at any of those meetings and the agenda for the first meeting states in bold “Public comment will not be taken.” The Screening Committee, along with the consultant, determined the manner in which the public would finally be allowed to provide input. They sent out a survey and conducted focus groups. None of the data from the survey or focus groups has been made public, depriving the public of the opportunity to know if the Screening and/or School Committee’s criteria and priorities aligned with those of the Town.

In nearly every other town’s recent Superintendent searches, this information has been released to the public very early in the process.The Screening Committee’s agenda for the March 6, 2023 meeting in which they were going to select the finalists was not published, effectively denying the public the opportunity to be informed of this important meeting. Most of the Screening Committee’s meeting minutes were not published until after the School Committee announced the identities of the finalists.On March 6, 2023, the Superintendent Screening Committee met in Executive Session to review the candidates for Superintendent. There was no opportunity for public comment. The Screening Committee came out of Executive Session, into Open Session, yet failed to announce that it had made any decision, depriving the public of the opportunity to be informed and to be able to comment in a timely manner. The Screening Committee also did not state in Open Session that it provided any recommendations to the School Committee, which begs the question of how the School Committee was informed of the Screening Committee’s decision.

On March 24, 2023, a member of the Screening Committee wrote an open letter and revealed that the Screening Committee had completed their charge and voted to promote two finalists to the School Committee at that March 6, 2023 meeting. This information should have been revealed on March 6, 2023 in open session. The fact that it was not leads to the question of how the entire School Committee became informed of the decision.On March 7, 2023, the School Committee met in Executive Session. The minutes state the purpose of that meeting was to: “inform the School Committee of finalists for the Superintendent of Belmont Public Schools given finalists have 48 hours to inform their districts.” The agenda did not state that the School Committee was going to review all the semifinalists selected by the preliminary Screening Committee, deliberate and make a decision as to whether they would promote more people than selected by the Screening Committee. There was no opportunity for the public to comment at this meeting. The executive session minutes have not been published.

It has now been revealed that the School Committee chose to conduct its own review of the semi-finalists, after the preliminary screening committee had completed its task, and decided to put forth 4 candidates (one of whom chose not to advance themselves). The School Committee announced the identities of the finalists on March 10, 2023. The community forums allowed just 30 minutes for the public to ask questions of each candidate. However, each candidate was allowed to speak at the beginning of that session, reducing the time even further. For every candidate, there were members of the public left standing at the microphone who were not given the opportunity to speak. Questions were raised as to the amount of time the School Committee had afforded the public and whether the School Committee’s interviews were sufficiently thorough for arguably one of the most important positions in Belmont.The School Committee sent out a survey on March 17 for the public to comment on the Superintendent candidates.

On the eve of the hiring decision, the data from that survey has not been revealed to the public. There have been numerous calls, including a petition, to have the newly elected School Committee elect an Interim Superintendent and begin a new search process but there is no indication the School Committee is willing to go in that direction.In recent days, complaints alleging violations of the MA Open Meeting Law relating to the Superintendent Search process have been filed against the School Committee, as have several public records requests to access the records the School Committee, the Search Subcommittee and the Screening Committee have failed to make available to the public. No hiring decision should be made until these matters are resolved. Echoing the other open calls to the School Committee, this flawed process must stop tomorrow night and the newly elected School Committee must be allowed to begin a new process to appoint an Interim Superintendent and to conduct a search which affords the public the full opportunity to participate and to be informed.

Patrick Whittemore

Eminem sang “Snap back to Reality, oh there goes gravity” seems fitting for those returning from the annual Belmont Summer exodus.

Let me get you caught up and if you are “woke” beware that I am a member of the protected over 50 class which also makes me a Gen Xer and immune from your nonsense and approved for an AARP card. I also know where the bodies are buried in Town. This article is meant to provoke conversation and entertain, and is my opinion so enjoy or be infuriated.

The Belmont Marauder Football team has been invited to play at Fenway Park on the day before Thanksgiving against the Watertown Wat-rats. This marks the 100 th matchup between the teams. A couple of things have changed since the original meeting. Belmont is now the Town with rats and Watertown is super rich and building Schools without over-rides because of an abundance of commercial development. If only… Somewhat of a theme in Belmont but for Townies we know who fought against the commercial development at McLeans Hospital and the Uplands… same people advocating for relentless overrides. In the old days, you could drop a wager on the game at a not to be named former barbershop run by a legend… soon we will be able to wager on our phones as the Legislature approved sports gambling in MA. If it matters, the Marauders are 1.5pt favorites.

Overt bias… look it up. It is why we have a new bike travel lane on Concord Ave. The Transportation Committee (aka Bike Proponents) intent is to improve cyclist safety and encourage cycling (The data provided by Selectman Epstein challenges that Concord Ave. was a dangerous route for cycling in the first place). Apparently, pedestrian safety and the safety of motorists exiting cars was not a priority. This plan may work in some areas in some Towns, but it doesn’t work on Concord Ave in Belmont. If you have doubt, go sit in front of the post office or Library for an hour and watch. The only way this new design would work is by removing our tree lined median and expanding the travel lane. This would add great expense and upset many who love the aesthetics of the street. The alternative is going back to what we had and show respect for our Seniors and others that need space getting into and out of their vehicles. Mark Paollilo draws the short straw on this one… he accepted this on a trial basis. The trial is a disaster but if you don’t let him know then you own it. mpaolillo@belmont-ma.gov. BTW… yes, we are building a several million-dollar bike/community path covering the same route along the railroad tracks.

Overt bias II… Happy with the new $295m High School? Did you know it is still on budget? If you don’t know who the suckers are in Town, look for a mirror. Apparently, the promised parking lot, removal of White Field House, new athletic fields, and other work on the school is not going to be done as part of the Debt Exclusion. We also used some of the $7.8m Covid money from the State to fill the gap to stay “on budget”. Be happy though because we are keeping the couple million-dollar fire hazard (correction solar panels) on the building. Did I mention the BHSMS Building Committee plans to tear down the White Field House but has no locker rooms provisioned for the Fall and Spring sport teams? Prepare to hide the youngsters’ eyes as kids change out in the open. Did I mention we eliminated Tennis courts altogether at the HS? Did I mention the school was built based on an overall student population of @5,000. Following population trends, it was not surprising at all that we peaked at 4,633 in 2019 as those fit with the baby booms of the Y2K and 9/11. Last official count from 10/2021 was 4,285 students down from a peak of 4,633. Close an elementary School anyone. Give it 5 years and who knows.

I really hope we didn’t use the solar panels Amazon bought or we may need a new Middle School soon. Did I mention the Chenery needs a new roof? What’s $1.6m between friends. I would say it’s about the same amount we transferred in Covid funds to BHS/MS and less than the BHSMS Solar panels cost. Seems like the green community priorities are overtly prioritized over basic maintenance like roof replacement. We need to transition away from fossil fuels, but it takes decades to do it responsibly. I spoke with the energy Committee and their mandate is zero carbon (not economic feasibility or risk of environmental harm). Apparently, California is having an ecological nightmare as an early adopter of Solar they have no plans to recycle solar panels (some with chemicals that when disposed can leak and pollute drinking water). I followed up with the Solid Waste/Recycling Committee and they said they would add the issue to the fall agenda. Climate change is one of many issues. In Belmont Government it feels like leadership is afraid to push back and has an overt bias to this movement’s priorities like cyclists.

This should give you enough for a lively dinner or Dunk’s conversation… next up I’ll expose real dirt, discuss the $40M Library replacement and expansion, and disrespect of Town workers. If you want a rebuttal, go to that boring Belmont blog. If you are entertained… I am known to occasionally frequent the watering holes in and around Town and Bud Light is my choice. If you don’t agree with me then your uncle that always joked, you were dropped on your head as an infant, is probably right.

Cheers PJ