hello everyone i'm jeff hansell the executive director at the belmont media center and you're watching belmont journal hyper local news and community information right here in belmont massachusetts and let me remind you that the views expressed on this program are not those of the belmont media center the town of belmont arisan or comcast they are those of the speakers and we'd like you to be involved in belmont journal please send an e mail to fred at belmont media dot org if you'd like to take part in any of our program or be featured on the speak out belmont segment this week we caught up with jamie hood shay and bill vala who chaired the belmont high school building committee to get an update here they are quick introduction we are we've been at this now for almost two years we're getting to two years early next year working on developing solutions that we could go back to the more public so right now in the feasibility stage we have our design professionals on board as of earlier this year and we're looking at plymouth every site designs to fit on the campus here we have no other place in town to put the high school but this campus and we have to keep this school operating safely we have the product on so the feasibility studies are just coming out pretty exciting  see some of these designs yes and we're now engaged in the community and hearing their input what they think of some of these solutions yes and actually we had a great meeting gage meeting on saturday here at the high school in the four that we had about forty five people show up to get a tour of the high school so myself and principal then richards along with a couple of students a lot people through the schools just to show them some of the infrastructure that is starting to lag behind what we need to teach in this game is to prepare students for the future of work in the twenty first century and as you can see the science room that bill and i are sitting in is original to the building it is not big enough to support the amount of students that are in this room this room is actually originally just supposed to be a lab with a lecture room across the h to develop these designs because in early february of two thousand and eighteen we need to make the school department school committee needs to make a decision on the configuration for the school and they give that to the building committee and then we need to decide on the proper solution the most appropriate solution for the school by i would say by march or april of next year and that could be a renovation or renovation with a major addition or a new a but a new building on and we're looking at all those right now right  so in order to make that decision the school committee and other committee really would like to hear back from the public in the fall and going into early into early winter in terms of what your concerns are what your questions are what you're thinking right this week the belmont journal crew visited trying to remember old school and we talked with the librarian karen guff and children's author julie berry and today what she's going to do is a creative writing workshop she basically brings kids through her creative process and she created this graphic organizer for generally that she now uses in other workshops nationwide well i try to get the kids brainstorming so that they stop projecting any ideas in my head and just start producing lots of ideas really fast and then we have a big pile of words and ideas of things that might be found in a story we pick three combine them into a situation and then we're off and running figuring out more things about the situation and the character i love about it is that a lot of kids that don't feel like they like to write find that they really enjoy this process that's me is th creatively as opposed to writing an essay which we always do you know not just academic writing but actually tapping that creative side of their brain which is really important and i think through that some kids are becoming better readers because they understand the process from both sides now so they're there they need an author they start writing and then they're reading they're more they're paying more attention to what they're reading because the stories now pop to them in a different way that's what makes this program special for in that we started with an author when she was just getting started and she had her first published book and it's so fun now with julie as part of this community to see what's next and she actually gets to talk to the kids during the workshop about what she's working on now and to pitch her ideas to the kids and the other day they were so excited about the fact that you know here are these books and here is the author and that's that's kind of rare air play the most recent book the first ostrich they put up a paragraph or two and they they comment on each other's writing and julie will go into the blog and she'll comment or i really like what you do with this character i really like and that again is i think what makes this chatter reprogram different than other what other schools are doing because julie's actively engage with them in the digital space as well as physically and and presently in this in the space with them will do this year is explore and experience the fun of making a story of your own thank you so much would you like to know about what's coming up here in the town of belmont well jane peters prepared this segment for community counter higher body i'm jane and this is your community calendar for this upcoming week nov sixth through twelfth join belmont world film at seven thirty pm on monday november sixth at studio cinema first screening of molly blues this film is the second in a two part film serious title don't stop the music about musicians whose artistic freedoms have been limited due to restrictive governments tickets can be purchased at belmont world film dot org if you're the parent of a child under five the belmont public library is hosting a parenting workshop on reading and writing developmental milestones on tuesday november seventh learn activities you can do to help your child develop reading and writing skills led by him meghan although in speech and language pathologist at the early steps preschool in watertown this is an adult only workshop and child care should be arranged beforehand on thursday nov ninth belmont books is hosting the great belmont books bake off to celebrate the paperback release of the city bakers guide to country living this pie baking competition is open to all but must be a personal favorite or original favorite no pre made store bar crust mix allowed you can enter your pie by sending your full name email phone number and piously bringing to info at belmont books dot com or by signing up in store come down and enjoy some pie in a reading by louise miller author of the city bakers guide to country living also on thursday daniel golden author of spy schools will be speaking at the belmont public library about his new book learn about how goldens research reveals that globalization has transformed u s higher education into a front line for international spying this free event will take place from seven to nine pm in the library assembly room sample cocktails wine and cheese at the spirited gore may on friday november tenth from five to eight p to seven pm over thirty different wines will be available for pouring participating powers music schools belmont open things event on sunday the twelfth at seven thirty pm join in on h time of war and experience the thrill of singing this work accompanied by a professional level orchestra and boston's finest soloists no reservations are needed and all ages and levels are welcome focal scores and a choral warm up are provided that's your lineup of events for the first full week of november we hope you get out there to enjoy some of these great community events and we will see you next week oh hey we're on the air oh you've caught us reading the citizen herald because wrote a little bit about or you're writing about what is the sidewalk reconstruction on but as in one of the big headlines this week is the bartlett avenue approval for the reconstruction of their sidewalks on both sides of their street in the spring and summer of two thousand and eight what happened to selectmen finally heard the concerns of these residents they have been complaining since probably before june about the conditions of their sidewalks their road was reconstructed they were one of the roads that got fixed so if you drive on bartlett avenue you see the road is nice and smooth but people are going fast as a result of that road being fixed and the residents are very concerned about the safety of the pedestrians particularly children both had tours separate tourist billions had a driving tour and dash had a walking tour so they saw with their own eyes what the conditions of those sidewalks are like glen clancy the director of community development is limited and what he could do so he went before the select and then said due to a policy that was put into place ten years ago i there's not much more i can do to fix the sidewalks unless they approve the funding for ok they said they will prove the reconstruction subject to funding sources the timing of it is a few little logistics things so but it looks like it will happen they just have to so it's a big hopeless rich it's a big problem and glenn also looked at all the roads in town that had there that were fixed since one thousand and seven when this sidewalk policy was put into place and he determined that there are other streets that are going to need to get their sidewalks reconstructed including baker really hawthorne irving so are all be getting done eventually they just chose barlett as the first because it's it's heavily pedestrian ok ok great so that's you can read more about that the full story although i think you just got t resigned citing alleged misbehavior by the current chairman charles clarke so to replace raffy and to have in order to have four voting members so that the special permit applications could get voted on they have you now four voting members and do they still have to appoint some new members they are still seeking people to apply the deadline is november eighth and they're still looking for people who can fill the two seats left behind by liz allison which is a one year seat and barbara fiasco which is three years and so that's so again you can read more about the progress in the recent news about the planning board in this week's edition of the system there old what else happened this past week that you wrote about rallying right we had a couple of big halloween fund raising events and that we wrote about one was the belmont high school in ual haunted house fundraiser there and they i can't tell you just these kids what they came up way custom for i carry things quoting a bloody bride in a mad surgeon and the funds raised will benefit hurricane relief i'm going to be american red cross for hurricane relief oh that's good i think is great and then there's all the windows are decorated with you know creations by kids their halloween creations ok great it's it really adds a lot of color and it all washes off so you've covered that in the paper and there was a contest and there were winners chosen warrant for the special town meeting nov thirteenth i'm going to be highlighting what tommy members have to vote on and what are the what or what or who are the big subjects are going to cover this week the girl in the town may have a lot to vote on funding for the major capital project working group short term solutions for the public works and police facilities which will involve putting additions on the building so they're looking for funding for the schematic designs for those planned ok alive areas looking for funding for their schematic designs for a new library as well as approval for up to move forward with the fund raising for building committee and they're also going to vote on whether or not planning board member should be elected oh right so that's something we talked about last week  yes and if they approve that they and you might see plenty of board members could they be running for election next right on election or would it be yes year after i think it would be the next town lection ok and the last thing that they'll have to vote on is the we also talked you actually talked to some line workers from the belmont minas like department who went down and did some hurricane recovery volunteered their time yes let's listen in on that interview now it wasn't as bad as it see do you like sports well let's see what jeremy missouri of our sports producer and todd blondie ours long time host of time out for sports talk prepared force this week in sports powers with the first of our three goals in the game head coach jessica smith squad finished the regular season with a twelve two luci record on the now host natick in the opening round of the m i a a division one north tournament game will be played at harris field on thursday nov second at two thirty hopefully you can be there to check out all the action live but if you can't be it just sports t v will be providing exclusive coverage of the broadcast to be aired at a later time on the b m c channels so good luck to coach smith  and now here's a clip from peter in the star catcher a play that's being presented at the belmont high school what's coming up on my local channels well julie to stefano our programming director prepared this segment to tell you what to watch this week on belmont media center let's take a look