welcome to talking news we are delighted to have you with us this into our presentation by members of the beat street center martha marion and jonathan we were reading local news and happening is from the community newspaper new restaurant coming to belmont center by joanna k two fellas it's been four years since macy's and belmont center closed the building own five locatelli properties has been completely renovated and now officially has five new tenants food opening an additional restaurant in the new building own by the may just just brothers the restaurant will occupy thirty five hundred square feet and open in the fall we see this location as an opportunity to further establish belmont center as a dining destination and offer more options with broader appeal for damian said there are they are in the very critical early phase of planning that will determine some key features of the restaurant which will not be a tad unlike the other three locations of the brothers company that that the brothers go on foodies ten thousand square foot market well open may aid our grand opening celebration is planned for may thirteenth to twenty belmont books opening this spring or summer we still don't have a firm opening date of oh the construction is going along very expected problems may arise and we're still dependent on the schedule of inspection and permitting people we plan to have a table out in front on town day whether or not our store is open we've had great success in hiring staff for the bookstore lots of terrific applicants all of whom are very excited and ready to get started said kathleen crowley go owner of belmont books other tenant announcement are expected in the next several weeks from the outset we hope to have a diverse mix of independent high quality tenants in this prime location and belmont center said kevin foley manager of locker tell a properties we are excited that our first five tenants are independent high quality retailers and restauranteurs who will compliment the quality of the town center the newly renovated building features new store front entrances and facades on the rear of the building a new customer elevator new quality upgrades and a complete interior renovation from floor to ceiling the men and street side of the building retains many of the original details with restoration of storefront windows which were belmont hill schools speaker series middlesex district attorney marian ryan addressed forty women on the evolution of the role of women prosecutors and the initiatives the middlesex district attorney's office has created that focus on prevention and resiliency in the community ron is committed to taking steps toward prevention a most basic form work at the community level to enable public private partnerships to facilitate nontraditional reach and education initiatives on a wide range of topics including protecting children from birth through college and elder safety her remarks focused on sharing personal experiences about the strength she witnessed from survivors and their families over her thirty year career as a prosecutor and the purser perseverance of victims often young and school aged children in the face of traumatic events this experience led to the creation of project care a first of its kind public part private or partnership to immediately health health services for children who experience opioid related trauma research indicates that almost all children experience acute distress immediately after exposure to a dramatic life event such as a parent or a loved one experiencing an opioid overdose and you're an early intervention is key to building resiliency additionally in response to the impact of the opioid epidemic in seniors in middlesex county ryan discussed the middlesex district attorney office grandparent program countrywide initiative designed to educate seniors and middlesex county about how to manage that prescription medication keep medication safe from theft properly dispose of unused or expired medication and identify signs of drug addiction to loved ones ryan also discussed the launched i don't diverse diversity program which is available for individuals charged with possession of drug offenses or other companion charges in any of the communities or to the lone district court by making this program available prior to  persistence will be able to avoid that the charge on their permanent criminal record a known barrier to job and housing placement for people in recovery a career prosecutor ryan i committed to community outreach as the only female district attorney in the state of massachusetts ryan is committed through her volunteer work with the woman's bar foundation to mentoring women lawyers and law students as they begin their legal careers she regularly lectures and leads world world wide shops workplace safety the dangers of prescription drug abuse stumps upstairs your eight year old has a full blown meltdown because she thinks she can't do or math homework your middle schooler seems to have the weight of the world on her shoulders and won't get out of bed in the morning but when you try talk to her she shuts down as a parent you might not know what the best way is to respond to situations like this as a teacher guidance counselor school staff member or coach you might also be at a loss these kinds of scenarios and the issues they pose were some of what was discussed at the recent social and emotional learning form raising resilient kids the presentation generate middle school and belmont high school on april third and april fifth led by author and consultant rachel pollan er and assistant superintendent janice darrius focused on learning about resilience how to foster it at a cut at home and how it is being fostered in the belmont public schools don't just survive thrive the social and emotional learning initiative in belmont spearheaded by darrius was created in early twenty fifteen to provide educators and staff with the training and tools to help change the high stress atmosphere in the belmont public schools implementing the initiative was dependent on the twenty fifteen override and when that passed the school administration was able to move ahead with professional development and facilitation skills for teachers and staff substantial additional support came from the foundation for belmont education which has funded all elements of pollen ers work and involvement with the belmont public schools but the past two years at her presentations colander began by discussing what resilience is not resilience isn't just surviving she said it's thriving anxiety depression and high pressure since the belmont community has very high academic standards students in all grades feel significant pressure to perform and acts out in the in that current climate of high expectations and doing it all children are experiencing an increased level of stress anxiety depression and mental health issues telling children to be more resilient isn't the solution to enormous burden palm sized students need to learn the skills to be able to cope with these issues and schools and parents need to learn how to help create an environment of  connectedness and caring and reduce the atmosphere of pressure for key skills pollin are outlined for skills that foster easily it's listening and diffusing which involves listening to a child's perspective and reflecting back something about what you hear instead of arguing a given point or criticizing appreciative coaching which is an inquiry based way of giving kids personal positive feedback to help them figure out what they are good at and believe in themselves scaffolding questions where instead of doing or directing your child you ask them questions so their brain is working out the problem or task and asset based beat back in which parents name specific efforts and qualities when praising their children instead of using catch all good job type phrases one key element of empowering resiliency is acknowledging and recognizing that children are whole people and need to be responded to as such in order to build a sound and confident self identity pollen or says this self worth manifests itself in that personal strength of social competence problem solving autonomy and sense of purpose in every day practice this means adults need to be supporting risking risk taking not focusing on grades and encouraging a gro mindset according to pollen or teachers have responded very positively to social and emotional learning initiative according to assistant superintendent darrius martha post rummage sale first church in belmont unitarian universalist well hold it seventy fourth annual rummage sale from nine am to two pm april eighteen nineteen years with the lend a hand society a denomination wide social outreach program to a cyst people in need the rummage sale continues to benefit people in the typically the sale nets between five thousand and seven thousand dollars the proceeds from this year's rummage sale will be divided between the churches social action committee and first churches partnership with a church in romania a portion of the proceeds will also be based to fund repairs to stained glass windows in the churches sanctuary this year some of the organizations with which the social action committee works will receive donated works from  from the good seo any unusual items are donated to a variety of local churches close to one hundred volunteers will have a hand in the first church remnant sa this year this earth day will find church members recycling things by donating them to the run mint sale knowing that both shoppers and recipients of the proceeds will benefit and that nothing will go to waste belmont police to host drug take back day the belmont police department in conjunction with belmont axillary police and the d e a well host prescription drug take back initiative to prevent the abuse and theft of owed on used and expired for scription drugs at ten am to two pm april twenty ninth at the d p w yard thirty seven c street these drugs are susceptible to misuse by family and friends in addition they can be improperly disposed and up in the environment posing a potential health hazard the belmont police will have a collection point set up for old or on used for scripts and drugs no liquids which may be dropped off for free with no questions asked they also have a permanent prescription drug called action hero ask located in the lobby of the police judaism the belmont synagogue of has over three hundred fifty member members the tribute to rabbi goleman was performed at the center's well attended spring twenty seventeen fund raising gala introducing him richard vella commented that rabbi goldman and bottles every sense of the word rabbi and that he is the essence of both a friend and a teacher roman has been a grieving healing and crisis intervention pioneer he received a lifetime achievement award in hollywood in twenty thirteen from the association for death education and counseling a past president of the massachusetts board of rabbis he has been cited as hero of the heartland for his work with the help oklahoma city bombing additionally roman was named person of the year by the national center for death education and received a lifetime achievement award from children's hospice international the father of the flame award from the world gathering of bereavement the distinguished human shiva university and the every wiseman award from the american institute of life threatening illness he has served as chairperson of the massachusetts ecumenical council on health  morality as a member of the advisory board of the foundation of a tautology at columbia president presbyterian medical center in new york he has been a grievance bigger of several harvard teaching hospitals and as a crisis intervention lecturer many colleges in the boston cambridge area for his continuous work with native americans and suicide the blackfoot indians made him an honorary member graumann has authored twenty seven books published by beacon press in boston we're just been translated into a number of foreign languages and have sales of almost one million books his book talking about death received the unesco award of international children a used book exhibition and in munich daddy reflects on his municipal service by joanna sammy baghdadi has no regrets about his past three years serving as a member of the belmont board of selectmen his last meeting as selectman was april third adam dash and guy carbone ran for baghdad a seat in the town election on april fourth baghdad he endorsed carbone in a telephone campaign the night before the election dash won the election baghdad he had baghdadi an attorney with his own private practice baghdadi law offices in arlington is proud of what he accomplished with his fellow board members during his term including the completion of the belmont cent project road and sidewalk repairs building the underwood pool the sale of the wood fall road property the sale of the main municipal lot for the cushing village project preventing the closure of the waverly square train station by the m b t a and much more he recently sat down with the belmont citizen herald and reflected on his municipal service why did you run for selectman in twenty thirteen there were matters that were before the town that if not approached correctly could jeopardize an opportunity for the town like cushing village that needed my expertise on the board i felt like that was a good time to run i'm happy that such things that cause me to run have been accomplished successfully why did you decide not to run again being a selectman and doing the job right takes a lot of time and there's only so much time in a day i have a very busy practice i have five kids when i was chairman of the board there were days when i was working five or six hours on town business the sacrifice was my practice and my family in three years my eight year old big comes at eleven and those are valuable years we got blessed with a young child fourteen years after our first child and to be able to relive the young years again after you've gone through it before is a joy and a blessing and that's what i was losing out on i loved serving the town i serve the town because i like to help people it really is a labor of love but at this point in my career and in my life what my priority is is truly my family and my practice i'm happy to say i did accomplish what i set out to accomplish when you look back at your last three years as selectman what is your biggest regret as far as town business i have no regrets are there are things i would have done differently of course the first three years are a learning process are their board decisions that maybe we should have slowed a little and had more public process on yes if i were to do things over again i would have had more public process on the rig reconfiguration of the belmont green in belmont center we were under pressure because the contractor wanted to get the contract signed and proceed with the work and that couldn't be done until the plans were finalized at the time i was told by our staff we need to move fast we held the forum and the selectmen voted at the end of the form to adopt the plan with the narrow pass through the whole special town meeting process did late things for months if i were to do things differently i would not have succumb to the pressure of having to sign the contract with a contractor to commence the work i would have said let's not vote tonight let's wait a couple of weeks and get more public input before making a decision at the time we felt a lot of pressure to move faster martha to talk about sexual assault the belmont high school parent teacher organization represent sexual assault and titled line what every student and parent needs to know from seven to eight thirty pm april twenty sixth belmont high school to twenty one concord ave belmont with more daily news stories about sexual assaults especially on college campuses from belmont high school p t o as organized a panel of experts to talk about the legal social and health aspects of sexual assault and have the forms of sex discrimination that occur in connection with education presenters him clued and the lewis o'connor instructor at harvard medical school director of care clinic regular and women's hospital research associate connor center for women's health and gender biology wendy murphy director women's and children's advocacy project center for law and social responsibilities and adjunct professor of social violence law at new england law boston and ben atherton saying on presenter on antiviolence and masculinity whose work has been performed in forty six states the event co sponsored by the belmar women's club and parent teacher student association is free and open to the general public a question and answer period for students and parents will follow jonathan ariel applications set for belmont the east middlesex in the skeeter control project  as a relatively non toxic pesticide b t i is considered to target selective and environmentally combative pesticide that affects mosquito larvae and a few closely related  related aquatic insects on the fly family once applied b t r eyes stays suspended their water for twenty four to forty eight hours and then biodegrades as it settles to the bottom didn't tote diversity week and april fourth belmont high school hosted urban improv an interactive program for young people that uses structured improvisational theater to teach violence prevention conflict resolution and decision making it was part of the high school's diversity week where the school brought in different speakers workshops and presentations to celebrate difference and understand topics that fall under the umbrella of diversity more than four hundred students at belmont high school participated in the assembly where the urban improv troupe of actor educators demonstrated their proven rehearsal for life methodology performing interactive scenes on the topics of racism and stereotyping throughout the assembly the actor educators presented scenes that showed racism prejudice and micro aggression as well as stereotyping based on the speech ethnicity and appearance of individuals at one point during each scene the urban improv actor educators would freeze the situation allowing students to discuss what was going on and to ask questions students who were invited into the scenes to take control of the direction and outcome of the scene as a community it's important that staff and students engaged in conversations about diversity and race even though they can be uncomfortable to speak about said as for a flam theater director at belmont high school having urban improv come in was meaningful to our students because it allowed them to discuss a topic that we don't often address in formal ways at belmont high school urban improv works with different schools around massachusetts using improvisational theater to discuss topics with youth