and happenings from the community newspaper schools addressing student stress need brought on by increasing pressures anxiety behavioral issues by pram perkowitz each morning and peers hofmann a senior at belmont high school wakes up for five hours of sleep drink some caffeinated tea and attend school beginning at seven thirty five am after being let out between and the array of extracurricular curricular activities throughout the year including cross country play rehearsals tech meetings for the performing arts company came food classes or gender or sexuality alliance meetings depending on the day or time of here she might get home from three thirty to nine pm but regardless of when peers often arrives home it is rare for the seventeen year old to have less than three hours of homework although admittedly quite ambitious peers halfman says cool extracurricular activities sports and i have to course load are all part of the type typical day for students have to be eight s jerry brown lead guidance counselor have to be h s says along with the pressure to achieve  a higher level social pressure is also quite evident students in this day and age want to be liked they want to be part of a group it can be a tough racked up administrative and school employees in belmont are now making it a priority to address and scientific and behavioral issues which have become more and more prevalent among students according to the national alliance of mental illness eight percent of all youth have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and ten percent of all youth have been diagnosed with a behavior or conduct disorder in twenty ten legislation required the state's department of calum entry and secondary education to implement a social and emotional curriculum to try and decrease bullying in schools student experiences in belmont help to simulate tale a twenty in twelve youth behavior risk study conducted in belmont students in the middle and high school found students reported reet riding in a car or other vehicle with someone who had been drinking alcohol one fifth of all of respondents at c say they had drug alcohol beyond just a few steps and over eight percent of all be eight as respondents reported having actually attempted suicide at least once in the prior years for this reason belmont is implementing a curriculum to help students cope with these increasing and overwhelming pressures college application process has been having a major pressure point where students are trying to present not only academic excellence but also an overall well rounded yes the member applications than sorry the number of applications are going up not just in the amount of kids applying to the different schools but also those applying to popular local schools like boston university and north east and said brown kids see it as getting into the right the bright school instead of the right school pierce outman compared college application process to having an extra class or our class and a half what's consuming she said is the culture where everyone from teachers to parents to students places emphasis on preparing for college even in freshman and sophomore years it's hard not to think of things in terms of how they will apply on your college application said piers huffman i really resisted thinking too much about college until my junior year be because i didn't want the school stress but in reality it was impossible to avoid completely  refers to the workload as a constant source of stress that is ridiculous especially during junior and senior years she also said that while stress and anxiety is widespread it is hardly discussed something pearce outman would like to see change with more open dialogue and education being overwhelmed to the point  of tears is not of that uncommon of an occurrence in the high school she said i'm glad that the school administration has become more aware of stress as a problem and that they are starting to take measures to combat it but those changes have not yet begun to affect the daily lives of students middlesex county district attorney has said stress has become an enormous issue for students throughout the region primarily because  i phones keeping them constantly connected during and after school she has seen sexting and cyber cyber badly bullying c cause sky rock rocking to and in the last five years growing up is always hard but it is much more complicated now said ryan over the last year belmont has been training staff to assist overwhelmed students teaching students how to handle stress and looking for creative issues and solutions to reduce stress genest areas assistant superintendent of belmont public schools said the administration is focusing on learning the framework of the social and emotional curriculum through the collaborative in most collaborative for academic social and emotional learning  development academic social and emotional almost midway end of the fiscal year the committee is working to finalize a request for proposals for a feasibility study for proposed committee passed rushing through two point two miles of belmont and connecting the paths running through cambridge and while then the study will examine the plausibility and cost of several proposed routes town meeting allocated one hundred thousand dollars for the study to be used in fiscal two thousand and sixteen initially to appear the town would receive an additional thousand one hundred thousand from the state but with governor charlie baker's executive cos looming the money is now in question which is why i see proc wants to issue the r f p in early spring of twenty sixteen we are running out of time said select when mark polo who is also a liaison to the c pac we have to get the r f p in it's within our grasp the quest for community past began several years ago but started to make headway in june twenty fourth teen when the committee path advisory committee submitted a final report with group recommendations the selectmen then formed the seed pod to move move the project forward but  chairman ross leno said the semper fourteenth league liaison and the role of former selectman said don't reinvent the wheel during the december fourteenth select in route that would run through waverly square via wearily station to allow the path to safely cross under topola road and lexington street it would then travel on the m b t a train tracks behind the town yard belmont village clark line and through the royal woods to the belmont souder train station from there it would run along fitchburg line train tracks behind the police station providing access to the belmont center transmission that it continues between china road and the north or that would require lead takings all of the property and park lane is private property said clark lane resident maura maloney i am asking the board to exclude clark land from consideration for the community path no homeowner in belmont would find it acceptable to have their property taken for such a thing channing road resident robert for sunset while generally supportive of our community path he could not bear the thought of more construction living on sharing road has been an experience of broken promises he said citing disruptive m b t a construction that has made cracks in the foundation of his house everything with construction nappanee right now makes me pause for what might happen in face between the path and journey road so let me chairman sammy baghdadi promised residents before the scotts this route was school committee members because it requires the use of some land to belmont high school are in town receive state honor for energy efficiency belmont is one of the top municipalities in the state for energy efficiency according to do vision of energy resources commissioner judith judson at a reception honoring massachusetts 's two thousand and fifteen leading by example award winners the award is given annually to recognize efforts among commonwealth agencies public colleges and universities in municipalities that have implemented policies and programs that have led to significant and measurable environmental and energy benefits for the past three years the belmont energy committee and belmont light have worked to advance home energy efficiency programs to help residents save on their energy bills while cost effectively driving down the town's carbon footprint in two thousand and twelve the energy committee launched better homes belmont an initiative aimed to assess gas heated homes for their efficiency and make weather ization improvements the initiative expanded to cover oil and electric heated homes with support from belmont light since its inception better homes belmont inspired homeowners to weatherize their homes and make other energy efficiency improvements over the last three years twenty two percent of belmont homeowners requested and received a thermal image of their home had their homes assessed for energy efficiency improvements or took advantage of the belmont light energy grant program to offset costs of making improvements this past year forty seven percent of belmont owners who considered making weather is ation improvements actually did so this conversion rate is roughly twenty percentage points higher than what most efficiency expert see with other energy efficiency programs the key to our success is leveraging belmont's small town character and partnering with local organizations such as our school systems and respected opinion leaders such as town meeting members to help get the word out said in dre us co chair of the energy committee we are grateful for everyone's contributions and support to help make belmont the most sustainable community it can be belmont light general manager jim palmer added that the energy grant program in the l b e award would not be possible without the thoughtful guidance of the municipal light board made up of select men baghdadi pale a low and williams in belmont lights advisory committee in addition the energy grant program success helped belmont light secure state grants to provide incentives for belmont homeowners to purchase sentence efficient cooling heating systems known as heat pumps and achieve its designation as a green community which is giving belmonte access to additional state funds to increase energy efficiency and promote clean energy he pumps save consumers money on their energy bills by cutting the need for oil heat while reducing c o two and other emissions by up to sixty percent belmont light also successfully piloted a peak reduction program designed to get residents to reduce electricity use during the hottest days of the summer which ultimately saves the town money by reducing the amount of power the town needs to purchase when it's most costly the commissioner allotted this program which resulted in a ten to fifteen percent reduction in energy use among participants during peak electricity use periods belmont light is developing a full fledged version for next year we are delighted that belmont is making progress toward its climate action goal said to address of course we still have work to do we encourage residents to continue making their homes as efficient as possible said belmont energy committee vice chair and crews if you haven't yet done so get a free home energy assessment and take advantage of the limited number of efficiency and heat pump gramps grants through the light department while you can residence is owners local and state officials rotated through the belmont media center and i want to live cable television in the afternoon december twelfth during the five hour shifts of hope telephone regime four thousand one hundred fifty dollars for the belmont food pantry started in twenty ten the belmont media center nonperishable food donations and meet friends and chal contributions the belmont citizen harold and belmont media center have collaborated on the telephone telethon six years of existence the event has raised roughly twenty five thousand one hundred dollars for a food pantry jonathan celtics honor brownie for selling five hundred one cookie boxes last year lindsey friend on a third grader from wellington's brownie troop six six two eight seven was the only girl scout from belmont who individually sold five hundred one boxes of cookies making her eligible to be part of the girl scouts of eastern massachusetts five hundred club her sales earned her tutor going to the boston celtics person's l a clippers game which were donated by the celtics the last time a belmont girl scout reach this goal was as was in twenty thirteen three hundred fifty girl scouts in eastern mass became members of the five hundred club and were honored at the t d garden for approximately nine hundred people showed up for the special pre game ceremony and celtics game each five hundred club girl's name was displayed on the jumbotron and they each received a gift bag containing their certificate of mint and the celtics five hundred call of patch to be won on the back of their girl scouts vest or sash the top forty hurl sold over one thousand boxes each and the top selling her was the same last year her total was four thousand eight hundred forty seven boxes and two hundred hours of booth time sale time collectively the five hundred club sold over two hundred fifty thousand boxes of cookies which would fill the celtics vast malt basketball court nine times last year belmont had one hundred eighty two girl scouts from seventeen troop sell copies sold thirteen thousand four hundred fifteen boxes of cookies and urge eight thousand one hundred forty one dollars in profit to go back to their troops based on their selling efforts lindsay's brownie troop sold one thousand four hundred eighty one boxes of cookies between twelve girls the cookie selling season officially started december eleventh and goes through march fourth this year bella has twelve troops selling troop cookies troops are eligible to sell cookies at various m b t thirty cents per box for their troops flavors of cookies available our thanks a lot cranberry citrus crisps lemon a shortbread peanut butter patties caramel delites peanut butter sandwiches its residents on monday night voiced frustration with recently approved pool rates for the two thousand and sixteen season at the new five point six million dollars underwood pool upset over high membership costs and the admittance of what some said was a high number of nonresidents as the citizen herald previously reported new pool rates are as follows resident family membership before june thirtieth two hundred twenty five dollars family membership after june thirty two hundred fifty dollars adult individual one hundred fifty dollars child individual one hundred ten dollars adult day pass ten dollars child day pass five dollars nonresident family membership for up to one hundred twenty five families three hundred and seventy five dollars individual adult membership two hundred twenty five dollars for individual child membership one hundred seventy five dollars day pass twenty dollars other seniors fifty dollars military discount twenty five percent so let me and mark pelosi said he thought allowing in one hundred twenty five nonresident families was far too many we have heard from residents we are bearing the costs of other folks in town to com and i agree with them tommie ohlsen a town meeting member said she was appalled by the cost when i hear these numbers of what parents have to pay it seems to me we're kind of missing the boat she said i don't know how families can justify paying eight to ten thousand dollars in taxes if you want to bring more kids in lower the price recreation commission chairman david kane said because it is the first year of a new pool the commission is still testing the waters to see the demand they get he assured residents they're looking at ways to monitor nonresident admittance and that their goal is to have pull revenues cover operating costs he also stressed that rates are reviewed on a year to year basis and can certainly be revised martha down live nominations open for upcoming election nomination papers for call of town wide terms will expire and twenty sixteen will receive letters asking if they want to be considered a candidate for reelection at the april five twenty sixteen member for collecting signatures on nomination papers residents may check out the town meeting member page of the town clerk section of the website to see when t m m effective s period p d f town meeting members who were elected act caucus twenty fifteen must collect signatures on nomination papers to have their names placed on the ballot to be successfully nominated as a first time or returning town meeting member the candidate must appear in person to collect and sign for the nomination papers and submit them with enough signatures to allow certification of at least twenty five registered voters only  my office the candidates must appear in person to collect and sign for the nomination papers and submit them with enough signatures to allow certification told coworkers she planned to visit st john in the u s virgin islands more than one of them said she needed to check out trunk bay along with soft white sand and picturesque blue water the beach part  virgin islands national park has a snorkeling trail replete with plaques highlighting local marine life it's amazing the water is the bluest you'll ever see it's peaceful and it's beautiful said pugh a aaa travel counselor for travelers seeking sun and sand trunk bay is just one example of boy just beaches around the globe here are a few others antsy sourced in the seychelles made up of more than one hundred archipelago of seychelles on the indian ocean east of mainland africa is home to two one fantastic beach after another ansi sourced i shant on the west coast of leyte he is said to be one of the most photographed beaches in the world with soft sand and turquoise water framed by granite boulders the sea a sheltered by a reef is calm and shallow visitors can also explore paths from the main beach to several hidden coves bicycles and