the candidates night sponsored by the belmont league of women voters a myriad scally the president of the belmont league of women voters the funding for this program is provided by the voter ed fund of the and active participation in government the league takes action on a specific issue after we started it but we never do we support or oppose a candidate information about the league can be found on our website the league is providing rides to the polls please call six one seven seven seven one a five zero zero or email rides at  thank you mary and good evening and thank you all for coming i can see we've got lots of time meeting members lined up i'm going to ask you to be as quiet as possible i think we've got a band playing in one of the other rooms so there's a little bit of background noise here tonight we want to make sure that everybody hears you when you introduce yourself first i'd like to outline the agenda procedures and rules for the c evening we're going to start with introducing town meeting member candidates step to the microphone state your name address and precinct and then when you're finished just move to the side to the next person can come forward then we will have  a meet and greet for the uncontested candidates for ten white offices we will introduce them in ballot order and they will be making a statement and answering questions and then we have allowed more time for the candidates for the contested offices of selectmen housing board and school committee to make presentations answer questions and make his closing statement because there are candidates for both uncontested and contested races for positions housing board and school committee all candidates for housing board and school committee will be seated together on the stage and answer questions together during the contested candidate section of the evening i'll explain the procedures and rules in more detail after we meet our town meeting member candidates this program will end no later than nine forty five and we have been asked to make sure that we're out of the building by ten which is best past my  time so we have to be out of the building by ten ok here we go each candidate in precinct one through eight we hope you're in order of your precincts please proceed down the right aisle to the microphone wanted  time you've already done that each candidate should state his name precinct and home address and then proceed to your left to exit or sit down if we're not in order that's ok just make sure you tell us what precinct you're at and your address cedar road precinct one thank you dan halston ten myrtle street precinct one person one thank you street tom ford lined hurst road precinct three thank you i think i just heard a cell phones just a reminder can you make sure your cell phones are silenced thank you charles hyman six medals lane the woodlands precinct three david version for next kevin cunningham twenty chandler street precinct for thank you i'm johannes with heart ninety two whole street precinct four thirty six more street racing for mary bradley twelve leslie road racing five racing five thank you you seventy eight cross street recent date anne marie lambert seventy nine chilton street precinct eight thank you and rittenberg forty two farnham street precinct eight thank you i have been told that there are some precincts where there are open seats which you know if i hope that you can write in somebody within the precincts so when your voter guide comes check it out and make sure that you know  if there are some open seats you might have a neighbor a friend a spouse somebody you want to write in ok maybe we have all the uncontested town wide candidates come in sit on chairs right up here the town white candidates in uncontested races will be called to the podium in order candidate will have two minutes to make an opening statement at the podium the audience that's you there will then have the opportunity to ask questions of the candidate the lead has also prepared some questions candidates will have one minute to answer the questions we have timers in the front row league members libby atkinson and swift are time keepers tonight libyan an wave to the audience so they can see where you're sitting this is also important for the candidates candidates these are your timers our time keepers will hold up a yellow card that says thirty seconds remaining when you have thirty seconds remaining and then a red stop part my job is to remind you that it's time to stop when the time is up you should finish your a statement we will let you finish a sentence but please don't go any longer than that after you finished your statement and we hear from all the uncontested actually wh you're up here after your statement we will then have questions from the audience for the individual standing here so we're going to keep it moving if you have a question for the candidate that is coming up to do their presentation please be at that microphone so we can call on you when the candidate is giving their statement you should move to the microphone please keep in mind that when you do come to the microphone as an audience member we are asking you to ask a question not make a statement question should be brief timers will hold up their signs warning the candidates thirty seconds and stop as they respond to questions there will be no closing statements from uncontested candidates and now i would like to introduce the uncontested candidates in ballot order to begin with your first candidate is unable to be here tonight and that is moderator michel widmer and unfortunately he's unable to attend but fortunately for him he's visiting his daughter in fiji so i think he's probably sorry not to be here but he's probably pretty happy to be there next we have town clerk ellen o'brien cushman would you please come to the podium  and usually you hear from me about elections and town meeting but tonight i'm doing something a little bit different i'm going to give you a little bit of statistics on the other part of my job which happens to be recording and being the chief record officer of the town of belmont  the town clerk's division that says are two sort of themes that we work under are about accessibility of information and simplifying our transactions so we cut costs and we make things easier for our residents who come in visit us just to give you a little bit an idea where we are in terms of how busy we are i have a fabulous staff i don't consider myself part of their amazing productivity but just in case so during this past year calendar year we had fifteen thousand visitors to the town clerk's office thirty one thousand e mails were received and sent we have licensed twenty four hundred cats around town we have posted six hundred thirty five separate meetings and shepherded many minutes for most of those fifty three separate public bodies over all our revenue is one hundred thousand dollars may not seem very much but we make it the hard way our average fees are less than twenty dollars so that means we're doing feed transactions which is a small part of our business for more than five thousand transactions for fees per year this is a busy election year but last year we issued almost  absentee ballots and we continue to recruit poll workers we had one hundred a little over one hundred and we have just recently added forty eight new people to our own workers you should see them at the election and finally i cannot live without our community service from our students at belmont high school we enjoyed more than six hundred eighty hours from them we are happy to serve the town of belmont and i would certainly appreciate your indorsement by a vote on tuesday but otherwise please vote thank you so does this work can you hear me are there any questions from the audience for your town clerk candidate and your town clerk ok we have one now and what are your plans for early voting when it becomes the law in the fall so early voting is part of the new election reform law that was just passed in the spring or the fall of last year the regulations are actually just coming out and i'm about to start making my comments on those early voting in massachusetts will be available three weeks before town each election and it actually becomes effective only for federal and state elections starting in november whatever the regulations are we will continue to make it available basically for town  residents in belmont we always allow absentee voting with a cause as long as you qualify for about three weeks before every election and in this particular case those people who don't have a reason or an excuse that fits one of the categories can just come in and choose to vote so our process will be very much the same you'll see it the same way but we will handle votes a little bit differently based on regulations thank you as a follow up the league of women voters of massachusetts is very anxious to encourage communities to have evening and potentially weekend early voting hours do you plan that elma yes and we do so yes very good one more what do you do or can you do to encourage more people to run for town meeting actually i'm really delighted this is a huge year for us so well done you know we try to get as many pieces of information out to people we do used a little bit different plan this year we saw we put inserts into everyone's light bills we put something in the census trying to encourage people to understand what voting means we went to the newspaper on websites so we're trying to reach out as many ways as we can to get people involved and interested in this year i think only one of our precincts does not have enough so well done belmont thank you  remarks totally prepared before i left but now i'm going to cheat a little bit and look at my notes what are the things i know you guys have to get out of ten o'clock so one of the things i like to do is go over some of the questions that i hear during my regular office hours which is every time i seem to go into the starbucks or dunkin donuts on to pella road not of course is recently why my taxes so high or if they haven't or their coffee yet or they've just woken desirable town to live in because our school system because of our perks and me to boston because of people that make up this community more recently we've also had increases in our property taxes proposition two now puts the taxes in the hands of the voters and lets them have a direct say how much they want to raise their property taxes this happened last spring and now i know everyone was in for the so override but  down on all have to pay what the override passed last year they should prepare better yeah are ok are there any questions from the audience for on board of assessor candidates once again we are prepared to shore and you answer the question how is the land assessed and when does new construction start paying taxes on the  s small single family residential instructions and then is it big bigger constructions one will be pushing village and self so it's the assessed value based on the first of the year when at the property for the value and then it's just in that thank you very much next question how does new construction affect the assessment of older homes in the neighborhood  construction it will it will raise the value of if that of the neighborhood and yet in proportion new words constructions makes it more desirable to live in you have the value of the anything else from the audience ok we're going to meet  women voters meeting and to tell you that we wish to continue to maintain the conditions of the cemeteries in the manner that the residents of belmont so request and deserve but something else that i'd like to bring out and i'm sure a lot of you don't know kuno should go to the belmont public works public works do a lot of work within the cemetery i don't run the lawn mowers they run the lawn mowers they do the snow plow in there and they continue to keep that cemetery in the great condition that we had to supply it and expect so i think being a commissioner is very easy because we have the department of public works behind us doing a lot of work but on behalf of them and myself thank you for having me tonight and if you have any questions or be glad to hear them thank you do we have any questions from the audience  you know the league is always prepared some areas in the new cemetery are nearly full what is the plan for future expansion or limiting multiple sales that's a good question but to get an explicit answer to that your best duty would be to go to the cemeteries office on street speak to the secretary there and she will be able to show you on a graphic map exactly what you were just asked and tell you any answers that you need for that borne diseases like west nile triple e and understand environmental environmental conditions as we redevelop gas stations and expand our high school after working at the in the environmental health field for thirteen years five of which were with the massachusetts department public health i understand the issues facing our communities and our local health agency our board of health is doing a wonderful job protecting the health of our community and i believe that my expertise and environmental health will complement the skills of our existing board members i'm ready to bring my skills the table the support the healthy community that means healthy schools healthy homes healthy pets and healthy kids i appreciate the opportunity to work for you and with you to accomplish this  thank you and please vote for june may as your candidate for the board of health thank you were there any questions from the audience or julie julie what are your plans as a member of the board of health monitoring the land an air quality of the high school building project well i think as part of the building project is going to be an environmental assessment which i think i'm uniquely qualified given my background in environmental health to help in any way i can in reviewing this i've spoken with angela braun our health agent about this and offered my services there what is your position on the fall referendum question about marijuana well i think we've discussed this a little bit at the at the board of or they've discussed this a little bit at the board of health meetings that i've served in and there are some concerns about the zoning of these particularly their proximity to the high school but i think that definitely has to be evaluated before we make any for the sessions on that and one last what is your position on a no i think that that's reasonable given given that our children play soccer there and cigarette butts are trash that we really don't need on the field i guess i'd have to look into exactly what they're doing in terms of distance from the field and that sort of thing but it would be something at some point thank you ok we're going to do another switch and we're going to ask that both candidates for the trustee of public library come up to the table next to me together so questions can be directed to both candidates may choose to ok so we're going to just switch spots so there are two candidates for the trustees of the public library and you can vote or two candidates therefore they are considered  uncontested you may either come to the podium or you may stay where you are for your opening statements again you will have two minutes to introduce yourself speak to the audience and then we'll ask them questions  speaking i've been living in belmont for some twenty five years i've been active in town have been a town meeting member for twelve years in a library trustee for six and also i'm chair of the cable t v advisory committee  i looked up actually for tonight why become a trustee libraries to me are very important centers of learning and community building and i think that the library trustee duties are very important to we have to hire the director implement policy and also seek funding for the library from the town under the general law of massachusetts chapter seventy eight that dictates exactly what a library trustee should do it also outlines the board of library commissioners season terms of building libraries and in terms of selection of of officers of the library it lays out specifically that there should be a multiple of three trustees in a library for a library we have six where one or one or two of them should be elected for three year three year terms and then that the roles of those trustees again should be custody of the building and management of the library and property and those are the beauties we carry out in terms of the library itself the current statistics i will outline we have a circulation for the last five years of around five hundred forty items per year adult is going down a bit children's are going up tronic is going up in terms of a building or location is probably pretty fixed not easy to expand in that location and it's more likely that we will rehab the building that we have and we have a current budget of about two point two million which has been flat for the last few years and we try to be as efficient as we can stop there thank you perfect timing ok mary stearns is involved with the library i joined the friends name a board member and served as an officer my professional background will be helpful to the trustees i have been a manager in the federal government i also have expertise in evaluating how people can use technology effectively the belmont community makes heavy use of the library belmont's per capita circulation rate is double the state average but our library is significant issues there is an issue with the building's condition a library building is not compliant and its systems are failing is likely that some decisions will have to be made in the coming years the town has appointed a feasibility committee to identify what is required to address the building's deficiency and the space and programming needs there is also a need to envision what a library might look like in the years to come advances in technology of increase the demand for library service and libraries are becoming community information centers belmont needs to have a twenty first century library of handling the increased requirements of our digital world i ask for your vote on tuesday april fifth and thank you thank you thanks to the leak thank you are there any questions for your library candidates mine down to the microphone stand right there we're going to start on my left your right i'm elizabeth the wellesley road bases constraints of both land and money we need a new library but we also need a new high school what are your thoughts on trying to have a master plan that combines the two and i understand that were involved ordination of state agencies and thinking through how to segregate students from the general public but it seems like we could get a lot of bang for our buck and build a truly first class library if we were thinking efficiently and creatively about this thank you each candidate will have a chance to answer the same question we will start with mary stearns can you answer that question first place i think there's been a very important question i think where right at the start of this question as i understand it the town is just appointed to a building committee for the high school and as i mentioned is a feasibility committee in place so i think we're at the beginning here i don't have the answers but i think a lot of these issues are going to be on the table thank you and mark i've been on the billing committees for your library for six years and we do we lose the opportunity for state funding if we combined with the school in terms of the library funding and secondly the hours of operation of the school and the library are quite different and we would have to have a separate wing for example that would be open different hours and there are other issues like that that make it a little bit difficult but it's certainly something we should look at my expectation is that we won't be doing that just just having been through it so many times thank you right in your place by melissa macintyre ninety four when st i'm curious you know if you've got any sense at all about what the timeline might be for either rehabbing or rebuilding the library mark do you want to attend try that one first place i think that as was mentioned we have a number of current issues with the library and we are already rehabbing certain areas not in a major way but we're starting small and we're working through the building and making changes you've made if you've been there recently seen that there's a number of changes it's correct that there are some a t a i and significant boiler issues that need to be addressed soon and there is a bigger ticket  i think the goodwill of the town has been very good in terms of addressing those issues and i'm confident that we will be able to get them it's ongoing thank you and merry the same question place i actually have nothing to think that was a very useful response thank you next question place probably ten years ago at town meeting we were asked to appropriate i think over one hundred thousand dollars for the repair of the stairs coming up from the sidewalk and town meeting did not fund it and so the stairs were closed off but the remaining stairs from the ramp up to the library are uneven we were told that it required special seal to improve to keep the stairs from becoming uneven can you tell me if on the repairs the targeted if this special seal is going to be put in so that the stairs that they are now don't deteriorate any more than they already have running underneath the mound that's in front of the library and the soil underneath the main steps that are closed is continually falling away making the money even and making some of the other approaches to the library a little bit on even though there is continual repair that needs to be done i know that this seal is on the list of items that we have and we we will once we get money from the town we will be able to address it we may even have to come to town meeting to get that so the good you thank you very much yes sir mike my question comes from my growing up in a different background we had county library systems and i was wondering whether or not there's any consideration as a cost savings to merge with other towns to bride top level library services rather than doing it at a town by town basis thank you mark question of our county library systems it's a good question think departments that we have within town to consider i do think as i said that the library has multiple functions including community building and i think it would be an important item to the way the las of having a library in town versus the community building that we were able to accomplish through having a library in town so there i think there are some functions that are not just taking out a book and putting back a book a lot of functions in the building that are important and i think it's also important for children to be able to get easy walkable access to a library so i would weigh those against the actual cost savings that could be accomplished through a county system thank you and mary your  feelings about a county system well we have coordination with a number of these networks and we are part of and it may work but also at the state level there is a push to recognize how to have more coordinate ordination and i think it's a topic that's going to be discussed perhaps evolve i agree with mark in terms of the sense of presence of a library as a community center and as a resource easily accessible to all members of the community but it's something that's on the horizon perhaps thank you very much we have one last question from the league and it is what are your top priorit quite and i don't have the numbers with me but we have an expansion of the community programs so i see that the presence of the in of the library is becoming much more relevant and visible to the community in the next three years thank you mark and i think that a very important item is to continue the rehab spending and to demonstrate to the town that we are a good steward of the money that we get and it effectively we provide services effectively and then i think we'll be able to prove thank you is there anybody else in the audience that has a question for your library trustees candidates thank you very much you thank you thank you candidates on the stage we're now going to shift and bring up our border selecting candidates you have a contested race for the board of selectmen and there are two candidates for one open selectman position this year two candidates would you please take seats at the table we have mark and alexander ruben we tossed a coin it happened to be a canadian two dollar coin and there are a couple of reasons for that one is because it's nice and heavy and it tosses really well and because we want to make sure that we appreciate our neighbors and alexander won the coin toss and so she will be giving us her opening statement first and she has the option of staying right where she is or taking over where i am your choice ok she's coming here i'll move hi my name is alexandra i'm running close but you can hear me now my name is alexander and i want to thank the league of voters organizing this debate and giving me this opportunity to talk to the community i'm running to be an excellent woman because i love belmont it's our home now and also because i think i can bring a lot to the table and help belmont forward we chose belmont for the gr schools but wonderful sense of community and wonderful sense of community and the town's proximity to boston and will love it here but there are many challenges then boston and the belmont will face over the next decade demographic changes to town obligations and limited financial resources as a business professional with over two decades of experience in business planning team building and optimization i will use my skills to help belmont plan for the future to maintain the good schools at the community path create reliable guidelines for businesses as well as make the government more transparent to its citizens i have had the opportunity to meet with a lot of age citizens and knowledgeable town employees throughout this campaign i like you i'm endlessly impressed with their intelligence dedications and creative ideas for improving the town i think we can build on these ideas we can tackle the financial difficulties of the town which are looming over us and in delays in implementing basing cup basic cost saving measures and identifying new ways to fund the town without continuing to rely solely on the property taxes when i decided to run i really wanted to have a dialogue about some of the issues that belmont is facing but i think talking is not enough so i'm running for the select woman because i love the town and i know that if we continue to ignore some of the belmont very real problems we could lose what makes this town really good thank you financial task force and presently the treasurer of the women's club six years ago i ran on a platform that we can do better i believe the record shows that we have to hard work and commitment to doing what is best for we have accomplished a lot together i provided financial stability for school in town budgets and increased investments in our capital budget established a collaborative one belmont one budget approach to the creation of the interim budget that's in the best interest of the residents of this community we reset board priorities to focus more  strategic direction of policy initiatives rather than on the daily running of the town recruit a strong financial team strengthen the financial capabilities of this town improve citizen communication and transparency by directing town employees to be responsive to light substation will come online later this year even with all these positive accomplishments there is more to do unfinished business and that is why i am running again tonight i look forward to discussing some of the challenges ahead thank you feelings were about the true center of the commuter rail ok so the question is what are you what are your thoughts about a commuter rail stop in belmont center did i get that right thank you very much so we fought really hard to keep that open and it will remain open for the for the time being for the forseeable future i think there are a lot of folks that used a month center station as well so i support keeping both stations open and will fight really hard as members of the board of selectmen and that message  communities worked hard to make sure that we actually did not come by the station and both the belmont center and the way it released and so for now both stations will be open and i think advance at all building the community that would need a lot more ridership spend about seven hundred dollars less per student than the state average and as a former ph as high school student i was wondering what role you see in helping clarify the misunderstandings throughout the town and what you do to bring back our ranking up school system  alexandra i think that belmont schools is one of the main reasons a lot of people are now moving to down and i think it's working and very critical to restore the funding the level that we schools i think that the large project but right now the town is facing about the belmont high school and the detour it to rating of the building once is the rating as well and i think that when i don't fail and he has some very good ideas and he's working really hard with the uk and with the dave gale make sure that we can have funding for restored funny schools that was desperately needed over the years and i think we need to do more over time and i think it's absolutely correct that as members of the board of selectmen we need to support the process of building a new high school i mean there in the eligibility period right now would be a feasibility period and we need to work really closely with the school superintendent the school committee and the building committee to ensure that we build a high school that's right size and meets the educational needs of its students and we have space issues all over town so i think the ranking is impacted by that as well but it really is a level one school district and we need to continue to maintain it thank you this gentleman to my right ralph jones precinct three i have a question for both candidates as ruben when you started the campaign and campaigned on transparency you  town had not had any bids for its contracts for trash and recycling for ten years in our two thousand and ten two thousand and eleven betting process we had six bidders and we say the town two hundred ten thousand dollars question for both candidates is do you now agree that that statement was incorrect and mister a low i think you should also address the question right they brought up which was the two year extension that was just voted  industry has changed and we were advised by a market a director of public works in david kill and jay have an expert in the serious but it made sense to extend because we are at a crossroads to understand from all of you in the residents in this community what kind of trash pick up do you the community asking the experts having pre set means in regard to what kind of trash pickup is this town want what kind of recycling do we want to try thought it was advisable to extend for the next two years are costing go up that dramatically and in two years will be more informed the terms of the type of trash contract recycling contract we need ok alexandra in two thousand and thirteen i actually signed up realty study on waste and recycling so in two thousand and thirteen we already looking into this so the fact that in two thousand and sixteen weeks stand of the contract by two more years the first year is increases by three percent the second year by eight and our revenues two point five and i think it's a valid question as a citizen to ask why we didn't go through the bidding process considering that we knew about it years ago and i think that's weston as a citizen taxes the valid thing to ask i also know that in two thousand  eleven what a town approached belmont to try to do in the stream recycling together with watertown and it didn't work out because belmont did not participate in watertown down the project on their on their own but again  specifically what actions did each of you take on the closing of the m b t a commuter station in waverly square could you tell us specifically what you did to support your position or support the residents thank you ok alexandra well i am not a select woman yet so unfortunately i believe that there was a position that i could have supported so i guess the question i would probably were to mark i do believe that it's critical to have public transportation in the town and i think we need to do everything we can right to keep it and they flee and the square development already beatty officials there that this town absolutely wanted and needed the waiver station to remain open and we fully support it that we didn't want to consolidate station unpleasant street and that stations also used by it's heavily used by the community it's there but it's also used by watertown  process as well and supported our efforts legislatively to keep that station open and i think we'll be able to do that thank you thank you very much we're going to move this to this side and man precinct four in the last three years we saw two elementary schools condemned and the health department warning about the closing of the belmont pool citizens came together donated tremendous amount of money so did the businesses and i'm wondering if you could see that there might be a different way to handle some of these items that are here seem to be more reactionary handled and vision in bell thanks thank you marc thank you that's a great question first and foremost what we've done when we got on the board is we put in a process whereby we want to consolidated our building apartments both the school in town now that we've done that and the gerry boyle will have an opportunity to prioritize better in terms of their peers that a necessary within our school buildings within our town buildings as well so they will do a more effective job of understanding exactly what the repair needs are that being said i think we're bert where we're bursting at the seams in terms of space for us students not only the cherry middle school at our elementary schools that are you know perhaps at our high school i think we have to take this opportunity as we embark on this high school project look for ways to expand our footprint at the campus because we're going to need space for elementary school children those children as well thank you same question alexandra i think since moving to belmont it became pretty apparent that a lot of times the town works in the reactive mode we wait until things  condemned before we start looking into that and we knew that the pool was in bad shape for a long long time and yet the town waited until it was condemned for us to rally as a community and try to build the pool and i think that there is a way to do it better i think as a town we can look at priorities of the town i think we can figure out a way to address those priorities in order and this way have a lot less of a reactive mode and that normally costs a lot more money it's and often it's not the best solution because it's an emergency reaction but i believe we can do differently and better thank you yes alice precinct eight there was widespread opposition to the uplands project and stated opposition within the town leadership yet this project went forward anyway proceeded anyway residents question if this last represents a failure of leadership failure of process or conflicts of interest if you could turn back the clock and do it over again what would you do differently now xander this comes to you so if you were not on the board of selectmen so can you respond to the concept yes i can i think the fact that the upland project when i had is really doesn't show well with the town we spent thirteen years trying to not have that project on and i think that there's a way to address it differently the data that we use was all data from one hundred sixty one even though our storm by law says that the data should be newer and we didn't enforce that i think that the fact that we had a lot of support from the selectmen for a very long time but then of the last minute there was a recommendation by the council to actually stop the project and unlike other towns i know that needham in newton actually knew to fight not build on the wetlands i think there was a way to look at it differently and work together as a town with a developer to make sure that they can do something about it as far as the up and really disappointment for the board of selectmen when i got back on the board and when i got on board twenty ten we refocus our efforts on it we continue to support the litigation that was there by the conservation commission we use intermediaries to  ate with the developer trust republican when we try to use our state legislatures to find ways to this is private land but find ways to convince developer not to develop it you know i think again as i got it when i got on in two t ten you know we refocused our efforts i think as a town perhaps we shouldn't started negotiations earlier with the developer to find a way or a path forward back you know make that leap in public in some way but i think at that point when i got on in two thousand and ten we had been  down the path of already wanted to proceed as far as litigation we really supported it for at least two or three years and then we were advised by counsel at some point that it was going to be a frivolous lawsuit and we have obligations as members of the board colton said recently in the belmont citizen herald this was only one of their recommendations and we have been unable to implement any of the others why is this and also if elected or reelected i'm sorry if elected or reelected which recommendations would you commit to implementing in your first year of office that's a lot for one minute but mark do you want to take a shot at that you know and i respect roger col immensely but we have in fact started to execute a number of the recommendations specially the major building projects we've conducted a recreation strategic when it was one hundred percent as a firm so i think the recommendations are twofold one is under the government looking at ways to collaborate elaborately and in availing delivering town services i think we need to focus our efforts there i also think we need to focus our efforts on maximizing not tax revenue sources the sixteen recommendations and revenue opportunities that working group and look for ways to execute on that so that would be my efforts there but again we've already started the process on a number of these ideas thank you alexandra it's hard to come up with recommendations we could easily implement within the twelve months it's a pretty short period however those recommendations been around for now a year and we get another year or so i believe the three recommendations that i would probably go for the low hanging fruit  one of them would be either selling or repurchasing the empty building or the land that belmont has number two is the naming rights for the schools or other facilities that we have because that was one of the recommendations that we could easily bring money in that and the third recommendation actually implementing the parking policy that has been recommended by the task force as well as other committees even before the task force that would bring some of the revenue and also residential tax base so i'd be interested in hearing your ideas as to viable by quality commercial development that might take place in the town of belmont we lost that opportunity with the op plans we may still have that opportunity on pleasant street given that the station's not going to be located there but i'd like to hear what you think realistically could be done alexandra i think that as a town we've had a lot of recommendations that deal with businesses and commercial areas the town of homes we only have about five large commercial areas and the fact that we have not lamented recommendations that go back two thousand and four about mixed use rezoning with a design overlay for each individual partial area i believe that we actually lost out quite a bit on that revenue i think going forward that's one of the ways that we can attract businesses is actually create the mixed use donating as well as the design overlay that limits what type of buildings we can do and then actually go out and actively solicit bids to see how we can get the businesses in also i think it's important to streamline processes so the businesses we do have belmont don't feel that they have to jump through either a c efforts we need to reach out to other communities as well understand exactly why retail businesses aren't settling here but i think we've made a lot of progress least in belmont center and some of the other commercial but there's a lot more that we could do but we are somewhat liam locked prison a lot of develop of advisory committee revealed that the most important feature was that it be an off road that can you comment on your position on whether you think that should be off road to protect estrogens and bicyclists from  pat is the real bad absolutely you know i think it's the safest path for this community i think we're within grasp of solving this we've issued an earthy was posted in the central register we're going to hire a consultant by the end of may i hope and then have recommendations by the end of december terms of the optimal path but that's a core path we need to develop paths outside of that it will make this a true community path within our town that needs to be a core a trunk path and we have tributaries outside of that you know great more of a feel for th though i'm in favor of that i think we will have a community path in the short timeframe thank you xandra i am all for community path and i think it should be off road and i think that the fact that that went out in december we actually added a conquered route which is on the road even though that was not what was recommended by the community path committee i think that is not the best use of the money that we're getting right now for the feasibility study when we bring the engineering form we really want them to look at the past that have been identified help us select the best route and solve the two thousand and eight or seventy percent of belmont citizens voted for greenhouse gas reductions in two thousand and fourteen the board of selectmen acting as a light board voted in one of the more restrictive policies on solar which has since  i think that the fact that we have community grassroot afeard to go solar and the fact that we'll really got more than a hundred and twenty houses that installing solar panels and i can probably say i'm one of them i think it's something to be commended that as a community we were able to do it despite all a c that isn't even though it it got a little bit better than from two thousand and fourteen it's not the best policies we have on the books and right now we have solar credits versus retail net metering and i think as a town we really need to look at it again and see a way that we can institut we supported that campaign in the energy committee stan belmont mothers are front and also electric like the partner has done wonderful work and we have well over one hundred thirty installations and it's growing the campaigns over it because of the end of april we'll continue to support perhaps additional campaigns as well so i think was a balanced answer for the town i think we did the right thing in forming that met meeting working group to look at these issues and they spent dozens and dozens of hours on the matter and i think it's balanced for the community overall and frankly it hasn't had revisit it's been actually sixteen years since mclean property agreements get through so in there are two zones that still haven't been built out so i wanted to hear a little bit more about the ideas for moving forward with the senior living in the r and d zone and also the overall issue of the capacity of town planning and ideas or strengthening that i'm sorry can you repeat capacity developed i mean if you remember i was assisted living facility and the market kind of dropped out and they just thought that we need to continue to have a dialogue with them to develop those two parcels because that will certainly help us that revenue perspective and so i'm committed to you with our dialogue when we did have an agreement with them under the clean taskforce that was in place there and they did do two developments but they really didn't do the other two so i think that's something we need to and you do is in order select thank you alexandra i'm actually very happy to hear that we have a plan or on the books are we planning to have one i think it's critical for the town to have a plan or because that's the only way we can actually have to sit in policy and reach out to developers and move t talent forward and create more diversified revenue base i also think that it's important for us to have very specific game rules that the town planner i'm sure will put in so that the developers and understand exactly what's are and that the process of development does not take overly long most of the projects that have been developed in belmont take a very very long time as and any development they have to recoup the costs so i think if we can do anything as a talent to simplify that process i think we'll benefit as a talf that as well thank you two more questions we will respond to each of these and then we're going to move on thank you you know hong piecing to eight one of the main concerns about schools is the skyrocketing student body student population and that's partly one of the reasons why the rating the rating the ranking for the schools dropped so much because of the one hundred twenty five schools that were looked at belmont had the highest student to teacher ratio in all of massachusetts but increasing property taxes and it's just not sustainable for most members who live in belmont water other ways that we can increase revenue you mentioned businesses is another another way you can think about this or maybe looking at housing development thank you thank you for example i think because we live in the town of homes we don't have a lot of wiggle room to get the versity of tax revenue and i think working well with businesses in creating a business friendly environment and also having the plan or the zoning laws would allow us to diversify that tax base quite a bit i also think that  is working really hard to figure out a way to address the raising problem in population and i'm hoping that the belmont high school that will calm i hope will build it or renovated will resolve some of the putting water classrooms on the general middle school and it's moving into modular classrooms at the high school so we this is a concern i mean are we roman has grown by ten percent in the last five years but to grow up to eight hundred students in by the year twenty nineteen over twenty percent so we absolutely have to trip just a space issue and i think it's i think it's going to continue there's a sustainable we've added ten each of positions last year five positions this year and five next year so we are adding more teachers and faculty in check look for ways to collaborate an affiliate with other communities not to cut services but to look for ways to deliver them differently in order to keep the budget in balance over the next several thank you and this is our last question for this race am frank frazier precinct seven over the last fifteen years in my neighborhood about seven houses apes and ranch houses have been torn down and replaced with mega mansion s one house was literally the smallest house in belmont somehow this one bedroom house was replaced with a three bedroom or bedroom re story huge warrant who's in to new that moratorium in a permanent basis in the board of selectmen least i'm going to support that actually met with the folks that are part of that citizen's petition with increasing seven i think we need to look to be in this to other residential areas as well and plenty board would welcome a type of input to look at other residential areas in terms of the mc mansions that are being built really don't fit within the character of the of that particular neighborhood i completely agree with you and there's been a number of them to built in my neighborhood as well so precinct seven i think that the fact that with a planning to have a plan are on the board i think that's critical because we need to have consistent policies on the books developed and spelled out so that when the developers come in buy houses and want to redevelop them they know exactly what the limitations are and what the expectations are and this way i think the town and the developers can work together so we don't have mike mentions but we also have a new development of sorts and i think the fact that we don't have that policy on the book is really really a red flag because we are a town of homes we don't have that many places to build and you know we know that the demographics are changing and a lot of people are moving in but this will be on stand issue coming up over and over and over again so the policy is the only way to go thank you we're now going to move to i'm closing statements each candidate has been given a minute to close we're going to do our closing many of its key recommendations we need to the dresser made to major building projects build a new right sized high school that meets educational needs of our students need to develop a sound and realistic long range plan for other major building projects we need to complete the feasibility study for the community path and decide on the optimal path and there are many other issues as well i love belmont it has been great to my family and me my extended family is a town in which people living here are committed to doing what is right and helping one another i've been on it to service you i ask for the opportunity to continue to serve there's a lot of stake challenges ahead and i believe i have the knowledge experience and skills to help find a solution i ask for your support and vote on april fifth thank you  the outcome of the selection we will pull together as a community and work well with each other to solve the problems that we grieve that belmont is facing the price of inaction in belmont is very real and i believe that i have the fresh perspective the energy and the commitment to change the mindset that led to this inaction my professional experience as a business consultant gives me the skill to move the town forward and i will bring that perspective and energy and steady commitment to this position and i hope that i've earned your vote tonight thank you authority two of them are running for one seat for three years and then you have a third candidate who is running uncontested for a five year seat we are going to bring all three candidates up together i have to share a microphone but we can do that when you speak into the microphone just try to bring us close as you can because it doesn't prove the sound richter running for a three year seat and an my hand and man sorry running for a five year see and we will hear from the candidates in that some good evening i'm thomas ina and also tommy olson and i'm running for the three year seat vacated by my friend don bakker who moved while i've lived in belmont since one nine hundred seventy five with my husband we have four children three sons jay ted and a daughter giuliana on march twentieth we welcomed our newest belmont resident michael brady olson  we're very pleased i serve on a number of town committees that i serve on the council on aging i've served on traffic advisory economic development advisory committee media i originally became aware of housing authority over a year ago when i called belmont housing authority for some advice of a friend in a neighboring community had been victim from his affordable housing unit this individual was a senior citizen he did not smoke drink do noisy chin ups on the the on in his apartment he was however a hoarder and because of his depression it failed to make his pay his rent as a member of belmont c e o a i know that systems could have helped this individual neighboring town however he victim carting off all of his possessions as we learned from several legal agencies it was impossible to get him back in he spent thirteen months on the street living in shelters or in his car ok today he is living with a friend with support i'm in it so i know thank you very much thank you your next candidate is paul i want to thank the league of women voters my fellow candidates and all of you the audience for this opportunity discuss the issues facing the belmont housing authority i'm a town meeting member from precinct eight and i live with my wife ellen sugarman on cross street  i'm a programmer and i work for a software company called create information systems for hospitals and i work in westwood there are three reasons why i'm running for housing authority one is my commitment to safe clean affordable housing or about housing as a value not just to the residents to the entire town is an important part of the fabric of our community the second reason is my depth of experience serving a nonprofit or a search for twenty five years on various boards including ten years on the national board of the material universal dissociation i've chaired boards i chaired finance committees i've chaired staff search committee i board experience has taught me several lessons about leadership one is that it's critical for board and staff to understand their roles the board needs to set policy in the strategic direction of the organization but also needs to step back and let the staff make day to day decisions another lesson is that especially on a small board like the housing authority every member can and needs to take a leadership  third reason for my candidacy is that i want to use my commitment and experience to help forge creative solutions that make a difference in people's lives this is where my professional skills as a programmer come in writing software is about assessing problems breaking down the issues into their component and devising solutions for the low income families trying to make ends meet are not ones and zeroes but the discipline of working through a problem and finding a creative solution is a skill that is definitely applicable to the housing authority i'm sure that my commitment experience and ability to forge creative solutions make me an ideal candidate for bell about housing authority thank you thank you and an hi guys thanks league i didn't realize that i was going to be up here tonight i guess it's uncontested so i'm just going to give you the quick synopsis matt my move here eighteen years ago our first year we found out my son head i didn't know what it was or what that meant in a bunch of neighbors from belmont came out and they helped me figure it out and we came up with an action plan started going to the hospital and i was exposed to people that were going bankrupt because they were trying to save their children from different diseases and it i was at the time in venture capital my husband was teaching at harvard medical and i was exposed to a different population that i hadn't known that well and that's when i became an activist and that's when i started saying that we're all a community and we all need to look out for each other because it's very easy to do if you pay attention the housing authority is very important we need our veterans in belmont we need our disabled and we need to be exposed to people that struggle to show that they're here and what it is and we need to help them out i was so excited when i found out that the housing authority had a position open i'm i've been a real estate for four years i'm the last year ended up the top good for century twenty one top nine in the country i didn't know anything about it i learned so much about how to take houses how to fix them up i have contractors we if you look at the conditions of the properties that we have and this is all state funding eyes you look at the conditions that we have we can find ways to save money that the state gives us so that we can do more with that money at the same time i love activism and i love lobbying and i do plan on going to the state house and trying to get belmont as much as we can in fines deval patrick is wonderful he grew up in housing he turned out to be governor and i got to stop thanks a bunch for having me but you're there any questions from the audience for your housing authority candidates ok let's start with the league question we are going to do this in and i have a chart a different order so what we want to do with when we have three candidates is we want to mix it up a little bit so the first question is going to be addressed to and then to tommy and then to paul in that order ok so you guys stay right where you are and here we go what do you see as your role in getting more affordable housing in town well because i sell real estate and i know where there's properties that we're looking at that where we can get discounted deals because we know owners and i don't mean ripping any seller off but conditions where sellers that live in belmont that look nicely at people that are struggling and realize that it's out there that we can coordinate with them on space where belmont could buy the property and we could use that property to put our struggling population thank you tom in the same developing a housing reduction plan i know i went recently to a c p a form on how to utilize our c p a funds which to bring more affordable housing into belmont i think there's a lot of work done but i know that the work has begun thank you and paul properties are that we might be able to use and figure out what this doesn't and thirty is part of the state role reaction we can take a property we aaron libyan from precinct seven i have a question because of something that's near and dear to my heart that was brought to my attention that me at impact some of you greatly when we talk about affordable housing you've mentioned disabled  mentioned better and so you've mentioned low income families or low income salary winners what is your stance on senior living and accommodating those who are in a fixed income  keeping them or hoping to keep them in belmont because today as far as i know there's very little available ok but i'm going to try to really speak into that right so that  is a huge problem we i think we can all like name people who have left belmont because they they wanted to they wanted to downsize and they couldn't find a place to live in belmont and they had to move elsewhere so that is a serious problem i think when when the housing production plan is produced i think tom mentioned that a moment ago we will the answer is going to be we need lots and lots of more housing that is geared toward need senior housing across all affordability level that is going to be sort of the big need that we're going to see when the housing production plan comes out so definitely thank you and can you respond to that place yeah i mean one of the ways we can address this actually we don't have to move our seniors from senior from their living space into senior housing i am actually seeing in somerville and cambridge that years are now starting to move in together they take care of each other there's a four bedroom house there's one woman that's living but on top of that we do have the ability for people that are struggling to based on their income not have to pay taxes until that until they leave the house and the house goes up for sale there are ways to handle this so that you can stay where you live but i also really think that communal living thing is a ne again going back to the last time the housing production plan was proposed it's only in a draft form at this point it said that one to two percent that that seniors were the most likely to need housing as all said we have a lot of seniors in in in the housing projects places we presently have i agree with and we tommy do you know what crow housing is and if you do which i advocate for i would love to know from you and then you know if housing means working living with other people i mean living with other people and it tough but if how housing could work if that's what it means then yes of course because what we want to do is keep well in the community when we can what i was going to say in the last question was i do know that several developments have been intended i don't know if pushing village still has that intent but i know that there may be some additional developments of some of our squares that will have  a focus on senior housing and with the price of housing today you know it's going to be hard in their houses so it's going to have to be very creative thank you maybe we'll not aware of any co housing opportunities happening in beaumont it would be intriguing the idea because it would you know provide extra options this is sort of a thing where the more options we have the better condominium but it's more of a it's more of a off homey feel so it's not sort of individual units that are sort of separate but the idea of a space where people can share meals  together it's an intriguing idea i don't know of any opportunity of having it happen in belmont it doesn't seem to fit directly under the banner of now my housing authority but in the general theme of housing options it's  definitely a good option for some in cambridge thank you and an interest yeah i i see this is a great option and my girlfriends and i we've been talking about this for years figured our husbands are going to kick it before we do and  and we even talk about how how we could that the place across from st joe's that big building that was sold it had nine bedrooms and every better had a bathroom we actually all evaluated buying that together putting an elevator in the building and this guy this is the direction we're going to go people shouldn't be living alone people shouldn't be all by themselves affordable housing amazing and very important but the truth is none of us should be alone in the end we should be surrounded by people we lov kind of address mclean housing but maybe you have some comments how good what's left them clean rocks if that's the white lord how could that be developed in a way that would be more affordable to seniors that want to downsize i mean right now i think the mclean  and solar multimillion dollar units so what can be done to make that change that's more affordable seniors thanks and so here's  the toll brothers have taken over cushing square i hope that they're going to be building an elevator building that has several one two bedrooms in it and i hope that they'll sell them instead of rent them and that they'll be a grocery store on the bottom and a pharmacy and all that sort of thing that makes it easier for a senior community there's a whole bunch of us not me that have parents here that want their parents to stay around so they can see their grandkids here's the neat thing is that many of the seniors that live in houses that are living on limited incomes can sell their houses for ridiculously high amount of money and have pay a small portion of that to get a condominium in an elevator building and then use the remainder of that money put it in a bank account save it so that they can live off that until the end of times right that's it thank you tommy well i'm not sure i agree with dan that if you sell your house for one point two million you're going to be able to buy something cheaply i think even if old brothers do make those into condominiums you're going to be paying at least five hundred six hundred thousand given that belmont is so desirable in answer to your question bob it would seem to me to have to have some subsidies in order to build housing up at mclean's in order to meet the demand for lower income or moderate senior housing i can't imagine doing it any other way now again maybe that's part of the advocacy at the state level or at the federal level my understanding it's some of the properties of mclean is zoned for senior housing or ready for that kind of is helpful i think it has a role in trying to incentivize that program so it is there's options available that are affordable and it isn't just market rate correct it's like well just because it's zone three senior housing i soon there's an age structure in there that doesn't necessarily mean it's affordable o yeah absolutely thank you we're going to buy that senate funny we're going to move into closing statements and paul if you would could give us your closing statement first then tommy and then and again you may come to the podium if you're more comfortable closing statements or one minute year term in the belmont housing authority i have the commitment experience and ability to forge creative solutions but the housing authority needs and i promise you i won't let you down but more information on my campaign see my website  housing dot com that's richter r i c k e r or is the number four and i won't tell you how to spell housing thank you important issue for facing belmont affordable housing is maintaining a of life quality includes both financial and social issues because housing authority and is under the commonwealth we we  believe that the financing is all done by the commonwealth that's not true we need to put money towards sycamore garden i'm sorry sherman gardens belmont village in waverly oaks  as a passionate advocate i care deeply for people and particularly people in belmont i've evidence this in india in advocating for the budget at the council on aging i've evidence just in working with friends who have needed assistance particularly in affordable housing situations as if you're a financial compliance person i have the background to understand budgets as well as the ability to advocate i want to ensure that the housing authority gives support for a clean clean environment that our citizens need and real estate is my hobby but activism is my job my goal in life is to make other people's lives better specially people that struggle i see the poor getting blamed for our economy it's ridiculous i have connections i have contacts i've been to the affordable housing units and they are in rough shape and i think that not should just the state pay and should we be looking at different but then we should all be getting involved in making these units look better i take furniture from other people's houses when i sell them and i donate them to the section eight families i take close so that they can get ready for interviews we could be much more involved with this community and we should be can see you know what guys when you change a life it's so much more powerful than when you make a buck really think about it and vote for me even though i mine contested on the ballot on april fifth man thanks thank you thank you to all the housing candidates next come our next and last come our school committee candidates your school committee  there are three candidates for the two three year school committee positions one candidate for the one year position this year unfortunately kimberly o'mahony could not be with us tonight as she is in our struggle you and she made these plans long long time ago will the two candidates for the three your position please sit together behind your name and then we have a candidate for the one y know you hear me i'm in belmont schools you have first rate teachers wonderful wonderful supportive families and amazing kids which she so much i hope to serve on the school committee because i want things to stay this way first and foremost this means maintaining funding for our schools the current level of funding is adequate but cut would result in an inferior education the school committee should be unanimous in maintaining funding in the face of spiraling and roland and to take a leadership role in advocating for a new high school these are huge school challenges another important issue is school start times the american academy of pediatrics and the center for disease control both recommend high school should start later to allow kids to get the that they need recently superintendent in the middle sex athletics leak including belmont find an agreement to transition to later start times i'm totally on board with this i did a happy dance when it was announced and if elected i work very hard to make this a reality i daytime job as an astrophysics i do research into black holes and i'm a member of the team that manages the chandra x ray observatory a large part of my job is formulating policy observing policy or ciampa i spend my days talking to many groups with different viewpoints reading reports thinking about metrics and statistics i understand how large organizations work i have overall responsibility a ten million dollars budget our first glance there's not much in common between black holes and the school committee however that we won't get there however the school committee school committee will be facing a number of important challenges in the next few years primarily we'll have to figure out ways to manage with rapid lee increasing and moment we'll have an opportunity to build a new high school and share the cost with the state and finally we'll be negotiating teacher contracts some of these issues are structural which means you'll need to figure out ways to find long term sustainable solutions as opposed to short term fix as an experienced venture capitalist and a father of two i believe that i'm uniquely qualified to lead this work i will ridiculous experience in financial management planning and contract i've served on the boards of over a dozen companies i routinely review and approve financial and operational plans i've negotiated numerous employment contracts as well as investment deals and for the last five years i've served as the treasurer of my kids preschool so it's this range of experience that i can bring to bear on one school committee to make a difference so next tuesday april first base your vote for the long term success of belmont schools and vote for me  am i have been serving on the school committee for the last three years my term is coming to a close eye my youngest child of three is about to graduate from high school all three of my kids have been here from the school through graduation when i was thinking about whether or not to continue or try to continue for another three years on the school committee i was very torn i've been privileged to be on the school committee it's an extremely important job and it's also a very time consuming and stressful position it takes a long time to actually learn the job and i was not sure if i was ready to put another three years into it so when an opportunity arose to give one more year i actually felt that it was a wonderful opportunity for me to stay on the school committee and use the experience that i've had for three years to work and to continue the work that we've been doing in social emotional learning  in negotiating contracts and struggling with our own role meant at our high school so happy that it appears i will be able to stay on the school committee as long as at least one person votes for me and i i think that's the rule and i look forward to working for another year and reevaluating what will happen beyond that but i'm really glad to see that there are other people coming out going down the road thank you elected to the school committee with all of you be prepared for a one of necessary ardently support and encourage teaching and study of three iconic genocides of the great irish famine by britain eight fifty the armenian genocide by ottoman turkey nine hundred fifteen and the jewish holocaust by nazi germany nine hundred thirty eight as you may be aware the state has laid out an approved  question you're making a statement and we've asked you not to make statements thank you we're going to ask the candidates to respond to your question elise may would you please respond to the question about curriculum of these three topics design of the curriculum and the content of the curriculum is guided by our curriculum director we have a social studies curriculum director i certainly support studying all  three of these and beyond there are many other tragedies that we can include in in our curriculum and human rights is but these are selected by the state   as a member of the school committee i am interested in serving i would be interested in serving on the and i would support teaching those historic fine detail is probably that by the issues rather than the school committee thank you very much and i don't think i'll be participating on the curriculum committee i'll probably six my question relates to special education which as you may know when a parent feels their student may have a learning disability and special education services they ask the school to evaluate education laws in the services any other comments on this area thank you question about special needs so i don't have any personal experience i know that special education is an extremely important next year rather the year after i would certainly like to look at any ways that we can provide immediate relief for students about one high school perhaps  so so i think that it's a great idea to start later i think seven thirty five is early for those kids but when i started studying the issue i realized that it's actually a lot more complicated than i first thought  the kids so i'm supportive of it but i definitely want us to study it carefully thank you and elise you know i very much in favor of starting school later not just in high school but if and also in middle school because had a lessons in in their greater need for sleep at that middle school age so i completely supported i think all of the logistics   this and i look forward to getting a lot of ideas from our surrounding communities so that we can move forward as well thank you thank you very much and man precinct four six years ago we had override on the ballot and and it failed and the reason we had on the ballot as we know is that the school system was suffering it took six years to get it put back on the ballot again and we watched our class sizes grow tremendously we watch scott classes get dropped we saw our rankings drop what i'm wondering if all of you or any of you as school committee members if you see starting to slide again after the revenue from this override runs out would you be urging the selectmen to put another override on the ballot before we feel the pain elise question of overwrites yes slightly long answer is that money comes from both the town and the state there has been a commission a state commission to review the foundation budget is the amount of money that the state for the the real spending on these issues though there may be light at the end of the tunnel if the recommendations of the commission are up to it that we might actually have a little bit more money from the state but the short answer is yes you know where our costs are headed and obviously we have the high school coming up so there will be there might be an exclusion or one way to finance that so we'll have to do that and as a part of that hopefully that will actually help  physical space aspect but might be pushed out a little further and so your question yes thank you i love you well thank you the school committee votes from time to  time regarding religious holidays take them or not take the recent vote was very controversial controversial and the decision was to have no religious holidays now if you were presented next year again response i don't know if you guys had a chance to follow the questions of the week but that was one of the first questions that was asked in my initial position on that was to support taking off but at the same time  my concern was that if there are other communities that are asking for their observation of their own holidays and obviously we want to be fair to everyone in a very diverse community i think the last meeting controversial partly because it's almost an even split fifty fifty so i don't want to commit to an answer right now i think that it's very hard to i think it's very difficult to come up with an answer that this is everyone in a situation like that but i truly believe that we should do everything in our power to help those of us who want to observe special days observe them lace first of all i should say that the idea of a floating holiday is not really something it's not any different than just telling people that they can take off for religious holiday which is what the sort of non policy policy is at the moment nobody is you know lies for taking off a religious holiday in theory in practice the story is quite different and so i don't think it having a floating holiday is a real answer i think it's a false dichotomy to ask that question and i think that maybe the question of religious holidays is a question that should be separated from the discussion of the school calendar per se and requires a broad community discussion about what it means to be a pluralistic and diverse community and how we go about as a town living living with the changes that we have thank you that's not what happened last week thank you andrew i think with the benefit of hindsight i would do it slightly differently i think as a community we first need to decide whether we are going to have religious holidays probably we're close to fifty fifty split on that if we then do decide that we're going to take religious holidays then we have to try to apportion them as fairly as we can for example if we set a calendar two years into the future we don't have to have the same religious holidays in each year for example i can you know as a bit of a nap math nerd i can certainly think of some interesting ways that we can apportion the holidays to be very very fair and slightly worried that if we apportion attended a meeting at the first church in belmont non dominant not denominational it's just the location of a group of about fifty people who came together or of a fledgling initiative called stand up  which is a concern with citizens about kindness decency and civil discourse and a lot of the discussion came around the issue of bullying i mean there's a general concern of tenor of discourse amongst nationwide and then this all boils down to community in the into the classroom and schools and so there was a lot of concern about bullying in the level of discourse and dialogue and exchange with children and i'm interested in hearing i know that there's a you know you don't oversee curriculum but as a school committee how you would push the tenor or the whole concept of increasing kindness and decency in civil discourse within our school system thank you and your question i think i would like to push that in the direction of possibly by the ways things that they do i think school councils are ways in which we can promote discourse i actually think that leading by example and having kids participate in discourse that is  you know courteous is probably one of the most effective ways of teaching it plus of course is cussing discussing the debates and the current political well thank you i'm sorry i'm yes so i agree with that and also just as personally i feel very strongly about bullying and i believe that we should  everything within our power to try to minimize that in our community i think it's great to have initiatives like that i think that some of the bullying problems actually started home of these children so sometimes it's a good idea to not only work with the children but maybe somehow bring in parents as well that they can understand perspective of the other parents and just foster an environment of communication  implemented in our schools in the last couple of years we have a big push toward social emotional learning part of which is we have a curriculum called open circle which addresses bullying and it starts the garden and goes up through the elementary ages and so i think that's one way that we are already addressing in particular the issue of bullying but also  working through the through the grades in all of our wellness curriculum in helping kids learn to engage reach with each other  conversations sometimes difficult conversations without yelling and screaming and this is something that we've implemented in the schools already and i think we as adults in the community need to model that as well thank you but basically we're running out of time but we're going to do is we're going to have three people standing we're going to get three or three questions and then closing  statements by the candidates you know long precinct eight i agree with the later start time for the high schools one of the concerns i heard about starting later however is what to do about the school busses running at the same time as the elementary schools and one of the solutions i've heard being talked about is then making the elementary school start earlier but i'm not supporting i would appreciate your thoughts on that thank you enter elementary school starting earlier that one of the solutions to a possible solution been implemented in other districts  it depends on how much earlier you mean i certainly wouldn't be happy seeing an elementary school start before eight o'clock it should be you should realize that the little kids don't have the same rigid rhythms as older children do so they can start eight o'clock in the morning and they're perfectly ok i think that the danger is starting them too late to start a kid part elementary school it's a nine thirty then they have to work into the afternoon and then they have a down time so it's a possible solution we need to get lots of feedback from the community and how we implement this but however i would not  handle that better than the older kids then i think it's something we should consider but like i said i think we need to study it first thank you very much elise i think most of us who are parents know that younger kids get up and are ready to go early or so i think but the science and that of parental intuition tells us that it makes more sense for younger kids to start school earlier we do have to think about the logistics of the buses we also have to think about the logistics of if kids if younger kids are starting school earlier than are they getting home earlier think the bussing can always be worked out it's really what what will work for families in town and and what's best for our kids ultimately thank you sir thank you paul roberts p eight so right now the district is substantially in modular classrooms to handle some of the overflow that we've heard a fair amount about seeding a question for you is twofold one is you consider that a more or less permanent solution to the overcrowding problem in other words should we expect that the modular units are going to stay in place for ten or fifteen years until the demographic wave hopefully has passed over us  or do you consider that a temporary solution and if so what is the permanent fix and what is the role of the school committee in making that permanent solution a reality in other words what do you consider the role of the committee in promoting a long term fix for overcrowding thank you elise the question of modulars do you see it as a long term i hope it's not a long term  it's not being discussed as a permanent fix i think that everybody is looking board's the opportunity we have in our high school project to think about space and that right now is is a complete free for all forms of brainstorming ideas i have heard talk about freight out of generally or moving fifty so i can't say i have the answer for what what the permanent fix would be but i would hope that we wouldn't have is in modular units as a permanent fix for ten or fifteen years well i hope it's not permanent either i've looked at the curve showing enrollment versus time and you know and there's a lot of up and down and it's not totally clear to me that the current bulge in the enrollment is going to continue ok that that we're going to have the same kind of numbers in one nine hundred nineteen you know in fifty years time if it looks like the very long term trends are going to look if it looks like that's going to be a very long term trend  them we have to look at more permanent solutions i school possibly renovating or rebuilding some of the elementary schools because you know we don't just have people in high school but we have to look at the trends and it's tough because it does go up and down a lot with time thank you emma so the good news is as others mentioned the high school will give us some opportunities you know we might end up one point clear interesting as i mentioned i've been on the board of my kids preschool and they also looked at option so i was a part of it as the treasurer and some of the more jewelers today are actually so much nicer school and i know certainly some parents are concerned about having their young children or even middle school what we consider to be middle school age children high school i guess i'll just ask each of you about your position on those this helping with the finances and the budget and fact that we can hire a few more teachers but that's not helping with the physical space so i think we should absolutely take advantage of the new high school and figure out ways to use it  know what the right answer is i think we have a lot of options it's great you know there are advantages to having a preschool or early education center that separate from the rest of the school so we should consider all  this but i think that we should just do something about the physical space station across the school system thank you and  i think certainly if we were to that are moving eighth grade basically into the high school it wouldn't mean that they would be high school students so this is all very theoretical because none of this has even come up in the school committee this is just talk around town it wouldn't be necessarily my first choice but it's it's a way to free up some room in general which is bursting at the seams actually love the idea of having  interested in education in the future so that's that would be i think a really interesting idea but right now i don't have a position on any of the i think we really need to look at all of them and  how we get the most bang for our buck down the road in any building project we do thank you and your so i think we should look at moving eighth grade to high school kids are not eighth graders are not academically or developmentally ready to be in a high school environment that's for sure so we would have to teach and set up the kind of structure for team teaching that we have cannery if we were to move eighth grade there i think  interesting that around the world many countries carry on the equivalent of a team teaching much higher at a much older ages so i would actually like to consider if we move eighth grade the high school to team teach ninth graders to and have a preschool and a lower school with a lower school but of being more in the middle school mode thank you we are now going into a buzzing statements a minute each the school coming is to clear the path where our schools to remain excellent and the challenges in that but primarily be budget related but it's and roland increases in new high school or the contract negotiations these are all issues operational planning and that's what i do for a living on a daily basis i negotiate staffing budgets a question assumptions so when you place your vote next tuesday picked a candidate with the right a month schools i'm passionate about the month schools i think we need to start school later as the founder of the belmont chapter of start school later i believe that i  have the background to work through the logistics i understand the logistics and if i'm on the school committee i will make it happen i would be very honored to serve on the school committee and i would appreciate your vote on a proof thank you i'd be very honored to stay on the school committee for another year and give another year of my time the schools have been very good to my family my three children who have all had the benefit of a bel