is lydia coming lydia can you come to the microphone a bar one eighty school st precinct one among thurston one o one baker street peace precinct one jessica bennett fifteen trowbridge street precinct one gavin twelve long avenue precinct one and mary mahoney twenty four golden streets precinct one gail gorman ninety six schools street precinct one linda eleven shares seventy five woodbine road precinct two elizabeth con three barbara road precinct t patrick murphy one thirty class the street precinct thank you all for doing that that's very nice and congratulations for running good evening and welcome to the belmont candidate's night sponsored by the belmont league of women voters i'm miriam scally the president of the belmont only the funding for this program is provided by the voter fund of the belmont and for those watching on cable t v it is now seven thirty ish on march fifteenth two thousand and eight the league is a nonpartisan organization it doesn't support or oppose any political parties or candidate the league encourages informed and active participation in government the league takes action on specific issues we study but none of us supports or opposes candidates election day is tuesday tuesday not monday anymore tuesday april third with the polls open from seven to eight the lead will provide rides from nine am to six pm please call for the t v people six one seven seven seven one eight five zero zero to request a ride we'd like to thank the belmont media center for televising this forum live and it will be shown between now and election day and at this time i'd like to introduce you to the moderator of the beecher i want to join marian and thanking all of you for attending tonight and for watching at home with a special thank you to all the candidates who are running this year i will start briefly by reviewing the format for the evening with more details as we move along having heard already from the town meeting member candidates we will now move straight to the town white candidates first uncontested candidates for the offices of selectmen cemetery commissioner board of health housing authority and trustee of the public library will be invited on stage to make a statement and take questions the uncontested candidate for moderator michael whitmer and the uncontested candidate for board of a tonight due to prior commitments we will then after we finish with the uncontested candidates invite both the contested and uncontested candidates for school committee to come to state on to stage together again each candidate will make an introductory statement and then answer questions from the audience so if i could have the candidates for the uncontested races come up except for the school committee you can find your chairs here are ready labels each candidate will be given two minutes to make a statement followed by questions for that candidate from the belmont league of women voters and the audience answers will be limited to not more than two minutes each members of the audience may line up at either of the two microphones the one that we've already saw the town meeting members use and the other sign for any questions they'd like to ask we ask that you keep your questions short in the interest of time and again the candidates only have two minutes to answer each question so our time keepers for the evening are sarah jane and allison computer oh so we have a fan club here so they will be fair i promise they will have a yellow card can you hang up the old card so that will signal that there are thirty seconds left in the red card will signal that the speakers time is up and that will be at the end of two minutes when the red card goes up the speaker may finish his or her sentence but then must stop talking so the uncontested candidates here today will be presented in the order in which they appear on the ballot which means that we will begin with board of selectmen so tom you know if you would like to  selectman because as a town we have a number of very important decisions to make these are decisions that will shape the future of our community for decades to come i serve on the school committee and its finance committee for four years in high school building committee for the last two but with so many big decisions ahead i believe that serving on the board of selectmen is the way i can contribute the most going forward so what's in our future as many of you are well aware we face a number of capital needs it's not just the high school project but also the police station d p w yard the library the rink and the community path we have additional issues to address including skyrocketing moment in our schools the quality of life in our neighborhoods environmental sustainability and maintaining our thriving business to all of these needs put tremendous pressure on our town finances staff and resources this is where i believe i can help in my twenty year career i've center i've created and implemented strategic plans as in belmont we need to update our planning think strategically we need a plan that focuses on our priorities that creates actions and put a timeline in place for implementing them in the last ten years we've done the work to identify what we want as a community now we need to take the steps to put in place the tangible and measurable and if she did that are going to allow us to achieve this goal it's a big job but i'm excited to take it on thank you for the opportunity thank you tom i invite audience to please come up and ask questions and in the meantime we're starting a line has a question what steps can the board of selectmen take to encourage businesses so there's no question that in belmont we have a challenge in that is our tax base is predominantly residential we only have five percent slightly more that's actually paid by our commercial businesses with that in mind we have revenue challenges that we need to address and one of the things that we need to do is a step towards a draft addressing those revenue challenges is find ways to make it more compelling for businesses to come to that's going to require a number of different actions some of them will be based upon zoning so there are some zoning steps that will be taken on by the zoning board that can be supported by the selectmen that will address some of the opportunities there in addition some of the things will be driven by board of selectmen policies where we can specifically make it as attractive as possible to ensure that business is feel that this is a welcoming community and that there is an opportunity for them to open a business and be successful in town i think we all know that belmont has a bit of a reputation historically of not being as friendly to businesses so i think when we take these steps part of what we also need to do is make sure that we are engaging broadly with the community so that folks know and businesses know that this is a town that wants to continue to develop and cultivate our commercial tax base in our commercial communities some of the major developments that ha that those commercial opportunities are mean critical components of their development pla from the audience i don't oh my question for you is with ever increasing enrollment it may become necessary to add more modular classrooms in the near future beyond those already going in this fall at burbank as a selectman how will you be proactive in working with the school committee so that all options including townland there when broke can be considered and not only those options which are simplest for the school committee to bring to fruition so first of all i am optimistic although it's hard to predict the future but i'm optimistic that our seven to twelve school building project that we're considering may be able to in combination with the additional modulars we'll be bringing on in the near term in burbank address our short term needs so you know we'll have to see it's hard to predict these trends but hopefully the mod rs that we're putting in place will get us through till if all goes well with the upcoming vote high school project in the if that were not the case and we did need to go back and think about solutions whether or not that is  alternatives i would absolutely work collaboratively with the school committee i think one of the nice things about my candidacy is i've been on the school committee for a number of years i understand how that body functions i understand a lot of the folks  motive the motivations and interests of a lot of the folks and can work i say closely in collaboratively with both the administration in the school committee to evaluate all of the options because i think if that were to be the approach we would need to get very to balance that out and be curious your views so first of all as a member of a high school building committee and a member of the school committee i've been actively involved for the last two years as you suggest i am supportive i do believe that it not only provides a great opportunity for our students to be educated consistent with our vision i think it also creates an opportunity for the town to address these skyrocketing  and do so with significant financial support from the state so very supportive for those reasons to ask you to answer your specific question i think in my talking with members of the community what i find is that when you have a chance to sit down and lay out all of the components the aging infrastructure the fact that the current buildings don't meet the educational mission and the enrollment challenges and you walk through the limitations we have on space and you walk through  the realities of the support that we can get from the state most people agree that the approach that we're taking is a good one at least most people i've spoken to that it's a good one i think the challenge that we have and what i will try to do as a member of the board selectman is make sure that we are communicating that not only the need but also the fact that this is such a critical step forward to solving our salute our challenges i think we also have to assure the community that we're doing everything that we can to ensure that the design meets the needs of our town but also is cost effective as possible and i think we have to help everybody appreciate that all the steps are being taken to minimize the burden on the taxpayer and then i would say finally as it relates to that i think we have to use this project as an opportunity to potentially generate additional revenue for the town now that's not going to offset the large price tag in total but i think there's an opportunity to leverage this as a revenue generating component tennis player thank you next i will invite our board of cemetery commissioners candidate ellen o'brien cushman i think i'm so city that hi i'm eleanor bryan cushman i'm running for cemetery commission yet again i know you're here not to hear me but i am very appreciative in the board senator commissioners is very appreciative to have even just a moment to let you know that we're out there and that we represent you as an elected body that we managed to cemeteries down it street the old belmont cemetery as well as the says two thousand and seven highland meadow cemetery the two challenges that really have struck us in the past couple of years which we will be continuing to work on if i'm elected and i'm hoping that that's the case  that we have a data challenge we have always used a computer system to keep track of all of our data wall of the information of the dissidents and as we all know ancestry dot com etc has become extremely popular people want to know about what their ancestors did where they are where they're buried what kind of information that there is that's an extreme pressure on us and so our systems have been dated we've been using them since one thousand nine hundred five we replace them once in between and now it's time for us to do that again and we are working on that right now and we are going to be using the town's g i s system to do so which means that everything will be geo located so that's a great thing the second thing that represents a challenge for us which has been representing it challenge for the past year is to be a good neighbor and also expect those around us to be good neighbors particularly having to do with the day school project which is happening right now perhaps you read about it over the summer and so that does take quite a bit of effort on  behalf to make sure that the you know design of the original cemetery in terms of its adjacencies to conservation land are preserved and the integrity of that cemetery in the design are what the people of belmont expect so thank you very much i league would like to ask apropos the day school project that you referenced how specifically is affecting the cemetery so the day school project is an expansion of their campus and their classroom buildings by adding a building really right on the border it's about thirty five feet away from the existing cemetery and the conservation land so that structure by itself we have been very  cooperating with the day school and they have been great to deal with for us although that is right on the border the biggest threat for us has been and will continue to be the fact that they've installed started construction on a driveway that goes from you immediately next to the cemetery and the houses that are up there we have worked really hard to be good neighbors and we feel like we are part of that neighborhood and we've been very respected by those neighbors and we are one of them and so this new driveway will cause a circular pattern basically rendering some of those houses that are up there and have been farmhouses in belmont for a couple hundred years into sort of a rotary traffic comes in right next to the cemetery and goes out on day schooling for the first time so that pressure of having traffic in construction immediately next to a cemetery which is supposed to be designed as sort of a past oral conservation land co operative  cemetery has been an extraordinary invasion i would say and we worked really hard with the planning process and we continue to work with the day school and attend all their meetings and hope for the best so thank  you we would also like to ask for additional land has been set aside for future cemetery development at the highland meadow cemetery what is the plan for that space and how soon do you think it will be needed i'm hoping that that's not going to happen in my lifetime so there is an additional nine point nine acres of cemetery land we call it in active cemetery land which is adjacent to lone tree hill which is the town's hundred fourteen acres of conservation land that land is managed under a conservation restriction just like all of the other conservation land it would take a vote a majority vote of town meeting in order to activate that and that conservation restriction release it in in sections there is a master  plan for that property at this point we're not seeing any kind of pressure that's forcing us to do more than have the master plan we are not moving down concept drawings or anything like that and it looks like it's going to be lasting us a few more decades people are behaving the way we would like them to behave and you know buying them only really as needed after the original you know backlog of people who haven't purchased so you won't see that hopefully during my lifetime thank you  next i will ask the board of health candidates stephen fury up to the good evening everyone my name is steve us road with my wife lisa and children matthew and talia i am looking forward to a mechanic for the board of health my first time running for for office in this i want to continue and help him avoid public service any way that might be helpful and beneficial to what my eye can bring to the table by my background i'm a lawyer my firm specializes in health law we specialize in medical malpractise defense which basically is making sure that there is compliance with the standard care and that your health providers your doctors or nurses podiatrist whoever might be are doing their jobs we help ou hospitals and health care systems and we make sure that they comply with the regulations the department of public health the board of medicine and all those regulations that go with it so i think my background the area would be get my first time running for any questions i'll be happy to answer thank you steve the league would like to ask i don't use marijuana sales in massachusetts will begin in june how will the board of health education and i know there was one recently but if a temple so i know there's actively programs going out there of what the i really can't say but that the key for all this is education when it would have to be  ongoing have it be with the impact of of the marijuana sales and the recreational use it's going to happen not just a moment but across the country it's so new that i'll think everyone knows exactly how how it's going to play out but the good thing is if they're going to have to make strict regulations that certainly bar must have to comply with and it's a work in progress you know the chemists and the partment of public health they both are going to oversee sort of regulations that we have to comply with and certainly i know if elected and the current board is going to be working on making sure that we comply as a town with whatever businesses want to come in and certainly that's working with the selectmen and other members to see what if anything wants to come in the town if they do they comply with what's required thank you another question yeah what should the board of health do to prevent rot infestation at jilly's park and other recreational land in belmar i think it's six thirty three they had a meeting already ongoing about that i can say is that it's something that's the way this outbreak has going on it's truly a community problem you know you can't just pi it on and i don't know you know i don't live there ever dealt with it but just knowing what's going on there you hear that it's they came up and has to be dealt with as far as having the proper and effective exterminators deal with it but the people in the community you know it's a team effort i know what i've been reading anyway that it's a member matter of what's a problem it is is addressed it has to be sort of kept going where you have to clean up make sure that people are educated all these things  next island by our housing authority candidate gloria leipsic good evening my name is gloria leipzig and i'm running for reelection to the belmont housing authority board of commissioners besides being on the board for the last five years i've also served for many years on the belmont housing trust and consider myself a strong advocate for affordable housing prior to my retirement i worked at the cambridge housing authority and was the director of operations in that position i was responsible for the management maintenance and ten selection for about twenty five hundred public housing apartments belmont's public  town's most valuable affordable housing resource i'll be working with the new executive director and the other commissioners to explore grant funding for resident programs and capital improvements in addition to the in need of renovation far beyond what we can undertake with our annual capital grant we need to explore we need to begin the process of a valu waiving all three sites for modernization and redevelopment so at these properties will continue to provide good quality safe in affordable housing for belmont's families seniors and those with disabilities now and in the future i look forward to continuing my service on the board and i want to thank the league for sponsoring this event and i want to thank all of you for your consideration thank you thank you gloria in prior years the housing authority received community preservation money to improve the electrical systems in their buildings what additional projects are on the horizon and how do you envision funding them well one of the  community preservation projects that we did receive funding for was to assist us in evaluating for redevelopment sherman gardens sherman gardens as one of our elderly development it built i believe in one nine hundred seventy three again as an elderly disabled development and unfortunately at that time eighty or eighty apartments there forty of them are on the second floor and require the seniors of those with disabilities to walk up a flight of stairs to access their apartments so we need to think about what we can do to renovate modernize redevelop that site so that we can better so that the housing that we provide is successful too to all the seniors currently live there as well as any any population in the future this is a long process and we are beginning to work with the mass housing partnership to develop a scope of services for housing complex housing consultant who will begin to do an environmental survey and then begin to look at the financial opportunities we might have been redeveloping that site thank you because you may be highlight one other project that might be coming up on the horizon beyond sherman gardens besides sherman gardens well actually we are doing some roof work at belmont village again we only get  state modernization funding is based on a formula so we have two hundred fifty four units so we get a certain amount of money times two hundred fifty four that's it it comes to about two hundred thousand dollars a year we need to do roof work at belmont village which is our family development we have twenty five buildings there we can afford this it's not all going to this but we're beginning to do for four buildings in the next  year that's on the project thank you since two thousand and six and you could say i'm the oldest of the longest serving bread either way it makes me feel like you know an ancient librarian i actually am a librarian at the boston v a i've been a librarian for forty five years and i think i went to graduate school when i was eleven actually and i worked for the v a in boston and it's really really rewarding work i've been there since one thousand nine hundred five and it's really just wonderful to give back to our veterans so i just want to talk about how wonderful our belmont public library is and how it strives every year to provide the best service to everyone in the community from little bab people who can't get out of their house to come to the library we serve everyone we have a thousand people on average today in our building and out of our building it's a stunning statistic but true and sometimes you've noticed that when you tried to take out a book it wasn't on the shelf so but we are a town of readers we're a very robust town of readers in fact we're the eleventh busiest library in the state regardless of our population size that's pretty pretty good evidence for the effectiveness of belmont's public library services and programs and since its inception in eight hundred sixty eight today this is the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the library it's endure the test of time it's really the communities living room is mary keenan one of our former trustees used to say and like a living room it changes it mirrors the changes in education and technology and the ways we consume  content the literature movies media whatever one of the things the library does is teach us those of us who didn't grow up with a laptop under armor and i phone in our hand we teach people how to access that and we teach them only your time is up so let me just say put your faith in me again and i will do my best to help lead the library into the future we are a library and rich by the past and focused on the future for i will hold my the leaks questions for now until we've heard from grin and then we'll have a chance with ok so we can we can share the next trustee of the public library candidate is hi i'm a current trustee of the belmont library up for reelection you probably remember me from last year because i was appointed two years ago to fill an open last year to finish that cycle and here i am again so you probably tired of me by now you don't already know me live in belmont with my husband and three sons seven and younger professionally i'm an economist with a background in economic and business consulting for both for profit nonprofit organizations working with stakeholders at all levels from international down to the local level and  mentioned i have three young boys currently i'm at home with them and we spend a lot of time at the library as elaine said and i think i've also said this before i feel that the most important cross demographic resource in belmont because it serves everyone young new residents people who've been here for a long time people that come in because they need quiet space study space need access to technology training come f music books etc and in that regard it's very important to support the library and make sure that it continues to evolve over time to serve the needs of the community you know people are of trustees we have backgrounds in law economics finance library science nonprofits except in addition to the other groups that support the library the friends of the public library the library foundation the historical society the garden club have all been very supportive these past two years and before that so i appreciate you listening and ask for your vote on the third thank you again i will invite either or both of you to answer these questions last year town meeting established voted to establish a library building committee and approved funds to develop a schematic design would you give us an update on its progress and an update on fundraising plans  i'll take the first part of the question which was please give an update on the progress of the library building committee so we went we did a year long feasibility study the prior year we went to town meeting and asked for a building committees simply because we can't fundraise without one and so while we are not competing with any of the other projects per se because our building a number of years out but we do need this time privately fund raise part of the funds for the building as opposed to the other buildings in town that need renovation or remodelling rebuilding so in this regard we do have the lie but the building committee in order to get th so once and i believe that once the plans are drawn up they'll be able to do that more in earnest but they're working on it now thank you the current library building will need to be used for at least several more years what is being done to maintain current library services what is being done to maintain current library services so right now if you haven't been in the library in a long time take a look back in the library we do recognize that it's going to take a few years to be able to get a new building and there are some urgent and immediate needs you've probably seen out there the gutters are being redone at the moment we have some leaks in the roof there are some insulation issues the boiler was just replaced so those kind of things are being taken care of as they need to in order to keep the library running and then also we're doing some work to make the library continue to be comfortable and usable for the patrons and residents with a focus on the director is trying as hard as possible to  do things that can then be transferred to the new library obviously you can't transfer carpeting but furniture and things like that it's a fine line between doing too much and not doing what  needs to be done and so we're very very mindful of that in our planning and and our director peter is he's there every day taking stock of what what could be done what needs to be done and make suggestions to us as a board and we spend a good deal of time making decisions about you know how to move forward if you've been to the library lately you would have seen that we painted the reference room a nice vibrant teal and replace the chairs and it's a much fresher by clear light and so there are other things too we just were doing so we just finished doing some freshening up in the west wing as well and taking down some shelves so that we have more space for people to sit and read quietly  and so things like that so we're very careful thank you very much you to these candidates now we would like to invite all four of the candidates for school committee to come forward as these other candidates leave the sta while the school committee candidates come up i would like to remind you again that the election is tuesday april third polls will be open from seven am to eight pm if you will not be able to vote on election day you can vote absentee in person or you can run after ellen as she leaves you can vote in person at town hall from now until noon on monday april second look for your voter guide in the mail before the election the voter guide is produced in mailed to every belmont belmont household by the belmont league of women voters with donations from the town's general citizens this guy can also be accessed on our website belmont l w v dot org the league will also be providing rise to the polls from nine am to six pm on election day for more information and to request a ride please visit our website which again is belmont l w v dot org following the election and in preparation for annual town meeting the league will also be co sponsoring with the warrant committee to warrant briefings on monday april twenty third and monday may twenty first at seven thirty pm at the beach street center the warrant briefings are free and open to the public there are three open positions for school committee this year lisa fiore is running for a one year slot and she is uncontested three candidates susan burgess cox tara donner and jill souza norton are all running for two positions of three year terms as members of the school committee we will start with a two minute opening statement from lisa again she is running unopposed for a one year position and you may make your statement from the table or from the all right my name is lisa fiore and i live with my husband steve fiore and her two children matthew and tell you on venice road i've served on the school committee since an appointment in fall of two thousand and thirteen and very similar to the story that was shared a moment ago i filled out a term with a one year election and then ran for a three year term so it's been multiple times i was prepared not to run for election this time around and as events happen last year i would say on our school committee we experienced a confluence of things that people might not encounter in ten years all in one year ranging from increasing and roman challenges to contract negotiations to the high school building project and other challenges that we rise to as a group working in coordination with the various bodies and citizens in town is a privilege to serve on this committee my fleeting moment of choosing not to run was truly to spend time with family but at the prospect of half of our committee being turned over i felt that that commitment won over so commitment to family is always important but commitment to the town and to service when people talk about service as a selfless act i think you put yourself in a one hundred fifty percent or you're not doing right by the town so that's why i'm choosing to run again and we have more challenges ahead candidate computer i mentioned some of them in his remarks earlier the committee works so well together we don't always agree on every issue that comes up but we have a very respectful relationship we work very well with our administration it's a privilege to get to see the work that the teachers do so i'm just delighted to have the opportunity to serve the town again thank you thank you lisa we will now hear three minute opening statements from susan tara and joe who are the contested candidates after that all four of the candidates will be allowed to answer questions from the league and the audience all candidates will have an opportunity to respond to every question if they wish even if the questions a particular question is directed to one candidate again a reminder to please let me your answers to two minutes and finally at the end each candidate will be allowed to make a one minute closing statement susan if you'd like to begin or just cox i'd like to thank the league for hosting this event belmont's very fortunate to have such a dedicated group to the have these informative sessions for citizens i'd also like to thank lisa for participating tonight and for running a school committee all three o us bring something unique to the school committee i bring my experience as a school committee member a background in law and public policy and a dedicated career of public service of the federal state and local level and my first term on the school committee i've served on the finance subcommittee the policy subcommittee the space taskforce the capital budget committee and intermittently on to the war in committee in my first three years the school committee is work to address the primary issue of growing in rome and through hiring teachers in accordance with the three year plan funding of our units at the chair in the burbank and the approval of a seven through twelve configuration for the new high school as a school committee liaison to the capital budget committee i work with dedicated capital budget committee members to ensure that the schools receive the necessary capital improvements and investments like boilers flooring building envelopes and crow books i've learned a lot about building serving on that committee i never intended to return to when i was younger but i know that the opportunity was a result of all the town gave to me through its wonderful school system i want to give back to the place the provided so much to me and now my children as i said in the beginning all four of us bring something unique i bring experience vision and commitment to the town that gave so much to me tara would you like to me i'd also like to thank the league of women voters the candidates who are here the residents who are here and also those who are watching at home right now as a critical juncture for the schools in belmont in the near future decisions will be made that will impact generations of belmont children and families as the high school building project proceeds i want to use my knowledge and experience as a professional committed k to twelve educator a longtime town meeting member and as a parent to help guide the direction of decisions that will affect not only the students in grades seven to twelve but also the younger students whose school experiences will be significantly impacted reconfiguration of grade levels i'm a strong proponent of the new seven to twelve campus and i want to make sure that as a town we have transparent and thorough discussions about how to best meet the educational and developmental needs of all students in belmont as we navigate this transition as we move through the building process we also need to focus on the sustainability of school infrastructure and aim for zero net energy buildings as well as being mindful of keeping the costs down to the greatest extent possible it is important that longtime residents not be priced out of their homes and that every step must be taken to support those who will struggle with the cost of the new building as a district we need to aim for more than just good and m cas course we need to prepare our students to think critically express themselves clearly work collaboratively and communicate with all types of people we need to give them tools to be flexible as they enter a work environment that will have jobs we can even imagine at the moment as a classroom teacher with sixteen years of teaching experience i also have a strong interest in developing ways to support teachers as they encourage our students to be engaged and informed citizens in a participatory democracy and to understand how they can effect positive change in the world we need a coordinated district wide anti bias curriculum in an increasingly fragmented world with growing disparity between the haves and the have nots we need to give teachers tools to help students as they develop empathy for people across all areas of different thank you  as a voter so thank you for that i want to thank all the other candidates all of whom are well qualified and committed knowledgeable i think we're pretty lucky as voters in belmont by way of  background i have lived in belmont for sixteen years i'm a public school parent and i've spent the past twenty years working to improve public education in various roles so i began my career as a fourth grade teacher that i taught montessori preschool and that i served as a nonprofit leader where i was responsible for developing budgets managing financial resources effectively and fund raising and as a executive director for six years of the ronnie center for education research and policy which is in the nonprofit policy think tank and then now and as a board member on several nonprofits i then moved to work for state government i worked as a senior policy advisor for three education secretaries both democrat and republican administrations and i'm the product the proud product of public education myself and from a family of educators as the daughter of a middle school teacher and community college administrator working in education and supporting teaching and learning is the only thing i've ever wanted to do and so i hope to bring my perspective which is at the intersection of policy and practice to bear in making some of the really important decisions that i think we have before us as a community about the future of education in belmont i hope we'll have some questions from the audience but as people come up to the mike i can ask you this  i'm sorry go ahead and let's start from the police please start with my name is jim a father of an eleven year old and a nine year old and my question is for tara for anyone else who wants to talk about the school start time start time so i'm just wondering what your experience has taught you about the process of moving to leaders start times and what you see as the road ahead for belmont or i think that there's a lot of compelling evidence that i've had the opp to start to learn about about why it's important for older students to have that critical chunk of sleep that comes in the early morning hours and as a teacher  winchester we've just as a district decided that next year will be a later start time i think that it's really important to manage the process of undertaking such a big change so that all the key stakeholders from of course students parents also teachers also you know for example in belmont we have meco students who are coming from further away and to really look at the impact for all of these stakeholders i think the process in winchester was a little bit more rushed than i think could have been productive the teachers were first asked about the impact it would have on them the day the decision was announced and for a lot of teachers teachers with young children that depend on being able to finish their secondary school teaching and get home to their students they'll incur a cost of on average seven thousand dollars a year of additional child care expenses so i think that it's important to involve all the stakeholders i think teachers want the same thing that parents want students want we want the best thing for the students it's just important to make sure we take the time to really look at all of these potential issues and figure out a plan that will work for everyone anybody else like to weigh in on the question john i'm also compelled by the research on later start times as a parent and and also just looking at the potential impact on high schoolers in terms of social emotional well being academic performance but i agree if we are able to implement this in a way that works for the majority of folks in the town then i think we should slow up and be thoughtful about how we deal with it especially when it comes to scheduling challenges and for athletes and sporting events and i think a lot of us saw what happened in boston and we we don't want to repeat that  community that's that's watching this and we have a school committee that's that spend discussing this topic and that is very much it is reaching out to other folks so i know there winchester is in progress burlington's approved arlington's in progress so it feels like it won't be just us out there doing this that we will have other communities and that will help mitigate some of the issues with with sporting events  and and other scheduling it to the work that the school committee is currently doing on this project again i think we're all very supportive of the idea i shouldn't speak for the whole committee but i think most of us are very supportive of the idea it's a matter of implementing it and said in the process we do have a group that is discussing the issue and discussing all the options that would be available that group we started having discussions last march i believe at our meetings about starting schools later we have formed a group that group is mad a few times and is continuing to have discussions about it and i think at our next  invited to watch or are come to our meetings we will be having a discussion further about starting schools later and where as the status of things and possibly even having somebody come to present to us about  benefits of starting schools  that we may invite someone to come in may for a school committee meeting but that is certainly on our list and as i mentioned it's been a wonderful inclusive process where we're welcoming input from the community so that input is still w and i think if we can also strive to reduce the stress and anxiety levels that students are feeling at all levels in our district that that could also for students overall well being let's take a question  as a parent i look to the school committee as our elected body to hear and address a wide range of parent concerns many received via e mail i realize this i realize based on sheer numbers a few thousand more of us than there are you that this must be a challenge i've had the experience of emailing the school committee not receiving a response from any member and then feeling they can need to attend the meeting to read my email outloud before receiving a response from the school committee or superintendent  obviously have a huge workload you're all volunteers you're all parents as school committee chair as city and school committee member and the school committee candidates what ideas do you have or could you implement to improve communication between constituents and school committee members no apologies for anyone who has not received an e mail i think our practice is that when the school committee receives an e mail address to all members that the chair responds to that people are receiving six different responses on the same topic basically so if you haven't received a response i'll take full responsibility for it i remember exchanging several emails with you we do try to communicate and be as inclusive as possible the best way to be heard is to come to meetings where we have an open period every at the start of every meeting after the pledge of allegiance for citizens comments and concerns and i could tell you that it's rare to have many people come for those portions of the meetings if not any portions of the meeting so i would encourage people to come and participate as fully as possible and often there's an issue that yanks us and compels us to come participate if we think something's not happening as we wish or if there's an issue that could be done better and so that's fine and that's often the case but i would also encourage people to come when things are going well and to feel included in the process i think lisa's cracked that is typically the chair that's a practice i think of most the school committee says that the charity responds to messages that are sent from community members i think to all of us are available and open and go to different events around town and so are open to having discussions with constituents about their concerns at any given time i know that i've gotten individual macit just from individuals from constituents that i respond to but majority of our messages are from the committee which is the chair so i appreciate all of lisa's hard work in responding as well as lori slapp when she was the chair is well i think it's a very difficult job being chairs a lot going on and responding to messages is just one but i think lisa said people are more than welcome to come to our meetings there is a segment of the meeting where people can get up and i think we all are very excited when we see people there to give us their thoughts and ideas about things  i'll just say that as a new committee member i think that's that i welcome that because the more conversations i can have the more i learn about different aspects of schools that i that i might not know as a parent of just one elementary school so so i welcome that at least as a learning process for me in the beginning and i can just echo i think that one of the great things about this process of being a candidate for school committee particularly in this contested situation where we all have to work a little bit harder is that i've gotten to meet a lot more people talk to a planning a new school for grades seven through twelve and we're doing that planning in the context most recently of some pretty horrible school violence so i was wondering if each of you could share with us any experience or research or ideas that you might have for implementing security measures in our schools that might be both affective but reasonable and acceptable for the community thank you security systems within the school such as cameras in the buildings upgrading the radio systems to for the police department and then building a new school one of the things one of the benefits that we have right now i've had discussions with the superintendent and with chief mcgraw for them about this issue and about the new school and what we could do one of the things that we have currently in our schools now is we have invested real at the wellington that's a new school and that allows and there's a camera there that allows for the person to enter the building to be seen and recognized before they're allowed in and that offers an additional bit of security another thing is to have just one entrance to the school as well the town about mine as well is a part of the new north east massachusetts law enforced foresman council and there's a program called the stars program the school threat assessment response system and i had a long talk with chief most often about our involvement in that program and how that brings other communities and their resources to dominate should anything occur so we would have that protection from other cities and towns and a collaboration with them but i think again just in the building itself the cameras having a vest to be able entrance are ways that could i think that first school security there's a couple of different important issues i think that the physical safety features of the building arm porton some things that susan has mentioned i also think that as we move towards a potential new school having a more secure building perimeter where students are coming and going less freely than they currently do at the high school could be something that could  help in my experience on my school's incident management team over a number of years in addition to my experience just as a regular classroom teacher leading safety drills i think there's a few things that we can do to practice and you know work on making sure all the doors are locked in there someone at the entrance of every building to see who is coming and going to make sure that someone gets routed to the office to check in those are all important physical safety features of a secure school but i think a bigger issue of real security for the whole school community has to do with building up the sense of community in the school to protect vulnerable students i think having reasonable case loads for support staff like guidance counselors school psychologist school social workers is really critical for kids who need support those those staff need to have the time in their day to be able to reach out to kids who might be feeling stress and needing help and i think building a culture that empowers teachers to look out for the whole child and not just you know test scores and having teachers that have reasonable caseload so that they have the time in the day to really look out for the whole beans of their students is a really critical part of school safety as  well i agree with a lot of the suggestions i think we've put in place and i've seen them at wellington a lot of practical security measures the door of the cameras and that we also have differentiated  procedures and policies throughout the district and had that involve drills and that involve protocols for teachers and that allow for different about developmental stages  the children so at the elementary level the teacher decides and at the high school level students have some autonomy and are trained to to make a choices so i think that's good i agree with t that at this i'd love to see us at the same time we're working on some of these practical issues that we're working on culture and that we're working to make sure that students at the margins are feeling and vulnerable populations are feeling included and that we're giving students the skills to do that outreach and make those connections as a parent i would love to see some of some skills  and scaffolding for helping students to be brave and be the one who goes and sits next to the one the person who's sitting alone at the lunch table and to make that just how we how we work and what our school communities are about that we that we constantly reaching out to folks who feel marginalized i think that's that is that goes to me the two things go together the culture and community pieces as well as the safety actions and drills  anything with nothing really to add other than underscoring that the district's been engaged in two years now of a social notional learning initiative and this year focusing a lot on and understanding what is often called the achievement gap and that term is sort of a funny term but really looking at achievement to the points already raised of all individuals in the fullest sense in a holistic sense and really empowering our educators to feel that they know what to do and are empowered to do so in an emergency in a crisis so we've explored different options we are in constant contact with the officials in town ranging from the fire chief as our town officials and working collaboratively so that we do implement reasonable measures without creating undue panic or fear so no one is naive enough to think that belmont would be immune from a threat but i think we are trying to be thoughtful about the processes that we put in place so that people can continue to live in belmont and experienc we just got styrofoam banned after many years of trying to do so within the schools that happened due to students getting involved and through trash bashers at the chinnery we've been meeting with the superintendent try to get it done it you know it took many years and finally the students got involved we had more than thirty actually signed up for trash masters in the fifth grade and we have more than twenty in the sixth grade so it's something that the students really want and we are piloting now a composting program at the cherry and we want to bring that to the wellington as well and i just wonder if we could have your support in this because you know it's a money issue as always but it's really something that our students want and i think that it's a good plan to have just in the future for the for the students to know that when we teach them about climate change and the effects that we are actually doing something about it too within the schools that they can be involved  being with you yes you have my support for that that kind of work and i love that empowering of students i think that is they can lead the way and that's a great approach that's an easy answer i think absolutely i think the green team at wellington has done a fantastic job on so many fronts the plastic bag recycling that has happened pretty consistently over the five years we've been there something my family has made huge use of and i think that the green teams are so important in the schools both to help teach students sustainable habits but also because it's helping our schools to reduce our  carbon footprint and you know reduce the energy usage within our schools and how having the kids participate in that is really critical acknowledge the sentiments about the students i think too the schools are taking steps to try to be more sustainable with their buildings and especially with the new high school that's one of the things that's one of the primary focus is to make sure the building and the you know part of it to the building committee has been talking about what can be done to as you said educate students about more about the environment the things that are going on and we've talked about i think having green space  on the roof of the school to allow that so i think it is always great to broaden not only the students and their knowledge but as well to for the school itself to the district to be responsible and have sustainable buildings have be environmentally conscious and aware and also because the students will learn from that as well the only thing i would add is yes my support as well and i think it it helps to educate our students to be empowered to be active citizens and to recognize responsibility for self and others and the environment so absolutely  site mark davis precinct one i have a question about the design of the new high school national data suggest that energy costs of three hundred dollars per student per year s will have more than two thousand students that's about six hundred thousand dollars per year for energy if high school building committee votes in favor of a zero net energy design that would be a  hundred thousand dollars per year for thirty years or a total of almost twenty million dollars to all the candidates are you in favor of zero net energy design which will likely have yes and we've been trying very hard in the high school building committee meetings to always work with perkins and will and others that are involved actively on the committee in various roles to think about the energy use and to do what we can  i think i would just repeat what lisa said and i also add that we've we've had number we've had citizens come and talk to us about their net energy there's been extensive discussions throughout the process and we're all the in the beginning stages and but it's already on the forefront of the building committee and school committee members to look at that i'm also strongly in favor of striving to do everything we can to achieve a zero net energy building i think in belmont we have so few ways to effectively reduce our costs without reducing services and we always have pressure on town budgets school budgets every year and with only a five percent commercial tax base in belmont i don't see that pressure going away any time but reducing energy costs is one step in the right direction not just because it's good for the earth but because it's really the cost effective choice over the lifetime of the building i'm not sure there's much left to say but i'm strongly in favor of the zero energy approach and i just want to say that i also support it as a as a signal and as a model for our students that this is that is the responsible way to build and that i love the idea that we could serve as a model for other high schools because i do think our high school is going to get some attention from surrounding areas and if we if we can make the case that it is working here then we might spur other districts to do the same am jesse bennett i'm precinct one and i have a kid at ten arena kid at burbank given that it's two thousand and eighteen and not one nine hundred fifty many families in town have two working parents many families in town have one parent and no other parent around and that parent works unfortunately our afterschool programs have broad inequities across the different schools burbank has been able to provide the amount of care needed by the populous of our school but the other three elementary schools tend to have waiting lists have parents who are in dire straits because they really don't know what to do with their kids for the after school hours what do you think the school committees you know the school committee has had a lot on its plate particularly with the building and there's a lot of things to manage but i do think that we've the different schools have tried as best they can to do what they can individually to make aftercare available and it's clearly not enough i think that from the school committee and from the central administration there needs to be a drive to first look at what's working in each of the individual schools there's different programs run by different groups there are some things that are working well in those programs but there are some constraints and some things that are not working as well in certain ones so i do think it's the role of the school committee to make sure that we are finding out what what are the things that are working and where are we failing and make it the schools and the central administrations job to make a plan that serves all of the families in belmont and not just the lucky few who get a lottery spot and  aftercare i have a similar mindset i think that i think the school committee has a role in this kind of equalizing and looking across schools we're all one district and we're not a big district and so having some schools have long long waiting lists and some schools not i think that it is the school committees role to to mitigate that and to figure out how we can get spots for all of our  i'll just add that the school committee is actually taking action now and we are meeting with the groups i just was in a meeting and you were there just saying that we started to have a discussion about what our role would be and what the options would be with the school district  want to provide an after care program and administer it would we then or we would serve as a role is a sort of central place for families to come and find out about these other programs there's also been extensive discussions with the administration its ministers at the various programs to get more information about what they offer they have constraints with staff and it's not only space that we provide but with their own staffing and their licensing and what they're able to provide so i think there is a variety of each school i think to in a way each school is somewhat unique all the elementary schools and so i think the different programs sort of in a way not all of them but some of them fit the school that they're at in the some of the communities are very happy with their program and the program is very happy with running the program there and that school  but i do think that we and we are taking steps to see how we can provide more resources to the programs to the families we've talked about if there is space available somewhere else in the town could we provide bussing to that other location i mean there are lots of different options that we're talking about and thinking about because this is becoming and part of what's making it a growing issue is our growing and role meant i think for a long time this wasn't a problem because our present the way it is now as that grows as the need grows this is becoming a bigger issue that is now up into the school committees purview and question well you've had many questions so i won't ask a question in the interest of time as well so at this point i'll ask each candidate to make a one minute closing statement you may make one if you'd like and you can begin i hadn't prepared anything i again just very privileged i feel very privileged to be able to serve in this capacity i welcome ongoing communications and conversations regarding all of these challenges that we face those that have been identified today and those that will reveal themselves tomorrow but it is a pleasure and the relationships that we're able to form are a testament to the commitment of the residents in our town so thank  bill so as i said i am coming to this role as a school committee member from the perspective of a product of public schools from a family of educators from a former teacher  and as a parent and to me there is no more important work that i could be doing than supporting public education in my community when it comes to the substance of the committee's work i bring some deep experience a relevant background and i think the temperament to balance the conflicting needs and contentious topics so i expect to leverage my background managing nonprofit organizations and budgets as we can consider how to best spend limited resources i have years of experience in an appreciation for how policy is made and over the past thirteen years in this work i've learned the critical importance of communicating clearly and often of being extraordinarily hard to offend and of disagreeing without being disagreeable so i'd like to ask for your vote on april  third in effect a school committee member needs not only passion and ideas but also the experience and commitment to translate that passion into action while in high school i had the privilege of serving as the student representative to the school committee in milton where i grew up for two years that experience shaped my own career path as a teacher and sparked my interest a first run for town meeting in milton when i was twenty one have long held the goal of serving on a school committee again since those early experiences i spent sixteen years as a committed classroom teacher which is informed my understanding of how classrooms and schools operate as a town meeting member and belmont for over a decade i have a depth of understanding of the complexity of belmont's political and financial issues these experiences have all prepared me to be a well informed and effective school committee member and give me a unique voice to contribute to the belmont schools i would be honored to have your vote on april third thank you you again for sponsoring this event and all the other candidates here tonight we had a wonderful discussion tonight we also had a great discussion last night in a dialogue and so we're learning a lot about one another and hopefully we'll be working together in the near future again as i said we are all we all bring something unique to this committee i bring my experience vision and commitment to the town of belmont to the school  thank you i'd like to thank all of the candidates who are here today especially for your willingness to run and to appear here today it's and to serve belmont as you all know it takes an extraordinary amount of work to even get here today and then you win the election and then you have to work a lot harder so we appreciate the citizens of belmont appreciate that i would like to thank you all for coming today and for participating in this event and a special thanks again to belmont media for covering this event live and also for rebroadcasting it again before the election one final reminder that the election is tuesday april third and polls again will be open from seven am to eight pm some please go and vote even if it's raining and have a nice