stakeholders agree the station must remain open and be made accessible one by one a packed house of belmont officials and residents from belmont watertown and waltham some of whom had disabilities told m b t officials of the veatch street center nov sixteenth that they were against the idea of closing down amounts to existing commuter rail stations and constructing one consolidated station at one thousand pleasant street we want the current square was in noncompliance the m b t has proposed to make the station accessible to those with disabilities which could cost up to thirty million dollars or create one consolidated station on pleasant street and close the waverly square and belmont center stations which has compliance issues of its own the n p t anisha lee offered to spend the thirty million dollars on other higher priority disability projects on the fitchburg line but states architectural access board the a a b mandated the waverley station be brought up to code or be closed we are clearly under order from the a b but how did we get there asked selectman mark barlow resident sterling crocket who obtained a meeting minutes from the a b public sessions pointed out that when the m b t a repave part of the waverly platform a few years ago nearly a four hundred thousand dollars project they unknowingly triggered disability access laws requiring the station be brought up to code the team that did this wasn't aware of the regulations at eric off chief engineer at the m b t a they thought they were doing a good thing unfortunately due diligence was not met on the design side going into the project this did not sit well with the crowd belmont helps support local businesses and ease eases traffic congestion baghdadi is so opposed to the m b t a station at one thousand pleasant street because he said the planning board has been eyeing the land for future development any station built in the area would also require nearby land takings on a commercial property owned by adam and paul talking and some land currently occupied by and almost public works  concern is taking a taxable productive future growth area and making it untaxable said baghdadi rewarding experience training a service puppy by jane slaven how can you in the united states i raised gallia a beautiful polite labrador retriever puppy raisers get their puppies at two months of age the accountability you feel as a puppy raiser for c c i is very different than the responsibility of having a pet duck gallia was bred to work i did not want to let down the organization who entrusted to her i had always admired the work of service dogs i have seen them as the key social connection between a disabled and an able bodied person when i first went to a c c i meeting i saw a man in a wheelchair with his service dog it felt more comfortable  monthly progress reports and socializing with the puppy by exposing the pup to a variety of environmental situational it is a little more challenging raising a c c i puppy with a pet dog in the house two thousand and fourteen the majority of assistance dogs are labrador retriever crosses and their average working life is seven to ten years there is no charge for graduate eight time puppy or if you need be cation coverage or training behavioral advice the group is very helpful the group gets together once a month for training and  first thirty officials begin to relent to new minuteman building project by bram berkowitz caught between a rock and a hard place after years of fighting a building project that they believe is oversized belmont officials now say a new minuteman career and technical high school might be their best option minuteman school building committee chairman ford spaulding and assistant superintendent of finance kevin mahoney rolled into the beach street center november nine on a mission to convince belmont to say yes to the one hundred forty five million dollars regional school building project if the minuteman i'm an administration going to get all sixteen towns in the minuteman district to approve funding for the lexington base project by june thirtieth two thousand and sixteen the massachusetts school building authority the m s b f k will reimburse the district up to forty percent of total project costs but tension really fifty eight million dollars throughout the project's life town officials have argued the proposed six hundred twenty eight student building size is too big and voiced frustration about subsidizing towns outside the district that send their students to minuteman this district population made up over forty percent of minutemen's are all meant as of october first but has not been assessed a fee to cover capitol related costs in the past after the m s b a said they would not support a building size based on in rome and less than six hundred with the minuteman school committees approval of schematic designs tuesday night realities begin to sink in we are where we are said jack weis belmont's representative on the minutemen school committee i am frustrated at irked by the process belmont was promised in two thousand and ten that no money on a feasibility study would be spent until member communities agreed on spaulding's pitch was to spend money on how to provide an efficient facility for the district's vocational students in order to avoid bigger costs down the road spalding said if the project does not move forward the deteriorating building would need extensive renovations to bring it up to code the renovations are projected to cost the district over one hundred million dollars and are not eligible for reimbursement from the m a he said as previously recorded reported belmont's cost for a proposed project would be around two hundred ninety five thousand dollars annually for thirty years which mahoney said is roughly thirty two dollars per year for the average household in belmont spalding also alluded to the recent law enacted by the state requiring out of district students to pay a facilities fee of seventy five hundred dollars for nonmember communities that offer vocational education programs in their towns the cost is just over five thousand six hundred mahoney said with new recruitment strategies member tanya romas expected to increase by more than one hundred twenty students in the next five years russian school of mathematics comes to belmont by bram berkowitz the russian school of mathematics recently set up shop in belmont at five eighty two pleasant street so no antonio on the principle of the belmont location says the new campus was in response to high demand as roughly three hundred families attended classes at the and award winning afterschool mass program for case through twelve children that is based on the best practices of math school in the former soviet you and europe and adapt it to the u curriculum continuity and student mastery of concepts for pace what makes your programs unique our curriculum and teaching methodology our teaching and our assessment melnotte students in a mess didn't miss a beat squashing state averages with one of the top performances in the commonwealth on november tenth the department of elementary secondary education the d e s e released p a a r c c results from individual districts for grades three through eight in belmont eighty nine percent of students met or exceeded expectations on the english language arts e l a portion and eighty one percent the same in math out shining other districts that opted to take the test this year including newton w weston no districts scored higher than belmont in l a statewide sixty percent of students met or exceeded expectations in l a and fifty two percent did fewer so in math overall less students met the expectations of p a r c c's standard than the m cas proficiency standard according to a statement issued by d e s c along with seven hundred seventy seven other schools students in grades three through eight in the belmont school district took the p a r c c test in english and mathematics which is part of d e ses two year trial run to determine if the state would continue with m cas or stiff or shift to p a a r c c or the partnership for assessment of readiness for college and work force has changed it does need some major up there is no accommodation area for the guys to have a break according to market a small kitchen is the only real area d p fitting a small restaurant with no showers or lockers the situation can make things problematic especially when there is a storm for three days straight like last winter and workers are in and  locations and the current site appears to be the best location primarily because residents of aerial love the deep and want it to remain this could be probably problematic as the