No Summer Break for Belmont Educators

While students kick back and enjoy a few weeks away from the classroom, staff and faculty of the Belmont Public Schools are gearing up for the new year.

As part of that, teachers are engaging in professional development workshops while also taking part in the review and revision process for curricula throughout the district. This includes beginning to develop much-needed in-house special education programming.

“It’s essential to continuously review and revise what we do,” said Assistant Superintendent Lucia Sullivan. “Nobody does something once and comes across as perfection. It’s important we have the time and the space to look at our programming and continue to build on it.”

English teachers, for example, are working on developing the curriculum related to summer reading; another group of teachers is working on developing the curriculum for the Advanced Placement African American Studies course; others are working on the high school chemistry curriculum and the sixth-grade science curriculum. As many as 30 curriculum proposals will be underway this summer.

Sullivan said the ninth-grade world experience curriculum just completed the first year of a two-year pilot. This English/world history course brings together 50 students and two teachers. Part of the curriculum is taught in two group settings, with another part taught as a whole.

“It’s trying to give them a more holistic and integrated curriculum,” Sullivan explained. “It was really successful this year; next year, we have twice as many kids enrolled.”

Those involved in the program will work on improving the program over the previous year, with the goal of eventually introducing it as a universal ninth-grade offering.

Expanding Special Education Services

Proposals for a new program at the high school and additional support at the Chenery Upper Elementary School (CUE) aim to address the desire for Belmont to bring more special education programming into the district rather than sending students out of the district for the services they require.

“We have a group of people at the high school working on building the “Harbor Program,” which is going to be a sub-separate special education program for kids who might be struggling with anxiety, or kids who … are returning from hospitalization, and going right into seven classes a day is too much,” Sullivan said.

Belmont High Assistant Principal Sarah Winn said faculty in the building have long advocated for creating a sub-separate program, similar to the Harbor Program, within the building, “knowing we want to be able to service all of our students.”

“We can’t currently do that,” Winn said. “Right now, we have students who are out-of-district placements.”

According to a study by Ribas Associates and Publications, Belmont has more out-of-district placements than other districts in the Lexington, Arlington, Burlington, Bedford, and Belmont (LABBB) Educational Collaborative. In fact, the study indicated 155 out-of-district placements occurred in June 2023.

While this may mean students are physically located in Belmont, they are provided services through the LABBB Educational Collaborative. Other students, meanwhile, are transported outside Belmont for LABBB programming.

The proposed program will allow students to stay in Belmont, attend school in person, and – with targeted support – receive their diploma in four years. Students would receive a core curriculum modified to be in line with their Individualized Education Program.

Winn said students in the program will have a designated classroom space where content teachers will come in and teach their respective subjects, creating a more unified approach compared to mainstream educational programming. Teachers will be more closely aligned as a team, she said. Students will either take all of their classes in the program (math, science, social studies, and English) or take some “inclusion” classes, such as world languages, physical education, or art.

The program will be piloted at the ninth- and tenth-grade level with an initial cohort of eight students. If successful, it will expand to include eleventh- and twelfth-grade students, too.

The summer development is encouraging to Belmont’s Special Education Parent Advisory Committee.

“SEPAC’s current board is pleased that the district will implement two new programs designed to serve students that would otherwise be at high risk of having to leave the district; a language-based program at Chenery and a program for students with social-emotional needs at the high school,” co-chair Rachel Watson wrote in an email.

Watson added that there is concern the program won’t have adequate funding to eventually expand to other grade levels.

“We are hopeful that families will find that these programs are high quality and will allow at least some of their students to return to a general education classroom before they age out of the program,” Watson said. “However, there are many challenges facing special education in Belmont as we saw in the Special Education audit completed last February and SEPAC looks forward to working with the district administration and school committee to address them.”

According to Sullivan, the Harbor Program is made possible by money from the Proposition 2 ½ override, passed by voters in April. Specifically, the money was used to fund five positions, including an evaluation team leader (based out of the Chenery Upper Elementary School), two teaching positions, and two aide positions. One aide and one special education liaison, or teacher, will be placed at the high school to build the Harbor Program, while the other two are placed at Chenery.

“[Superintendent Jill Geiser] strategically decided to split them and put a teacher and an aide at the CUE, and that’s going to build the beginnings of our language-based programs there,” Sullivan said. “By fourth-grade, if someone is not reading proficiently, that’s a point at which something has to change. That’s starting at the CUE.”