Activists seek data about increased Covid-19 cases in town schools

• Covid
• schools

The situation at Arlington Public Schools with regard to Covid-19 in recent days is reminiscent of the first line of a well-known protest song: “There’s something happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

It is not evident how many people at Gibbs School, the town’s sixth-grade-only public-school campus, may have tested positive for Covid in mid-January and therefore subsequently had to isolate temporarily at home.

School officials have consistently declined to provide numbers. Even town health authorities say that they don’t know where things stand.

Read more …

Overnight parking pilot to be townwide; fee undetermined

• parking ban

Would run 6 months; meeting to discuss in February.

UPDATED Feb. 3: A proposed overnight-parking pilot program is expected to be townwide and to cost a fee, the Select Board agreed Monday, Jan. 23. Board members expressed less certainty about how much to charge residents to participate.

If approved, the long-discussed program would run for six months, lifting the prohibition of on-street parking between 1 and 7 a.m. for a single side of the street. The Select Board plans to vote on the pilot this spring. 

Read Shane Curcuru's summary, opinion | See Paul Schlichtman's spreadsheet on city-town density data

Chairman Lenard Diggins suggested charging a fee similar to the cost of securing a parking space in a municipal lot, which amounts to $365 annually. 

Read more …

Plan reshaping Capitol Square block returns

• mixed-use

Proposed mixed-use plan at Capitol Square. / Commercial, Residential, Hospitality of Newton

The Redevelopment Board is considering a plan that would reshape the Capitol Square block once the site of a bank that became two restaurants.

The plan would situate 30 residential apartments, five of them affordable, above about 5,000 square feet of commercial space in a four-story building at Mass. Ave. and Lake Street, East Arlington.

The board voted, 4-0, on Jan. 23 to continue the hearing to Feb 27. Board member Melissa Tintocalis was absent, and the Planning Director Claire Ricker reported Tintocalis is leaving the board and her spot may be filled in about six weeks.

The mixed-use plan covers the block once embracing Christo's Market and the Arlington Five Cent Savings Bank, built in 1920. The bank became the restuarant flora in 1996 and Bistro Duet in 2016, whichwas open two years. The block also held Adventure Pub, which closed in 2020. A restaurant, Little Q Hot Pot, remains.

Read more …

Arlington Rotary swoops in with gift, a drone for police

• police

The Rotary Club of Arlington has given the Arlington Police Department a drone.

Officers are expected to use the DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Series drone, priced at $6,157, for emergency calls for service, such as water or ice rescues and to search for missing persons, a news release says.

Read more …

Select Board meetings to go hybrid Monday

• public participation

Select Board meetings will welcome in-person participants beginning Feb. 6, Chair Lenard Diggins, has told YourArlington. Going forward, meetings will be hybrid, allowing residents to participate in person or via Zoom. 

"People at this point know what the risks are," said Diggins at the Jan. 23 meeting, raising concerns about long Covid and  virus variants. "[Just] because we open the doors, they [members of the public] don't have to walk in." 

Read more …

Committee takes first look at school calendar for 3 years

• students

The School Committee at its regular meeting Jan. 26 heard a first read of recommendations for the school calendar for the next three school years. 

Superintendent Elizabeth C. Homan recommended no changes for 2023-2024 with regard to religious holidays on which classes now are not scheduled. She also presented snapshots of ongoing research that might guide decisions in the future.

A calendar committee – School Committee members Bill Hayner and Paul Schlichtman, union head Julianna Keyes, two staffers and three parents – collected responses from Arlington Public Schools staffers and families. Members of each group were asked what they would do if classes were to be held on certain religious holidays going forward – days on which classes are not held.

Read more …

Black history, animation, playwriting among new AHS courses

• students

UPDATED Feb. 1: African-American history, animation, architecture, ceramics, design engineering, digital photography, ethnic studies, history of music in film, filmmaking, marketing, metalsmithing/jewelry-making and playwriting. 

This is not your grandfather’s or father’s high school, or yours -- unless you will be an Arlington High School student next September.

The School Committee voted unanimously Jan. 26 to approve these new classes and other changes in course offerings. 

Read more …

6-0 vote acknowledges $88.9m school-budget allocation

• public schools
• finances

Number to 'build budget on.'
-- Kirsi Allison-Ampe

UPDATED Jan. 30: The School Committee acknowledged – and did not adopt – an operating-budget allocation of nearly $89 million for the upcoming school year during its Jan. 26 regular meeting. The next school year begins July 1. 

Vice Chair Kirsi Allison-Ampe suggested changing the wording from “adopt” to “acknowledge.” In that amended form, it passed unanimously, 6-0. Because committee Chair Liz Exton was absent due to a family commitment, Allison-Ampe, in her capacity as vice chair, conducted the 90-minute meeting.

"This is the number we’re [going to be] building our budget on,” said Allison-Ampe, who also heads the committee’s budget subcommittee. 

The budget came up briefly during routine brief reports of all the subcommittees toward the end of the meeting. Allison-Ampe said the budget subcommittee had met recently “for strategizing” and was set to meet again Feb. 10.

Read more …