For the first time in its history, ACMi, Arlington’s local-access cable-TV station, is asking to be included in the school and town budgets.
The station took its first step Sept. 26, asking the School Committee for $200,000 for the budget in the next fiscal year. Committee members said they would consider the request but asked for more details.
Norm McLeod, station executive director, said ACMi has lost $375,000 in revenue since 2018, primarily because cable-TV subscribers in town are “cutting the cord” – that is, dropping cable as consumers turn to streaming. The station depends on revenue shares from three cable providers – Verizon, Comcast and Astound (formerly RCN).
Youth coordinator lost; Barnd retires
“That means we can’t hire a youth coordinator,” McLeod said or cover local sports as the station has done since its becoming a nonprofit in 2006.
The station’s financial shortfall has had an increasing impact in recent years. Studio B, a key connection to youth involvement and situated across from Arlington High School, had to move to make way for new apartments. It moved to the basement of Food Link, on Summer Street.
Studio B has since closed, and Jasper Hamilton, the talented youth coordinator, has moved on to make films.
In September, Jeff Barnd, the news director since 2018, retired after a 42-year TV news career that included reporting for outlets in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
Plea to Select Board expected
Appearing with McLeod were John Leone, ACMi board president, and Jeff Monro, longtime operations director.
ACMi leaders also plan to make a budget plea to the Select Board, at an yet-unscheduled meeting, followed by the town Finance Committee, this winter.
School Committee members Len Kardon, Jeff Thielman and Kirsi Allison-Ampe, budget subcommittee chair, all requested further details.
Superintendent Elizabeth Homan indicated she was aware of the decline in ACMi’s connection to a long-established TV effort at Ottoson. “It’s sad,” she said.
Quebec trip approved
In other business, the School Committee in its second session of the 2024-25 school year approved a trip to Quebec, Canada, for eighth-grade students taking French class. 
Applying were Ottoson French teachers Dawn Carney and Isabelle Mignot. They said the trip serves as cultural immersion, and the students have built a strong enough foundation to appreciate the cultural experiencep. The trip would take place Memorial Day weekend, with students returning Tuesday, May 27.
The committee shared comments and concerns about students who would not go on the trip, how they would be cared for and how to discourage a lack of attendance on Tuesday when the students will be traveling back from Quebec. Noted was that attending school that day is part of the students’ signed behavioral contract. Suggested was hiring substitute teachers for that day depending on how many students and chaperones go on the trip.
Beth Locke, executive director of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, told the committee about an effort to plant 2,000 daffodil bulbs along streets in Arlington to commemorate the beginning of the Revolutionary War. She says the plants will bloom just in time for Patriots Day in April. The committee voted to allow the bulbs to be planted.
5-year capital planning presented
Francis Gorski, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, presented the capital-planning report for fiscal years 2026 through 2030. It details plans, finances and timelines for installing multiple new playgrounds, including the one underway at Brackett Elementary School. The $800,000 project is scheduled to be completed by Oct. 31, weather permitting. If the project is not completed by that date, the report says the project will have to be finished in the spring.
The report also details several other additions to a number of schools, including adding new classrooms to the Gibbs School. Other costs include the possible purchase of Chromebooks for paraprofessionals. The proposal indicates needing funds in addition to the $500,000 already granted for a new elevator at the Thompson Elementary School.
The committee also heard that several school air purifiers are reaching the end of their lives, with a price tag of $140,000 to replace them. Homan agreed and brought up the issue of failing tech in several classrooms.
The committee received the report and did not take a vote.
Summer programs
Homan and Mona Ford Walker, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, presented an update about this past summer’s programs in schools.
Watch ACMi video:
That included a new health-education curriculum for students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Stratton and Dallin elementary schools. The new curriculum includes mental and emotional health, personal safety, nutrition and substance use and misuse.
The superintendent’s update commented about student performance on last spring’s MCAS exams, noting that students in kindergarten through eighth grade and high school met or exceeded all district targets for all students across all measured categories.
In a news release the previous week, the administration reported strong results.
The committee met at Arlington Public School district’s Office, 14 Mill Brook Drive, second floor. It next meets Thursday, Oct. 10.
Sept. 18, 2024: School Committee meets new leaders — in finance, schools
This news summary by YourArlington founder Bob Sprague and freelance writer Lawrence Brown, a journalism student at Northeastern University, was published Friday, Oct. 4, 2024.
