Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a western suburb of Boston; and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, its population was 27,295, an increase of 10.4% from 2010.[2]
Belmont, Massachusetts
United States
1636
1859
Patrice Garvin
4.7 sq mi (12.2 km2)
4.7 sq mi (12.1 km2)
0.1 sq mi (0.1 km2)
44 ft (13 m)
27,295
5,800/sq mi (2,200/km2)
25-05070
0618216
Climate[edit]
In a typical year, Belmont, Massachusetts temperatures fall below 50 °F (10 °C) for 195 days per year. Annual precipitation in Belmont is typically 45.2 inches per year (high in the US) and snow covers the ground 52 days per year, or 14.2% of the year (high for the US). The humidity is below 60% for approximately 25.4 days, or 7% of the year.[13]
Government[edit]
The executive branch of the town government consists of a three-person Select Board elected by the residents.[28] The Select Board appoints a Town Administrator who is in charge of daily operations.
The legislative branch is a representative town meeting, with eight districts each electing 36 representatives, plus ex-officio members and a Town Moderator to run the annual meeting.[29]
Belmont is part of the 24th Middlesex District (for the Massachusetts House of Representatives), the 2nd Middlesex and Suffolk District (for the Massachusetts Senate), and Massachusetts's 5th congressional district (for the United States House of Representatives).
Education[edit]
Belmont is served by the Belmont Public Schools, governed by an independently elected school committee.[29]
There are four public elementary schools in Belmont: the Mary Lee Burbank, Daniel Butler, Winn Brook, and Roger Wellington schools. The Mary Lee Burbank School was founded in 1931. Two other public elementary schools, Payson Park and Kendall, were closed in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. The former closed after being destroyed by fire, the latter closed due to population shifts and was converted to an arts center, which was later also destroyed by fire. There is one public Upper Elementary School, the Winthrop L. Chenery Upper Elementary School, which was rebuilt on the same location after an electrical fire damaged the auditorium in 1995, and one Middle School, located near the High School, called Belmont Middle, and one public high school, Belmont High School. On May 28, 2019, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the construction of a new middle and high school which will be co-located on the same site.[30]
Belmont High is noted for its college placement, strong athletics, academics, music, and theater arts; a typical class size of about 320 students. Belmont High regularly feeds 5-10 students into Harvard University on an average given year. As of 2009, U.S. News & World Report gave Belmont High School a gold medal and named it the 100th best public high school in the United States and the second best in the state of Massachusetts (after Boston Latin School).
Belmont Hill School is a private, non-sectarian high school, grades 7–12. Belmont Day School is a private, non-sectarian Pre-K–8 school. There are several smaller private schools.
Media[edit]
The Belmont Citizen-Herald is a weekly newspaper covering Belmont, and published on Thursdays, and is available online, as well.[31] The Citizen-Herald was formed in 1988 by merging the Belmont Citizen (founded in 1920) and the Belmont Herald (founded in 1930). The Boston Globe and Boston.com publish a Belmont Your Town website that provides local news and information. The Belmontonian is an independently operated hyper-local news website.[32] Belmont Patch also provides online local news.[33]
The Belmont Media Center (BMC) was founded in 2005[34] as a local non-profit, public-educational & government access TV station mandated to provide and make available to Belmont residents a variety of media production & editing classes, locally produced TV programming, and video/TV equipment, studios and facilities. In 2017, BMC programs are available to Belmont subscribers of Comcast and Verizon, and BMC also carries live programming.[35] and on-demand programs[36]