Dear Incoming Student,
All Belmont High School students are required to perform specific numbers of hours of community service in order to graduate.
- Class of 2023: 30 hours
- Class of 2024: 30 hours
- Class of 2025: 40 hours
- Class of 2026: 40 hours
We continue develop the community service program at the high school into one which encourages and facilitates your participation. This letter, which goes along with the Community Service Guidelines (posted on the BHS website under General Information), will hopefully answer some of your questions about community service at BHS.
What?
Community service activities are those performed to benefit at least one other unrelated person and for which you receive no payment.
- The work you do must be under the auspices of an organization (e.g., town government, council on aging, school, hospital, nursing home, newspaper, or charitable organization). Work you do to help a friend or neighbor (e.g., babysitting, shoveling, tutoring) typically does not count toward the requirement.
- Service to benefit for-profit businesses (e.g. many day care and camps, landscaping companies, dance, gymnastics, and martial arts schools, etc.) is not applied to the requirement even if you receive no payment.
- Community service for which is court-assigned will not be applied to the requirement.
- See Guidelines for further criteria for service through religious organizations and traditional after-school and sports related activities
When and How?
Community service activities may be performed any time during your Belmont High School career, beginning with the summer vacation before the year you enter. You may perform one activity over a period of time or participate in many different activities. Service activities may be performed after school, evenings, weekends, vacations, summer vacations, and, for in-school projects, during any free blocks you might have during the day.
The first step is to select an appropriate community service project either independently, through the Belmontian Community Service Club or many other clubs that focus on particular service opportunities.
You are encouraged to come up with or create your own placements and projects either individually, with friends, or with a club. In many cases, you will need to call the sponsoring organization/contact person to arrange for the performance of your community service.
The Belmontian Club at BHS usually meets virtually every other Tuesday evening and works on sponsoring service activities in which members can participate. Many other clubs,(for example, the UNICEF club), also offer service possibilities.
In addition, I work with the community to develop service opportunities. As I learn of potential placements and projects, I email them to all students and post them on the BHS website. You should make a habit of checking these regularly to see what opportunities are available.
Verifying Your Service
For every different service opportunity you complete, you must fill out the Community Service Verification Form,
You will note that the form requires several things: information about you and the activity and a reflective journal entry. One thing different from the past is that you do not need to have supervisor and parent/guardian signatures. Ideally, you should complete the form no later than two months after the performance of the service activity.
You must complete a form for each different service activity you perform. However, if you do one activity repeatedly during a year, you only need to turn in one form for all of those hours combined.
You will be given credit for your community service activity in the year in which your verification form was received. Your report cards will display the total number of hours of service for which you have received credit, up to the number of hours you are required to do. You will not receive a letter grade for community service
NOTE:
SIMPLY PERFORMING THE SERVICE WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY RESULT IN YOUR RECEIVING CREDIT. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE ONLINE VERIFICATION FORM.