Monterey's "future probably lies in leaving the district," not only because of the town's dissatisfaction with Southern Berkshire but because 46 percent of the town's students are choicing out to other districts anyway.
-- Kenn Basler, chair of Monterey Board of Selectmen
Clearly, consolidation did nothing to control taxes in Great Barrington. And, based on the Egremont In her letter to the editor, Susan Bachelder writes: "Finance Committee's evaluation of the SBRSD budget, closing the Egremont village school will have no effect at all on SBRSD escalating school taxes either."
The complaint further asks the court to consider the School Committee's action to be a "material breach" and to grant the town the authority to enter into "tuition agreements with another district or districts."
Beth Regulbuto is currently serving as the Associate Superintendent of Schools with the Hampden-Wilbraham School District. She will assume her new post in July.
“Chess combines intellectual and emotional discipline – both of which are desperately needed in this irrational time. At the same time chess requires players to be polite and have decorum.”
-- Gene Kalish, organizer of the Berkshire Hills Chess Club
The Southern Berkshire Regional School District (SBRSD) School Committee resolves that neither parent who chooses to opt their children out of the PARCC, MCAS, MCAS 2.0, or any other high stakes standardized test nor students will not be subject to any negative consequences from the SBRSD administration or the SBRSD School Committee.
The Monterey School is one of three one-room schoolhouses remaining in Massachusetts: "It’s really simple. This is not a political decision, or even financial. It’s purely an educational decision."
-- Carl Stewart, chairman of the Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee, on the proposed closing of the Monterey Village School.
“This is such a mess that I can’t even begin to understand what’s right and wrong...It’s such a disaster.”
-- Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee member Arthur Battachi Jr. of Sheffield
In his letter to the editor, Carl Stewart of Alford writes: "There is a specific statute that deals with the liability of towns for damage caused by improperly maintained roads; it is MGL, chapter 84, section 15. (MGL is the General Laws of Massachusetts.)"
"It has become difficult to rely on the numbers that we received form the District. We are disillusioned by the School Committee’s apparent lack of concern for the continuation of errors related to FY16’s assessment.”
-- Nadine A. Hawver, chair of the Sheffield Board of Selectmen
“We have a glitch. The numbers are not that great, but a percentage of one or two percent, when you’re dealing with a lot of money, becomes a lot of money.”
-- Vito Valentini, chair of the Southern Berkshire Regional School District finance subcommittee
Although one team had expressed interest in having us join them, this did not materialize and so our Cinderella run in St. Louis came to an end this morning. In what seemed a reversal of the way things generally go, the kids took the result with more equanimity than the adults, including me.
The big story is how well we did against much larger schools who were better financed. In fact, Mt Everett finished ahead of every other school in New England. A great achievement.
“There’s no fluff [in the budget]. It is understandable that that some people in the community are not happy. No one wants to pay more real estate taxes, and no one wants to lower the quality of education. People are complaining on both sides.”
-- Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee Chairman Carl Stewart
