“Our budget is 51 percent, the town’s...is 49 percent...what is the town of Great Barrington doing with regard to its economics? I don’t see anyone in the town saying, ‘do we really need 17 policemen, with a decreasing population in the town?’ Why aren’t we looking at a regional police department...or fire department? Why aren’t we contracting out plowing?”
-- Berkshire Hills School Committee member Bill Fields
In his letter to the editor, Dave Long of Housatonic writes: "Make no mistake; we could potentially be facing a truly existential crisis. At this point, one bloody town meeting in Great Barrington could throw the entire district into a tailspin. Now is the time — before the warrant for town meeting is cast in stone — to try and head off a nasty escalation of political strife."
“It was determined with a lot of heavy hearts that we did not find a level program budget to be viable this year. It's not anything anyone is happy about."
-- School Committee member Richard Dohoney
Selectboards of all three towns in the district must first agree to form the committee to amend the district agreement before going any further in the amendment process. West Stockbridge is to vote on the matter at their meeting next week. And it is not certain that all three towns will agree to the process.
It was 57 degrees in Monuments Regional High School science labs and several more barrels had appeared in hallways to catch leaks. Indeed, students report several space heaters in a biology classroom where the teacher recommended they wear hats and fingerless gloves for Friday’s bitter temperatures.
The original bylaw [defining the responsibilities of the Finance Committee] in the town charter, and adopted in 1974, assigns a budget advisory role to the committee. The new bylaw asks for more from the town and extends the role to the [regional] school district.
“The notion that is pushed widely in Boston is regionalization and schools working together. The only concrete thing the state has to do is provide transportation, then they pull the rug out, even though they say they care about this.”
-- Berkshire Hills Superintendent Peter Dillon
“If you’re looking for public documents that are available, we’ll comply with that in a heartbeat. But some of the information you’re looking for takes 6 to 8 hours of research."
-- Berkshire Hills School Committee Chair Stephen Bannon, responding to Sharon Gregory's demand for a different format of detailed school district financial reports
I believe we need to take this opportunity to model for our children -- and each other -- what civil discourse and democracy can look like in small New England communities.
"Taking the MSBA accelerated repair program off the table simplifies the situation. What we can do to repair the building will be pretty much limited to what we can pay for with our own resources.”
-- Great Barrington Finance Committee member Michael Wise
Standardized testing is under fire across the country. Parents and teachers have grown mutinous. On her Facebook page, one Florida kindergarten teacher said she refused to give state-mandated reading tests to her students. Parents and educators applauded.
What many residents find puzzling, but can’t put their finger on, is why the renovation debate grew so heated. Some have wondered if there is another element at play, other than tax worries.
In his letter, Berkshire Hills Supt. Peter Dillon writes: "Recent posts on social media, letters and comments on radio programs are so filled with inaccuracies and glaring omissions that it makes sense to set the record straight. Our recent community dialogues about the high school renovation project have surfaced a range of concerns that may have been ignored for decades. We’re working hard to resolve them and are making significant progress."
In his letter Berkshire Hills Superintendent Peter Dillon writes: "Doing the project as presented addresses the school’s inadequacies in systematic and deliberate ways that actually will cost us less than doing it piecemeal. It gives us a wonderful space for learning for the next fifty years."
We’ve been around and around the block about this. Is it expensive? Is it going to cost us a lot of money? Yeah, but ultimately I think it’s the right decision to make.”
-- Selectboard member Sean Stanton
“This is a clash of economic concerns with educational concerns. It’s going to be an ongoing theme. At what point does it get too expensive?"
--Carl Stewart, chairman of the Southern Berkshire Regional School Committee
