The woods and hills, the low density, the open space, and gentle air prompted many of the first European settlers of the Berkshires to call it Eden. Now 300 years later, they are coming again. Once again, they are coming for the land. This time, what will they leave behind?
Christine Canning-Wilson says this is Massachusetts, where Republicans aren’t as hardcore as they are elsewhere. “My social values are very left. I’m very people-oriented. People are people; a soul is a soul.”
“The issue tonight is how are we gonna raise that [$14.5 million].” If voters said no, the Selectboard would have to “come up with that $14.5 million and they’d have to find it somewhere.”
-- Richard Coons, former Berkshire Hills School Committee member
In her letter to the editor, Ruby Citrin, a sixth grader at Monument Valley Regional Middle School, writes: "A failed school budget gives the impression that our community does not value education."
In a letter to the editor, Chip Elitzer of Great Barrington writes: “I urge GB residents to attend the Select Board meeting on Wednesday, May 18, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.”
In this letter to the editor, Steve McAlister of Great Barrington writes: "The end game appears to be that Stockbridge will hold Great Barrington hostage to the current, half-century-old apportionment."
The impetus for coming to a place of community involvement and cohesion about the Berkshire Hills Regional School District was two failed attempts to secure Great Barrington voter approval to renovate the 49-year-old high school, followed by a harrowing spring budget season.
In his letter to the editor, Selectboard member Ed Abrahams writes: "The citizens petitions all sound reasonable but every one of them proposes something that has already been done, is being done, or would require changes in state law or actions by another town that are beyond our power. They offer “solutions” to problems that don’t exist."
“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