You would think overly enlightened Amherst, where “only the h is silent,” could lead the way on issues concerning school improvement.
The schools are never very shy when it comes to asking for more money from residents, but an email suggestion box--that could turn up money saving ideas--is considered the Devil’s work.
Williamstown listens
Amherst does not
12 comments:
Williamstown is also the beneficiary of generous contributions from its non-taxable entity, Williams College. Amherst is not.
So Amherst College is your excuse for not having a suggestion box for people to present cost saving ideas.
The idea here is to allow the people aka taxpayers some input as to how there money is spent, not to play the blame game.
-Ryan Willey
Bravo, Ryan. Could not have said it better, myself.
Until later...............
Wow, the response re. Williams College is total disconnect. Just ask yourself, what is so threatening about a suggestion box? The possible answer does not reflect too favorably upon our new Supers. How many more days are they on "our" payroll?
The bottom line: Amherst parents must DEMAND transparency, especially when the safety and lives of their children are at risk. What has been happening in maintenance and transportation is EVERYONES business. PERIOD. If Amherst parents turns away because don't want to be bothered
well, then suffer the consequences.
You know, Peter Crouse has a laminated poster in his office, on the right as you walk in, which shows a standing bear holding its' paws up with the words: "Quit yer bitchin'"...
Now, Amherst, are you going to do something or no? Are you going to demand to know about the terrible things that've happened over the years in that department? Under the watchful eye of P.Crouse... and now the master of the cover-up, R. Bohonowicz...
How long?
Last I looked our schools were pretty darn good.
Nothing in this town is transparent. The local media only reports what the local officials want them to. For example the town's newest ambulance is sitting in a tent at North Station, out of service with extensive front end damage and there has been no news of what happened. This means that the town has 20% less EMS reponse capability and is now forced to use a 12 year old ambulance with over 120,000 miles to respond to emergencies on a daily basis. Yet not a word as to what happened to to this $150,000 vehicle. What is the big secret?
What about the 96 Chevys (school vans) they had on the road until recently... each one had 240,000+ miles on it and were the worst rated vans according to consumer reports... most unsafe... go ahead check for yourself... They thought it was funny how long they could keep them going...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA :(
Bohonowicz bought new ones after intense internal "pressure"...
Right Ron?
I thought an on-line suggestion box was a great idea too. But please don't let the lack of such a box keep you from making suggestions to our School Committee. I realize that the comments will not be anonymous, but their email addresses are available here:
http://www.arps.org/hss/arps/School_Committee_Directory.jsp
Especially during this budget crisis (and while they are considering the reorganization of our elementary schools), it is important for the public to have a venue for comments and questions.
Alison Donta-Venman
An on-line suggestion box is a great idea if you want lots of bad ideas. I've never seen one of these things produce anything useful.
People aren't forbidden from making suggestions, they just actually have to put some thought into them and write them down instead of dashing things off as people usually do online.
the silent h is a latent speech impediment...just another word you new englanders couldn't figure out how to say....like "pahk the cahhh" , or "i sawr an idiot make a bad tshirt design"
exemplifying it is an insult to the people of the town....extremely poor choice.
There's a new T-shirt out there, perhaps from someone who knows this blog:
Amherst, where "Amh" is pronounced "W"*
*as in sausage.
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