Sir Richard Hood (rt) Baer Tierkel--the Wizard behind the curtain (left)UPDATE: Friday 7:15 AM
So Mr. Hood (guess I can't call him "Ricky Boy" anymore) is now Regional School Committee Chair after only a few months as member of the venerable Amherst School Committee (and by extension a member of the Region) thus culminating the fastest rise to power since Princess Stephanie assumed the throne of the venerable Amherst Select Board. Must be the power of their blogs.
The vote was 5-4 so Mr. Hood voting for himself made THE difference (all his colleagues on the Amherst School Committee voted for Irv Rhodes.) Catherine Sanderson was voted to remain as Vice Chair by the same 5-4 vote.
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Original Post early Thursday evening
So Regional School (Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury) Chair Farshid Hajir, after only a year at the helm, is about to be replaced because his fellow Leverett School Committee members did not reelect him as representative to the Region this past Monday; although he will stay on--as Chair of course--until tomorrow night when a new Regional Chair will ascend the throne, quite possibly Amherst School Committee newbie Rick Hood, who was recently by cited the Northwester District Attorney for using email to violate the Open Meeting Law.
Apparently Amherst's most seasoned representative and current Regional Vice Chair Catherine Sanderson, is a tad too uppity.
So is there a yearly rotation of Leverett SC members into and out of the Regional School Committee?
ReplyDeleteIf so, this event is a whole lot less meaningful.
If you want to get a taste of the Farshid problem, take a look at his running of the July 13th meeting on the ACTV website. There are certain "canaries in the coal mine" on Regional School Committee, who are not the usual hot personalities and whose utterances tell you when there's something wrong. Debbie Gould, a smart, sober, considerate person, is one of them.
So the rest of them AREN'T sober? Well that sure does explain a lot!
ReplyDeleteNo I don't think yearly rotation is the norm.
ReplyDeleteI remember many years ago when that WAS the norm on the illustrious Amherst Select Board, but then once Bryan Harvey came along he occupied the Chair for a half dozen years or so.
And now of course we have Princess Stephanie, in her second year of reign.
Ahoy mates!
ReplyDeleteCap'n Hood, Dramamine and Prozac to the rescue!
I just lovvvvvve romantic cruises.
Leverett's Hajir to resign from Amherst Regional School Committee, citing 'divisions, bad feelings'
ReplyDeleteBy NICK GRABBE
Staff Writer
Friday, July 23, 2010
AMHERST - Farshid Hajir of Leverett, who has been chairman of the Regional School Committee for the past year, will resign from the committee when it meets tonight.
The committee, which includes representatives from Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury, is expected to name a new chairman tonight. Hajir will become chairman of the Leverett School Committee, and Kip Fonsh will be that town's representative on the Regional School Committee.
Hajir was the committee's leader and spokesman during the negotiations that led to the resignation of Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez last March. There has been considerable rancor on the committee since then, over the 16-month appointment of Interim Superintendent Maria Geryk, discussions over the elementary union binding Amherst and Pelham, and other issues.
"I didn't feel like I could bring to the position the level of energy it requires, and I'm hopeful that some of the divisions and bad feelings can go away and people can try to develop a more collaborative atmosphere for working with the administration," Hajir said.
He will be leading a Regional School Committee retreat this afternoon. One of the questions on the agenda is, "What practices do we need to adopt in order to avoid the problems of 2009-10?"
I guess one of the "practices" would be NOT to have him as Chair.
ReplyDeleteMission accomplished.
This guy went from being a nice guy to a pain in the ass faster than anyone in the history of Amherst area politics.
ReplyDeleteThe manipulation of agendas, the absolute need to have the last word, the inability to understand the difference between presiding over meetings and controlling them, the insistence that we all have to cheerlead about the schools, the tendency to get knee-deep in the pettiness and then claim that he alone was above it all.
The inability to exercise power gracefully, until, finally, he had the insight that he wasn't doing either himself or anyone else any good in his present role.
So long to all of that.
Farshid, we hardly knew ya.
There's nowhere to go but up for Rick.
Yup, Farshid was a piece of work.
ReplyDeleteLove, exciting and newwww, come aboard, we're expecting youuuu....
ReplyDeleteBare Turkey.
ReplyDeleteSo, Larry, you call yourself a journalist, and you also endlessly profess a yearning for the America of the past when anyone gave a sh*t about Rockwell, the flag and really being a journalist.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I gather, journalism is supposed to be a reporting of the news. At least that is what it was before today's media people began thinking the public cares about what the journalists think.
Nobody cares what Larry Kelley thinks. Report the news, if you want, but don't call yourself a journalist when you post this kind of drivel.
Instead call yourself a gossip columnist. In fact, with a sex change operation you could become the next big thing in gossip. It's obvious this is the medium, gossip, that you really excel in.
Did you spend a lot of time as a child running around telling stories about the other kids, adding really juicy bits about certain kids slobbering at the water fountain and such. Because from what I've read over time of your stuff, that is really where your strength as a writer is.
You could probably get work right now with the National Enquirer.
Yes, there is an upside to your "journalism" course work at Umass.
I'm sure your professors have already recognized this talent for the gossip column.
Seems good enough to keep you coming back.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough the first time I saw the term/expression "Nobody cares what Larry Kelley thinks," was back about 20 years ago when town manager Barry Del Castilho used that exact line.
ReplyDeleteOf course at the time I had asked the Select Board to fire him for purposely obscuring the losses at the Cherry Hill Golf Course (at the time a lousy $157,000 but 15 years later grew to $1 million.)
But since the quote was part of a front page story in both the Gazette and Springfield Republican, it actually stung a bit.
But here I am 20 years later and where is Mr. Del Castilho? And this Anon making the charge doesn't have the guts to leave his name.
Bare Turkey's dyed hair looks great.
ReplyDeleteI think you're funny calling Baer Tierkel a "wizard". That's a joke, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was.
ReplyDelete