Charter school suspends staff

Congressman Richie Neal flanked by PVCIC Executive Director Rich Alcorn and his wife Principal Kathy Wang.

Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School Principal Kathy Wang and 3rd grade teacher Regan Hall were suspended without pay by the school as of Monday June 6.

Since Kathy Wang was under suspension, her husband PVCIC Executive Director (the Charter School equivalent of a School Superintendent) Rich Alcorn sat in for her at this morning's previously scheduled 'Principal's Chat' to update the 40-50 parents who attended.

The Department of Children and Families recently found that disciplining a 9-year-old student by placing him in solitary confinement for an entire school day constituted"neglect," and named Wang and Hall individually as a responsible "perpetrator".

According to the PVCIC handbook such a finding is automatic grounds for suspension, a bylaw the school's attorney deemed "archaic". The Board of Trustees--the Charter School equivalent of a School Committee except all are appointed rather than elected--will meet in a private executive session on Monday June 13 to discuss their fate.

The possible outcomes range from termination to immediate reinstatement with back pay.

Amhersty Art

A mural shaped like Hampshire County, lamenting the cost of war, was unveiled last week perched on the side of the Amherst Cinema building in downtown Amherst. The activist art project is a collaboration of area high school youth and Hampshire College mentors who are members of 'Get Up Get Down' a program run by the Youth Action Coalition. The project cost about $500 in supplies and was sponsored by Amherst area businesses.

Neighbors immediately filed a lawsuit over the presence of Wind Turbines, citing noise, visual pollution and disturbing the nesting ground of the Conservativo Republicas, an endangered species in Amherst.

Pay the Piper

23 Tracy Circle To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Jun 6, 2011 5:39 pm
Subject: [Only in The Republic of Amherst] New comment on Party House repeat offenders.

So Larry as you can see, this is matt. i just want to ask you in a civil manner to please take down the names and home addresses from you "second offense" page. Yeah, we were arrested, for watching the bruins play the flyers in game 4 if you need more facts about loud tv and yelling. but please, im asking you refer to us as "residents" "children" or any of you other nicknames youve given us. i understand that the information was probably in a police report or something you research. but when a family member puts my families home address in google and sees this, i get questioned clients, parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles all have to hear about it without knowing the facts.
i realize that some of the members in our house may not be the most mature people in the world, but that is why were in college now and you once were. stupid things happen to people by circumstance too so dont be so quick to judge.
i will answer anything you have to say privately and not on this blog if you want info to write about. get back to me

ill be watching the bruins
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Matt,
Yes, I was a UMass student once and strangely enough I worked as a bouncer at 'The Pub' in downtown Amherst to pay my way, dealing with rowdy UMass kids.

And yes your name was indeed on a police report--which is a public document. Perhaps why if you Google yourself you will also pick up the Amherst Bulletin article that came out a few days after mine:

"xxxxxxxxx, and Emerson E. Rutkowski, 19, and Michael H. Upham, 20, both of Swampscott, were arrested on charges of violating the town's noise bylaw and violating the town's nuisance house bylaw, police said. Each charge carries a $300 penalty, meaning the three men could be subject to $1,800 in fines."

Have you asked Scott Merzbach to remove your name and address from the Amherst Bulletin website?

Larry

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Sent: Tue, Jun 7, 2011 5:33 pm
Subject: Re: Party House winner

Actually Larry i have asked him too.
his article is in archive and not a direct link so it doesn't return a page when searched
cant you just respect my wishes as being enough? i feel like you're taking swings at me here for no reason. all i want is the names off, is that really too much to ask?
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Well when I Google your name and town I do indeed come up #1, but Gazettenet and the Amherst Bulletin come in at #2 and #3--and the Bulletin is free so a paywall would not interfere with folks pulling up your offense.

Have you paid your fines?
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yeah i paid my fines. fun story though the town of Amherst screwed up yet again. i paid my fines; they took my money and, luckily, gave me a reciept but never acknowleged it in their books. i then get a call from a friends in high places saying there is a warrant out for my arrest. as steve miller would say they took the money and ran. i went to the courthouse today. and for the second time the judge, 2 different judges, laughed at the charges blamed the town for yet again another mistake dismissed the warrant and charges and wiped my record completely.

just take it down

################################################
From: amherstac@aol.com
To: xxxxx@student.umass.edu
Sent: Thu, Jun 9, 2011 10:06 am

Matt,

Chief Livingstone just confirmed that you paid $600 for the most recent noise violation and a previous nuisance house violation. So I'm going to bend the rules of journalism and delete your name but not Emerson E. Rutkowski, 36 Puritan Park, Swampscott, MA age 20 and Michael Upham 53 Sherwood Road, Swampscott, MA age 21.

I'm tempted to demand you write a letter of apology to your Amherst neighbors and the APD as well as remove the term "Zoomass" from your Facebook page, but then I would run the risk of being called a "bully".

Tell your friends that my friends in high places confirm that an arrest warrant will be issued in August if they do not make good on the fines. And until then, if anyone should Google their name and hometown…

Larry

Development Tornado

Lincoln Apartments Wednesday 6/8

In addition to the town allowing the clear cutting of trees in the Atkins Corner Road Reconstruction project, our neighbors to the north are also whacking some sizable timber around Lincoln Apartments.

UMass is of course exempt from local oversight, so the Amherst tree warden has no authority--not that he defensively chained himself to any of the trees in South Amherst, now gone like the wind .

Speaking of Atkins Corner, the dirt piles all around Atkins keep getting bigger. I'm told that the town sponsored project in front does have in the contract a "general dust control clause". Let's hope they institute it today, as the temperature once again soars into the high 90s.

Atkins Corner Wednesday 6/8

Stop the sun from shining

Save the sparrow message fell flat at Town Meeting

Not surprisingly 13 NIMBY residents filed suit in Hampshire Superior Court casting yet another shadow over the old landfill where town officials hope a private company can construct a solar farm, a potential $1 million annual net gain for town taxpayers while reducing our dependence on oil and other bad by-products of energy production.

I suppose if the neighbors can afford the castles that ring the old landfill they can afford Micheal Pill of Shutesbury, a lawyer who specializes in land use issues. Although Mr. Pill did not have shining results--other than delaying the project and running up a tab--when he took on the town over low income housing on Longmeadow Drive at neighbor request, or when Town Meeting rezoned property out on Meadow Street to flood prone conservancy.

In only a few months the neighborhood concerns have ricocheted from (1) 30 or 40 mysterious barrels of potentially dangerous chemicals buried in the old landfill back in the 1970s by DPW workers under orders from a grouchy boss, to (2) lead arsenate soil from the Atkins Road reconstruction project being used to regrade the old landfill cap, to (3) the alleged serious degradation of the protective cap with added weight of solar panels causing a catastrophic crack; and now it's protection of the grasshopper sparrow, a little birdie that is only "rare" and not "endangered".

Obviously NIMBYs will never go extinct--especially in the People's Republic.

Diana Spurgin fell flat at Town Meeting

The Springfield Republican reports (ahead of the Gazette)

Hot Time in the Town

UPDATE: Thursday 6/9
So I'm now told that School Super Maria Geryk and Town Manager John Musante have been in negotiations for a month about possibly opening the Middle School Pool this summer as a public service (some would argue 'Public Safety Service'.) Let's keep our flippers crossed for a positive outcome.
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With public schools not yet in summer recess, today's gorgeous weather will only serve as a distraction to our youth, but a month from now it will act as an oppressive tormentor. And the town will provide little respite.

Back in 2005 venerable Amherst Town Meeting approved spending $140,000 to refurbish the War Memorial Pool area "comfort station" (bathrooms) a 50 year old cinderblock structure that also serves as Stan Ziomek's office for all things baseball.

That money has sat in an account all these years and is only now being used for its original purpose. Meanwhile the town closed the adjacent War Memorial Pool two years ago due to either budget restrictions or maintenance issues (depending on who is spinning the facts) and current studies show the pool needs $175,000 for proper renovation.

Last month Town Meeting approved spending $65,250 in a last minute vote to give the pool a death row pardon this summer, but town officials quickly nixed the idea and decided to stash the cash as a downpayment towards the $175-k required "to do it right" for next year.

But that $65,000 was based on operation costs for a season. Since the pool usually generates $20,000-$25,000 in membership fees, Town Meeting was clearly thinking it worth $40,000 in business losses to keep kids happy.

So why not take $10,000 of that money and purchase pool memberships at Hampshire Athletic Club and distribute them to the most needed families in town? LSSE charges $85 for a one month pool pass (out of the reach of many families even if War Memorial was open for business) while Hampshire Athletic Club--with a well maintained indoor pool--only charges $69.

And if the town went to the owners with that much cash in hand, I'm sure they would institute a corporate non profit discount on those passes; plus if each person also kicked in $10 or $20 in matching monies, a couple hundred citizens could be well served.

Such a public/private partnership is a B-I-G win situation: Hampshire Athletic Club acquires new members at the slowest time of the year, the town helps facilitate a valuable public good and--most important--children get to cool off.

A birthday bash to remember

For the first time in ten years the Amherst July 4 Parade is steaming towards showtime free of political fireworks. Yes, hard to believe in Amherst we can now actually have a civic celebration with all the pomp and circumstance minus the minions who think any event on public property is fair game for pushing a political agenda.

After a hiatus of 26 years, the July 4 Parade was revived in 2002--that dark time immediately following 9/11--as a venue for thanking civilian public safety and military personnel who routinely lay their lives on the line to perform their duty: keeping our citizens safe.

The traditional Parade is a loud, festive and fun affair--especially for children. Again this year the patriotic showcase will feature marching bands, color guards, farm equipment, dancing horses, politicians, firetrucks, police cruisers, and military hardware, including F-15 fighter jets, those magnificent war birds from Barnes Air National Guard in Westfield.

The July 4 Parade launches at 3:00 PM starting on South Pleasant Street near Amherst College Orr Rink and ambles directly through town center all the way to Triangle Street. The Parade Committee is made up entirely of unpaid volunteers and it's financed via private donations from individuals and businesses.

Contributions can be sent to: July 4 Parade Committee, PO Box 2145, Amherst, Ma 01004