Sunday setting

Sustain this!

Southwest: Another Garden Grows 

Even with hundreds of millions of dollars spent over the past decade sprouting buildings from "new dirt" UMass has found a way--albeit small--to reduce their carbon footprint by locating sustainable  gardens sprinkled throughout the campus.  Currently UMass/Amherst is the only public school of higher education with a Permaculture Garden program.

Now they have received a tip of the golf cap from President Obama as the UMass Amherst Permacuture Initiative was the top vote getter (with 59,857)  in the "Campus Champions of Change Challenge", where the top five ideas win a  trip to the White House.   

Maybe the President will toast them with beer made from locally grown barley and hops.

Frisky Friday

Amherst Police Department 111 Main Street

While maybe not as outrageous as last week--at least as far as actual $300 Noise and Nuisance citations issued--Amherst Police were, nevertheless, kept busy ricocheting all over town to quell loud parties.

In the short span of three hours, between 11:30 PM and 2:45 AM, police visited ten locations to issue warnings for loud noise.  So yes, if APD should visit any of these locations again this evening they will be far less inclined to simply warn the boisterous inhabitants.

Warnings Issued:
473 Pine Street, Colonial Village #160, Puffton Village #221, 71 South Prospect Street 2nd floor, Salem Place Condo #17, 45 Leverett Road, The Boulders #162G, 45 Leverett Road (again), Puffton Village #78 and #83,

That's a (final) wrap

"That's a wrap"at 23 North Pleasant St. in downtown Amherst is no more.  But they still have locations in Pittsfield, Dalton and Williamstown, although kind of far for take out.

The sandwich shop opened just under a year ago.  And since restaurants occupy the top of the list for start up failures, I guess it's not shocking news.  They seem to have followed the business model of Bueno Y Sano by targeting college towns, although that popular burrito establishment is just around the corner, while local culinary icon Antonio's Pizza is only two doors down.

White Hut also recently opened nearby.  Downtown Amherst is like a Mall's food court, with the rents almost as high.  A small business is full time enough when the product you offer is non perishable.  Throw in the fresh ingredient factor and the work is never done.

But more will come.  They always do.

Previous tenant

Figures don't lie, but...

 Click to enlarge (if you can handle the truth)

Well, I knew the Amherst school system was pretty weak with math, but this is ridiculous.

Rather than use the actual dollar amount of $697.73 vs. state average of $445.97 or a difference of $252.76 per student (57% higher!) for presenting administration costs, the Amherst Regional School Committee was shown an overall percentage figure of the Region's total spending instead (4.03%), which averages a whopping $17,144 per student vs. state average of $13,055.

Or if you prefer percentages, a whopping 31% over state average.

When Rick Hood ran his yacht factory, if his labor costs were on average 31% higher than a competitor, it's hardly reassuring that administration costs were--as a percentage of total spending--average, because that means the actual dollar amount spent on administration would still be 31% higher than it should be.

Simply put, the $251.76 extra per child in current administration cost over state average, times 1,545 regional students comes out to an extra annual administration cost of $388,969.20! 

The real reason for such high admin costs

 The Amherst Bulletin "reports"

Shutesbury shoot out widens

Now come Alan Seewald, former Amherst, current Northampton city attorney and private practice attorney, to join the Shutesbury library legal fray by filing a "Motion To Intervene" on behalf of ten No voters requesting a Superior Court Judge review three additional yes votes, besides the one already ruled invalid, on identical grounds: residency.

The three challenged votes--two Pills and another Buck-- are the same previously challenged ones the Board of Registrars allowed at the January 25 recount where they did, however, sustain one challenged vote: Christopher Buck.  That brought the contentious vote tally back to 522-522, override fails.

Pro-override voters then filed a lawsuit against the Town Clerk and Board of Registrars demanding a Shutesbury couple with 37 years of residency, but who winter in Florida, be disenfranchised; and that Christopher Buck--who signed a legal document in Kentucky shortly before the Shutesbury election with the provision, "I do not claim the right to vote anywhere outside Kentucky"--be counted.

Now counter-petitioners are asking the Judge to rule Christopher Buck's wife Jessica, who also lives with him in Kentucky, ineligible.  Shoshana Holzberg-Pill, and Jacob Holzberg-Pill, who live and work full-time far from the bucolic community of Shutesbury, also make the short list.

And if that is not reassuring enough, attorney Seewald throws in the kitchen sink, asking the judge to declare the entire second override election invalid because town officials--in their haste to fast track the library--neglected to return to Town Meeting for a second spending authorization contingent on a Proposition 2.5 Override.

This entire legal maneuver will be made moot in the likely event the judge disagrees with pro-overriders and allows the original January 25 decision of the Board of Registrars to stand.   

Shutesbury Library Answer and Statement of Claim

Chinese Charter School on Probation

PVCICS:  Charter renewed with conditions

Despite cheerleader like support from 40 to 50 parents, children and staff in the audience--about half of them hoisting supportive signs--the state Board of Education and Secondary Education unanimously voted to support the recommendation of Commissioner Mitchell Chester to renew the five year charter for Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, but rejected amendments to allow expansion to high school or increased enrollment in the elementary grades by 120 students.

Signs of support (in English)

Although a last minute amendment by Commissioner  Chester grandfathered the seven current eight graders, so they may attend ninth grade but the school cannot solicit any additional students.  And since each additional student represents an average of $13,000 in revenue, a costly sanction indeed.



The lone voice and three minute testimony of the parent of a former student had the undivided attention of the board. The mother of the now 10 year old boy who was banished to a tiny room for seven hours--without parental notification--the day after an alleged shoving match took place in the boys room.


A Department of Children and Families investigation branded two school employees--one of them Principal Kathy Wang--guilty of neglect, and a follow up investigation by the Department of Education found four additional areas of concern:  discipline, special education, governance and leadership.  

Jeff Wulfson, Deputy Commissioner BESE

The mother asked the Board of Education and Secondary Education members four questions:

Why are the two employees who have been found guilty of neglect still working around children?

What pupose does a school's family handbook serve if the board of trustees can unilaterally overturn portions of it as they see fit? 

How can public tax money now be used to pay for the legal appeal of those found guilty of neglect?

Even if the State Ethics board found it legal for a husband and wife to hold the positions of Executive Director and Principal in a charter school, how can it be acceptable?

In closing, she countered the BESEs simple solution of telling the Chinese Charter board of trustees to shape up and provide more governance.  "To have the board of trustees try to correct themselves and be responsible for overseeing school administrators seems like a leap of faith, and high risk."

Paul Reville, Secretary of Ed.  Mitchell Chester, BESE Commissioner

So this morning, once again, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education listened to Commissioner Chester...and if the leaders of the Chinese Charter School were also listening today, they will take seriously Commissioner Chester's  demand to drastically improve governance and leadership by the September 30 deadline.

Maura Banta, Board of Ed Chair sends "clear message"

 David Roach, BESE member

Not that nearby Hatfield will mind if they do not. Hatfield Comment Pvcics 10 2011 Springfield Republican reports (from afar)