Could be worse

Former Mark's Meadow Elementary School.  Returned to UMass

With the elementary schools once again facing a budget deficit of just over $200,000 and the white elephant modular classrooms at the former Mark's Meadow Elementary School safely refinanced and swept back under the rug, I thought it perhaps timely to look back on the most contentious issue of the past decade:  Closing Mark's Meadow Elementary School.

Three years ago, then interim Superintendent Maria Geryk told the School Committee:  "At this moment in time, given the information we have, given the time-frame we have, I would not personally go down that road."

According to the  3/4/09 Gazette (one of the last articles penned by Mary Carey.  Emphasis added):

Some of 60 or more parents who attended the meeting clapped after hearing that view, and some School Committee members agreed the district should beware of doing anything so decisive prematurely. "I'm delighted we're being so cautious and careful," School Committee member Elaine Brighty said.

Recently, in response to my public info request, Kathy Mazur, ARPS Director of Human Resources, wrote:

"Regarding the closure of MM, we had initial, conservative estimates of about 500K to close the school.  At the time, I was closely involved with the planning, and I was confident the amount would be higher than the 500K.  When we actually closed in preparation for the 10-11 year, the amount of realized savings was a bit over 800K.  However, that year we had just 63 classrooms in the 3 remaining schools.  This year, we have 69 classrooms."

She continues:

"It is difficult now, to make a solid determination of what is being annually saved.  Since we have more classrooms now than we did that first year, you might conclude that those additional 6 classrooms cannot be counted toward annual closure savings.  If you agree with this, then you would have to subtract about 360K from the original savings just for the classrooms.  With the additional classrooms also comes additional support (FTE) in the areas of aesthetics, SE, etc.  What we can state for sure is that we annually save the cost of a building principal, 2 secretaries, a librarian, a nurse, a guidance counselor, custodial staff, and probably some paras.  Roughly, the real $ savings at this point is under $300K."

But here are the figures the administration presented to the School Committee three years ago:

Reduction in district classrooms from 67 (FY10) to 64 (FY11) $162,000
Reduction of principal and 2 secretaries $170,000
2.5 custodians $55,000
1.0 ELL teacher $54,000
1.0 Special Education teacher $54,000
1.0 Intervention teacher $54,000
1.13 paraprofessionals $15,000
1.0 LPN $35,000
1.0 librarian $54,000
1.0 IA paraprofessional $20,000
 

Total Reductions $673,000

Hmm...Just the reduction of the principal, 2 secretaries and 2.5 custodians ($225,000)--when you add in employee benefits--would easily hit $300,000. 

But even if the lower figure is accurate, the huge $200,000 hole the schools are currently in would be a $500,000 canyon.  And that's exactly where we would now find ourselves if not for former School Committee member Catherine Sanderson becoming a Joan of Arc to lead the charge in a unpopular crusade. 

Of course, like her patron saint, Ms Sanderson was roasted at the stake.

Women Rule (Especially in Hamp)

The nifty main street bicycle overpass, immediately adjacent to the truck eating bridge, in Northampton center provides the perfect high ground for protesters to garner maximum attention.  And today around 4:30 PM, a handful of women came to demonstrate on International Women's Day calling for peace and the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant. 

They brought the banners to easily attache to protective fencing and a portable public address system to taut their temporary occupation.

On the way back to Amherst we spotted another handful of women protesters on the busy Calvin Coolidge Bridge packing in their banners.  The brief dual bridge protest was done. 

The war in Afghanistan, however, continues.

Long Distance Learning

 From Shanghai, China to Amherst, MA, USA

This morning my daughter Kira beamed into her 4th grade class at Crocker Farm Elementary School via FaceTime, from her Mom's iPhone to my iPad2.  Her dozen classmates seemed enthralled, perhaps because they have not seen her in three weeks,  although not stunned and amazed by the Star Trek technology that made it all possible.

No surprise I guess, since these kids have known nothing but digital their entire lives.  

Kira has been keeping up with her homework, taking private tutoring lessons four hours daily (half Chinese and half math), keeping a blog (yes, she's a better writer than Dad) and touring businesses with her entrepreneurship professor Mom.

All in all, a great educational experience.

Neighborhood Shake Up?

So it will be interesting to see (and hear) how the immediate neighbors living near our economic Leviathan react to the news that Lincoln Apartments, which for over fifty years housed families, graduate students, UMass staff, and visiting faculty will now be accepting the dreaded "undergrads."


Well, maybe.  


According to a polite memo to the neighborhood from Lisa Queenin, Director of Community and Regional Legislative Relations: "With the housing pressures on campus and our desire to maximize all available housing options for both undergraduate and graduate students, we may open Lincoln Apartments as a housing option to senior undergraduates who choose to live in this quiet community"

Lincoln Apartments is contiguous with Fearing Street, which is located in the heart of the Gateway corridor leading to UMass from Amherst town center.  Frathouse Pi Kappa Alpha, the scene of violent fights this past weekend (earning them two $300 "Nuisance House" tickets from APD) is located on the corner of Fearing Street and North Pleasant Street and the worst party street in town, Phillips Street, is one street over.

 Lincoln Apartments top left, Pi Kappa Alpha middle right

Rowdy student party houses poisoning the neighborhood was reason #1 the Gateway Corridor Project-- a joint commercial/residential  mixed-use development between the town and UMass-- was derailed.

The two acre parcel of property (formerly "Frat Row") that was to be the crown jewel of the town/gown joint development is now also a potential site for additional housing, assuming the Gateway project does not arise from the dead.

The gift that keeps on costing

 Trailer for sale or rent...

So last night at our illustrious Select Board meeting, during a routine discussion of repackaging outstanding loans into one cheaper bond issue--refinanced with a low 2.16% interest rate--Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe asked Finance Director Sandy Pooler about the current status of the (not so) portable modular classrooms at the former Mark's Meadow Elementary School, a building owned by UMass.

"Stationary," he responded laconically.

Had Mr. Pooler been around five years ago when the classrooms were first purchased for $205,000 he probably would not now be so flippant.

Perhaps no single incident best captures the hubris of the pre-Catherine Sanderson Amherst School Committee, where the rubber stamp was routinely pressed into action, better than the portable classrooms fiasco.  Although warned on the floor of Town Meeting about declining enrollments at Mark's Meadow by longtime town meeting contrarian Nancy Gordon, the portable classrooms unanimously endorsed by the School Committee passed overwhelmingly.

In fact, at the time, School Committee Chair (and UMass School of Education Assistant Director Center for Education Policy) Andy Churchill stated:   "the School Committee needs to look hard at whether we need to add two or four modular classrooms, understanding that there is a financial component to be considered." So I guess it could have been (twice as) bad.

Just three years later, at Catherine Sanderson's bold urging, Mark's Meadow was closed and the portable classrooms, never actually put to use as classrooms serving students, lay fallow.

Now they are too expensive to move ($50,000 or more) and negotiations with UMass to purchase them seem to be going nowhere.

Yes, Ms. O'Keeffe should have banished Mr. Pooler to the woodshed for his dry sense of humor.  Or better yet, to our abandoned, useless, expensive, modular classrooms.

Can you hear me now?

Wi-Fi emitters dangle from a streetlight in Amherst town center

Information Technology Director Kris Pacunas paid an obligatory visit to the Joint Capital Planning Committee meeting last week to pitch the department's infrastructure needs for the next fiscal year, with his top priority the routine--but expensive--upkeep of all things digital in a $70 million enterprise like Amherst's:  $123,000 for computers, routers, wires, switches, etc, in this, the second year of a six year replacement schedule for a total amount of $615,000.

Another $20,00 is requested for document/records/images scanning to reduce the floorspace dedicated to paper records (which can be forever lost in a fire) and make retrieval so much more efficient.  Money from previous requests recently bore fruit as the town now provides history buffs with on line access to town records dating back to our 1759 founding. Another $100,000 will be requested over the next five years.

The downtown wireless Internet the town provides for free with up to 150 users on at any given time is not maintenance free and now requires $20,000 to replace the twenty outdoor emitters located on streetlights around town center.

The public Wi-Fi system was constructed five years ago in a joint collaboration with two UMass professors working with Department of Defense grant on a reliable system of communication to be used after a natural disaster or unnatural nuclear war.

The system was never "hardened" for such events, however, as the natural disaster that befell the Valley via a October 29 snowstorm took out the power and the wireless went down.  The town manager is requesting $85,000 for a Town Hall generator which will ensure that does not happen again.

Perhaps the only request Mr. Pakunas will have trouble selling is a $32,000 Ford Hybrid Escape SUV.  Even Carol Gray, who pestered Police Chief Scott Livingstone about using hybrids for patrol cars, seemed skeptical, wondering if perhaps the department could "borrow" vehicles from other departments when they are not being used. 

Pakunas responded that it sounds good but is not practical for when his employees need to quickly transport items a short distance.

Now if the I.T. Department could just develop a Star Trek transporter...

Kris Pacunas (far right) Kay Moran Chair (head of the table)

Un-Occupy Amherst

After Bank of America and TD Bank in downtown Amherst were disrupted by a good sized invasionary throng of mostly college aged students back on November 17th, BOA stationed a security guard out front six days a week during bank hours.  He had nothing much to do, and recently the guard stopped guarding.

At high noon today, Occupy Amherst folks--all five of them--returned for an "informational stand-in."   Perhaps now the bored security guard will return.