Mid Course Presentation

 George Smith (U3), Nancy Buffone and David Ziomek Co-Chairs Steering Committee

The Town Gown Steering Committee heard a brief presentation from their $60,000 consultants this afternoon, appropriately enough at the UMass police station, and  heard an earful about student housing and student behavior, which have brought this college town to a tipping point.

Lead consultant George Smith of U3 Advisers said they are still in the "due diligence and research phase" meeting with all the stakeholders from the Chancellor on down, and he is targeting August for  release of preliminary findings.

But Ken Rosenthal, the first member of the Steering Committee to speak after the presentation chastised the consultants for not meeting with neighbors living in the battle zones. 

UMPD Chief John Horvath, Ken Rosenthal, Tony Maroulis

Amherst Planning Director Jonathan Tucker defended his department saying they are not pursuing any one particular housing plan, but a range of options -- inclusionary zoning, greater density expansion at already existing apartment complexes, student housing (in the right place) -- and that when it comes to housing, the solution is simple: the town just needs MORE.

Of course out of the two dozen or so members of the general public who attended the presentation a good number were activists neighbors who react to students the way vampires react to daylight.

Nancy Buffone did say UMass, which currently houses 62% of its students, is looking at public private partnerships to build taxable student housing on school property but it's "very complex" with a wide variety of political, legal, and financial implications.

Local developers Dave Williams and Kyle Wilson, who are currently constructing Olympia Place, a complex near UMass housing 236 students and Kendrick Place at the edge of town center which will house 102 tenants, were in attendance.   They probably would not welcome the competition of a huge new student housing development on or off campus (unless of course they were the chosen developer).

As they say on Facebook under relationships, "It's complicated."

Either/Or. Which is it?

 Rookie Regional Chair Lawrence O'Brien

Yes last night's Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee meeting was a tad discombobulated due to the firefight at public comment period, but that's still no excuse for using deception when invoking something as sacred as Executive Session.

According to the published agenda the Executive Session was "To discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining."  But when the committee actually went into Executive Session, Chair Lawrence O'Brien gave the reasons(s) as "Collective bargaining OR litigation."

Kind of a BIG difference.

Sort of like a spouse going out for a gallon of milk and returning home with a 65" High Definition TV.  Both are household purchases, but ...

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A Heartbeat Away

 Mike Morris at last night's Regional School Committee meeting

Last night just before adjourning from a l-o-n-g contentious meeting the Regional School Committee -- while being serenaded by protesters -- approved the ascension of Mike Morris (by a 9 yes, 1 abstain, 1 absent vote) from his current position in Central Office as Director of Evaluation and Assessment to that of Assistant Superintendent.

Morris served as principal at Crocker Farm Elementary School from 2008 until 2012.  Superintendent Maria Geryk described it as "more of a change in title/role" so a new replacement will not be hired to fill his old position.

He currently makes $100,000 annually and presumably will receive an increase in pay to go along with the new title, but HR chief Kathy Mazur stated his new salary, "has not yet been determined."

Amilcar Shabazz was absent for the vote because he was feeling ill and left immediately after the vote on Superintendent Geryk's evaluation.  So no, he did not join the protesters singing "We Shall Overcome" in the back of the room.

Damage Assessment

 Heavy machinery and wet logging roads do not mix

The Amherst Conservation Commission and wetlands administrator Beth Willson took a guided tour -- otherwise known as a "site visit" -- this morning, led by environmental consultant Tony Wonseski to assess the damage caused by a subcontractor's heavy duty drilling machine in and around wetlands on the proposed site of the controversial "The Retreat" student housing development.

Tony pointed out seven impact areas in total but only five seem to require remediation, although that will be up for discussion at tonight's Conservation Commission meeting.

 One of the less damaged sites

And some of the damage could also have been caused by ATVs or other equipment not associated with Landmark Properties.  Anytime site work is performed anywhere near a wetlands the Conservation Commission should be notified in advance to allow their input.

 One of the more damaged sites

The damage was only recently discovered.   Landmark immediately reported it and they have already done stabilization work around the intermittent streams.

Tonight they will present plans to avoid a future recurrence, one of which is to have an environmental expert on site whenever work is being performed next to wetlands.

 

Biodegradable stabilization bales

Tony pointing out another less damaged area

One of the test drill sites

Damaged area along power line access road

Occupy School Committee

40-50 people attended tonight's Regional School Committee meeting 

So just to give you a brief idea of how tonight Regional School Committee meeting went I give you the start of the "public comment" period where newly elected RSC Chair Lawrence O'Brien went back to a policy of only 15 minutes total with 3 minutes assigned to each of five speakers.

 Two very large doomsday clocks counted down the three minutes

That did not go over very well.  At all. 

The Public  Comment period started at 7:20 PM and the "15 minutes" ended at 8:00 PM, when the Committee retreated into Executive Session but will come out in the next hour or so.  Maybe.

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Vera Douangmany with 20 supporters addresses committee for 3 minutes

Sonji Johnson-Anderson:  "One of our own suffered great harm this year ..."

9:30 PM Activists got tired of waiting for the School Committee to come out of Executive Session so they arranged chairs in a circle and started their own "Democratic Community Gathering" in the back of the room.

Important Planning Hire

 147 acres of woodland under purchase and sale agreement for $6.5 million

Last week the Amherst Planning Board voted unanimously (5-0 with 2 absent) to hire Fuss & O'Neill as their go to person for helping sort out all the planning issues associated with the largest and most expensive rental housing construction project in well over a decade, The Retreat in northeast Amherst.

A hiring committee consisting of two Planning Board members and four full-time professional town planning staff made the recommendation for Fuss & O'Neill over two other applicants.

The "scope of work" clause gives an ambitious time table, with a preliminary report within 30 days of starting and a final report 30 days after that.

As soon as Landmark Properties cuts a check for $20,700, the clock starts ticking ...

A Singular Achievement

ARHS graduate Dylan Akalis receives diploma via Holyoke School Committee member Erin Brunelle yesterday in the backyard of this grandfather's house

As graduation parties go it was all wonderfully typical:  Proud parents, lots of extended family, friends, classmates;  well wishers both young and old, with enough variety of race and ethnicity to make the United Nations proud. 

But the b-i-g difference is this party started before the diploma was issued, with the party's guest of honor the only person present in a cap and gown.   And the person who handed him his hard earned diploma was indeed a public school official, but from another city.

Yes for Dylan Akalis it's been an up and down senior year, but the final outcome -- graduating from Amherst Regional High School in spite of being banned from the June 6 graduation ceremony at the Mullins Center -- was still sweet.

Dylan you may remember was bullied by three black youths (physically assaulted by one of them) for use of the supposedly hip version of the N-word to congratulate a black friend for a stellar basketball performance.

School officials did nothing to stop the harassment, so in self-defense Dylan anonymously posted to a Facebook confessions site a threat about bringing a weapon to school.

As a result the High School was closed for a day (even though authorities identified Dylan many hours before the start of the school day) on Monday, January 27th.  Dylan was handed a 12 day suspension for use of the N-word and invoking a weapons threat.

Most hurtful, however, was the erroneous allegation that Dylan was a racist. 

Feeling betrayed by the Amherst schools the family kept Dylan out for the rest of the year, assuming since he had enough credits Dylan would be allowed to graduate and march with his friends at the graduation ceremony.  Wrong.

Amherst school officials did say they would send a high ranking administrator to the planned June 22 party to officially hand him his diploma.  So that was something.  Sort of.

But when Superintendent Maria Geryk fired Dylan's dad a few weeks back for using the common electrician term "master and slave units" in front of a black school employee, Dylan decided he wanted nothing more to do with Amherst school officials.  Ever.  

Thus no official representative from Amherst Regional Public Schools attended the Sunday graduation celebration.

Too bad, because they could have learned a thing or two about family values.