A New Age of Civility?

UMass/Amherst: the flagship of higher education

When I first started shining a spotlight on rowdy student behavior a few years ago, I never thought the day would dawn where a dramatic decrease in such bad behavior would become a "dog bites man" kind of news story.

But here we are, thankfully.

UMass released on Friday the box scores for this past fall's violations of the student code of conduct (now that it applies to off campus activities) and it was down a whopping 63%.

No surprise really since I published the Amherst Police Department noise/nuisance tickets and arrests back in late November showing they were down dramatically.  And the feeder system so to speak for the Dean of Students is APD, as every negative interaction is reported to their office.

But I still find some of the statistics interesting.  Out of the 107 students reported to the Dean's office only one was expelled, probably this guy.  (Assaulting and calling a black police officer the N-word will do that.)

Another not at all surprising, but still notable when you see it as a stark statistic:  80% of the 107 student offenders were males.  Why is that?  Is it a testosterone thing where men are more naturally inclined to bad behavior?

Of course the other statistic UMass doesn't show is the involvement of alcohol in all of these sordid situations, which if I had to guess approaches 100%.  Perhaps alcohol and testosterone make for a bad mix. 

Speaking of which, another notable statistic, one that UMass will not tell you about, is reported rapes plummeted from 22 in 2013 all the way down to six in 2014. 

In his inauguration speech on Wednesday, Northwestern District Attorney Dave Sullivan credited UMass with helping to develop materials now used nationwide to address sexual assaults on campus.



That too is something to widely acknowledge.

ARPS: Sinking Ship?

Amherst Regional High School dealing with a cold reality

If ever a chart starkly demonstrated the treacherous waters that lay ahead for an education organization, this would be it:

Click to enlarge/read

Now keep in mind when a student is stolen away from a pubic school via Charter or Vocational Schools it costs the District the full amount of their average cost per student, which in Amherst is extraordinarily high.  This current Fiscal Year ARPS broke the $20,000 barrier, compared to state average of $14,000.

Less costly are the students who leave via "choice" for another public school at only $5,000 per student. But add them all up and it comes to a whopping $540,000 carved out of the FY16 $30 million operation budget. Yikes!

 PVCICS Death Star addition

The Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School looms as the Death Star, expanding into a full high school with a gleaming new building to show for it. In just the past two years PVCIC has gone from 68 ARPS students up to 83 for the upcoming FY16 year. Double yikes!

Interestingly before the Chinese Charter School was founded the Amherst Schools had the opportunity to offer their Chinese language curriculum via the same founders who were rejected by public school officials, so they went off and opened their own Charter School.

Amherst Public School officials are now considering a major reorganization by "repurposing" the Middle School building, which currently houses 7th and 8th grade.

 Administration report to Regional School Committee

The Regional Assessment Working Group, who are recommending their own major reorganization by having the four-town Region expand all the way down to pre Kindergarten through 6th grade, spent a lot of time discussing the "repurposing" of a building.

 Amherst Regional Middle School ... mothballed?

The RAWG Final Report states:

"The law is not entirely clear about whether such decisions are matters of educational policy (School Committee domain) or administrative operations (Superintendent).  To the extent that decisions are within the purview of the superintendent, the RAWG recommends that there will be a lengthy and open process before the use of a school is changed." 


Either way let's hope school officials take to heart the concept of a "lengthy and open process," something the RAWG certainly has not demonstrated over their three year tenure. 

Downtown Dining Options Expand

27 South Pleasant Street

Two new restaurants will grace Amherst center next month, although both of them will do business in a space previously occupied by dining establishments.

Yes Metacomet Cafe, the restaurant with that cool retro sign that went up 1.5 years ago is, finally, going to open in the former home to Chez Albert before they moved to the north end of town.

Brothers Spencer and Trevor Hopton appeared before the Amherst Select Board back in July for a required Common Victualler License, saying they would be open by September.

Better late than never.

28 Amity Street

Almost directly behind the Metacomet Cafe in a spot formerly occupied by Arise Farm to Table Pub and Pizzeria, a new Italian restaurant, Osteria Vespa, will arise from their ashes, having purchased all the surplus restaurant equipment except for the liquor license.

On Monday night the Amherst Select Board unanimously approved a new all alcohol liquor license for the business, located adjacent to the Amherst Cinema.

 Jonathan Welch (left) Tom Schnapp appear before Amherst Select Board

Small business start ups, even in the best of years, fight an uphill battle.  About 1/4 fail in the initial year of opening and by 5th year about half have failed. 

The key of course is having a good product, providing good service, and -- for a business requiring foot traffic -- a good location.  And they don't come any better than downtown Amherst.

Inauguration Present

 DPW Chief Guilford Mooring: rare good news for Public Works Committee last night

Even though he lost Amherst by a landslide to ultimate choke artist Martha Coakley, Charlie Baker gave our town -- and all the others in the Commonwealth -- a nice inauguration gift in his first act as Governor: releasing $100 million of the original $300 million Chapter 90 money for roads and bridges repair.

For our little college town that translates to an extra $400,000 on top of the original $817,000 already received.  And it raises hope the town will get another $1.2 million in Chapter 90 money for the upcoming Fiscal Year.

Even though he inherited a budget gap of $500 million from his Democratic predecessor the new Republican Governor made good on a campaign promise to protect local aid, citing the spin off benefits of job creation and public safety.

Bumper stickers available at Cushman Market

As any North Amherst resident can attest, Pine Street is the BIG project yet to be completed, which still requires a finish coat this coming construction season.  The extra $400,000 will go a long way towards covering that.

Pleased to follow through on our commitment to local infrastructure by releasing $100 million in Ch. 90 funds today: http://t.co/vvze3OLSPO
— Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) January 8, 2015

Shock Therapy Déjà Vu

Calvin Terrell Amherst Regional Middle School (among angry parents) 10/3/14

Okay parents be sure to bring a box of tissues to the presentation this Sunday when Calvin Terrell sneaks back to Amherst to "recreate" the presentation that traumatized so many of our children back in October.

Although adults are probably a lot less prone to his emotional manipulation.

 click to enlarge/read

Interesting that school officials do not want any children at the presentation this time around.  If parents had gotten an advance peek at his act back in September, the sorry episode could have been avoided.

By firing him.

Regional School Report Ready (Almost)

Regional Agreement Working Group 7:05 PM

After three l-o-n-g years of mostly under-the-radar meetings, the Regional Agreement Working Group voted unanimously last night (11-0 with 1 absent) to support the draft report to the Regional School Committee outlining the purported benefits of e-x-p-a-n-d-i-n-g the current four town Region (grades 7-12) all the way down to Pre-K through 6.

The 12-page sales pitch extols standardization of curriculum, time savings for the Superintendent who will no longer have to deal with three separate budgets & School Committees, and better efficiency in assigning students to schools without regard to town boundaries.

But cost savings is pretty far down on their list of reasons, citing only a 2% overall savings for the Region as a whole (And that is probably based on everything going perfectly, which things never do).

   RAWG Final Report Draft

A few minor tweaks were voted to this draft

The final report will be discussed at the upcoming January 13 Regional School Committee meeting as RAWG member Trevor Baptiste, who is also Chair of the RSC, said he has set aside 30 minutes on the RSC agenda for the presentation.

School Superintendent Maria Geryk handed out a draft "timeline" that shows the Regional School Committee voting on the matter at their March 10th meeting where it will require a two-thirds vote to pass.

Then it will be up to the four member towns -- Amherst, Pelham, Leverett, and Shutesbury -- to pass at their annual spring Town Meetings two questions:  Should the Regional Agreement be amended to allow for this new expanded Regional entity?  And if this new entity is allowed to form do we wish to join?

Interestingly enough, Amherst, who makes up the vast majority of the Region, will only vote the first question because in the body of the amendment it states that the new Region can only be formed if Amherst and one other town decide in favor.

But if even one of the other three towns votes No to the first question the issue is dead, because to amend the current 50+ year old Regional Agreement all four towns have to vote yes.

The only two Amherst residents in attendence last night both spoke about the lack of transparancy and outreach to the citizens of Amherst over the past three years, and another spectator, Dan Hayes from Shutesbury, complained, "I've had no information or input over the years, even though I requested it -- and I'm a school committee member!"

It is odd of course that this process has dragged on for over three years with little to no public relations efforts and yet now they want it voted up-or-down within the next four months.  

Regional Agreement Working Group 9:45 PM

Cowards die 1,000 deaths, Heroes But 1

Stephane Charbonnier:
"I'd rather die standing up than live on my knees."