Let The Contest Begin

Aaron Hayden (center in sweater) Chair of Amherst Select Board

Yes, the local political season has already begun -- even though nomination papers for the March 31st Annual Town Election are not due at the Town Clerk's office until February 10.  

Doug Slaughter, current Finance Committee and Town Meeting member, has taken out papers for the one lone seat on the 5-member Amherst Select Board.

Current Chair Aaron Hayden's seat is the only one up (next year two seats will be up) but he is about to pull a President Johnson and announce that will not seek nor accept the nomination for his seat in the upcoming election.  Not that Select Board candidates are nominated by a party.

Doug Slaughter as member of Finance Committee (standing)

So no, at the moment, even if Mr. Slaughter turned in his nomination papers with the 50 required signatures, we do not really have a "contest."  Not yet anyway.

Interestingly (at least to me anyway) Slaughter voted in favor of my 2007 Town Meeting petition to fly the commemorative American flags annually on 9/11 (that lost by a two-thirds vote), as did recently elected Select Board member Andy Steinberg.  

And the two current long-time Select Board members Alisa Brewer and Jim Wald have always voted "yes" when the Chair allowed the Select Board to come to a vote on it. 

Mr. Hayden always voted "no" and as Chair, last year, did not even allow the SB to vote on it. 

Modern Age Of Education

Textbook Annex:  Will continue to operate as gift shop under Follett Corp.

For generations students have dutifully lined up the first few days of school to get their expensive textbooks at the aptly named Textbook Annex.  As of this coming fall semester that quaint tradition, like using a payphone, goes the way of video rental stores.

UMass has cut a 5-year deal with Amazon, the largest Internet based retailer in the country, which will allow convenient free delivery of textbooks at an average savings of 31%.

Lower costs for quality higher education is the reason many students choose UMass/Amherst in the first place, so this deal will only enhance that attribute.

Fortunately for Amazon -- should they ever implement drone delivery -- the Amherst Town Meeting ban on drones was only advisory.  And few officials outside of Amherst listen to Town Meeting.

That's What I'm Talking About!

Today's issue of Charlie Hebdo:  "All is forgiven"

Popular American wall poster 1970s

And Justice For All?

Maria Geryk introduces Calvin Terrell to the crowd of about 100- 125 Middle School parents/guardians and a few hand picked students

No tears were shed, nobody puked and professional counselors were not required as "social justice" speaker extraordinaire Calvin Terrell paid a return visit to the Amherst Regional Middle School -- the scene of the crime -- to "reenact" his October 2nd routine that terrorized far too many impressionable young students.

This time around school officials told parents to keep their children at home, kind of like cops separating two partners in crime during questioning so they can't compare notes.

Although nine ARHS students, all members of IGET (Inter-Generational Equity Team), were trotted out to the front of the room to tell the crowd why they are "warriors".

ARPS Superintendent Maria Geryk, the highest paid public official in Amherst, announced at the outset that no video recording was allowed (while looking directly at me).

 Calvin Terrell displays a t-shirt from a racist group in his home state of Arizona

Over the course of the first two hours the affable Terrell put on a good show that was a cross between a pep rally and a religious tent revival meeting.

 Audience stands for one of many interactive exercises

But the last half hour became a bit more somber as he reenacted the "visualization" exercise that was the most traumatic aspect of his controversial October 2nd presentation.

He told the attentive audience that this would be the "exact same way I did this with your kids."

He asked us to close our eyes and envision heading into our school on a cool October night holding the soft hand of a five year old girl, with our most beloved adult accompanying us, walking on our left.

Suddenly people are running, shots are fired, and we're understandably scared and confused.

A man near us pulls a gun of his own and says he's going to end this, but he's cut down by the shooter who is yelling things indicating he had been bullied.  Another shot rings out, only this time it's the police doing the shooting and the perp is neutralized.

He then pauses ... and you can almost see the Hollywood-like cut to a new scene which he describes as a room in a funeral home with two coffins, one of them for a child.  It's a closed coffin because the child was shot in the face with the resulting damage too great for the mortician to repair.

We then take a brief break and he asks everyone to check on the persons sitting next to them to make sure they are emotionally okay.

But in the October 2nd version I heard from a half-dozen Middle School students (one of them my daughter)  there was a much closer more graphic visualization of the shooter killing the 5-year-old girl and your most beloved adult right in front of you while you helplessly watched in sheer horror.

No wonder they didn't want this talk recorded.

Terrell also made snide remarks about men who dress "in Brooks Brother suits and work in tall buildings" yet he claims the reason he doesn't want his talks recorded is to protect his intellectual property, which generates a decent income.

In this case $38,000 for ten visits to Amherst.  So even if tonight was "free," it was done to protect his $38,000 contract.  Kind of like a restaurant giving you a free meal because the one you paid for previously gave you salmonella.

 Calvin Terrell:  As photogenic as he is smooth talking

As I was taking video at the outset of the meeting (and no, I was not going to video the entire 2.5 hour presentation) a woman sitting behind me suddenly snatched my iPhone, reminding me that it was against the rules.

I was sitting in the front row seat of the PUBLIC Middle School auditorium, the same seat I have occupied over the past 24 years as an Amherst Town Meeting member.  It was well below freezing tonight so keeping the auditorium warm (and lit) cost the taxpayers a few dollars.

And this event was sponsored and promoted by the Amherst PUBLIC schools to try to atone for the October 2nd mishap that was widely covered in the local media.

Social Justice does not trump the First Amendment.




Editor's note: To her credit the woman who grabbed my Iphone did apologize to me; as did Calvin Terrell to the audience late in his reenactment for having upset some students at the original October 2nd presentation and badmouthing the town after the controversy erupted in the media. 

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.