Simple Questions

9 member Charter Commission could have new town government ready for 2017 vote

As promised Amherst For All has issued a short survey to all 20 Charter Commission candidates who will appear alphabetically on the March 29 local election ballot, thanks to the four month campaign that snagged the 3,215 required signatures.

 Click to enlarge/read

If anyone refuses to answer all 5 questions, voters should immediately eliminate them in favor of ones who did take the time to fully respond.

And anyone who refused to sign the petition to get the vote on the ballot in the first place should also be automatically rejected.

As should at least half of any husband and wife combinations.

And The Children Shall Lead?

Today's Gazette hyping a Town Meeting advisory warrant article from 8th-graders

So here's yet another good reason to do away with antiquated Amherst Town Meeting as a legislative body overseeing our $75+ million college town: time wasting advisory articles.

According to today's Gazette Amherst Regional Middle school students will collect the (only) ten signatures required to get their rename Columbus Day article on the warrant.

Geeze, maybe Amherst College students will file one calling for the renaming of our town, and by extension Amherst College.

Or maybe ten rowdy UMass kids will file one suggesting we officially recognize the "Blarney Blowout."

Two of the most egregious public relations nightmares that made us the laughing stock of the nation were hatched by 17-year-old high school students: the cancelling of 'West Side Story' and then 5 years later being the only high school in the nation to perform the R rated 'Vagina Monologues'.

Sometimes -- like the medieval Children's Crusade -- it's best not to let the kiddies lead.

Strategic Partnership Backstory

UMass is by far the town's largest employer

The 3.5 year Strategic Partnership agreement hurriedly signed around Christmas is pretty much a status quo deal -- which is to say lousy -- and only provided $120,000 in new monies for "various services the town provides to the university and its faculty, staff and students, including educating K-12 students who live in tax-exempt housing and first responder services."

The combined budget of Amherst Public Safety Departments (Police/Fire/Dispatch) comes to $10 million and about 20% of those resources go towards dealing with UMass students on and off campus, or about $2 million.

In addition School Superintendent Maria Geryk told Town Meeting last year there were 56 children coming into Amherst Public Schools from tax exempt family housing at Umass for a cost to Amherst taxpayers of $1.2 million.

Interestingly in the original 2007 Strategic Agreement UMass clearly stated that if Mark's Meadow Elementary School should close (which it did soon thereafter) they would come back to the bargaining table to discuss the cost of educating children from their tax exempt housing.

Not only did they not come back to reopen the agreement after they took back the School of Education building, but just a few months ago UMass demolished the $200,000 town owned portable classrooms that were located to the rear of the building.

So I wondered how much work went into the new Strategic Partnership that was 3.5 years overdue when finally signed.  My sources told me Nancy Buffone, Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations, was the main point person on the academic side.

And of course Town Manager John Musante and his sudden replacement Dave Ziomek were in charge on the town side.

I'll let you decide ...

Took six weeks and cost $275

   UMass Amherst Strategic Partnership

A Historic Cold Month

February has been a good month for remembering & honoring cultures that help make our little college town what it is today.

We started February with the 2nd annual St. Brigid's Day to remember the Irish in a way as diametrically opposite as possible to the unsanctioned Blarney Blowout, and today it was the 3rd annual flag raising combined with a well attended ceremony at Town Hall to remember Black History Month.

Although it was bitter cold and the ceremony was advertised as an outdoor event, about four dozen citizens crowded into Town Hall to hear Jim Wald read the Select Board proclamation and poet Xinef Afriam perform a passionate piece remembering 150 years of black suffering.

The crowd did brave the weather, marching slowing out of Town Hall and assembling on the front steps while singing the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice & Sing."

No Ballot For You

Helen Berg collecting signatures last weekend

After a brief conversation with the Town Clerk this afternoon Select Board wanna be candidate Helen Berg was satisfied with most of the names disqualified from her nomination papers, but she remained  adamant about only two of them which she will attempt to appeal to a higher authority.

Berg had handed in her papers on the final day less than an hour before deadline with 64 names.  The Town Clerk's office disqualified 16 of those names for a variety of reasons leaving her just two shy of the 50 needed.

There is no option available to appeal the Town Clerk's decision to the Board of Registrars or any other local authority other than bringing a lawsuit before a Hampshire Superior Court judge.

Last year Vince O'Connor and Mary Wentworth tried to have signatures thrown out from School Committee candidate Phoebe Hazzard because multiple signatures appeared to have been signed by the same person.

The Board of Registrars does get involved with a properly filed challenge/appeal over nomination signatures but does not get involved if it was the Town Clerk who threw them out.

Berg came in a distant third two years ago for Select Board and threatened a lawsuit because the Town Clerk did not put the names on the ballot alphabetically (where her name would have been first).

Turns out the town had been granted special state legislation in 1975 to allow names to appear by drawing from a hat, letting luck be the deciding factor.  That applies only to town wide contests.

The 20 Charter Commission candidates still fall under normal state guidelines, so their names will appear alphabetically on the March 29 ballot.

Taking On Water

Maria Geryk, Sean Mangano, Mike Morris at last night's Finance Committee meeting

Amherst school officials gave the Finance Committee a sneak peak at their fiscal 2017 Elementary and Regional School budgets, both of which are described as "level services," and both of which require sizable cuts simply to attain that treading water status quo:

$428,897 from the elementary schools and  $280,823 from the Region.

 Charter Schools cost as much as employee Step/COLA and projected raises next year on Elementary budget Control Accounts

And in both cases the number one cause of budget strain comes from the competitive drain of students by Charter Schools, mainly Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley, which is now a full service grades 1-12 enterprise.

 PVCIC recently added $10 million building addition

For the Region (grades 7-12) this year that includes 90 students and at the elementary level another 86 -- all of them at the high average cost per student, where Amherst is in the top 10% statewide.

 Charter School impact on Amherst elementary schools

If a student leaves Amherst via Choice it only costs us $5,000 but if they go to a Charter School or Vocational School it costs us $18,000.

And to make matters worse the state is considering lifting the cap on Charter Schools while reducing dramatically the reimbursement formula to public schools who lose students to Charters.

All in all a lose/lose proposition for an already ailing public school system once the proud flagship of education in the Happy Valley.

PVCIC recently added a $10 million addition to their nearby facility while Amherst is gambling on a two-for-one mega school that could very well be turned down by the voters because of expense, adding significant costs to Amherst's already sky high property tax burden.

School  Library supporters crashed the FinCom meeting

About a half-dozen disgruntled citizens showed up to the Finance Committee meeting last night to complain about the 3 library paraprofessionals facing the budget ax, but Chair Kay Moran told them the Finance Committee has no line item authority and simply votes the bottom line provided by School Administration.

$40,000 was recently shifted from the elementary schools operating budget to capital (paid by the town) so that alone will cover half the cost of the three library paras if approved by Town Meeting.

And the town did recently renew the lousy 3.5 year "Strategic Partnership" with UMass that provided $60,000 this current year and $120,000 next year in reimbursement money for the 56 students in our expensive public schools coming from tax exempt family housing at UMass.

School Committee candidate Vince O'Connor will be filing a "citizens petition" for Town Meeting calling for greater Payment In Lieu Of Taxes from all three institutes of higher education who dominate day-to-day existence in our little "college town."

 Comparison of local public schools losses to Charter Schools (Amherst second from lowest)

A Night Of Their Own

Town Meeting Coordinating Committee discussed upcoming town election & Town Meeting this afternoon

Since the race for Charter Commission has a large field of 20 candidates vying for only 9 seats and since this process is not exactly routine, the League of Women Voters will host a candidates night in the Middle School auditorium on March 14 at 7:00 pm.

This public forum on the Charter Commission is in addition to their usual candidates night for town wide offices (Select Board, School Committee, and Library Trustees) which will be held March 22 in the Town Room at Town Hall.

In addition the TMCC will sponsor a bus tour on Sunday April 24  for all Town Meeting members to peruse sites around town related to Town Meeting articles.  The 40 seat bus is provided by UMass at a cost of $200 but UMass Community Relations office is picking up half the cost.

Amherst school buses had been used in the past but they are not handicapped accessible and the UMass bus has room for two wheelchairs.