Mount Greylock Fights Back Against Effort to Break Up District

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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A meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, at Lanesborough Elementary School at which officials will extol the virtues of Mount Greylock Regional High School.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School District is launching a community outreach effort to sing the praises of the junior-senior high school.

Its first target: The town of Lanesborough, which already is part of the regional school district.
 
At its Monday meeting, the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee discussed efforts by the town of Adams to break up the Mount Greylock district by enticing Lanesborough to send its seventh- through 12th-grade students to the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District.
 
New Mount Greylock Superintendent Doug Dias said that while he initially was annoyed by the letter Adams Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco sent to Lanesborough and Willliamstown officials, he now sees it as an opportunity.
 
"Parents need to decide what's in the best interest of their child when it comes to education," Dias said, noting those options include home schools, private schools and public education. "I don't want parents to make a decision in a vacuum.
 
"We will be holding an information session in Lanesborough on [at 6 p.m. Aug. 26] so parents, community members, anyone who wants to come can hear from [Principal Mary MacDonald], myself and [Director of Pupil Services] Kim Grady about what makes Mount Greylock the envy of Berkshire County."
 
Dias and Mount Greylock Regional School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene met with Mazzucco after he sent the letter. Dias said he understood why the town of Adams is making the appeal.
 
"I can understand why you'd want to draw kids away from Lanesborough, which is an excellent school," said Dias, who also serves as superintendent of SU71, which includes Lanesborough and Williamstown elementaries. "I don't fault them for making this attempt.
 
"As far as the rationale for it, it's the same rational as other towns: to continue what they have by making sure populations are as consistent as possible."
 
The timing of Adams' offer is no accident.
 
The Mount Greylock district is at a critical juncture in a building project it has been trying to advance for a decade. The School Committee last month voted a preferred option for an addition/renovation project to advance to the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
 
If the Massachusetts School Building Authority approves that project, it moves into the schematic design phase this fall and could face a bonding vote in both member towns as early as spring 2016. If that bond is approved, both Lanesborough and Williamstown would be fully committed to paying for the renovated Mount Greylock, making it highly unlikely either town would pull its students out of a building it is paying for.
 
Conversely, the breakup of the Mount Greylock district would put an end to the current building project. As Greene noted on Monday night, the MSBA is partnered with the district as it is. And new configuration — for example, a hypothetical K-12 Williamstown School District — would have to get in line and wait for MSBA funding at a later date.
 
Breaking up a regional school district is not easy.
 
"If the town of Lanesborough decides it wants their kids to go to Hoosac Valley, that's a year and a half in the making," Greene said in a meeting telecast on Williamstown's public access television station, WilliNet. "It needs a vote from both towns ... and [the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] needs to put its blessing on it."
 
If one town votes to break up the region and the other town does not, the town voting affirmatively could appeal directly to DESE, Greene said.
 
The lengthy dissolution process — whether or not the district stays together — would derail the building project.
 
"The concern for me is if there is interest in this on the part of voters in Lanesborough ... and it picks up enough steam that people aren't ready to make a decision come may or whenever we have a vote on the building project, then we're in trouble," Greene said. "We need to stay on a schedule with MSBA.
 
"Let's say Lanesborough eventually decides to stay with Mount Greylock, then we're all stuck with a $58 million bill to bring this building up to code. That's the worst case scenario for me."
 
That is the projected cost of a "base repair," an option rejected by Mount Greylock's School Building Committee because it would leave the district with a less functional building and, perhaps more importantly, because the MSBA would not assist with the financing.
 
In order to avoid Greene's "worst case scenario," Mount Greylock is putting its best foot forward to convince Lanesborough voters of the benefits of remaining in the district.
 
While Adams officials have held out the carrot of cost savings in a move to Adams-Cheshire (either as full-fledged members of the district or under a tuition agreement), Mount Greylock officials believe it continues to offer an attractive educational package.
 
"I think we know Mount Greylock stands out as one of the few Level 1 schools in the area," School Committee member Richard Cohen of Lanesborough noted. "Hoosac Valley is a Level 3 school. It's important for us to help the community understand that."
 
Committee member Chris Dodig, also of Lanesborough, reminded his colleagues of studies Cohen has cited in the past that address the impact of school district quality on property values.
 
"We can give statistics, but there are so many other things," MacDonald said. "There are independent study options for students. We have some ninth-graders taking AP chemistry. ... We have sports, theater and arts that can rival other school's programs."
 
MacDonald noted that Mount Greylock traditionally has been a draw for students from outside the member towns. It has a healthy school choice population and tuition agreements with neighboring New Ashford and Hancock; the latter last year voted down an effort to explore less expensive options by a nearly unanimous vote at town meeting.
 
Mount Greylock's Aug. 26 public forum is timed to occur the evening before a similar event at Hoosac Valley. Mount Greylock officials said they hope Lanesborough residents attend both.
 
"The best-case scenario is people go to this presentation ... think about it a little bit ... and say, 'Thank you very much, we appreciate the offer, but we're staying where we are,' " Greene said.
 
The complicated relationship between Lanesborough and Williamstown factored into another major topic of conversation at Monday's meeting.
 
The School Committee decided to move forward with efforts to develop a a proposal to alter the regional agreement that governs the district.
 
The discussion was sparked by an inquiry from Lanesborough town officials who were concerned about language in the agreement dealing with the apportionment of capital expenses.
 
Currently, those expenses are split between the towns based on the enrollment numbers at the time of bonding. In the case of the prospective building project, that would lock in the enrollment figures for the life of a 30-year bond.
 
The School Committee discussed changing the agreement to fund capital expenses using the same five-year rolling enrollment average the district uses to apportion operational expenses.
 
Any change to the regional agreement requires a vote of both member towns. Since this change would need to be in place (and approved by DESE) before any vote to bond the building project, the towns would need to call special town meetings this fall to consider the amendment; there is no November election planned in the towns.
 
The School Committee agreed to continue developing a more equitable funding proposal and hold discussions with the Boards of Selectmen in Lanesborough and Williamstown in September.

Tags: ACRSD,   LES,   MGRHS,   school project,   

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WCMA: 'Cracking the Code on Numerology'

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) opens a new exhibition, "Cracking the Cosmic Code: Numerology in Medieval Art."
 
The exhibit opened on March 22.
 
According to a press release: 
 
The idea that numbers emanate sacred significance, and connect the past with the future, is prehistoric and global. Rooted in the Babylonian science of astrology, medieval Christian numerology taught that God created a well-ordered universe. Deciphering the universe's numerical patterns would reveal the Creator's grand plan for humanity, including individual fates. 
 
This unquestioned concept deeply pervaded European cultures through centuries. Theologians and lay people alike fervently interpreted the Bible literally and figuratively via number theory, because as King Solomon told God, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11:22). 
 
"Cracking the Cosmic Code" explores medieval relationships among numbers, events, and works of art. The medieval and Renaissance art on display in this exhibition from the 5th to 17th centuries—including a 15th-century birth platter by Lippo d'Andrea from Florence; a 14th-century panel fragment with courtly scenes from Palace Curiel de los Ajos, Valladolid, Spain; and a 12th-century wall capital from the Monastery at Moutiers-Saint-Jean—reveal numerical patterns as they relate to architecture, literature, gender, and timekeeping. 
 
"There was no realm of thought that was not influenced by the all-consuming belief that all things were celestially ordered, from human life to stones, herbs, and metals," said WCMA Assistant Curator Elizabeth Sandoval, who curated the exhibition. "As Vincent Foster Hopper expounds, numbers were 'fundamental realities, alive with memories and eloquent with meaning.' These artworks tease out numerical patterns and their multiple possible meanings, in relation to gender, literature, and the celestial sphere. 
 
"The exhibition looks back while moving forward: It relies on the collection's strengths in Western medieval Christianity, but points to the future with goals of acquiring works from the global Middle Ages. It also nods to the history of the gallery as a medieval period room at this pivotal time in WCMA's history before the momentous move to a new building," Sandoval said.
 
Cracking the Cosmic Code runs through Dec. 22.
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