Mount Greylock School Committee Delays Cost-Share Vote
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee pushed back its vote on the proposed shared-administrative agreement Tuesday night, following more changes to the language in the contract.The agreement, which would help share administrative costs between the district and School Union 71, will now be voted on by the committee on Monday night.
"We made a bunch of wordsmith changes, and we want to see the next agreement before we vote," Committee Chairman David Archibald said. "We didn't change the context, we changed the wording. They were relatively minor, but when you try to wordsmith by committee, it can take awhile."
Archibald said one of the revisions pertained to the legal basis of retirement plans for cost-sharing employees.
"We're making word changes that make our contract clearer," he added.
The district's legal counsel, Fred Dupere, provided assistance in scripting the draft and was a strong proponent of the vote being delayed. While the consensus was that a revised contract should be viewed before a vote takes place, there was a sense of urgency within the committee.
David Langston, who on May 1 was the single 'no' vote to continue discussion of the agreement and who sought a longer time line, on Tuesday expressed concerns in delaying the vote too long.
"We can't wait forever to get this result," Langston said Tuesday night. "It's suicide."
Archibald agreed that time is of the essence because of the pending retirement of Mount Greylock Superintendent William Travis, whose last day is June 30. If the district votes in favor of the cost-share agreement, then School Union 71, which includes the Williamstown and Lanesborough elementary schools, will vote.
"If too much time passes, we'll have to find an interim superintendent," Archibald said.
In other business Tuesday night, the committee agreed to carry Mount Greylock's budget proposal to the Lanesborough town meeting in June. The decision comes a week after Lanesborough's Finance Committee approved, in its budget, an assessment $60,000 short of what the school had originally negotiated. Lanesborough is having a difficult financial year.
Archibald says he'll ask to speak at both the Williamstown and Lanesborough town meetings, and he'll stress the importance of town aid in response to the significant drop in state aid for the 2011 fiscal year.
