WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Select Board on Monday will consider considered dedicating some of the town's remaining ARPA funds to address an emergency situation in the local public schools.

 

Randal Fippinger brought the idea to the board in response to detailed testimony on racist incidents at Williamstown Elementary School and Mount Greylock Regional School that were raised both to the town's diversity committee and the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee.

 

Last week, the School Committee was asked to form a task force to address the issue and to bring in an outside consultant to advise the district on how to properly train its staff and, going forward, create a more inclusive environment in the preK-12 system.

 

On Monday, Fippinger suggested an amount, $27,000, that the town could spend to help pay for the consultant and a source for that money: the remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds that need to be committed by the end of the calendar year.

 

Fippinger raised the idea during a continuation of a discussion from the board's April 22 meeting about a request from Town Manager Robert Menicocci to allocate nearly $80,000 in ARPA funds for a sewer project.

 

With only three Select Board members present at the April 22 meeting, they decided to take no action on the request. But in the April meeting, Fippinger and Menicocci offered differing recollections of the board's intentions for about $166,000 remaining from the nearly $2 million ARPA allocation.

 

Menicocci said it was his understanding that the board was OK with him counting on the remaining funds for infrastructure needs. Fippinger countered that the board had made no such commitment and was still open to addressing other priorities with the federal aid.