image description
Margaret McComish, center, moderated the Williamstown School Committee candidate's forum last week.

Preschool Program Dominates Williamstown School Committee Forum

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The candidate who said the least at a recent Williamstown Elementary School Committee candidates forum may have done the most to sum up the issues in the five-person race.

"I don't have much to say about the Tri-District because every town has its own thing," Sanjay Sharma said in reply to a question about potential regionalization into a K-12 school district.

"Here, we have a problem with the Side-By-Side, and now we're talking about the Tri-District system. I don't have much to say on that point."

Sharma did go on to say he was generally for expanded regionalization if all sides felt it was a good idea, and he did comment on other issues that came up during the hourlong forum sponsored by the town's chapter of the League of Women Voters.

But it was clear from the get-go that the decision to cut a full-day option from the elementary school's special education preschool program was the chief topic of conversation.

The town on Tuesday, May 10, will elect two people to serve on the five-member School Committee. There is one incumbent in the race, current committee Chairman Dan Caplinger.

The four would-be newcomers each used the April 26 forum, telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet, to express their displeasure about the move to scale back Side-By-Side.

Candidate Maury McCarthy Lawson, who has spoken at several School Committee meetings since the cut was announced this winter, set the tone for the discussion in her opening statement.

"You can't just put kids in two half-day programs," she said. "That's not appropriate for all kids. … When my kids were 3 and started, they were in the half-day program. Two were at the point where it was too repetitive. I was told by the principal, Joelle Brookner, that it would be too repetitive for them to do two half-day programs.

"I've listened to the teachers, other parents and myself. We've gone to the School Committee. Sadly, the School Committee is not listening. There's a lack of communication. They let us speak, but their special-education preschool-certified teachers are not being listened to. So I want to make sure the children are advocated for."

Sharma used his opening statement to pledge to "ensure that there is an accessible, affordable, inclusive program for every child in Williamstown."

Candidates Liam Brody and Joe Bergeron waited until the question-and-answer period to dive into the Side-By-Side question, and moderator Margaret McComish opened the door with an initial question about what "national issue or trend in education" might apply to Williamstown.

"One hot topic nationally that translates well here is early childhood education," Bergeron said. "At a time when early childhood education nationally is being invested in, we seem to be taking a step back from that here in Williamstown, potentially.

"I think we need to take a look at what nationally is going on, the research people are doing. … Evaluate how that is something we can learn from. How do we make it universal? How do we make it great? How do we invest in something that we've been doing a great job in for a quarter of a century and that we can continue to lead the country in?"

Brody echoed that sentiment.

"If you talk to folks who know early childhood education, they will tell you, the investments always get a significant return," he said. "Just from a financial perspective, there's a significant return. You may not be able to track that return down to a specific value over 20 years to the community. But you can definitely track that value that's returned to the region and to the country."

Brody acknowledged that the school district and town are challenged by a dwindling population and declining tax base, but he said there are other places where money can be saved.

"Are there more effective ways to go about how you run the business of the school?" Brody asked. "Can you look at lean thinking and look to trim out any kind of waste so we can make sure people can retain jobs and students get more of what they need?"

Sharma spoke in the same vein, arguing for "the reduction of administrative cost and overhead so that funds may be spent on direct instruction of the students."

Not surprisingly, Lawson used the first question of the forum to focus on preschool, but she took a different tack, arguing that preschool education is a powerful tool in addressing a different national issue.

"Another thing that is key and in the national spotlight right now is bullying," Lawson said. "There is a big fight in making sure children are not picked on. That definitely relates, again, to the preschool."

She pointed out that the Side-By-Side program was named for the fact that children with special needs are educated alongside their peers right from their earliest days in the classroom.

"That's where this anti-bullying starts," Lawson said. "Behavior is definitely learned. People don't come out of the womb feeling, ‘Hey, I've got a different skin color than you,' or ‘Hey, you're too tall or too short.' It's something that's learned. And the Side-By-Side program that started 27 years ago … started because we needed to provide for these children who sometimes get picked on."

Caplinger opted to stay out of the Side-By-Side discussion, waiting until the School Committee addressed the topic at a special meeting two days later.

For his answer to the "national issues" question, Caplinger focused on the challenges local schools face in integrating technology in the classroom.

"I foresee that we will turn more and more to technological solutions to broaden the availability of the educational experience that we need," Caplinger said. "But implementing that in a rural community takes efforts. We're fortunate to have Williams College here to help bring resources that we wouldn't otherwise have access to. But it's something that presents challenges for communities that have resources and those that don't — trying to keep everybody on a level playing field and keep curricula aligned."

Caplinger brought up curriculum alignment again in the context of McComish's question on regionalization.

Each of the candidates said the idea of a K-12 district bears study and could create economies of scale in the region. Caplinger added that while many of the cost savings already have been realized by the shared services arrangements between Williamstown, Lanesborough Elementary and Mount Greylock, the potential of a K-12 district extends beyond the bottom line.

"For me, the question evolves into a couple of different topic areas," Caplinger said. "One involves curriculum. Our educators are great. They cross district lines when they don't have to in order to align the curricula of both elementary schools in a way that prepares kids from both towns for an educational experience at Mount Greylock.

"That is something that regionalization, I would think, would make more formalized. Right now, it's something where we rely on the goodwill of the people involved to make it happen."

Despite the acrimony brought on by the Side-By-Side cuts and other cuts at the school in this budget cycle, there was a fair amount of goodwill at the forum.

When McComish asked about the elementary school's strengths, all five gave fairly similar answers, focusing on the sense of community and the dedication of the teachers.

"We have a great community of students who really grow up together, and that's something that's special in a community of this size and with the types of environments we put them in," Bergeron said. "The teachers go way beyond what they are demanded to do. They are part of the community, and they integrate with the kids and they take great care of them."

Caplinger said he appreciated the passion of those who have spoken out during the past few months at School Committee meetings and said it is the responsibility of committee members to weigh all sides of an issue.

"One thing that I do try to keep in mind as I serve is there are always people who aren't in the room," he said. "It's important to me to give people a voice to speak out when they want but I also see it as a function of everyone on the committee to think about the people who, for whatever reason, can't or don't voice what's important to them."

Lawson used her closing statement to take a final shot at the current School Committee for failing to listen.

"Just because people speak, I've seen that it doesn't mean [committee members] consider what you say," she said. "I want to be a big part of not just hearing people speak, I want to hear, as Joe said, accurate information and make sure both parties — the administration, the parents, the kids, the teachers — that everyone is being heard. It's important."


Tags: candidate forum,   election 2016,   school committee,   town elections,   WES,   


If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories