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The Adams-Cheshire budget failed on a split town vote, leaving it one vote short of approval.

Adams-Cheshire Fails to Approve Fiscal 2018 Budget

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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Cheshire families are asking for a year delay on closing their school to give them time to find a solution.
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee failed to pass its $19.2 million budget Monday night and may pass the buck to the towns. 
 
The budget failed to get the five votes needed for passage, with the four Adams representatives voting for and the three Cheshire representatives voting nay after an at-times heated two-hour long meeting at Hoosac Valley High School. 
 
School Committee member Darlene Rodowicz motioned to pass a new budget that keeps both elementary schools open while hiring all recommended positions. 
 
"I propose the full budget," Rodowicz said. "Let the towns decide if they can afford it."
 
Without specifics and accurate numbers that will likely increase both towns' assessments by 10 percent, the School Committee agreed to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to try again to pass a budget.
 
The sticking point this year is the vote two weeks ago to close Cheshire Elementary School as a cost-saving measure as the district grapples with rising costs and declining enrollment.
 
The failed fiscal 2018 budget stays within the 3 percent increase Adams agreed to for its assessment; it also relied on staff cuts to hire a special education coordinator and interventionists.
 
A 5-2 vote is needed to approve the budget.
 
Cheshire representative Edmund St. John IV was first to share his discomfort with passing a budget that relies on closing a school. After attending last week's Cheshire community meeting, where residents brainstormed ways to keep the school open, he felt the decision may have been rushed.  
 
"Just last week, I saw the fire that exists in the folks in Cheshire and it strikes me that given this motivation and this desire to keep Cheshire open ... I wonder if we rushed into making this decision," he said. "There is tremendous unknown out there. If the town can support the school and costs? I don't know ... because I don't know I am not confident voting." 
 
Cheshire resident Jeremy McLain, who is part of a group exploring ways to keep the school open, asked the School Committee to keep Cheshire open for another year because the group may have found financially beneficial options for the district.
 
"We have been working around the clock looking at different options to not only keep Cheshire but both schools ... both communities want their schools," he said. "Work with us and the communities and bring them both together. Right now we are divided and we need to find a way to think outside of the box and keep the schools open."  
 
McLain said he legally could not discuss who he has been meeting with because the communities involved have yet to hold a meeting about the matter. 
 
Superintendent Robert Putnam said keeping both Cheshire and C.T. Plunkett Elementry open would mean the district would lose the new positions and it would force the administration to scramble to reorganize their plans. He added that many of the benefits born from the consolidation would also be reversed.   
 
St. John asked if it would be possible to keep Cheshire open if the town agreed to allocate money to fund its operation.
 
Chairman Paul Butler said town meeting can decide to give the district, however, much it approves, however, because of the district agreement, any increase from Cheshire would force Adams to relatively increase its amount.
 
Putnam added that changing this part of the agreement would take nearly two years.
 
St. John suggested holding a hard line with the towns and asking for what school officials feel they need to fund education. He added that he believes Cheshire is willing to heed the call.
 
"Unless we submit a budget that expands our programming not just keeps it as is, we will never grow," he said. "We cannot cut our way to success ... we have been held hostage by town officials without actually hearing what the people support."
 
Rodowicz said both communities are nearing their levy capacity so an override would be needed. She noted Adams specifically is getting close to its levy ceiling and legally will not be able to raise taxes anymore.
 
She feared that towns would not approve a Proposition 2 1/2 override, which would delay the budget process and ultimately hurt the district.
 
Butler said this, too, concerned him and he felt the $19.2 million budget represents a positive step forward that may not have everything they want, but is a clear path forward.
 
"These are things that will improve the education," Butler said. "Keeping with that, we are a shrinking population and we are't going to get more Chapter 70 revenue. It is clear that these things are not going to get better ... it just seems like the time to act is here."
 
Putnam said that although his original budget "shot for the moon" with much higher increases, he is confident in the compromised budget.
 
"I think this is a place for us to start ... we are starting to put something in that we can keep," he said. "This budget will let us get a foothold and allow us to start climbing back up ... it puts us in a position to build."
 
Cheshire representatives Rodowicz and Peter Tatro, who participated remotely, both still felt that Cheshire Elementary should have been left open because even though it has less space, it would provide increased savings. 
 
Rodowicz said she felt a school still needed to close after asking the Adams representatives to consider re-voting.
 
"Going forward with the status quo is not an option because we need more resources in the buildings," she said. "The students deserve it."
 
During the meeting, Cheshire residents continued to air their concerns about Plunkett, the vote to close the school and how they felt the smaller town was strong-armed by Adams because of the limit it put on its assessment.
 
One Adams resident said she felt Cheshire parents did not want their children to be in the same elementary school as Adams kids.
 
Cheshire residents said this was not the case and they were more concerned about the added financial resources closing Plunkett would have and sending fourth- and fifth-graders to Hoosac Valley. Some parents threatened to pull their kids out of the district for this reason.
 
The School Committee legally must have a budget on the books by Friday.

Tags: ACRSD_budget,   fiscal 2018,   

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Adams Sees No Races So Far

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — With less than a week left before nomination papers are due, there are currently no contested seats.
 
Only selectman incumbent John Duval has returned papers. Selectman Howard Rosenberg has decided not to seek re-election. 
 
Rosenberg, who was elected in 2021, said he has chosen not to run again to make room for younger candidates.
 
"I feel strongly, we need younger people running for public office,  as the future of our town lies within the younger  generation. The world is so fundamentally different today and rapidly changing to become even more so. I believe we need people who are less interested in trying to bring back the past, then in paving the way for a promising future. The younger generation can know that they can stay here and have a voice without having to leave for opportunities elsewhere," he said.
 
The only person to return papers so far is former member the board Donald Sommer. Sommer served as a selectman from 2007 to 2010 and before that was a member of the School Committee and the Redevelopment Authority. He ran unsuccessfully for selectman in 2019 and again in 2021 but dropped out of before the election.
 
Incumbent Moderator Myra Wilk and Town Clerk Haley Meczywor have returned papers for their respective positions.
 
Assessor Paula Wheeler has returned papers and incumbents James Loughman and Eugene Michalenko have returned papers for library trustees.
 
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