Letter: Williamstown Shouldn't Rush Zoning Changes

Letter to the Editor01:00PM / Wednesday, February 09, 2022Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

To Members of the Select Board and the Planning Board of Williamstown,

I have been a resident of Williamstown since 1971 and the owner of residential property in town. I am concerned about the process going through your committees to consider zoning changes in this town.

The process is rushing to put these changes in the next warrant articles, to be voted on in the next town meeting. This is unfair to town residents, who need more time to learn about and consider these proposed changes — few residents are even aware of their existence.

Most importantly, the town has hired a consultant for a new comprehensive plan for the town and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission is in the process of conducting a housing needs assessment for Berkshire County. Until these two reports have been completed, it makes no sense to ask us to vote on changes in zoning ordinances.

Thank you for your vigilance in ensuring that we voters get all the information and consultation we need to vote responsibly on proposed zoning changes in Williamstown.

Sincerely,

Tela Zasloff
Williamstown, Mass.

Tags: zoning,

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Mount Greylock School Committee Sets 2026-27 Agenda

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
11:50AM / Friday, September 04, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee last month laid out its priorities for the next year while acknowledging three members of the seven-person panel may be gone by November.

In a special in-person meeting at the middle-high school on a Saturday morning in August, the School Committee finalized its goals for the academic year ahead.

The four-hour meeting was attended by six of the committee's seven members, including three who face challengers in the Nov. 3 election.

The committee ended up agreeing on five goals to set for 2026-27: setting regular meetings and getting regular reports from its Outcomes Subcommittee; improving community outreach by the full committee; implementing a committee member orientation plan for the at least one new member who will be elected in the fall; advancing a district-wide "visions and values" process; and aligning the committee's practice with state requirements for a student representative.

Before the group got into goal-setting, it reviewed the results of a self-evaluation process it undertook for the previous academic year.

Members noted that in 38 areas outlined by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the seven Mount Greylock members rated its own performance as below satisfactory in just seven. And it was those areas that are addressed in the goals for 2026-27.

The MASC has five different subcategories headed "community engagement," and the MGRSC members rated themselves between 2.9 and 3.3 on a scale of 1 to 4 in three of the five. The lowest score in the self-evaluation was for the topic of "Community Engagement - Building Support" with an aggregate score of 2.86 and two of the seven members giving the panel a score of 2 in the wake of a budget season when one of the district's two towns chose to amend the district's budget on the floor of its town meeting.

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