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Carolyn Greene greets voters at Williamstown Elementary School on Tuesday morning.

Greene Wins Seat on Mount Greylock School Committee

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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Williamstown had a turnout of 76 percent. 

Update at 12:47 p.m., Nov. 3: Carolyn Greene will finish the last two years of a four-year term on Mount Greylock Regional School Committee. Results from Lanesborough gave Greene 759 votes to Elizabeth Beck's 536. The total vote from both towns gave Greene 2,831 votes to Beck's 1,527, a 1,304 vote difference.

“Lizzy Beck had an impressive showing with an important platform,” Greene said Tuesday night. “I was glad to see her center the issues of race, equity and inclusion.
 
“I am looking forward to continuing the work of the School Committee, and I am honored to have the trust of the majority of voters.”
 
Jose Constantine and Julia Bowen will take the two open four-year seats representing Williamstown. Bowen was the top vote-getter in both towns, garnering 949 votes in Lanesborough for a total of 3,430. Constantine polled 557 in Lanesborough for a total vote of 2,168. Jude Higdon-Topaz got 327 votes in Lanesborough despite dropping out of the race. 
 
Lanesborough resident Michelle Johnson, facing no opposition for a vacant four-year seat, earned 1,329 votes in Lanesborough.
 
Lanesborough's turnout was 79 percent, or 1,887 of the 2,386 registered voters casting ballots. 

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — With the larger of the regional school district's two towns reporting, incumbent Carolyn Greene was on track Tuesday to retain her seat on the Mount Greylock Regional School District.

The unofficial vote tally in Williamstown when the polls closed gave the town to Greene by a margin of 2,072-991 over challenger Elisabeth Beck.
 
Lanesborough, which in 2018 had about half as many votes as Williamstown, had not reported its votes as of midnight.
 
Greene, who was looking to finish the last two years of a four-year seat she was appointed to fill after a resignation, was involved in the only contested race in the district.
 
While it appeared likely she would retain her post, three newcomers were elected to the seven-member regional school committee in unopposed races.
 
Lanesborough resident Michelle Johnson faced no opposition in her quest to fill a vacant four-year seat.
 
The ballot also had two four-year seats for Williamstown residents. Three candidates were on the ballot for those two seats, but one, Jude Higdon-Topaz, announced his withdrawal from the race and asked his supporters to back Jose Constantine.
 
In Williamstown, Constantine received 1,611 votes, and Julia Bowen was the top vote-getter with 2,481 votes. Higdon-Topaz, despite pulling out of the race, received 570 votes in his hometown.
 
In addition to the three newcomers elected on Tuesday, the School Committee will have another new face when it meets later this month. Last week, Lanesborough resident Curtis Elfenbein was appointed to serve the last two years on an unexpired term following a resignation.
 
Williamstown saw a turnout of about 76 percent, with 3,656 ballots returned from the town's 4,826 registered voters.
 
Three-quarters of Williamstown's 3,656 ballots came in before election day.
 
Town Clerk Nicole Pedercini reported that the town received 74 absentee ballots and a combination of mail-in and early in-person votes that totaled 2,715.
 
Pedercini said she and her poll workers processed the 2,789 early votes by about 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
 
The presidential ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took Williamstown by a margin of 3,088-487, about 86 percent of the vote going Democratic in the reliably "blue" town.
 
Williamstown voted yes on public question No. 1, the Right to Repair question, by a vote of 2,614-807. The town voters also supported ranked-choice voting, voting yes on question No. 2 by a margin of 2,228-1,226.

Tags: election 2020,   MGRSD,   


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Mount Greylock School Committee Discusses Collaboration Project with North County Districts

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — News that the group looking at ways to increase cooperation among secondary schools in North County reached a milestone sparked yet another discussion about that group's objectives among members of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee.
 
At Thursday's meeting, Carolyn Greene reported that the Northern Berkshire Secondary Sustainability task force, where she represents the Lanesborough-Williamstown district, had completed a request for proposals in its search for a consulting firm to help with the process that the task force will turn over to a steering committee comprised of four representatives from four districts: North Berkshire School Union, North Adams Public Schools, Hoosac Valley Regional School District and Mount Greylock Regional School District.
 
Greene said the consultant will be asked to, "work on things like data collection and community outreach in all of the districts that are participating, coming up with maybe some options on how to share resources."
 
"That wraps up the work of this particular working group," she added. "It was clear that everyone [on the group] had the same goals in mind, which is how do we do education even better for our students, given the limitations that we all face.
 
"It was a good process."
 
One of Greene's colleagues on the Mount Greylock School Committee used her report as a chance to challenge that process.
 
"I strongly support collaboration, I think it's a terrific idea," Steven Miller said. "But I will admit I get terrified when I see words like 'regionalization' in documents like this. I would feel much better if that was not one of the items we were discussing at this stage — that we were talking more about shared resources.
 
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