Letter: Planning Board Candidate Carin DeMayo-Wall

Letter to the Editor06:30PM / Sunday, May 08, 2022Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

I am writing in support of Carin DeMayo-Wall for Planning Board. I believe that her connection to and ongoing involvement in our town and our issues makes her the best person for the job.

Carin runs a family farm, so she knows the issues of farmers. She and her family rent apartments, so she knows the issues of people who can't find "affordable" housing in town. She has seen some of those families leave town, because they can not find affordable housing. She has worked for 30 years at the Williamstown food pantry, so she knows the issues of our citizens who find it hard to make ends meet. Not only does she have children in our school system, she herself was educated in Williamstown, including Williams College.

Carin has the ability to balance open space, farming and opportunities for housing in our community. She understands the importance of not only keeping members in our community but welcoming new members as well. Carin supports zoning that provides inclusivity for all.

With her depth of community involvement she knows problems exist. She is pragmatic and won't be distracted by calls for studies that can delay progress. She sees these problems first hand, and supports the community in many ways with her ongoing involvement in, and commitment to Williamstown.

Please join me in voting for Carin DeMayo-Wall on May 10.

Susan Puddester
Williamstown, Mass.

Tags: election 2022,

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Greylock Youth SummerFest

Come join in on the wealth building fun! August 3-8. Click for event details. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

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

Mount Greylock School Committee OKs Updated Policy on Seclusion, Restraint

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
05:57AM / Tuesday, August 25, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock School Committee recently approved an updated policy on time-outs, seclusion and the physical restraint of students.

The policy is based on updated state regulations that came down last winter. Superintendent Joseph Bergeron told the panel at its August meeting that his office waited on recommendations from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees that were released in May and ran the proposed changes past the district's legal counsel.

That timing — and an expectation from the commonwealth that districts have the updated policy in place for the start of the 2026-27 academic year — led to an expedited process for the School Committee, which did not do a first read with a vote at a subsequent meeting as is its practice.

"Policy JKAA speaks to the ways the school district and our procedures shall abide by the updated state regulations," Bergeron said. "We're not going to have a lot of leeway.

"Nothing about the way we interact with our students on a day-to-day basis is being shifted by this."

For example, the commonwealth does not allow schools to use "seclusion," or, "the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area, with or without adult supervision," except some extreme cases, like when, "when student behavior poses an imminent threat of assault, or imminent serious physical harm to self or others, but only if safeguards are accounted for," the updated policy reads.

"From the state's perspective and my perspective, the idea of locking a child in a room without adult supervision is something we've never done," Bergeron said. "And it's something the state wants to make explicitly that nobody ever does."

View Full Story