School Committee Candidates

On Monday, September 12, 8 candidates were interviewed for the two vacant seats on the Longmeadow School Committee in a joint session of the Select Board and the SC.

Below are photos of the candidates who participated.

I listened to this 2+ hour session and found many of the questions- particularly those from current SC members- focused upon asking the question as to whether or not the candidate supported education in Longmeadow at whatever cost.  Questions included asking whether or not the candidate was in favor of Proposition 2½ overrides or whether or not the candidate supported the new high school project. Answers that were tempered with economic reality were in some cases greeted with obvious disappointment and framed to suggest that the candidate was against quality education.  It's interesting that one of the vacant SC seats was caused by a job loss and subsequent relocation and one of the candidates applying for the position was also affected by a recent job loss.

A number of these questions/ answers were captured and can be replayed below.

The School Committee clearly needs a change in membership to better balance the fiscal responsibilities between the education needs of the child and the needs of our town.  After listening to the questions/ answers during this interview session, it is quite clear that the voting for these appointments is setting up to be along Democrat/ Republican party lines even though SC Chair Jester stated during these interviews that the SC itself is strictly non-partisan.

From what I heard the top choices that would improve this fiscal balance would be to appoint Jeremy Powers and Gerard Kiernan to the vacancies on the School Committee.  Both individuals are strong candidates with very different skills and knowledge and would clearly strengthen the School Committee.  I urge all SB + SC members to make their candidate selections based upon what's best for our town.

I ask all town residents to watch the full replay on LCTV and then to email, phone, Tweet, Facebook, etc. all of the Longmeadow SC + SB members with their two choices. Appointments to the two vacant seats will be made in another joint SB/SC meeting on October 3.

9/11 Longmeadow Remembers Memorial Event

Here is the video produced by LCTV for the 9/11 Longmeadow Remembers event on the Town Green- 9/11/11.

School Committee Candidates Answer Questions

Below is a summary of the candidates seeking an appointment to one of the two vacancies on the Longmeadow School Committee.  They will be interviewed at a joint Select Board/ School Committee tomorrow night (Sept 12) starting at 7 PM.  The interviews will be broadcast live on LCTV-12. The two appointments are currently scheduled to be made at a second joint SB/SC meeting on October 3.

School Committee Candidate	Resident	Occupation	Applying?
Charles Gebron	45 yrs		*
James Cass	15 yrs	Teacher	1
Gerard Kiernan	16 yrs	Dir., Business Operations	1 + 2
Jeremy Powers	1 yr	Attorney	1 + 2
Dan Zwirko	21 yrs	Legislative Aide	1 + 2
Owen Humphries	17 yrs	Retired- Project Manager	1 + 2
Diane Nadeau	23 yrs	Local Business Owner	2
Hal Etkin	10 yrs	Attorney	2
James Desrochers	27 yrs	Local Business Owner	2

There are 5 applicants for the School Committee vacancy #1 and 7 applicants for the School Committee vacancy #2.
*Rev. Deacon Gebron unofficially informed LongmeadowBuzz that he was withdrawing his application.

In an effort to provide town residents as well as School Committee/ Select Board members with a better knowledge of who the candidates are and why they should be appointed, last week I asked each candidate to provide answers to a series of four questions.  Only one candidate (Hal Etkin) elected to share his answers which are shown below.  Hopefully, during the interview process the other candidates who decided to not participate will be able to share their answers.

Hal Etkin's responses

1. What is the best way to improve the quality of education in our schools?

I would investigate the possibility of creating a system among the teachers and schools in which each is rewarded based upon the students’ academic testing and performance.  Teachers, guidance counselor and administrators who are exceeding performance objectives should be noted and compensated accordingly.

2. What is the biggest challenge the school district faces, and how would you try to solve it?

Fiscal management and accountability.  The School Committee should constantly seek ways to save money.  Many of the citizens in the community live on fixed or reduced incomes.  Governmental officials must work hard to save money in this difficult economy.  The school budget is one of the biggest expenditures to the town.

3. What is the attribute(s) you bring to the board that should cause School Committee/Select Board members to vote for you?

I have been told that I work well in a team environment.  I am also a good listener.  As a school committee member, I think the ability to listen to and work well with others on a committee is extremely important in getting things done quickly and efficiently.  In addition, we are the proud parents of a student in the system and I have experience in teaching and education.

4. If appointed to the School Committee, name two priorities you'll bring to the position over the next 9 months.

Fiscal management and accountability.  Although these two issues are very important to me, I also want to listen to and consider the priorities of other committee members and Longmeadow residents. 

These two appointments to the School Committee (2 of 7 members on the committee) will be very important to the future of our town.  These two new SC members will likely be casting deciding votes on a number of important decisions over the next 9 months.  Let's hope that our elected SB/SC members avoid political squabbling and appoint two qualified people that will protect the interests of all town residents.

9/11 Longmeadow Remembers- Followup

 

A HUGE thank you to the 9/11 Longmeadow Remembers Committee for organizing this special event on the Town Green.  In addition, a special thank you to all of the participants as well as the 250-300 town residents who attended this event.  LCTV and its team taped the event for later viewing by town residents and others who missed it.  Visit the Longmeadow Buzz later this week to view a web broadcast.

9/11 Longmeadow Remembers Memorial Event

Select Board Chair Criticizes School Committee Actions

At last night's Select Board meeting Chairman Mark Gold criticized the Longmeadow School Committee for their recent and past actions regarding line item transfers for salary increases.

Two previous Buzz posts provide some additional background information regarding the SC's actions mentioned in Mr. Gold's comments.  Click on the links to review them.

Longmeadow Town Manager and School Superintendent Contracts-  10/06/10
Here We Go Again!- 7/03/11

Watch the video below for Mr. Gold's comments.

Those Vexing Links

Here is Alex Grant's latest opinion column "Those Vexing Links" that appeared in last week's edition (8/25/10) of the Longmeadow News (with permission of the author and thanks to the Longmeadow News).

________________________________________________________

A little over a year ago, the Select Board made a decision to deliver us from the perils of a volunteer-run town website and bring us to the promised land of a government-run town website.  Now that we are paying for what the prior webmaster was doing for free, how far has Longmeadow come?

On the supposedly big issue of "links" on the town website, the issue that provoked the hasty defrocking of Jim Moran as town webmaster, the answer is: backwards.  Before, there were links on the town website that were, you know, of interest to Longmeadow residents.  Now, they are gone.  Residents interested in the local Boy Scout troop, the Longmeadow Historical Society, the local running club, and community groups in town now can now go to Google if they know what to search for.  If they don't, residents can rely on the pre-internet methods of keeping an ear to the ground and scanning the bulletin board at Big Y.

In other words, the new government-run website is less useful than it used to be.  But then again, that's hardly a surprise.  In the amount of time Apple can engineer a new iPhone, the town of Longmeadow can start to consider how to deliberate on how to create a new content policy.  The Select Board and the Town Manager first saved the town from Mr. Moran's nefarious links and then spent several months forming a task force and having conversations about what the new website should look like.  

The ponderous process of deciding what content goes on the town website included the recent July 5, 2011 Select Board meeting at which the Town Manager presented a linking policy.  The current policy, which can be found on the town website, is wordy and murky.  The policy identifies certain types of websites which the town will not link to, such as those associated with political or advocacy groups or which promote religion, hate, pornography, or defamation.  (A little ironic that religion and pornography have equal footing).  Also verboten are links to individual home pages.

But that still leaves most of the internet.  The policy then turns to what the town website "may" link to.  Everything is done at the "discretion" of the town.  But whose discretion?  That was the nub of the issue last year when certain members of the Select Board decided that a 2.5 year old link to the Longmeadowbuzz blog became intolerable when Mr. Moran expressed an opinion on the blog about the new high school.  Mr. Moran used to decide on the links, which were among the myriad of decisions he had to make to keep the website current and operational.

According to the Town Manager's proposal, it would be the Select Board making the link by link decisions on organizations like the Newcomers Club.  It is clear that the bar is set pretty high for non-governmental sites: "In rare instances, Longmeadow.org links to websites that are not government-owned or government-sponsored if these websites provide government information and/or services in a way that is not available on an official government website."

The Town Manager would also have an organization wanting a link to submit an application.  Applicants would have to carefully peruse the 13 types of disqualifying factors, such as, "content that a reasonable citizen may not consider to maintain the dignity and decorum appropriate for Longmeadow website."

Wow.  On the one hand, our Select Board members will really earn their stipends as they engage in searching debates about the appropriateness of certain websites.  On the other hand, the linking policy will is so cumbersome that it diminishes the value of the town website.  Websites are constantly changing.  Will the Select Board have to revisit its linking decision every time an organization changes the content to its website?  Will someone be monitoring the linked sites to make sure they do not run afoul of the "appropriate dignity and decorum" the Select Board expects?

There is a much easier and cost-effective way of dealing with the links issue.  Let's just stipulate that a link does not imply endorsement by the town.  Let's also acknowledge that it will be a cold day in Hades when the benign civic organizations in our town, like the Historical Society, would put anything on a website that would be truly disreputable.  And let the webmaster make the day-to-day, common sense decisions on links as Mr. Moran did.

There's just one catch, and it is one that the Select Board created last year.  The Select Board made links a hot-button issue when it ousted Mr. Moran.  No future webmaster, whether a town employee or a volunteer, will dare to link to anything without explicit approval.  One wrong step is apt to be a firing offense.  That's not the way to create a dynamic community website in 2011, but it is apparently, the Longmeadow way.

____________________________________________________________

Alex J. Grant is a lawyer living in Longmeadow.  
His email address is alex.grant68@yahoo.com .

Upgraded School Websites

 

http://sites.longmeadow.k12.ma.us/lhs/ 

About one year ago in a Buzz post I recommended that the individual Longmeadow school websites be integrated (or upgraded) into the new School Department website using the Google Sites- a free content management program offered by Google.

At that time I had found that there were "stipends"  for webmasters for each school + the school department adding up to $10,815 for FY11.  There were also similar budget items for FY09 and FY10 and for prior years. The current FY12 budget includes a similar amount.  I believe that these budget line items have been in place for at least 5 years so the Longmeadow School Department has spent ~ $50K maintaining the individual schools and school department websites.  The appearance and functionality of our individual school websites certainly did not reflect this level of expenditure.

It is good to see that three of our schools (Longmeadow HS, Glenbrook MS and Williams MS) now have upgraded websites using the Google Sites software that better reflect the quality of education in our schools.  Hopefully, the remaining schools (Wolf Swamp, Center and Blueberry Hill) will be upgraded shortly.

The Town Manager's Website Taskforce (now disbanded) recommended the use of a different CMS software package... Wordpress.. because it was ready to go "right out of the box" and it was FREE.  In addition, the Taskforce recommended that there was no need for a webmaster since this was considered an outdated approach to effective website management.  Town employees could be trained to effectively post information on a daily basis.  Anyone who has visited the town website recently knows that approach has not been working well and our website certainly does not rank very well with websites for many of our surrounding communities.

Question

If our IT department is now responsible for Town Government IT services, why is the appearance and functionality of new Longmeadow High School website so much better than our new town website?

It's beginning to sound like our Select Board should be asking the SC for a MOU (memorandum of understanding) for IT support.... let's hope not!  

At least Town Government can reverse the IT consolidation since it is not mandated by the Town Charter.

911 Memorial Service

Dear Longmeadow Residents,

We are coming up on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th. Throughout the years each of us has been keeping the day in our own way, remembering the friends and family we lost on that day. As a town we should come together this year and remember those we lost, and honor our residents who have entered the services to protect us.

We are planning a meeting this Thursday (August 25) at 12:30 PM at the Longmeadow Adult Center to gather ideas and begin planning. Please join us. If you cannot come and would like to participate please drop me an email or call me and I will include you in all future meetings and plans.

Thank you,
Marie Angelides
marie.angelides@gmail.com
(413) 567-2911

Longmeadow School Committee

will become an appointed (or self appointed) committee.

With the latest resignation of Gwen Bruns there is now a second vacancy on the School Committee. Interested parties should see notice on the Longmeadow Community Bulletin Board.

There were three uncontested races for School Committee seats (Fitzgerald, Clark and Flynn) at the recent June annual town elections. Now with the two vacancies opening up, a total of 5 seats out of 7 will be either appointed (or self appointed) positions.

The School Committee directs the expenditure of over 30 million dollars of taxpayer monies. The upcoming SC appointments by the Select Board/SC are of great importance to our town. At this point there are 6 individuals asking to be appointed for the first vacancy.

Here is a list of the six candidates for the first vacancy (as of 8/24/11):

James Cass, 25 Roseland Terrace 
Rev. Deacon Charles J. Gebron, 432 Wolf Swamp Road

Owen J. Humphries, 1072 Longmeadow St.
Gerard Kiernan, 86 Cobblestone Rd
Jeremy Powers,319 Merriweather Dr.
Daniel Zwirko, 58 Shady Side Dr.

A key question to each of these candidates should be:
Why didn't you run for one of three SC vacancies at the Annual Town Elections in June?

Let's hope that the SC/SB make some good selections- voters will not be able to do so until next June!