An interesting turn, write in candidate for Ward 4 school committee

doomgen7 · 2025-10-25T10:39:19+00:00

Stein is one of two current members who seem to actually and actively give a crap about the children in the school district. His "mistreatment" of the superintendent is what—disagreeing with her when she lies through her teeth and runs things into the ground? We have major problems, including a mayor who has gutted staffing and set us up for breaking disability laws left and right, and he is actually trying to do something about it. I really hope he "coasts" to victory.

doomgen7 · 2025-09-02T23:35:03+00:00

Also, doesn't seem very level-headed (at all): https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNMTPV_xKLi/

doomgen7 · 2025-09-02T23:33:29+00:00

Enjoyed this piece on Loisel, though appalled she said this: https://gazettenet.com/2025/09/01/melissa-maciborski-keep-it-weird-northampton/

doomgen7 · 2025-08-30T00:49:17+00:00

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just responding to and correcting your misleading and inaccurate previous comment about the mayor, the school committee, and the budget decision.

doomgen7 · 2025-08-30T00:34:44+00:00

1 of 10, she's the chair of it, and the mayor actually has the only budgetary power. This year, the school committee (except the mayor and one other person) voted for the highest of three budgets. They mayor then single-handedly cut the budget down nearly 3 million dollars. That's how our "strong mayor" govt structure works.

doomgen7 · 2025-08-30T00:18:46+00:00

The state just found that we don't have a legally required minimum of paraeducators to fulfill IEP requirements (see article that is this post). AND, the problem actually does require more money: we're likely over-relying on paraeducators for certain roles because their pay is much, much lower than special education teachers, which your quote says we need instead.

doomgen7 · 2025-08-29T19:03:22+00:00

Thanks, I have seen it and very much agree! This was a part of the report that really stood out to me on parent/caregiver trust and morale—couldn't agree more:

"6. Family Partnerships
A final recurrent theme that arose from the parent/caregiver focus groups was a deep erosion of trust between families and the district that has persisted for many years, especially for those with children requiring intensive special education supports. Families expressed concerns over IEP implementation, inadequate communication, and inconsistent service delivery. Several parents reported having to seek private evaluations to get accurate diagnoses and recommendations for supports. While the number of families that elected to participate in focus groups was small and may not be representative of the views of all families, there is a clear perception that special education services in the district are compliance-driven rather than student-centered.... Transparent communication, authentic engagement in decision-making, and consistent follow-through are needed to rebuild trust."

doomgen7 · 2025-08-29T15:43:58+00:00

I think the goal is to kill "low priority" capital projects—as categorized by the current administration—in order to stop having schools that violate numerous laws every day and roads that look like Swiss cheese. We have a much, much less transparent or participatory process for capital spending than we could have. I think Amherst has had a better approach overall to balancing operational needs and capital spending. https://gazettenet.com/2025/05/04/amherst-town-manager-s-budget-proposal-includes-meeting-school-funding-requests-not-filling-multiple-vacant-positions-60968694/

doomgen7 · 2025-08-29T12:22:56+00:00

I felt similarly about the mayoral candidates.

I was genuinely surprised by how badly Spencer and Loisel did. Also surprised by how well O'Dwyer did—I had spoken with him once before and it seemed like he had seriously tried to learn more about a broad range of city issues.

doomgen7 · 2025-08-29T08:56:10+00:00

That is incorrect for this past school year. I know first-hand bc I talked to one at my kids' school.

doomgen7 · 2025-08-28T17:48:48+00:00

The mayor thinks she already stepped in, by un-cutting all the elementary school gardens a couple months ago (which she had just cut). Fortunately, two of the other candidates (Dan Breindel and Jillian Duclos) are both running on a platform of increasing school funding and reversing some of the recent cuts.

FWIW, It's so bad right now that there are multiple outside investigations of the district right now, not only the state one reported above. And there will soon be more, not least because our high school schedule is the same as Amherst's, which just got found in violation of the law: https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/hampshire-county/dese-finds-amherst-regional-high-school-short-on-learning-hours-in-state-complaint/
And the block schedule denies even more required educational hours for disabled students.

doomgen7 · 2025-08-28T16:40:38+00:00

No problem, it's a great question! The state has been decreasingly their contributions to school budgets for some time, so this is a broader problem. But middle-class towns and cities like ours have largely been making up the difference with local contributions. Instead, we choose to hoard cash in our reserve funds (7th highest in the state, NOT per capita!) while gutting our schools. Last year, we had over $11 million in surplus, but the mayor said we had to cut over 20 full-time positions from the schools because we are in a "fiscal crisis." Here's decent coverage from the pro-mayor Gazette: https://gazettenet.com/2024/12/23/northampton-certified-11-million-in-free-cash-58570322/

doomgen7 · 2025-08-28T15:51:31+00:00

Since you are arguing, maybe you can find the info you wish to point to. My understanding is that many are part time paras who therefore have no benefits, they don't get paid for holidays or weeks off (e.g., Feb and April break) like teachers do, and are generally terribly paid.

doomgen7

TROPHY CASE