Dr. David Hopson
Spring has finally arrived. With the advent of spring we also have the opportunity to look forward to the ritual of annual town meetings. This tradition has strong roots and a long history in New England, mostly lost on the majority of Massachusetts’ residents who reside in cities and do not have a direct say in managing the operations of their local government. Of course this form of democratic operations also presupposes that voters are educated about the issues facing them and are willing to make difficult decisions based upon what’s best for the majority and society as a whole. As a long time town moderator, I know it’s critical for our elected and appointed officials to share as much information as possible in a timely manner so that citizens can have ample time to think about the issues before being asked to make decisions at annual town meetings. Generally speaking, I have to give much credit to all of our town officials; it’s always difficult to put information together in a timely manner, especially concerning the town budget, when no one is certain on how much assistance you’ll be getting from the state or federal levels, whether there will be new unfunded mandates, and how many new regulations will be handed down for implementation. Despite this, annual town meetings are an effective way to allow the voice of the people to be heard and directly impact how their government operates; thus, it’s always difficult to understand why so few people actually take advantage of this opportunity.
Related to annual town meetings, Gateway continues to provide information about district items that will be on annual town warrants. To this end, the district has spent a great deal of time and energy providing information on the budget and on amendments to the regional agreement. From articles in the media, to presentations at school committee meetings, to pages on the district’s website, information is available so that voters can educate themselves on these issues.
As mentioned, the district has two amendments on annual town warrants this year. The first should be familiar to many, as this will not be the first time voters have seen the “One-Man/One-Vote” amendments. This is the district’s continuing effort to change the composition of the school committee to more closely match the number of citizens in each town. Under Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 71, Section 14E there are options for electing regional school committee members. If you review this law you’ll note that our current method of electing school committee members doesn’t fall under any of the stated options. We currently have a method devised in the 60’s that elects a set number of members from each town without any regard for the changing population of the towns. For example, Blandford has two school committee members and Chester has 3 school committee members, even though both towns have essentially the same number of residents.
The second amendment has been requested by the Town of Worthington and would allow Worthington to withdraw from the Gateway Regional School District. We are still working with the School Building Authority and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the financial information that each town will need to make an informed decision on this amendment.
Both amendments in their entirety are located under the “school committee” dropdown menu on the district’s website (www.grsd.org, under “regional amendments”). The same page contains related school committee presentations and information regarding the amendments. This information is very important to review in order to make an informed decision regarding whether individuals wish to support, or not support, the two amendments. It’s also important to realize that all seven towns must vote in favor of each amendment, and then they have to be approved by the Commissioner of Education before they can be implemented, certainly a daunting challenge under any conditions.
