Just when you thought we’d blown off the stink of the Maryelen Calderwood-led Greenfield School Committee, we get another whiff that may require the Attorney General’s Office to break out an air freshener.
Greenfield Mayor Bill Martin has filed a complaint with the AG over the committee’s decision to approve a series of teacher’s contracts in executive session literally hours before it turned into a political pumpkin on the first day of January.
“The issue here is the process,” Martin said. “Things like this should occur in the open where the public is at least notified.”
Martin says the private session was intended to discuss strategy related to collective bargaining, but he says when they got there, committee members were presented with and asked to vote on an amended contract that few had seen up until then.
“That’s just not right,” Martin said. “The committee wasn’t given much of a chance to deliberate or consider the financial implications of what is a four-year contract.”
If Martin was taken aback, he probably shouldn’t have been. Calderwood, after all, works for the Massachusetts Teachers Association and, as School Committee chair, sat ex-officio on the negotiations subcommittee. This seems like a blatant conflict of interest, even though the Ethics Commission didn’t see it that way.
It’s doubtful Martin’s appeal will do anything to change the contract, but it will hopefully stand as an example of how not to handle these types of matters moving forward.
If we are going to bang on the School Committee for when it does something questionable, it should also be applauded when it gets it right — which definitely happened when it named the high school’s new all-weather track in honor of long-time track coach Peter Conway.
“Not only was he the long-time coach of the program when it had a grass and largely mud track, but he was also one of the driving forces behind the effort to raise money for a new one,” Greenfield School Committee Chairman Tim Farrell said.
Fortunately, the GHS Building Committee saw fit to add the track to the plan for the new $51 million high school, negating the need for a private effort. And it’s only fitting that it be named after Conway, who touched a lot of lives while teaching important life lessons that are often best taught on the field of play.
Congratulations, coach from this proud GHS alum.
Greenfield residents get a chance next week to talk about plans for a new library.
The Greenfield Library board of trustees and the Library Building Committee will host a public forum at the library Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. to unveil and take feedback on plans to build the new facility on land that currently houses the fire station and a large parking area between the current library and the post office.
“We really want to hear what people think about the plan thus far,” said Ed Berlin, library trustees vice president and building committee member. “We also want to opportunity to make the case about why this building is needed.”
The good news right now is that the trustees are not looking for anything from the Town Council, other than for it not to derail the planning process, which Berlin says is very much ongoing, but in a good place.
“We feel like we have the right plan,” Berlin said. “We just want the chance to be heard.”
I’m sure the concern for the library folks — and it’s not without merit — is that their project is going be lumped in with all of the other big-ticket items under consideration. But Berlin says unlike the senior center and other such projects, the library is likely to be funded by a variety of outside sources, with only a fraction of the overall cost to be borne by the town.
“The town will have to contribute something, obviously,” Berlin said. “But we don’t want to appear like people have to choose between us and the senior center. The last thing we want is to have groups pitted against one another.”
If you want to learn more, stop by Tuesday night or at any one of the several information sessions being planned for later this month.
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former staff reporter for The Recorder and a Greenfield native.