At its Jan. 16 meeting, the Pioneer Valley School Committee (PVSC) voted to recommend closure of the Warwick Community School. As sad as that vote was for Warwick, the process on display at that meeting was even sadder to behold.
My wife and I are new to Warwick, and until last week, had never attended a PVSC meeting. I have just concluded at 40-year career in public service that included running a large, regional planning agency in Boston. In consequence, I deeply feel the imperative that those working in the public arena treat members of the public fairly and respectfully. Unfortunately, that was not what occurred at the Jan. 16 PVSC meeting.
Information crucial to the vote was withheld until moments before the meeting. Ridiculous, unnecessary time limits on public input resulted in our town coordinator being silenced before he could conclude his remarks. Our chief elected official was not even allowed to speak! Others, including my wife, were also prevented from speaking. When a Warwick resident questioned the validity of financial figures just distributed, all members of the public were threatened with ejection from the meeting!
Bias against Warwick’s case was clearly on display, as in when the audience was subjected to a lecture, delivered in long-suffering tones, about how the committee had had to listen to Warwick “hour after hour” in recent months — the implication being that we should just shut up already. The final insult came when we turned to leave the meeting, only to discover that the committee, incredibly, had thought it necessary to station two police officers at the back of the room!
I have never in 40 years of public service witnessed such an autocratic, disrespectful, atrocious public process. It was appalling, and in my experience, unfortunately, bad public process often results in bad decisions.
Karl Quackenbush
Warwick