Town Meeting and the School Votes - I

TOWN MEETING AND THE SCHOOL VOTES - I

Many were disappointed with the results of the School votes in Town Meeting in 2016/17 and some were furious.  I count myself among the disappointed, but not furious.  In fact, I count this episode among the many shining moments in Town Meeting’s history.  But let’s review the history before I continue the commentary.

In 2016 the Amherst School Committee, faced with deteriorating elementary school buildings and wishing to eliminate the busing of children to achieve racial and economic integration, proposed a major re-organization of the Amherst elementary schools.  The plan involved closing Fort River School, building a “co-located” pair of grade 2-6 schools for all children on the current Wildwood School site, and repurposing Crocker Farm as an early education center for grades Pre-K through 1.  The plan was bold and raised lots of questions.  Opponents  spoke of wanting to retain neighborhood configurations and the amount of busing and driving this new arrangement would entail.  They described the proposed new building as a “megaschool”.  Proponents emphasized that the new school would provide a fully integrated student body, a more effective concentration of the arts and special services, and a dedicated early learning center where teachers and specialists could work closely together.  I am only scratching the surface of the discussion, which quickly became argumentative and passionate.

In November, 2016, an override referendum to raise property taxes above the statutory limit to support building the new school was narrowly passed,  The Yes votes were 6818, the No votes were 6696.  The override passed with 50.45% of the vote.

Later that month, Town Meeting considered a motion to borrow the money which this taxation would repay over time.  According to state law, motions to borrow money require a 2/3rds vote to prevail.  At this meeting, the motion to borrow could not muster even a simple majority.  The votes were Yes-106, No-108.  The motion was narrowly defeated with just over 50% of Town meeting voting against it.

Dismayed by this result, the School Committee and their supporters successfully petitioned for a reconsideration of the vote, and on January 30, 2017, Town Meeting voted again.  This time the Yes votes were 123 and the No votes were 92.  The Yes vote received  57.2% of the vote,  However, while this was a significant margin, it was less than the 2/3 required by the state for borrowing money.

The proponents of the school proposal made one last effort; they gained enough support to call a town-wide referendum to overturn the Town Meeting vote.  On March 30, 2017, the Town voted 2451 to 2150 to do so.  However, this fell short of the required 2981 votes and the Town Meeting vote stood.  The proposal was defeated and the School Committee went back to the drawing boards to devise an approach to rehabilitating Fort River School.

My own voting record during all of this reflected my deep ambivalence, an ambivalence felt by many voters on both sides of the issue.  I voted Yes on the override referendum.  I voted No on the first borrowing vote in Town Meeting, as did the majority of voting members.  I voted Yes on the second borrowing vote, again with the majority, and finally Yes on the second referendum to overturn the Town Meeting vote.  My ambivalence was due to the proposal, on the one hand, which I thought deficient in many particulars, and, on the other, a strong desire to retire the Wildwood and Fort River buildings which were deficient in so many ways, both educational and physical.  Ultimately I decided that closing the buildings was a higher priority; if the reconfiguration of the schools proved to be a bad idea it could be revised at some later date.

None of this made me happy or confident in my decision but I want to reflect not on the decision nor on the plan itself but upon the role of Town Meeting in this experience and why, even though my final position did not prevail, I am proud of Town Meeting.  I will explain my pride in my next post.