#wilbraham

Wagon Dr Climb Trail

Climbing starts right away, making this a challenging start to a ride.

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Gender Dysphoria

Ten years ago the term gender dysphoria or transgender were terms most of us never heard, but today there has been an explosion of children identifying as a different gender to the biological sex they were born with.

Transgender rights in Massachusetts are protected by An Act Relative to Gender Identity (Chapter 199 of the Acts of 2011) and it severely restricts the ability of the school committee to make policy that protects the rights of the majority of normal students. 

Students that have gender dysphoria are entitled to use restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, play on sports teams, or they can insist on using a unisex or special restroom. They can insist that pronouns they want be used and suggest disciplinary action taken against students that don’t.

They even offer guidance that says, “School personnel should speak with the student first before discussing a student's gender nonconformity or transgender status with the student's parent or guardian” This is a policy recommendation, generally for students 14 and older.

The election is on Saturday, May 18, 2024. I know at this time of year you may be busy, have other plans, or be out of town so why not vote early by mail? Please use the link below to register to get an early mail-in ballot sent to you so you won't have to worry about getting to the polls on election day. 

This link will also first check to verify that you are eligible to vote in the election and then allow you to order a mail in ballot if you are eligible to vote.

When you fill out your ballot please vote for D. John McCarthy for School Committee, Mary McCarthy for planing board, and Lawrence G. LaBarbera for assessor.

The application must reach your local election office by 5 p.m. on the fifth business day before Election Day. (Monday, May 13, 2024) but you should plan well in advance to make certain you get you ballot in time to vote before Election Day.

One of the few and one of the most important things a school committee can do is approve the district budget. While the administration can write a budget and make a request, the school committee must approve it and then send it to the towns.

Our current committee isn't doing their job. For example they should be setting aside money for long term expenditures that they know will have to be paid for or at least list future large expenses.

One of the big expenses that they neglected is replacing fire alarms in the schools. This item is almost $100,000.00 yet it wasn't addressed until this year.

Another big item is smart white boards. The chalk boards of yesteryear have long since been replaced by white boards, and then they were replaced by "smart" white boards. They are expensive and unlike chalk boards and like any technology have to be replaced when they get old or obsolete. This year all of a sudden there is a request for 250 of them. But, the town budget committee says there are only 150 classrooms? What kind of budgeting is that. Do they need more than one in a classroom? Will they be used in the hall ways?

While the budget committee says that the other departments in town are only going to get a 1.3% budget increase the HWRSD wants a 3.8% increase? That kind of increase is third higher and is unsustainable without raising taxes.

The budget committee tried to negotiate with them buy cutting some items like the extra white boards, but they still need to cut $57,000.00 or .05% of the budget. But, so far they won't budge. If they don't come to an agreement than it will have to go to the town meetings.

The problem is that Wilbraham pays about 80% of the HWRSD budget based upon the number of students from the two towns. Hampden has their town meeting before Wilbraham. It could be a big problem.

Some people think the School Committee is very powerful and can "run" the schools. Not true, the real power to run the school rests with the Superintendent and his or her administration.

The change came with the enactment of the Massachusetts education Reform Act of 1993 (MERA, St. 1993, c. 71) while it increased the role of running the schools of the superintendent it didn't take all of the power away from the School Committee.

The Committee still has some important roles.

Superintendent - The School Committee hires the superintendent and can also fire him. It controls his salary, benefits, etc. In other words the Superintendent works for the School Committee who works for the citizens that elect him or her.

If the Super institutes policies that are unpopular with the citizens or the committee they can exert some control by blocking raises or in extreme cases fire him or her.

There is no reason that a Superintendent can ignore the committee or that the committee should just blindly go along with the Superintendents wishes.

Policy - The School Committee can make policy for the district. This gives them a certain amount of power. Of course they consult with the administration about what good policy should be, but the decision is theirs. They also constrained by the Commonwealth. More about that later.

I served on the committee before as a member, secretary, vice chairman, and chairman of the committee until 2014. When I left the district was in good shape and was one of the highest ranking schools in the area. While the district continues to get high grades from some sources, others aren't so glowing.

Minnechaug is now ranked 159th (out of 437) in the Commonwealth and 16 in the Springfield Metro Area by US News. Our superintendent was quoted in the Reminder "The question the School Committee has to ask is are "going to chase rankings."  You can read the responses here, but in general it sounded like excuses to me and the answer is no, we shouldn't chase high rankings. 

The article goes on to report how the committee went on to vote $119,500 to do an equity audit compiled by the district's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee! Instead of worrying about DEI why aren't we worried about our low rankings? Why aren't we concerned with excellence and using that money in ways to improve education instead.

The US News ranking Minnechaug at 156 in Massachusetts and 4,179 in the USA compares to Longmeadow High ranking of 77 in the Commonwealth and 2,076 in the USA and even Ludlow that ranked higher at 140 and 3,595 in the US.  

It takes money to win a campaign. Please consider donating to help the other Republican candidates, Mary McCarthy and Lawrence LaBarbers and as well as myself win town elections.

DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It may sound good on face value, but it is insidious in the way it is often applied in practice.

Diversity - The assumption is that diversity is good, but is it at the expense of merit? For example our school committee lamented that our faculty didn't have enough minority faculty. When we hire faculty shouldn't an effort be made to hire the best qualified teachers on the basis of merit and not skin pigmentation? Of course we should advertise openings widely so that all may apply, but when the actual hiring decisions are made shouldn't the decision be colorblind? Isn't hiring someone based on their race inherently racist? Our students deserve the best and the brightest, "valuing one individual over another on the basis of race, gender or other immutable characteristics is inherently immoral."*

Equity - Equity isn't the same thing as equality. Yes we must be fair to all and offer equal opportunity to all, but equity in the name of fairness has been used an equal outcome among groups. It has been misused to the point where it is only considered equitiable if there are equal numbers in hiring. If that standard is used we would have to fire many if not most of our elementary school teachers as there are more women than men teaching elementary students in our district. Does that make sense? Is that fair? Of course not. Obviously we want to hire the best teachers but should a less qualified man be hired over a much more qualified woman on the basis of equity? 

Inclusion - This has become a practice of hiring not based on merit, but because it is thought that that certain people have been excluded for things like their race, gender, or sexuality. How does hiring on that basis improve quality? Men have historically not gone into elementary school teaching and women historically have not gone into STEM teaching, but does that mean we need to only hire men to teach 1st grade or women to teach physics at Minnechaug to be inclusive? In my opinion we should only look at the individual person applying for the job. If they happen to be a man or a woman, short or tall, black, brown, or white shouldn't come into the equation at all. Again we must cast the net widely, let it be known that there are openings to attract as many qualified applicants as possible, but only hire the most qualified based upon their education, experience, how they come across in their interview. 

Historically, some groups have enjoyed systematic cultural and institutional privileges over other groups for a variety of reason.* The problem with DEI is that, rather than correcting for injustices, new ones are created. In an effort to aheive diversity, it may mean less qualified people are hired. Striving for equity can hurt equal opportunity for qualified individuals. Inclusion can mean exclusion of the best and brightest. The result is a work force that ticks all the DEI boxes, but can be a less qualified one.

The answer is to search high and low for the best and brightest and then only pick them on merit with no other consideration. Isn't that what normal people do when they look for a doctor, a lawyer,  plumber, or an electrician. Isn't that what we want our school district to do when they hire teachers and staff? Who among us would hire a doctor solely based upon their gender, race, or anything else except their merit and reputation. Who would want a less qualified tradesmen working on their home just because they ticked off some DEI box? If you are honest with yourself you wouldn't hire anyone on the basis of DEI. On the other hand you wouldn't discriminate against a doctor if they were the best in their field because they didn't look like you if you hoped for the best outcome. Why should we promote DEI in the education of our students?