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Date: 12/29/2021
BELCHERTOWN – After residents successfully filed a petition to recall Belchertown School Committee members Diane Brown and Michael Knapp, the town will host a special election on Jan. 24, 2022 to fill the two seats.
Residents initially made the decision to bring forward the petition back in October when the committee began to discuss a potential vaccination mandate for all students participating in extracurricular activities. The potential mandate was met with significant backlash from the community and at every meeting residents voiced their displeasure during the public comment portion.
Eventually, the petition was certified and approved during the Nov. 8 Select Board meeting, when the board agreed to send notice to the two recalled candidates to give them the opportunity to resign by Nov. 17. Neither Brown nor Knapp resigned, requiring the town to move forward with the special election.
Since the initial filing, the committee has walked back the vaccine mandate on several occasions. During the Nov. 2 meeting, the committee agreed upon a first reading of a new policy that would require students to be vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test result. Following that policy, the committee once again rewrote the policy during the Nov. 9 meeting to require testing for all students participating in extracurriculars but not a vaccine. Finally, the committee was set to approve the final reading of the testing policy at its Dec. 7 meeting but held off on a final decision after some members of the committee voiced their concerns over what activities would be required for testing, particularly for some club activities that are considered an extension of the school day with the guidelines being followed.
At the time of writing, no final decision had been made about the policy as the committee does not meet again until Jan. 11.
While both seats are up during the election, Brown, whose term is set to expire in May of 2022, is running unopposed. For Knapp’s seat, which is set to expire in May of 2023, he is running against Stephan Corbin and Kristin Lech.
In an upcoming edition of The Reminder, candidates will be given the opportunity to answer questions about their decision to run for School Committee.
The special election will take place at the Belchertown High School Gymnasium and polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.