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Date: 11/9/2017
HAMPDEN – The seats of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Hampden were nearly full on Monday night as the towns Nov. 6 Special Town Meeting commenced. Roughly 300 Hampden residents turned out for the meeting to vote on 11 warrant articles, four of them being the subject of abundant discussion over the last several weeks. With that being said, one of the four, being Warrant Article Seven, was unanimously withdrawn from the Special Town Meeting.
Warrant Article One
Article One involved the Board of Assessors Department upgrade. This article was in place to see if the town will “vote to raise and appropriate and/or transfer from unappropriated available funds a sum of money to purchase necessary hardware, software and technical support to upgrade Vision Appraisal Software, or take any other action relative thereto,” according to the town provided warrant document. Article One voted with a majority to pass the appropriation of funds.
Warrant Article Two
Warrant Article Two asked if Hampden residents would vote to hear the report of the School Deregionalization Study Committee, which would include their suggestions of how to move forward, should the town decide to deregionalize.
Hampden and Wilbraham have been involved in a regional agreement since the 1990s. The Hampden Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) has proposed a Reorganization Plan for the towns moving forward. In this plan, it proposes that Hampden’s Thornton W. Burgess Middle School closes in June 2018, due to low enrollment, and by school year 2022-2023 an additional Wilbraham school would close, further consolidating the towns schools.
This plan resulted in much discussion and debate between Hampden and Wilbraham residents, with several Hampden residents expressing feelings of distrust in the School Committee, resulting in the formation of the School Deregionalization Study Committee.
To read more about changes proposed by the HWRSD reorganization plan presented at the School Committee’s Oct. 5 meeting, go to www.thereminder.com/localnews/wilbrahamhampden/thornton-w-burgess-school-to-close-june-2018.
Yellow voter cards raised across the room in favor of listening to the School Deregionalization Study Committee’s report. First, the Committee noted that they had held meetings on a weekly basis that were open to the public, there were eight to ten meetings, over the course of the meetings town officials including selectmen and members of the HWRSD attended, as well as members of the committee attended board of selectmen meetings to share their findings. Over the course of their meetings, the committee said they discussed the process of deregionalizng, the financial impact and what the timeline would be for deregionalizing the kindergarten through eighth grade portion of the agreement. The Committee offered four options moving forward, should Hampden decide to deregionalize grades kindergarten through eight.
The four points the committee made are as follows: amend the agreement, mediation, investigate the cost of keeping Thornton W. Burgess open, and as a last resort, filing injunction against the School Committee.
The committee stated that should the regional agreement be amended, not withdrawn, it would take a proposal initiated by the majority of the regional school committee, then the proposal would go to the towns to vote to approve, and then the new agreement would start the following year. With mediation, the committee reported they have found three mediation companies, American Arbitration Association (AAA), the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration, and finally, one that the towns are perhaps more familiar with, the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS).
Assistant Director of MARS Steve Hemman came to Wilbraham to present at the June 13 HWRSD School Committee meeting. During this meeting, Hemman revealed that making changes to the regional agreement could cost the towns $500,000 to $700,000 that the towns would otherwise receive from the state, as well as a need for three separate school committees, three offices, and three superintendents; one for kindergarten through eighth in Wilbraham, another for kindergarten through eighth in Hampden and a third for the regional high school. To read more about Hemman’s deregionalization presentation and its findings, go to www.thereminder.com/localnews/wilbrahamhampden/marsgivesschoolcom/.
The School Deregionalization Study Committee commented during Monday’s meeting that there are pros and cons to mediation, and that they feel there has been “a lot of emotion here.” The Committee noted that HWRSD Superintendent Albert Ganem has spoken with the committee, and they both feel that taking emotions out of the picture and focusing on equality is “what we need for our students.”
Following the School Deregionalization Study Committee’s report, there was a resounding round of applause from voters.
Warrant Article Three
Article Three asked the town to vote to, “raise and appropriate and/or transfer from available funds a sum of money for legal and or professional fees for the purpose of modifying the regional school agreement or resolving other outstanding regional school issues,” according to the town provided warrant document.
The moderator reminded voters that the “only issue here is the appropriation of money. It’s not to be a discussion about whether or not to regionalize or deregionalize. It’s the appropriation for $50,000 of legal fees.”
On this article, the Advisory Committee did not have a recommendation, as the Committee tied two to two. When it went to vote, however, majority prevailed to raise and or appropriate the $50,000, though the vote was closer than previous votes.
On Nov. 7, the morning after the Special Town Meeting, Jennifer Johnson posted a few questions to the towns 566:Hampden Matters Facebook page, in an effort to understand “the push to deregionalize K-8,” as a new town resident. Johnson asked how Hampden middle school students would benefit from deregionalization and what opportunities students might lose if the town deregionalize.
“I hear a lot about the fear of who may buy the property if the school closes. I hear that residents are upset that parents are choosing to send their kids to WMS [Wilbraham Middle School] because they feel it provides for better opportunities for their kids. What I have yet to hear is objective reasoning on how the proposal directly benefits the students,” Johnson wrote.
Nicky Pelletier-Fyntrillakis commented, “I don’t think they would benefit. Going to K-8 is not the best option; it’s just the only option now. Unifying our kids at WMS would have given our six through eight all the same experience under one roof. More efficient and to bring back the middle school model that the majority of our teachers want for them and the students.”
Heather Jolicoeur responded, “I could be wrong, but K-8 is not the only option. Parents can still choose to have their kids go to Wilbraham Middle school. From my own son’s personal experience, going to WMS would not have benefitted him. Without going into detail, there are a lot of kids still at Thornton Burgess who are benefitting from being in a smaller school—for some, the reason they moved to Hampden.”
Stephanie Lafield commented that Superintendent Ganem is planning an informal meeting on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. prior to the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) meeting for parents to ask questions as the towns move forward.
Warrant Article Four
Moving along to Article Four, it was put to vote whether or not the town should discontinue its use of the towns own emergency police and fire dispatch facility and its associated personnel, and be allowed to contract with an independent autonomous remote dispatch facility, which would be located in Chicopee. The moderator told voters that this is a non-binding vote. The Advisory Committee noted that they wanted favorable action, and the towns majority voted “yes,” to keep the towns current dispatch facility located in the Hampden Police Department as opposed to joining East Longmeadow, Longmeadow and Chicopee in the Regional Dispatch facility.
Warrant Article Five
Warrant Article Five asked residents to vote to appropriate funds or a sum of money toward purchasing an air conditioning unit for the Senior Center kitchen. A representative from the Council on Aging noted to duct the present air conditioning in the senior center, it would be “far more costly” than to purchase a single air conditioner exchange. Additionally, the representative said that this was only the second time over the course of 17 years that the Council on Aging has requested a capital expense. The majority continued to vote in favor of purchasing an air conditioning unit for the Council on Aging’s kitchen.
Warrant Article Six
Warrant Article Six asked the town to vote to allocate funds toward line item 015705 to pay off all outstanding debt on the Highway Departments dump truck. Following brief discussion from a Highway Department representative, the majority voted in favor to pay off the outstanding debt.
Warrant Article Seven
Warrant Article Seven was originally in place to ask the town to vote to create a DIF district authorized under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40Q, with that district being known as the Allen St. and Wilbraham Road Improvement District. This would be a “public-private collaborative process to promote redevelopment in Hampden,” the warrant read.
At the Special Town Meeting, the town voted with a majority in favor to withdraw Warrant Article Seven from the discussion. The decision to withdraw the article came as a result from the towns Nov. 2 Select Board meeting. Town citizens had pressed the Select Board to respond to unanswered questions and requested additional information regarding the DIF project. The Select Board decided that the best way to move forward would be to withdraw Warrant Article 7 from the roster, in an effort to appease residents and provide more information.
Warrant Article Eight
Warrant Article Eight was in reference to the Community Preservation Committee, which asked to see if the town would accept the recommendations made by the committee. The Committee brought two recommendations. One, that the town vote to use $18,000 for a feasibility study to see if the town should acquire the old Cumberland Farms property on Main Street. Should the town purchase this property, a River Front Park has been proposed for the location in the future.
The town voted with favorable action to allocate the $18,000 toward the feasibility study.
The second recommendation the Community Preservation Committee, was to use approximately $75,000 to make the empty space in the basement of the Town House handicap accessible. The $75,000 would go toward fixing the bathrooms to be handicap accessible. One resident questioned that though that may make the bathrooms handicap accessible, the handicap residents wouldn’t be able to enter the area because of the stairwells. The resident then asked if the $75,000 would be used in part for adding a ramp to make those bathrooms accessible, and the Committee stated that no, the $75,000 was solely for the bathrooms. The town voted against this use, though it was a close vote.
Warrant Article Nine
Warrant Article Nine discussed the towns reserve fund, and asked the town to vote to transfer a sum of money from unappropriated available funds into the towns reserve fund. The Advisory committee recommended no action. The majority vote prevailed, with all in favor of taking no further action.
Warrant Article 10
Warrant Article 10 asked the town to vote to transfer from unappropriated available funds a sum of money to be put toward reducing the tax rate for Fiscal Year 2018. This involves the transfer of $338,000 in an effort to lower the tax rate. A resident questioned what the tax rate would be with and without the transfer of $338,000. The Advisory Committee stated that if there was no action on this warrant, the towns tax rate would increase by 6.2 percent. If the town voted to transfer the $338,000, the towns tax rate would still increase, but only to four to 4.5 percent. The majority prevailed, to use the $338,000 toward reducing the tax rate for next year.
Warrant Article 11
Warrant Article 11 asked the town to vote to transfer $18,203 from unappropriated available funds into the towns General Stabilization Account.
The majority voted in favor of the transfer.