Town-hall style meetings can be an opportunity not so much to try to solve problems and wrap up matters cleanly, but to let them rise to the surface and get a little air.
Such was apparently the case at last Friday’s Springfield Finance Control Board community forum, held at Springfield Technical Community College’s Scibelli Hall theater. If you were there, was it good for you? Were there issues you believe are important that didn’t get raised? How can future forums be improved? What specific follow-up is helpful?
Coverage last week of the meeting: Mike Plaisance’s brief article in the Republican; Julie Tremmel’s report for 22News; and Matthew Campbell’s report for CBS3.
Board chairman Christopher Gabrieli told reporters (at least, if not others in attendance) that he plans to hold this type of forum on a regular basis, calling it in one report “an extended speak-out.”
Residents who weren’t able to attend the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, or those who wish to scrutinize it and hear the “hundreds” of comments again, can watch it on the city’s government channel 17 all this week. Azell Cavaan, the city’s communications director, reported that Friday’s control board meeting will air every three hours until September 25; the community forum will air every three hours from September 26 to 30. Cavaan said that she would ask Comcast to air a graphic displaying air times.
City resident Sheila McElwaine kindly provided a report of the meeting, available below.
About 60 people attended the forum. Parking at STCC was extremely limited and some may have gotten frustrated and left.
Nearly everybody who commented during the public speak-out at the 1:00 pm board meeting earlier that day showed up again to reiterate their comments, including Robert Brown, Lois Smith, David Gaby and Susan Maki. Others included poised middle-schoolers speaking about finding a large enough space for the Renaissance School (pictured) at 1170 Carew Street.
In this context, someone, possibly board member James Morton (pictured, with Governor Deval Patrick and fellow board member Robert Nunes), brought up the excellent point that one promising educational model after another has come to Springfield, only to fade or disappear for lack of sustained support, including Montessori as well as the International Baccalaureate program at the High School of Commerce. Teachers are recruited, trained at public expense in a given focus, and the program gets off to a good start, but isn’t sustained in the way it should be.
Others present included Dave Quiry, Tim Collins, Burt Freedman, Frank Buntin, Carol Costa, Leon Moultrie, Gloria DiFillipo, Morris Jones, Alan Agnitti, Darlene Best, Karen Thomes, Karen Powell, Sandra Collins, Sue Craven, Bruce Stebbins, Rick Peck, Orlando Santiago, Pat Sullivan, Joan Ryan, Ginny White, Anna Brandenburg, Brian Corridan, Domenic Sarno, Norma Baker, Carol Aranjo, Ben Swan, Jr., Bob Tynan, Antonette Pepe, and Darlene Murchison-Brown.
Speakers and topics
City Council candidate Morris Jones: The tax fee will cause problems in the future. The loss of the Mason Square branch library is a moral issue.
Tim Collins: The new teachers’ contract will soon result in Springfield teachers being the lowest paid in Hampden County. We should partner with UMass and pass home rule legislation allowing additional taxes on restaurant drinks and meals. Going four years without a contract cost the system 1,350 teachers.
Leon Moultrie: A comprehensive profile of every eighth grade student should be drawn up and reviewed by guidance personnel in light of the student’s educational and vocational goals; this would help them do better in high school. Establish a process for hiring a new school superintendent. The city should partner with developers. We need recreation programs for youth and strategies for engaging parents. Students need work internships learning to do things like stripping parts form junk cars towed by the city.
Robert Brown: The city retirement system hasn’t done enough for veterans and veteran city retirees.
Ronald Brown: The city doesn’t take neighborhoods seriously. We need to restore our housing stock.
Steve Dean: The City Council are the real representatives of the citizens. The control board should listen to Paul Nicolai.
Albert Weiss: He invested all over the city. When he leaves the meeting, he’ll go over to his investment property and pick up papers dropped by people who just don’t care, who just came here to get a free ride.
Alex Agnitti (a child): The Renaissance School needs more room.
David Gaby: The city used to be against the neighborhoods. Jack Benoit was a capable community development director. The city should support community development corporations better. The school integration program was traumatic because families pushed out by schools were replaced by problem populations. Springfield has three times more subsidized housing units than other cities.
Sue Craven: Glad the pond in Indian Orchard is now open space and that roads are being repaved. Wants progress to start on Chicopee Riverwalk to further revitalize Indian Orchard. Invites control board to meet with neighborhood leaders. What is the renewal plan for the Chapman Valve site?
Jesse (no last name; a child): Renaissance School needs a campus, likes the family quality of the school and the fact that students were on the hiring committee for new faculty. Uniforms help a lot and this year everybody wears them without complaint.
Allen Agnitti: It is unsafe to line up Sumner Avenue School students at the corner of Sumner Avenue and Longhill Street during fire drills. Why hasn’t the sidewalk there been widened? The playground at the school is too small; the city should take over the unused parking lot at the Friendly’s restaurant next door.
Susan Maki: Is there a plan for relocating Renaissance School students in September 2008? (James Morton commits to taking on the task of examining this matter to see what the control board might do to find a location.)
Donna Seyman: Wants school lunch program to go back to the old days when there was a cook in every school. Loves seeing students in uniforms, thinks they look great and that uniforms improve their attitudes. Wonders about the use of cell phones by city employees. (Control board executive director Stephen Lisauskas may have offered to find out this information.)
Antonette Pepe: Names some good things: additional books, renovation of buildings, book bags purchased for the 750 homeless children in the schools. Disapproves of large class sizes and lack of cleanliness in school buildings.
Frank Buntin: Springfield has bad housing and education and too many Section 8 tenants. His child goes to the Renaissance School.
Darlene Murchison-Brown: Her street in Upper Hill used to be diverse, but now it is not and is overwhelmed with prostitution and drugs, particularly in a house across the street from hers. Her daughter’s friend is one of the people who was shot. Although people are being shot, she doesn’t see police either walking a beat or in their cars. There are gangs, but no solutions. Children need internships. She teaches in Holyoke and used to teach in Springfield, but didnt’ get enough support; there are not enough minority teachers in Springfield. Her daughter goes to the Renaissance School. She became a teacher after successfully advocating for five years to get an adequate education for her deaf daughter. Kids need hope, dreams, skills.
