To register please go to:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYscOqtqTstHtY5cReSrhbDQEFrwL0o4scy

School Committee, City Council, Assessor

Tuesday October 17, 2023

7:00 to 9:00 pm

John Zon Community Center

35 Pleasant St, Greenfield

Come hear what these candidates have to say and hear them answer questions.

If you wish to submit a question for the candidates, please come a little early, there will be paper for you to write your question.

Sponsored by the Progressive Blueprint for Greenfield Coalition

www.blueprintforgreenfield.com

A number of FCCPR folks attended the huge climate rally in New York City on Sunday, Sept. 17. Organizers estimate that there were between 50 and 75,000 demonstrators in attendance. We were pleased to see many groups making the connection between the global warming and capitalism!

Legislation introduced by Senator Paul Mark & State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa

Ask your State Representatives and State Legislators to co-sponsor legislation to fund alternatives to our current emergency response system, H.2264 and S.1407, increasing the availability of non-law enforcement, unarmed, community based response options for calls to 911.

We know that well over 90% of 911 calls are for nonviolent emergencies, that is, for wellness checks, reported vagrancy, and personal crises. When 911 responders are armed police, violence frequently results, and the needs of the person who is the focus of the call too often are ignored. Tell your legislators that the best way to address emergency mental health, homelessness, and substance misuse in our communities is through an unarmed response involving trained crisis managers, who may be peer responders, or other behavioral health specialists.

Ask your Representative to co-sponsor H.2264 HERE and your Senator to co-sponsor S.1407 HERE.

Click HERE to read the Bill and a fact sheet

There are already several alternative 911 response programs in Massachusetts. Amherst launched CRESS (Community Responders for Equity, Safety & Service) in August of 2022,

Northampton will inaugurate a similar service in 2023, and the Cambridge City Council just voted to launch HEART (Cambridge Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team).

The 240^th Anniversary of Slavery Declared Illegal in Massachusetts

Quock Walker, a determined and persistent self-emancipated Western MA slave from Barre, took his case to the state’s highest court 240 years ago. On July 8, 1783, the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, declared that “the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution.” 

Quock Walker was 30 years old when his judicial victory made slavery illegal in Massachusetts, the first state to do so. Massachusetts was the only state to count no Black residents as slaves in the US Census of 1790. Quock Walker and his siblings bought property in Massachusetts.  His nieces and nephews worked to improve civil rights in Massachusetts and to abolish slavery across the country.

Three years ago, Sean Osborne of Lexington, a public historian, activist and water engineer, undertook a successful campaign to have the state declare July 8 Quock Walker Day aka Mass. Emancipation Day. I joined him and others in the effort, enlisting the support of (then) Sen. Anne Gobi who represented Barre, and our Sen. Jo Comerford who said, “Quock Walker stood bravely for racial justice, liberty, and equality under the law. These issues remain pressing today. We should tell Quock Walker’s story, celebrate it, and learn from it.”

On Nov. 1, 2022, the governor signed into law : “The governor shall annually issue a proclamation setting apart July 8 as Massachusetts Emancipation Day, also known as Quock Walker Day, in recognition the significant contributions made by Quock Walker to abolish slavery in the commonwealth…and recommending that the day be observed in an appropriate manner by the people.”

This year, as more communities learn about Quock Walker Day, they plan celebrations for July 8 (Lexington, Cambridge, Lowell and Worcester), and issuing proclamations. Lexington’s proclamation begins “Whereas, This year marks the 240^th Anniversary of the Quock Walker cases that constitutionally ended slavery in Massachusetts;” and concludes, “We, the Select Board of the Town of Lexington,….urge all of the citizens of the Town of Lexington to celebrate the tenacity and audacity of Quock Walker while building upon his legacy to make Lexington and the Commonwealth a more just place to exercise our natural, essential, and unalienable rights.”

Another celebration this year, notable for baseball fans, is the Red Sox will host a Quock Walker Day event on the infield during their July 8 game at Fenway Park. 

On July 8, 2023, let’s celebrate the 240^th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts and honor the courage and legacy of Quock Walker!

For more on the Quock Walker story, and to work on issuing a proclamation in your town, contact the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington, admin@abclex.org. https://www.abclex.org/black-history-portrait-banners

Sharon Tracy lives in New Salem, MA.

A grassroots platform for Greenfield city elections

The election season is heating up in Greenfield already. We are hoping for a progressive sweep for City Council, School Committee and the Mayoral race.

FCCPR is working on building a coalition around a “Progressive Blueprint for Greenfield”. Many of you have already given input into the Blueprint.

You can access the abridged version here. This will be available in a printed version very soon and we will begin distribution of it.

We need you help to win this November.

Distributing this platform and beginning positive, issue oriented conversation about the upcoming election is the first step. FCCPR has in past elections created a more progressive city council and school committee. This was mainly done by feet on the ground, door-to-door work by you and other members. As we go through our endorsement process, we will soon call upon you to again join us in that endeavor.

Join us THIS SATURDAY, May 13th, 10am – 12pm to stand out against Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Greenfield, an anti-abortion center!

Saturday, May 13, 10am-12pm

• Big thanks to all who came to the online forum on MA school funding we hosted earlier this month! Here is another webinar from Tracy Novick, who presented at the education funding forum, where she shares a more extended introduction to Chapter 70 funding in Massachusetts.

• Webinar: Tracy Novick, Explains Chapter 70 in Seventy Minutes

We postponed the forum this past week due to the weather, and we are pleased to announce that the forum is rescheduled for Tuesday, April 4th, at 7pm!

Register for the zoom link here: tinyurl.com/MASchoolFunding

___________________________________________

FCCPR is offering an online forum on April 4th at 7 pm focused on school funding.

Massachusetts is a very wealthy state.  It has close to eight billion dollars in its rainy day fund.  It has so much money on hand that it was required by law to send money back to taxpayers.

 And Massachusetts politicians say that they love our children, that children are our future, and that education is the key to unlocking that future.  

So why don’t we fully fund our schools?  Why are our teachers and instructional assistants working without a contract, our technology outdated, and why is the school district begging the town for more money, which the town does not have?  And what can we do about it?

Agenda for the forum:

1. A slide show that presents an overview of how school funding works (or doesn’t work) in Massachusetts, highlighting areas that may help us to understand why so many districts are struggling. 
2.  Overview with a panel discussion on issues raised in the slide show and by participants in the forum. 
3. Identifying action steps individuals and groups can take that will lead to more fully funding our schools.  

We have the money in Massachusetts, and our children, who are our future, deserve the very best education we can provide for them.  Please join us at our education funding forum on April 4th at 7 pm.  

Slide presentation that we will go through during the forum:

School Funding 101 (Greenfield)

Links and Source Material for the Slide Show:

• Education Funding 2019 Where We Stand
• School Foundation budget State overview chapter-2023-whitepaper
• MASC Budget and Finance for School Committees presentation

Register

Get the zoom link here: tinyurl.com/MASchoolFunding

Contact

Please contact Doug Selwyn with any questions you might have:  dougselwyn@aol.com

Facebook Event

https://fb.me/e/41ntam3RZ

We hope to see you and others you know concerned about local school funding there! Please help us spread the word!