"The function of a school is not to help kids do well in school.

"The function of a school is to help kids do well in life."

-- Elliott Eisner

by David Ardito and Pasquale Tassone

As two arts educators with over 60 years of combined teaching/administrative experience, we are deeply concerned about the Arlington Public Schools’ financial picture for the next academic year. As longtime residents of Arlington, we are aware of the potential impact that such a bleak scenario has for public education in general, the arts in particular and the quality of life in our community.

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The following statement was written by Jud Pierce, a candidate for the School Committee. It is posted here with the author's permission.

by Jud Pierce

My name is Jud Pierce. I write to announce my candidacy for School Committee and tell you why I am running.

I am married to a wonderful woman named Laura and together we are happily raising two young children ages 5 and 2.  Laura and I moved to Arlington seven years ago. We chose this town because of all of its positive traits including, more specifically, its great school system for when we were ready to start a family. 

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The following statement was written by Nathan Bosdet, a candidate for the Board of Selectmen. It is posted here with the author's permission.

by Nathan Bosdet

The primary reason I'm running for selectman is to really work to bring the voice of Arlington into the Board of Selectmen. Not just to provide a monologue out from the selectmen to the community, but to create a stronger dialogue and transparency between the selectmen and the community.

My personal background is in economics, in which I hold both bachelor's and master's degrees. I feel this gives me a no-nonsense approach to budgetary issues that we face and that we are sure to work with over the next three years.

Currently, I work as an economic analyst for a Cambridge consulting firm that works with many large multinational corporations, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] foreign and domestic government agencies.

The following statement was written by Kurt Fusaris, a candidate for School Committee. It is posted here with the author's permission.

by Kurt Fusaris

My name is Kurt Fusaris, and I am running for the Arlington School Committee in this year's Annual Town Election on April 10.

I am running because I want to continue my commitment to Arlington's students. I bring a unique perspective as the only candidate who has taught in the Arlington school system.

As a result, I can appreciate what works and what needs to be improved. I have worked cooperatively with many parents, students, and other educators in the district to help meet the educational needs of all our students. As a school-based speech-language pathologist for 12 years, I understand how to address the challenges in special education.

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The following statement was written by Maria A. Romano, candidate for the Board of Selectmen. It is posted here with the author's permission.

By Maria A. Romano

Having lived in Arlington for 31 years, I have tremendous respect and admiration for the work of all the people, the volunteers, town employees and elected officials.

We have a great town; its original name was Menotomy, meaning “swift running water.” “One Arlington” is my wish for the wonderful people.

Let’s get back to the clear, clean, swift running water of Menotomy. One people, with one desire, and one goal.

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By Kirsi Allison-Ampe

I’m Kirsi Allison-AmpeKirsi Allison-Ampe and I’m running for Arlington School Committee because I am a concerned parent.

I’m concerned for my youngest daughter, starting kindergarten next year. I’m concerned for my older daughter and her classmates, whose love of PE, art and music gives sparkle to their days. Most of all, I’m concerned for the future of the students in Arlington Public Schools.

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John D. Leone, Town Meeting member representing Precinct 8, has announced he is seeking reelection as Town Moderator. His statement follows:

Our spring election for Town offices is several weeks away, however I wish to announce that I am seeking reelection as your Town Meeting Moderator.  I respectfully ask for your support and vote.

The responsibility of Town Moderator is to oversee and manage our Town Meetings.  I believe that I am uniquely qualified to hold the Moderators offices.  I pride myself on my honesty, directness and fairness. Upon being reelected I will run a fair, efficient and well balanced Town Meeting.

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Selectwoman Diane Mahon launched the latest skirmish in Arlington’s "perpetual war" on Feb. 18, when she filed a public-records request for information about the draft school budget for 2011. Her plea went to interim Superintendent Kathleen Bodie, who was on vacation at the time. Mahon's goal: accurate data about forecast school deficits.

I agree with the aim, but filing a records request to reach the goal was grandstanding. The desired information has been available in School Committee presentations and on the schools' Web site, as each new forecast was made, since December.

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When William Weld was elected governor in 1990, he famously promised to end the “Beacon Hill shenanigans” of questionable contracts and patronage appointments, subjecting all deals to “the smell test.” Since then, the phrase “to pass the smell test” has lived on in political discussions to mean meeting a threshold level of decent, honest, ethical behavior.

The matter of appointing an interim town clerk to succeed Corinne Rainville raises some decidedly malodorous questions. Read more

The following opinion was written by Olivia Munson, a senior at Arlington High School. It is published with her permission.

Since our presentation at the selectmen meeting on Feb. 1, there has been much discussion in various sources regarding the event. For us students, it’s an education in itself to see how simply voicing one’s concerns can be interpreted and can resonate in a town. This letter is an attempt to clarify the organization behind the presentation, and the intentions of the students who participated.

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The following letter was written by Jeanie Tietjen and Andrew Bengtson, Arlington residents and parents of a 4-year-old entering kindergarten in the Arlington public schools in fall 2010. It was sent Jan. 23 to Arlington's State House delegation -- Reps. Sean Garballey, Jay Kaufman and Will Brownsberger, as well as Sen. Ken Donnelly. The letter is published with the authors' permission.

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As parents and voting members of the Town of Arlington and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, we submit this letter as formal expression of concern for how the current fiscal crisis affects our public school system. We are very concerned that the gap between revenue and costs forces Arlington Public Schools to drastically cut back resources, affecting not only the types of programming available, but teacher to student ratio and class size.  

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On behalf of the Arlington Republican Town Committee, thank you to the 6,485 Arlingtonians who voted for Scott Brown on January 19. We were happy to get out amongst our neighbors, be they Independents, Democrats, or Republicans, to spread Senator Brown’s message of fiscal responsibility and electing an independent voice for Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.

 We were excited to have citizens of all different ages and political stripes join us in holding signs at polling places, door knocking, and making phone calls. We look forward to Senator-elect Brown’s swearing-in during the coming week, and to supporting his agenda to bring common sense reform to Washington.

We would also like to thank the town’s Martha Coakley and Joe Kennedy supporters for waging a strong campaign that helped illustrate the differences among the three candidates in a passionate but respectful way.  I hope that in the future we can have campaigns that contribute to civil discourse about the issues, not the negative and personal attacks that often infiltrate our debates.

As a political group, but first and foremost a community organization, the Arlington Republican Town Committee welcomes those of all or no political affiliations at our meetings. Please consult the ARTC’s web site at http://www.arlington-gop.com or our blog for details on our next meeting. You can also sign up to be our friend on Facebook or connection on LinkedIn for the most up-to-date information.

Cheers,

Jim Dolan
Chairman
Arlington GOP

Escaping the fluster of Staples at a holiday-crazy Fresh Pond, I wheeled my rusting Geo off Rt. 2 and wound up near Jason Street. I needed a break, and the steel-blue afternoon at Menotomy Rocks Park provided one -- and much more.

The air was chill; the sun bright. Together, they chiseled a cold clarity that knifes through current chaos straight to memory. I remembered ...

    ... the time my brother Rich and I -- he was a teen, and I was in college -- tramped through snowy woods near our home in rural Bucks County, Pa., and dragged home a tree we had cut for Christmas, while overhead bursts of lightning filled the lowering clouds.

    ... the time we cleared snow from a frozen creek, much like the spots at the pond at Menotomy Rocks, so we could play hockey, making do with branches for sticks and a hard oval of ice for a puck.

    ... the time in February 1975, when Rich, two friends and I stood atop Mt. Adams, marveling at how wind had sculpted White Mountain snow into sharp, waving arrows; we marveled until clouds to the west suggested we head down to safer ground. We did, but not before driving snow buried our trail. At tree line, we found an empty ranger's cabin. Stripped of most of frozen, wet clothes, we wriggled into sleeping bags and fitfully slept.

All of us recall winters when, as events swirl around us, moments crystallize in a heady peace.

So did a brief tramp at Menotomy Rocks, as I tried the pond ice (seemed solid on Dec. 22, the day I was there) and stepped along the wooded path, the pond at my right, to the open field beyond. In the distance, an empty playground swing. Ahead of me walked another with his dog. Unlike Frost's watchman patrolling the night to whom the poet dropped his eyes, "unwilling to explain," I greet this gent and his bounding hound. After a cheery exchange, he walked on, perhaps remembering holidays past.

For me, a place like this, a moment like that, defines an Arlington's icon.

I am writing in support of Mike Capuano for U.S. Senate.  I believe Mike is best qualified for the job because of his experience as a U.S. Congressman.   As a Congressman, Mike has worked hard on various issue including but not limited to health care and the environment.    Mike will continue this hard work, if elected to the Senate.   Many others such as our own Congressman Markey have seen Mike in action while in Congress and have given their endorsement.  Please join me on the  special primary day and vote for Mike Capuano for U.S. Senate.

William Logan

Town Meeting Member Precinct 2

Elected Member of the Arlington Town Democratic Committee

I’m supporting Mike Capuano for the Senate, and I hope you will, too. I'm supporting Mike because I think he is, hands down, the best candidate to be the next senator from Massachusetts. His passion and commitment to working people, his courage in taking principled stands on difficult issues when many others did not (including his opposition to the Iraq War and the USA Patriot Act) and not only the experience, but the wisdom he has clearly gained and demonstrated through his years of service to this state and our country in the House of Representatives make him not simply the most qualified but the most obviously effective person to assume this most important of elective positions.

The other candidates are leaders in their own fields. But none has the legislative and executive experience that Mike Capuano brings to this race. In addition to his legislative work in Washington, his years as Somerville’s mayor means that he also understands the impact of legislative decisions and policies on cities and towns.

 

It is clear from every debate or forum where he has engaged with the other candidates that he has studied and understands the issues deeply – be they domestic or international, be it health care reform, civil liberties and human rights, the genocide in Sudan, or a way out of Afghanistan. I may not agree with him on every single issue or nuance within an issue, but the man does his homework, thinks carefully about a problem and comes to conclusions that are consistent and principled. He has demonstrated the kind of leadership, simultaneously impassioned and intelligent, required in these times. The stakes are enormously high. There is much critical work to be done in Washington. We need a person with the insight and experience demonstrated by Mike Capuano. I hope you will join me in voting for Mike.

 

Dore Penn 

Arlington resident

With Arlington facing a $4.5 million deficit, the sides in the negotiation between the teachers' union and the town over health insurance have taken their cases to the public. Removing the veil of privacy from these talks were Town Manager Brian Sullivan and David Blakely, former president of the Arlington Education Association (AEA). Sullivan's anger was barely contained as reflected in an Advocate news story on Nov. 12.  On Nov. 16, Sullivan presented a more measured response with many additional facts in a letter to Town Meeting members.

Blakely responded with an opinion piece on Nov. 19.

Comparing these views of usually private matters raises at least three questions:

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'Bias' and some untold stories about the e-mail case

Hope you enjoyed Town Day, folks. I always have -- catching up with people you know plus good causes and tasty sausages topped with shaving cream. I had to miss it, the first in years. My niece got married in California's wine country that day, and I was there. The flight over Ken Burns's America gave me time to think about my journalistic integrity.

Woodward and Bernstein, I ain't. (Thanks to the Arlington list member for pointing that out.) I have never claimed to be two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters, let alone one.

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by Bob Sprague

The School Committee took two right steps out of three at its Sept. 8 meeting in an effort to improve the process involved in the 2009-2010 superintendent search. The two correct moves were reconsidering its July 27 vote by urging wider public participation and seeking a full search. That includes encouraging Kathy Bodie, the interim superintendent, to apply.

The misstep lies in seeking a consultant to aid in the search, though the School Committee voted only to request proposals from potential companies. It doesn't have to agree to hire any of them. Given the continued budget woes and more expected bad news from the state, the committee should be leery of spending much for a consultant, if it chooses to have one.

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by Stuart Cleinman

As a Town Meeting member, I received the following anonymous correspondence a few weeks back. I am posting it here for all to see. My comments follow below.

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by Bob Sprague

Your View welcomes you and your words. The new place for opinion at YourArlington, Your View wants you to walk right in and tell us what's on your mind -- about Arlington, Mass.

The town has no shortage of issues in the summer of 2009 -- the Mass. Ave. Corridor project, underage drinking, changes due on Forest Street, the increasing number of cars that make the overnight on-street parking ban outmoded, differing viewpoints between longtime residents and newcomers.

We want to read what you think about any of these -- or other -- issues, large and small, that you believe are important to the lives of Arlington residents.

Here's how to let us know your thoughts: First, you do have to register to post (We are working on a way to post without registering). To do so, click the "Register" button on the menu bar at left above the name of the site. Once you're registration is approved, just click here, add a headline, sign your full name and save. To support the credibility of your views, facts and fairness help. Anonymous posts, those without Arlington content or any deemed libelous will be removed. Signed comments, even if their content may be outrageous, will be published if the writer supports his or her views with facts. This is an open forum about our town guided by good will, yours and the publisher's.

These are the site's general limits -- now let's see what you write. What's stopping you?

In contrast to opinion, news stories are posted at YourArlington. The Web site is not a blog; it is a content-management system built on Joomla, free, open-source software with millions of developers worldwide. Join the Boston Joomla group. Your View is YourArlington's blog.

P.S. Your View has other features, including writing your own profile to connect with others. Pursue those if you wish. Contact the publisher if you run into problems.