WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Members of the town's diversity committee Monday criticized Mount Greylock Regional School District officials for pulling a district-wide director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging out of the fiscal year 2024 budget.

 

Last week's School Committee vote was raised toward the end of the town's Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Committee meeting. And it was clear that none of the four members present were happy about the district's strategy for containing costs to the taxpayers of Lanesborough and Williamstown.

 

Andrew Art brought it up to the rest of the group, saying that he was "heart-broken" to see the School Committee chose not to ask the towns for a little more money in order to fund a position that district administrators and the majority of the elected committee have identified as critical to furthering the district's efforts to support all of its students.

 

"My hope was they would take a path of challenging the towns to rise to the level and take the risk they might say no, rather than … scale back and cut the position before they asked the towns," Art said.

 

Noah Smalls gave credit to the district administration for wanting to build a more inclusive school district, but he and other members of the committee noted that a dedicated professional to address long-standing inequity is common in other school districts and needed in the northwest corner of Massachusetts.

 

"Why is there a question here?" Smalls said in a meeting telecast by the town's community access television station, Willinet. "We're in Western Massachusetts. The need for support around diversity here, versus most of the country, is dire. I think that is understood. I'm highly disappointed that we are still asking, ‘Is this something that we need?'

 

"Think the need for this is present everywhere, and many places are addressing the need. They're working to meet the need. With, what I would consider to be a more challenging case of need here being historically present, why the question mark?"

 

Shana Dixon complained that while, as parents, people tell their children to try and not be afraid to fail, the School Committee and district administration did not even try to get the funding they need.

 

The School Committee in two meetings last month spent a lot of time talking about the consequences of a failed school budget at one or both of the member towns' town meetings this spring.

 

Specific to the DEIB position, the committee talked at its March 23 meeting about the ramifications of presenting a budget that was over the 3 percent increase sought by Lanesborough and Williamstown officials solely because of the diversity post.

 

"It is a real conundrum," School Committee member Carolyn Greene told her colleagues at that meeting. "I totally agree. One option we have, though, is to get down to that 3 percent in whatever way we see fit and add back the DEIB position. The risk there is the budget vote [at the town meetings] is a vote on the DEIB position, and I don't know that we want to do that, either."

 

Art on Monday noted that the decision to remove a roughly $100,000 expenditure for the DEIB position comes at the same time the School Committee is asking the member towns to authorize borrowing $800,000 over 10 years to pay for a track and field project at the middle-high school.

 

"When you're asking [voters] at the same town meeting … at the same time you're telling them [the DEIB director] is not a priority, why can't you do both?" Art said. "It's not to take anything away from the need for a track. It's just that we're prioritizing asking the towns for additional funding in some areas but not in others."

 

"I don't agree, Drew," Dixon replied. "I am saying we don't need that track. Some things are more important than others."

 

The majority of Monday's DIRE Committee meeting was devoted to a pair of ongoing projects of the committee: evaluating reports from other town committees as called for by Article 37 of the 2020 annual town meeting and developing a strategic plan to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in town as requested by the Select Board last year.

 

On the latter front, the panel continued a conversation it has been having the last couple of months about engaging potential partners to develop smart goals.

 

The committee has identified four areas where it wants to work with community partners on developing goals: enhancing a diverse dialogue, townwide events, supporting youth and increasing diversity on town boards and committees and in the town's workforce.

 

To that end, the committee agreed at Monday's meeting to invite potential partners for a conversation about goal-setting at a meeting later this month. The DIRE Committee also agreed to invite to meeting later this month a representative of a town committee member from another municipality that enacted a strategic plan of its own.

 

The committee members generally complimented the town boards and committees who have complied with Article 37 and submitted reports about their panels' work to create a more inclusive Williamstown. They singled out the trustees of the Milne Public Library for being an early adopter of the practice.

 

Dixon wondered if the article's requirement of "quarterly reports" might be too burdensome or create too much redundancy in the reporting.

 

On the other hand, the DIRE Committee members continued to note that most town boards have not attempted to do what has come to be called an "Article 37 report."

 

"I would just encourage as much as anything, since it's such uncharted territory with these reports, the exercise itself of engaging in trying to write one, even as a draft, even as notes, even an outline, is kind of growth in and of itself and can be a key and pivotal part of any process for change," Smalls said. "Or just documentation.

 

"I think it's really great advice to just try it out, sit down, have a meeting about how we're going to address this. There is no right or wrong way, and there is support available. I think just getting something out is huge, and having something to revise is the first step in any good document."

 

The committee members agreed that the DIRE Committee should reach out to other town committees who have not submitted a report and offer to meet with the panels to talk about the intent of Article 37 and how it could be implemented in that committee's work.