Author: William Garrity

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Letters to the Editor – Re: In Defense of Students on IEPs

Posted on by William Garrity

Letter: In defense of students on IEPs following candidate Krol’s remarks

To the editor: I attended the United Educators of Pittsfield’s Oct. 19 Mayoral Q&A session so I could learn about the mayoral candidates’ positions on educational matters.

During his opening statement, mayoral candidate John Krol made the following remark: “There’s three different types of students in every single classroom. There are high performers, there are middle of the road and then there are those who are on IEPs, and those kids that also can be disruptions in our classrooms.”

As a person on the autism spectrum and as a former student who was on an individualized education plan throughout most of my time in the Pittsfield Public Schools, I find this remark highly offensive not only to me but to our students on IEPs in our district.

Sure there are some students on IEPs with behavioral issues, but there are IEP students who are on them to receive academic support, there are some who are on them to receive social and emotional support, and there are some who have physical disabilities and are on them for extra support. The needs of IEP students differ greatly between each student and some, like me, have been known to be very high academic achievers. To paint a wide brush that these students are all the same and that they are not high achievers or even “middle of the road” is ableist — plain and simple.

What does it say for our students on IEPs for the highest person in power in the city, the mayor, to say that IEP students are a separate category from “high achievers” and lumped together with disruptive students? It says that these students will never be able to reach their full potential because they are on an IEP, and that is downright false.

All School Committee members have a duty to all our students, including our students on IEPs, to support them adequately and equitably so they can do their best through their educational journey. This statement goes against this fundamental principle and I feel it is my duty to the students that I will represent if elected to say something about these hurtful and offensive remarks.

I sincerely hope that John Krol shows true leadership and retracts these offensive remarks. Our students deserve a mayor who values inclusion over exclusion for our IEP students and wants to see them thrive in our school system.

William Garrity, Pittsfield

The writer was Taconic High School Class of 2022 valedictorian and is a candidate for Pittsfield School Committee.

Letter: My response to a critique of my debate comment about IEPs

To the editor: It has been brought to my attention that a candidate for school committee, Mr. Garrity, was critical of statements I made at the recent teacher’s forum in a recent letter to the editor. (“Letter: In defense of students on IEPs following candidate Krol’s remarks,” Eagle, Nov. 1.)

While I fully appreciate the writer’s opinion, the statement he is quoting is taken completely out of context. I by no means was associating children with individualized education plans with disruption. I understand that he is a strong supporter of my opponent, and that there is a motive to paint me in a negative light.

I am a dad of five children in the public school system. I am very well aware of IEPs and their purpose. I should have chosen my words more carefully. However, the fact of the matter is, many parents have contacted me throughout this campaign to express their concerns with regard to how their children’s IEPs are not being serviced properly. This is why I raised it as an issue. I believe there is a direct correlation to lack of staffing and resources in the classrooms and the concerns parents are conveying to me. Clearly, this is a real issue and why it is imperative that we place emphasis on providing more resources in the classrooms so that our children — all children — can be successful. I also encourage every parent to understand their rights and the rights of students with IEPs and advocate for appropriate services. In fact, even those parents who strongly advocate for their child have struggled to receive proper services. We need to do better.

I encourage Mr. Garrity to join me in this effort to address a critical issue impacting our families and our schools. Let’s get to the heart of the issue, be honest with what is really happening in our schools, and do the hard work to improve. That is the leadership our families and our community deserve from a mayor and a member of the School Committee.

John Krol, Pittsfield

The writer is a candidate for mayor of Pittsfield.

In Defense of Students on IEPs

Posted on by William Garrity

I attended the United Educators of Pittsfield’s Mayoral Q&A session on October 19th. I decided to attend to learn about the mayoral candidates’ positions on educational matters as if elected I will be serving with one of them on the Pittsfield School Committee.

During his opening statement mayoral candidate John Krol made the following remarks that I feel is worth sharing:

“There’s three different types of students in every single classroom, there are high performers, there are middle of the road, and then there are those who are on IEPs and those kids that also can be disruptions in our classrooms.”

As a former student who was on an IEP throughout most of my time in the Pittsfield Public Schools, I find this remark highly offensive not only to me but to our students on IEPs in our district.

Continue reading “In Defense of Students on IEPs”

Testimony to the Joint Committee on Education Regarding Student Representative Voting Rights

Posted on by William Garrity

My testimony to the Massachusetts Legislature’s Join Committee on Education regarding the Student Representative Voting Rights bill H.474 introduced by Rep. Farley-Bouvier (was the last one to testify):

Good evening Chair Lewis and Chair Garlic as well as the honorable members of the Joint Committee on Education,

I’m William Garrity, I’m 19 years old, and I am a former student representative to and current candidate for a seat on the Pittsfield School Committee. I am here to speak in support of H.474 An Act Relative to Student Representative Voting Rights.

Cities and towns in Western Massachusetts have been having a hard time attracting and retaining members to public bodies such as school committees. For instance, in my race for a seat on the school committee there are only 6 candidates for 6 seats, leaving such an important race uncontested. In neighboring Lenox there were no candidates on the ballot for the 3 open school committee seats this past election cycle, though 3 write-in candidates did step up to the plate. This is starting to become a recurring problem that is only going to get worse as time goes on.

What is a better way to get more people serving on our public bodies than to prepare them young. This is why I support giving two student representatives, elected by their high school peers, full voting rights on their school committee. For the students it gives them a voice on the most powerful body in which its actions directly impact their educational environment while giving them a learning experience into the inner workings of government and how to serve on a public body. And hopefully these student representatives will come back to serve on a public body again.

Lets face it, the role of student representatives has been deprioritized by school committees. There are quite a few school committees that do not even have student representatives. And for the ones that do most do not follow the legislative intent of the law, which is to have a student voice at the table on matters before the committee, not to only give reports on school sporting events and plays. Giving student representatives voting rights on their school committees will re-energize the role of the student representatives while also getting more students involved in the government process, and hopefully continue to stay involved after they graduate like I have.

I thank you for your time and I respectfully ask for this bill to be reported out favorably.

Emailed Comments to City Councilors Regarding Term Limits and School Committee Age Requirement Petition

Posted on by William Garrity

Dear Councilor,

I hope you are doing well. As I am taking a course at Berkshire Community College on Tuesday and Thursday evenings throughout June, I am unable to attend the public comment period at the June 13th City Council meeting. Therefore I am sending my comments to all councilors via email before the meeting.

I am still recommending that the City Council file the petition regarding term limits for public office, which was charter objected at the May 24th meeting.

After sitting through the deliberation on this problematic petition, I want to respond to two major arguments that were brought forth.

Continue reading “Emailed Comments to City Councilors Regarding Term Limits and School Committee Age Requirement Petition”

Speak Out to Protect Youth Voice in the City of Pittsfield

Posted on by William Garrity

Speak at the next Pittsfield City Council meeting to protect youth voice in this city and to prevent a proposal putting an age requirement for serving on the School Committee from moving forward!

When: Tuesday June 13th @ 6pm (come early to sign up)
Where: City Hall Council Chambers, 70 Allen Street

The City Council will continue to discuss a proposal amending the City Charter to implement term limits for office and requiring School Committee members be of 30 years of age.

This proposal will harm youth voice in the city in a time where it is desperately needed!

Though this proposal has a long ways to go before even being enacted, stopping it now is the best way to ensure youth voices no longer remain on the chopping block in this city!

Ask the City Council to file this petition instead of referring it to the Charter Review Committee for consideration!

Unfortunately due to a class I am taking at BCC I am not able to attend the next city council meeting to speak during public comment. However, I have sent all City Councilor’s an emailed copy of what I would have said at the meeting, which you can find here.

Information about the Petition

June 13th, 2023 City Council Meeting (Petition on page 19 – 23)

May 24th, 2023 City Council Meeting Recording (discussion on the petition at 1:39:00)

My Prior Statement to the City Council

iBerkshires Article on the Petition and Deliberation at the Last City Council Meeting

Statement on Petition in Front of City Council Regarding Term Limits and Minimum Age for Office for School Committee

Posted on by William Garrity

Good evening members of the City Council,

I’m William Garrity, I reside at 64 Alcove Street in Pittsfield, and I am a 19 year old candidate for School Committee. I’m here speaking on item number 15 regarding amending the City Charter to implement term limits and “rotation” of elected officials. I am recommending that the City Council file this proposal instead of referring it to the Charter Review Committee.

I believe this is a problematic proposal that will lead to instability in city government. By design this proposal would make it so that all elected positions on the city council and the school committee would change between elections, which would lead to mass instability in leadership between terms. There is a reason why the surrounding towns around us have staggered terms for office, as that allows for a more smooth transition if the whole composition of an elected body changes. 

I also believe this proposal would not solve the problem that it is supposed to solve, limiting incumbency in office, as it does not limit how many non-consecutive terms elected officials can serve. In fact it could lead to a situation where there are still a set of incumbents in office, though which set of incumbents flips back and forth every term.

And this amendment also contains a proposal to require that school committee members be of the age of 30 years or older in order to serve on the school committee. Nevermind the fact that this proposal doesn’t contain an age limit for mayor or city council, I am against any measure to put an age requirement for running for any office in the city of Pittsfield. In a time where young people in Pittsfield are leaving, Pittsfield should be attracting young people back to this city. By putting an age limit for office, the city would be implying that it does not care about the voices of young people like me in this city. How would this implicit statement help to keep and attract young people to this city in a time where it is very much needed for our future?

For these reasons, I believe this petition should be filed and not be referred to the Charter Review Committee as I feel it would not be the most effective use of the committee’s time deliberating over this problematic petition that would not even solve the stated problems it is supposed to fix.

Thank you.

I’m Running for Pittsfield School Committee!

Posted on by William Garrity

I am officially announcing that today I am “soft launching” my campaign for a seat on the Pittsfield School Committee, and I have pulled my nomination papers!

During my term as a student representative to the Pittsfield School Committee, I made a great impact on the role of student representative and how influential that role can be in improving the school experience for all the students in the Pittsfield Public Schools. After I graduated I intended to stay involved with the district, and I decided the best way to stay involved would be to run for a seat on the Pittsfield School Committee.

I am running on a platform that puts the needs of our students first. As a recent former student of the school system, I believe I can bring a unique perspective to the table to improve the Pittsfield Public Schools for all of our students. I am also running on a platform to increase transparency and accountability in the district, while also maintaining the School Committee’s reputation of positively working together to bring change to the school system, even if we all don’t agree on the best path forward. And I am running on a platform to ensure that all of our staff earns a livable wage and to build trust between our teaching and support staff and district administration.

Over the coming weeks I will be preparing for a full campaign launch including a release of my full platform and ways to help support my campaign. In the meantime if you have any questions, want to sign my nomination papers, or want to get involved with my campaign feel free to reach out using my contact information below!

Contact Information:

Email (Prefered): william.garrity@wgarrity.com

Phone: (413) 329-9556

Twitter: @wgarrity_ma

Facebook: William Garrity for Pittsfield School Committee

Instagram: @wgarrity_ma

Boston Giving Student Representative Voting Rights and Addressing Concerns Raised

Posted on by William Garrity

Note that the thoughts expressed in this blog are my own and are not representative of the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, or any other group.

Something interesting has occurred in Boston recently, Boston’s mayor Michele Wu signed a home rule petition to give two student representatives on the Boston School Committee the right to vote. This was right after she vetoed a home rule petition returning the School Committee to a fully elected body.

More interestingly is that some media outlets out towards Boston, namely WGBH who wrote a whole article about it, have written about this proposal and some of the reactions to it by various groups and officials. Absent from these articles is the bill that is currently in the statehouse to do this very same thing for all school committees in Massachusetts, not just Boston.

But in the WGBH article, some concerns were raised regarding giving student representatives the right to vote on their respective school committees, which I feel would be beneficial to discuss.

Response to Concerns

Giving Student Representatives Would Result in a Domino Effect Resulting in Other Stakeholders Asking for Voting Rights on School Committees

The first concern raised is that giving student representatives the right to vote would result in opening up “a can of worms” due to their stakeholder status, and that there is now potential for the “union president” and the “special education PAC” to ask for the right to vote. While this is a valid concern, I don’t really see this being too much of an issue.

Teachers unions already have a more powerful seat at the table then students do regarding school committee matters. Sure they don’t comment on anything unless they are aggravated by an action by the school committee or are dissatisfied by how bargaining is proceeding, but they still have a lot more power than students do currently. A school committee can ignore their student representatives or even their student body, but they can’t ignore the teachers union (unless they really want to get into trouble). If a teachers union is not happy about something the school committee is doing, the committee will be sure to hear about it and most likely be pressured into addressing whatever the union has raised. This is especially the case in this political (for a lack of a better term) climate where teachers unions are now holding illegal strikes. And also lets not forget that teachers unions have one thing that students don’t have, which is the power to collective bargain with the school committee regarding wages and working/learning conditions. It would also be a big stretch for a teachers union to advocate for a teacher to have a vote on the school committee, as that would be giving them even more power than they already have and create a lot of issues around voting on their collective bargaining agreements. I think it is safe to say that unions won’t be asking for voting rights on school committees.

For other groups such as the “special education PAC”, I still don’t believe this will be an issue because the members of special education PACs, as well as other district related groups (which tend to mostly be made up of parents), are made up of members who can vote and run for school committee. Nothing is stopping any parent or any parent member of these groups from running for a seat on their local school committee. Most students on the other hand can’t due to their age, so they have no other way to gain a voting seat at the table.

Student’s Ability to Think Critically and Understand their Responsibilities

The second concern raised has to do with student’s ability to be “fully and responsibly aware of their obligations to think critically and fairly”. Though a reasonable concern given that students brains are still developing, in my time as a student representative networking with other student representatives and other student leaders I feel confident saying that students do understand their obligations to think critically and fairly, as well as their general responsibilities in their roles.

I think my term as a student representative speaks volumes on how there are students out there that can understand their responsibilities and obligations in their role. But there are other examples as well. Take a look at former Billerica student representative Sean Simonini’s work on his school committee and founding the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives. Take a look at former Worcester student representative Stacia Zoghbi’s work on her school committee and her front page article on the Boston Globe. Or even more recently the work student representative to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Eric Plankey put in when deliberating and voting on the charter school proposal in Worcester by actually reaching out to students in Worcester currently to hear their thoughts on the proposal. Its safe to say that there are students out there that do understand their roles and their responsibilities, as well as to think critically.

Heck I would even say that most students have more ability to think critically and fairly about decisions, as well as understand their responsibility of their roles and take them more seriously than some current local officials and even some of our current federal representatives.

Now there are some legitimate concerns regarding students ability to think critically and fairly about decisions before them. For instance, student representatives could be influenced by their parents when deciding on how to vote on a certain matter, rather than the student body they represent. But I don’t see this happening much, especially since that high schoolers (who will be the only student eligible to be student representatives on school committees) have a greater ability to think critically without influence than students in middle and elementary school.

Though I think the bigger concern is with student representatives being influenced to vote in favor of what the school administration or their student government advisor is in favor of due to the inherent power imbalance between school staff (both administrators and advisors) and students. Unfortunately this is a widespread problem in regards to student governance, and if student representatives get voting rights this could become more of an issue with voting rights now at stake. But I am hopeful that this could also not be the case and the weight of the law will prevent school administration and advisors from influencing student representatives to vote in a certain way (or weather some really bad publicity if it became public as was seen in Boston some time ago).

But I think the biggest concern will be getting student representatives who are willing to be dedicated to their role and the responsibilities that come to it. This is especially a concern as student representatives would be elected not appointed (as they should), and school elections can tend to devolve into “popularity contests” with the most “popular” person winning the election but isn’t dedicated to their role. This concern came up last year with the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives, and I worked on template election procedures that were rigorous enough so that only students dedicated to their roles would end up on the ballot. I implemented these procedures at Taconic and they were also implemented at PHS, and it resulted in 5 student representatives who regularly show up at meetings and participate in school committee deliberations, which I think shows how successful the procedures worked. I believe if school committees and school districts put this amount of effort into designing and implementing their student representative election procedures, they will most likely get student representatives who are dedicated to their role and understand their responsibilities.

Conclusion

Student representative voting rights will continue to become a hot topic issue and more concerns will be raised about the proposal. And hopefully within the next couple of months the bill that is currently in the statehouse to require all school committees to have voting student representatives will gain more traction in the media. I would hate to see this become a Boston only proposal, while it should be a statewide proposal. It’s only fair to students that all school committees get student representative voting rights, not just Boston.

Public Comment to the Pittsfield School Committee Regarding Making Taconic a Fully CTE School

Posted on by William Garrity

Good evening members of the Pittsfield School Committee,

I’m William Garrity, Taconic Class of 22 alumni, and former student representative to the school committee, and I’m here tonight regarding transitioning Taconic to a fully CTE school.

Continue reading “Public Comment to the Pittsfield School Committee Regarding Making Taconic a Fully CTE School”

Student Representative Voting Rights

Posted on by William Garrity

This past week a bill was filed in the Massachusetts House and Senate to give student representatives voting rights on their local school committees. The Senate bill was filed by Senator Adam Gomez (SD759) and the House bill was filed by Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier (HD2806) with help of the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives (MASR), which I was a founding group member of. Lets take a look at the bill!

Continue reading “Student Representative Voting Rights”