[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] And we're going to get started now.
[15:00] And that doesn't mean just next year where we say, should the high school is leaking the roof? We've got to fix that. There's a lot that we know is going to be in the next two, five, seven, ten years. And I think working very quickly to say, okay, let's come up with a plan. Let's start understanding what those needs are going to be. How do we fund that so that we're not going to put ourselves in any sort of financial jeopardy? Which then would lead me to working with the boards and committees. I think we had a really good meeting with the school committee.
[15:27] Not that long ago to talk about their capital projects and say, hey listen, we have things
[15:32] in the hopper now.
[15:33] We want to make sure we're looking at the school and getting those fixed as well.
[15:36] Some of these things were just coming to us and I think working more, okay, what's most
[15:40] important, what's not, how do we get this fixed is really important.
[15:43] So I think that takes volunteers and I think it's going to help to get more diversity of thought
[15:48] and more people on some of our boards and committees.
[15:51] I think any one of the audience right now that is on a boarder committee, that is donating
[15:54] your time, it is certainly something that is important.
[15:56] There's always openings and I think the more ideas and thoughts we can have it's only going to help us sit down and continue to prepare for what's coming.
[16:05] And then last day of touch on this I'm not going to have the answers for this but I do think affordability and affordable housing is certainly a big issue in this town.
[16:13] I think lower middle class families that are really hard time moving here and staying here and if we want to continue to have a tax base that is supported by hospitality and the businesses that are here.
[16:23] any workers any people that can live here and I think Mary Beth has been really
[16:27] good at trying to help work with on the affordable housing issue. I would love
[16:31] to help support her in that and work with the broader community on finding ways
[16:35] to do that. I don't have the answers I wish I did but I think that's very important.
[16:41] I don't know if I have anything I know I've been here in my seven minutes but
[16:43] those are my three points.
[16:48] Thank you. Thank you very much. And now we move on to
[16:52] are Jared Webber, our third candidate to speak today.
[17:01] Yes, go forward.
[17:02] Okay, good evening.
[17:03] Thank you to the League of Women Voters, to Remel, and to everyone who's here tonight.
[17:08] My name is Jared Webber.
[17:10] I'm running for Select Board because I feel that Lennox is worth showing up for.
[17:14] I care about Lennox as a beautiful place, of course, but I also care deeply about it as a community.
[17:19] A place of neighborhoods, volunteers, small businesses, seniors, families, workers, and residents who want to feel that local government is there for them.
[17:30] I serve on the Lennox Community Center Board, and I represent that board on the Community Preservation Committee.
[17:37] Professionally, I work as an executive recruiter.
[17:40] My work is about understanding what organizations need, building relationships, and helping the right people step into important roles.
[17:47] I want to be clear about how I see the role of a select board.
[17:52] A select board member doesn't run the town day today.
[17:54] That's really the role of the town manager.
[17:57] But a select board does that direction.
[17:59] It asks questions.
[18:00] It makes appointments to boards and committees.
[18:03] It sets priorities.
[18:05] Listen to residents.
[18:06] It helps set the tone for how open, responsive,
[18:08] and forward looking governments should be.
[18:11] So my first priority is open and accessible town government.
[18:15] Residents shouldn't have to be insiders to understand what's happening in town government.
[18:20] They should not have to know the right person or attend every meeting, or follow every agenda simply to feel informed.
[18:28] As a select board member, I would hold regular public office hours, I would ensure that my town email addresses readily available, and I would support more opportunities for residents to ask questions and understand major issues before they are already far along.
[18:44] If elected, I would be active with the Massachusetts Municipal Association and
[18:49] it's Select Board Association.
[18:51] I would promise to attend trainings, make use of resources, and
[18:54] connect with municipal leaders across the Commonwealth.
[18:58] My second priority is bringing more people into town service.
[19:02] As Max said, there are a number of folks here who have served on boards and
[19:05] committees, and I thank everybody who's willing to step up to do that.
[19:09] Lennox has incredibly talented residents, but
[19:12] But we do need to be more intentional about inviting people in.
[19:15] I would like to see a real recruitment plan for our boards and committees.
[19:19] And this connects directly with my professional background.
[19:22] As a headhunter, I'm used to identifying talent, understanding what an organization needs,
[19:27] and reaching out to people who may not have put themselves forward otherwise.
[19:31] I'm not afraid to pick up the phone and introduce myself to strangers, and I'm not afraid to ask somebody to consider serving.
[19:37] I would take the role of select board liaison seriously, I will show up to meetings, I will
[19:42] listen and build relationships with board members and chairs.
[19:46] And the goal is to make sure that good work doesn't stay trapped in silos.
[19:50] Many of the issues that have been named here tonight are overlapping.
[19:55] And boards and committees that are better aligned, better connected means more effective local
[20:01] government in tackling those issues.
[20:03] My third priority is responsible stewardship and strengthening Lennox both as an economy
[20:08] and a community.
[20:10] Residents are concerned about rising residential tax pressure and of course there's no
[20:14] magic fix but I do think that Lennox can be more intentional about broadening our economic
[20:19] tax base so that future costs don't fall so heavily on the residential tax payers.
[20:25] That means supporting the businesses we have, our small businesses, restaurants, ins, cultural
[20:29] institutions and the Chamber of Commerce.
[20:31] It means looking carefully at appropriate business development within our commercial
[20:36] villages and it means thinking creatively about Lennoxdale, its industrial zone, and
[20:41] where there could be opportunities that fit the town without undermining the historic
[20:46] character of the village.
[20:48] But a strong town is not one that just balances books, it's one where people feel connected
[20:52] to each other.
[20:53] I want to support our parks, recreation spaces, local events and traditions that help residents
[20:58] connect with each other.
[20:59] I would love to see us explore whether longstanding traditions like the tub parade could be brought back or re-imagined
[21:06] We'll also supporting new town events that bring people into our village centers and strengthen community life year-round
[21:13] So my priorities are open governments bringing more residents into town service and responsible stewardship
[21:20] I'm not running because I think one person can fix everything
[21:24] I'm running because I believe a select board member can show up ask serious questions
[21:29] build trust over time, bring more people into the process, and help Lennox prepare for
[21:35] the future. I believe that Lennox benefits when experience leadership is complemented
[21:40] by fresh perspective, active listening, and new energy. And that's what I would bring
[21:45] to this role. Thank you.
[21:48] Thank you, Jared. And thank you, Max, and thank you, David, for your seven minutes each.
[21:55] You'll be able to vote for two of the three candidates who've just presented.
[22:00] Are there any questions that have come in that before they we make a switch?
[22:28] And then we have another.
[22:31] Some of these questions overlap.
[22:35] So
[22:39] I'm not a speed reader, but would you like to tell me, which one would you like
[22:43] me?
[22:49] Okay, here's a question.
[22:52] With the emphasis on affordable housing, we'll start and each of you can have a minute
[22:56] to answer, and a minute and a half mose, a minute, with the emphasis on affordable housing
[23:05] to attract and keep young families, what do you suggest to save the Lennox Child Center
[23:10] a much needed child care service?
[23:16] So thank
[23:21] you,
[23:24] affordable housing has been an issue we've had for the last several years.
[23:29] I mean, we've got a whole bunch of new units, 62, I believe, 65 coming on now, that's
[23:37] happening and perhaps the more being built.
[23:40] As far as affordable child care goes, I mean, that's an issue that we need to address.
[23:45] And I think there's alternatives if we think outside the box.
[23:49] First of all, we could look at child home, our home care child care, where we can get retired
[23:57] grandmother and with perhaps some tax incentive or forgiveness for opening a child center
[24:03] of maybe the housing trust could organize a loan to help somebody retrofit their home
[24:10] to meet the state requirements for child care. I think there's all kinds of ways that we
[24:14] can look towards giving some assistance. First thing we got to do is find some people who want to
[24:20] do it. That was the first thing. So if somebody wants to do it and wants to come to the select board
[24:26] and make a proposal, we'll greet you with open arms and open ears.
[24:33] I don't think I can add really anything to that.
[24:36] I think part of the challenge, irrespective of the building with losing the child care
[24:41] center was that the folks running it were also running on a steam and I think if someone
[24:47] came to the select board and said, hey listen, we really want to provide child care in Linux,
[24:51] we can't find a space.
[24:52] I don't think anyone in the select board would say, that's not for us.
[24:54] We'd be happy to try and find a space for them, we'd be happy to try and work with them.
[24:57] I think tax credits is a great idea.
[24:59] I think working with any of the other financial options we have, I fully support that.
[25:04] I think the first thing we need is someone that wants to do that work that we can then work with on.
[25:08] So anyone that has, anyone in that, if you know someone in that business, let us know.
[25:17] Yeah, I think the question said, what can be done to save the Lennox Children's Center?
[25:21] And I'm not sure that the Lennox Children's Center can be saved.
[25:24] My understanding is that, and I'm not too close to the issue.
[25:27] But my understanding is that's a 501c3 that's been dissolving. It's it's existence
[25:32] Recently, so and and the folks who run it are planning to retire. I mean
[25:40] Yeah
[25:41] of building, what can the select boards get to do the building that it owns?
[25:46] Yeah.
[25:46] It helps a group of people who have already demonstrated that they can view the work and provide
[25:51] the service and are now letting families down because they're very close.
[25:55] What can it sound like to do this report?
[25:57] Perhaps CPC funding or grant funding to rebuild, you know, again, I'm not yet on the
[26:02] select board, so I would have to be in that position to know and find out, but my feeling
[26:07] is that perhaps there is grant opportunities or use of the CPC to rehabilitate the building.
[26:16] Though, I think it may be useful to establish a temporary subcommittee to examine the viability
[26:24] of retaining child care within Linux in some bigger way.
[26:28] Maybe it's not the Linux Children's Center and it's not within that existing building.
[26:32] But I know folks have come to the select board and have expressed interest in supporting
[26:36] this issue. So, perhaps there's an opportunity to create a temporary subcommittee with a mandate.
[26:41] Is that stopped? Well, is that stopped?
[26:46] Is everyone had a chance to, do we need another minute on this to answer the question from
[26:51] them?
[26:54] Okay.
[26:56] I think as far as the bill goes, there's not a lot we can do without incurring significant
[27:01] financial challenges. Not that we don't want to fix that building, but the issue is that there are so
[27:05] many, so many challenges with it, that the minute you start fixing even one of them, you're going to
[27:10] into having to bring everything up to code, which is going to be a significant, significant
[27:14] impact to the town finances. I'm not saying that can't be done, but I think this is part
[27:17] of a bigger question of how do we prioritize what needs to get fixed and how much you want
[27:22] to spend on that. That's also something that would have to come before a time meeting as
[27:24] well. We can't just arbitrarily spend that money, so that would be, they start with a PBC
[27:28] to be honest with you.
[27:31] Thank you. I think the first thing we need to start with is a group of people that really
[27:36] want to continue on with child care. We had people come to us and say we want to retire.
[27:43] So, if somebody wants to retire, we need to have somebody else come in and say, this is our plan.
[27:48] This is where we want to be. We will look around Linux and we've identified five or six different places
[27:52] and we want an opportunity to talk to you about perhaps utilizing these places.
[27:58] We need a business plan.
[28:00] I appreciate the roundabout going back over and answering twice.
[28:07] Here's another question, and we can start down with you again, sir.
[28:11] Two years of double digit budget increases is not sustainable.
[28:16] Twenty-two percent tax increases in two years.
[28:19] How would you maintain tax increases to the rate of inflation at 2.5 percent?
[28:29] Some of us we control a lot of it with adult control.
[28:33] last year health insurance increased 18%. We can't control that. This year it's
[28:40] down to about eight or nine percent. The other things we can't control, we can't
[28:44] control leaky roofs at the school. If a roof leaks and they tell us it's gonna
[28:49] cost us a half a million dollars to fix, we have to come up or actually you
[28:53] tell us we have to fix it. You're the voters at the town meeting, we have to come
[28:58] up with the money. So what we can hold to 2.5% is what we control, which is we work with
[29:05] the department heads and the department that we give them a budget and we say level services
[29:10] and we want you to maintain that and that's what they did this year. They maintain level
[29:15] services. Now it wasn't 2.5%, but it wasn't 8% or 9%. That came in with the rest of the stuff
[29:21] that we don't control. So those are the issues that we're facing. So the select board can
[29:27] Can work with the town and present a town a level budget, but there are certain things we can't control and it's beyond them.
[29:34] Thank you.
[29:37] I don't know that I can really add much to that.
[29:38] I think, again, getting back to my opening statement, I think, working with the different departments to say,
[29:43] okay, how can we really try and keep our budgets over the next three to five years as low as possible?
[29:48] We'll be looking out further for our capital projects so that we're not in reactive mode on them,
[29:52] which inevitably means we're going to spend more than ever.
[30:00] We were planning an advance for it. And then I think, at the end of the day, if you want to keep our taxes low, we need to support businesses because the business tax levy is going to really help keep our individual property taxes low. So anything we can do to welcome more businesses and be a business friendly environment is going to help that.
[30:16] I'll echo that. I, you know, there's no magic fix. But as I said, I think Lennox can be more intentional about broadening the economic base so that future increases don't fall so heavily on the residential taxpayers. So again, that means supporting the local businesses.
[30:31] And the major economic drivers that driver that exists here, you know, tourism.
[30:37] So supporting in, supporting cultural institutions, supporting local employers in the chamber.
[30:42] And again, I would like to think for an industrial zone and
[30:46] see if there's opportunity to broaden the commercial tax rate from business development there.
[30:54] Thank you very much.
[30:55] I have one more question where you can have another minute to answer and it's a little
[31:01] different more about the programming offered.
[31:04] Has Lennox has very little in the way of activities for the seniors?
[31:11] Is there especially compared to the other towns around here?
[31:16] Do you have any suggestions for that?
[31:18] I'm
[31:24] sure you start off with a senior.
[31:30] You know, that's a debatable point.
[31:33] I mean, I think, no, it's not debatable, and I'm a senior.
[31:37] It's a debatable point as to what's available for seniors.
[31:40] I think Lennox has a pretty good program.
[31:42] I think the community center does an outstanding job.
[31:45] I think
[31:51] Liz Webster runs a terrific program there and various launches and all the activities
[31:58] that she has, but above and beyond that, there are so many active seniors in town that can still
[32:04] avail themselves of going to a sick Shakespearean company, or Tango Wood, or stuff during the season.
[32:09] So, yes, there's always room for more, but I think the community center and the town of Linux
[32:14] does a lot for seniors, and the seniors do a lot for themselves. Thank you.
[32:22] Hey, second, the sentiment about the community center, I think they do a great job.
[32:26] I wouldn't know what to say to that question, I guess.
[32:29] I'd be happy to welcome seniors to come before the select board and
[32:32] tell us what activities they'd like to see and we can try and figure out how we could possibly provide some of those.
[32:37] If, you know, if we did get a skating rink in, if a pickleball court is needed or something else along those lines, I'm happy to address that.
[32:43] I just don't know that I have an answer as to what's going to help seniors with more activities.
[32:50] I agree with what's been said, I'm on the board of the community center which includes the council on aging,
[32:56] and I'm there multiple times a week and it seems like there's always things going on in the community center.
[33:01] Perhaps there could be more awareness created if there's a feeling like there's not awareness about what's happening, you know,
[33:07] a modern approach to pushing out events, Facebook, Instagram, newsletters, we do have an active newsletter.
[33:14] But there's always an opportunity to increase awareness on public events.
[33:19] and to the extent that anybody wants more council on aging program, I recommend going
[33:24] to the community center, talking to Liz, or talking to the community center board, giving
[33:28] us a sense of what you're looking for and talking about how we can implement it.
[33:33] Well, thank you. That wraps up the questions from the floor that we're going to pose.
[33:38] And I wanted to tell a round of applause for the hard work that our community is doing.
[33:50] Thank you, each of you for your very thoughtful responses.
[33:53] and now we're going to make a transition and invite the school board candidates for
[33:59] one year term to come forward and we'll switch out our playscars.
[34:09] Here we are. I don't want to thank you very much.
[34:13] That there's one on the phone.
[34:30] All
[34:39] right, and moving along, we're going to have,
[34:55] and here we go.
[34:57] So our two school board candidates for a one-year term are Richard Burke running for re-election
[35:04] and Stephanie Kluka running for a first-time seat on the committee.
[35:10] Each of them will have four minutes to answer this question.
[35:14] So I'll ask it now starting with Richard, because your last name starts with a B. You come first.
[35:21] What do you believe are the two most important issues facing Linux school system today?
[35:27] And what do you believe will be the best way to resolve those issues?
[35:35] Good afternoon.
[35:38] I'm Richard Burke, Debbie and I have lived on the Hubbard Street for more than 40 years.
[35:44] The neighborhood kids who are in school then have kids in school now.
[35:51] The two things that I think are most important and you have to understand that the school committee
[35:59] is really focused on three things, we're focused on the leadership of the schools.
[36:05] I'm primarily the superintendent.
[36:09] Number two is work focused on the policies that are in place.
[36:17] We set the policies.
[36:19] We don't manage anything.
[36:21] I can't walk into the school if I can't ask anybody to do anything at the school.
[36:27] We set policies and it's up to the leadership of the schools to implement them.
[36:32] And number three, we have to allocate the resources.
[36:37] We do the school budget.
[36:40] And so we decide what gets allocated in terms of priorities and to meet the legal necessities
[36:48] that we have to satisfy.
[36:51] So the first issue that I have, I think we all generally agree the Lennox schools are excellent.
[36:58] But the most important issue we face is maintaining that quality and character in the schools.
[37:09] In the face of rising costs, shifting demographics, and policy challenges, some of which come
[37:23] from Boston or elsewhere.
[37:26] That excellence is essential to preserving the character of
[37:34] where we live. It's important to Lennox that we have good schools.
[37:43] So we have to consider providing every student with an avenue to success.
[37:50] Not just an route to college, but also in other directions to other means of success.
[38:02] In my academic career, I'm an Emeritus Professor of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
[38:08] at the Maritime College of the State University of New York.
[38:13] I had the privilege of serving on the advisory board of the Urban Assembly School for Global
[38:21] Commerce, which is in Harlem.
[38:26] And that introduced me to the idea of career and technical education, and the short-hand
[38:36] to CTE. It's not exactly vocational education, but it can incorporate vocational education
[38:45] in the framework. The idea is that the school will have an overarching application area,
[38:59] and all of the education will be done with respect to those applications.
[39:05] Three things come out of that. One is everything makes more sense in terms of an application.
[39:12] Number two is everything is transferable to other applications.
[39:22] And number three is, it prepares students for both a collegiate and a vocational path.
[39:29] The second problem is that of allocating resources.
[39:34] And this is becoming a real issue you heard it from the selection.
[39:39] And I think we need, we have good schools, we have good teachers, we have good leadership.
[39:43] I think we need to talk about ways we can collaborate, short of regionalization.
[39:51] And I hope somebody will ask about regionalization we can talk about it, but we need to think about how we're going to allocate resources in the future to make things work well for our schools.
[40:05] That's it.
[40:15] Hi, I don't know if I don't think I know many of you actually, a lot of my friends and
[40:23] other parents in the town are actually home watching their kids, so hi, my name is Stephanie
[40:28] Fuka.
[40:29] I am a mom of three children, all of which go to the Lex schools.
[40:34] I am a Berkshire County native, so I have lived in Linux since 2019, but I grew up right
[40:40] up the street. I have been an education for 18 years. I have experienced in both severe
[40:47] special education, mild moderate special education, and also as a general education teacher.
[40:53] So this is my passion, talking public school, talking public school policies. This is my
[40:59] bread and butter. I do believe the question was to issues that we would like to work on,
[41:05] is that correct? Yes. Thank you.
[41:07] to the two most important issues
[41:09] based on the Linux school system today,
[41:11] and what do you believe will be the best way to resolve them?
[41:15] Great, thank you.
[41:17] So, one of the things that I truly believe
[41:19] that we can work on is programming for our more diverse.
[41:28] I do believe one of the things that we can work on
[41:31] as a district and as a school committee
[41:33] is our programming for the more diverse population.
[41:36] So, talking about students that are on IOPs or 504s and programming for them, I reviewed
[41:43] our past PowerPoints that the administrators had put out, and in 2014 we had 4% of our
[41:49] student body diagnosed with some type of a learning disability that would have put them onto a 504.
[41:54] This has jumped up to 12%. So, what are we doing to address this population and how can we create
[42:01] programming for these kids while balancing our budget because we don't need to
[42:06] outsource every single child to a public school. We can create an inclusive
[42:10] community. I think we start that at the elementary school and then I think
[42:14] that we create a pipeline to LMMHS. I think that we start programming with our
[42:19] local communities, our local businesses, and we get kids these internship hours that
[42:24] they might need. I understand that Teconic has an amazing
[42:28] we can go to the Botan program.
[42:29] McCann has been in the county for decades.
[42:32] Monument Mountain is even now building their new high school
[42:35] and they are going to create, I believe, an electrical,
[42:38] mechanical and welding shop.
[42:41] So I don't think Lennox needs to put on a new part
[42:44] of the building that's not at all what I'm saying,
[42:47] but I think that we could create something very neat
[42:49] and unique to Lennox.
[42:52] I do believe that advocating for an inclusion
[43:01] I do think that I have an asset and that I bridge both sides at looking things, not necessarily from only a financial standpoint, but also from a human standpoint.
[43:15] Two of my children are on IEPs, so I think that I have the knowledge and the know how to talk about this topic and to bridge that gap to our community.
[43:25] being in education currently and being a Berkshire County resident from my
[43:30] whole life. I know people in the Williamson School District, the Pistil School
[43:34] District, the Dalton School District, that's great Barrington, Berkshire Hills.
[43:39] I mean, all up and down, I have people that I consider colleagues and friends of
[43:44] 20 plus years that I can call and talk and say, hey, so what are you guys doing
[43:48] about this? How are you addressing this issue? What are you programming for? What
[43:55] Yeah, I think that's about it.
[43:57] Thank you, thank you very much.
[44:01] I have a question, are there any other,
[44:03] I have one question here from the floor.
[44:07] And there's another question there.
[44:10] This one, the question is at least 40%
[44:13] of the Linux public school students are transfers.
[44:18] The repayment rate was set in 1990.
[44:21] Can you work to revise the rate?
[44:23] Would you like to start with that, Mr. Burke?
[44:28] Okay, I hear this question a lot, and it's important.
[44:35] The people who choice into Lennox.
[44:39] The policy in Lennox is that we will never open a new classroom because of school choice.
[44:45] We will never hire another teacher because of school choice.
[44:48] So those students are coming in and filling spaces that are currently empty.
[45:00] In rooms where there is already someone covering the class. So the additional cost that's incurred is relatively small. If you're driving a taxi and you have one passenger, what's it cost you to take a second passenger passenger on the same trip? It's the same idea as that. The school manages that very carefully. We get the extra revenue, but in grows, we expect that we're going to grow the student population as a consequence of that.
[45:29] But it means that we have the capability of accepting extra students without incurring
[45:36] additional costs in the future.
[45:43] So also hear this question all the time at our own school committee meetings for my district.
[45:49] And I do believe that it comes down to Boston, right?
[45:53] I believe that you need to reach out to Boston.
[45:55] It is the state policy that we only receive a certain amount of dollars per choice students.
[46:01] Like Mr. Burke said, though, I do think it goes back to affordability.
[46:04] I think that we need to make Linux more affordable.
[46:07] I think that we need to get families in.
[46:10] You want to see people come back to this town.
[46:13] I want my children to be able to come back and raise a family here and
[46:18] have their kids go to school here.
[46:20] I think that's so amazing and what a legacy to have.
[46:24] I do think that we can create these pipelines for kids where if we get families in,
[46:29] we're going to want they're going to want to stay and we're going to create longevity
[46:32] with the town.
[46:33] But I do think that the overall solution to that is we need to petition to Boston to
[46:39] change the rig.
[46:40] Thank you.
[46:42] Thank you.
[46:42] I have one more question which I hope I can read this handwriting.
[46:47] Is the reality that Lenick should collaborate on regionalization with another town to offer
[46:54] vocational path?
[46:57] I think I had that right.
[46:59] Is it the reality that Lennox should collaborate to regionalize with another town to offer a vocational path?
[47:12] I'm not really a fan of the approach to regionalization that's being taken by the Commonwealth.
[47:19] The most recent statement from the Commonwealth was that they think there ought to be three regional districts in Berkshire County.
[47:24] It's 75 miles from Ashley Falls to Amstown, so three would be 25 miles north and south
[47:32] and roughly 25 miles wide.
[47:35] And if we were part of a district that's 625 square miles, we're going to lose the
[47:40] character and quality of the Linux schools and I don't believe that we should do that.
[47:45] On the other hand, there are other ways of collaborating short of regionalization where
[47:53] where we could work with neighboring districts to work more effectively, to save money, to not duplicate services, or to share services, and I think we should, in fact, we already are exploring those opportunities.
[48:16] And that is, that's really, I think, one of the most important things we have to do now.
[48:23] We have to keep Lennox the way, as a high quality school district, but at the same time,
[48:30] we've got to play well with others.
[48:35] Thank you.
[48:36] I agree.
[48:37] I kind of touched on this in my first little four-minute spiel.
[48:40] So I do think that there is such importance in programming for all learners within the
[48:44] Linux schools, and that includes kids that may not be on a collegiate path.
[48:49] I do not think that we are in a position of regionalization.
[48:53] I do think we are in a position where we need to collaborate and we need to get inventive.
[48:57] With that being said, I think we can do something very neat and unique to Linux.
[49:02] I think we can do something that is very exclusive to the student body that we have with our community
[49:08] partners.
[49:10] Yeah. Thank you. I want to thank these candidates to them. You'll be able to vote for one for their very thoughtful replies.
[49:20] Let's have a hand for their hard work.
[49:30] And in conclusion, I would also like to thank the hard work that went into providing preparing for this event.
[49:37] It took many energies.
[49:39] Thank you to those who told a friend and filled up the room.
[49:43] I'm delighted with the turnout and a very short notice.
[49:47] I'd like to thank Moe's Olnick from Great Barrington,
[49:50] who contacted the Lennox Town Clerk and each one of the candidates.
[49:54] It just took a lot of work to put this event into the schedule.
[49:58] Just finding email addresses is not always easy.
[50:02] The other members of the local lead board of directors make such a difference
[50:06] to keep this little chapter afloat.
[50:09] Thank you Susan Morris, who's the secretary, who did the set up today.
[50:13] Thank you to Betty Farman, who's sitting back here, who keeps the books and manages the
[50:18] membership list, and brings a good perspective to our board from Egremont.
[50:24] And Lucy Kennedy from Lennox is right here.
[50:26] She had the shortest commute today.
[50:29] She's moderated out of town candidate forums like Stockbridge, and Lucy updates our website
[50:35] and Facebook page. Amy Cooper is out of town this week, but she continues to edit and revise all we
[50:42] write. And she recently has worked on the legislative action committee of the LWVMA. It's a monumental
[50:50] job. They read all the legislation from the Senate and Congress in the state house. There's 2,000
[50:59] bills off every year. And they weed through those to find the ones that make a difference.
[51:04] The numbers change as they come in and out of committee and that group works very hard
[51:10] They've just finished one on voting rights
[51:13] But we've focused our hearts and minds on voting rights and civics education and I want to thank you friends
[51:20] Who have joined league and helped us keep that going?
[51:25] I've been a wonderful evening all politics is local
[51:28] please remind your friends and family to vote on Lennox Town Elections right
[51:33] here in this town hall on May 11th between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and thank you for
[51:40] intending the candidate forum. We do have a few snacks in the back which I hope
[51:45] you'll stay and enjoy and have a little conversation and consider signing
[51:51] your email address and your name to our list so we can keep
[51:55] glad you're in here. Thanks very much.