Video: At-Large City Council Candidates Forum, 10/27/09

Here is a complete blip.tv video of the 10/27/09 forum for At-Large City Council candidates sponsored by Ward 6 City Councilor Marianne LaBarge, the Ward Six Association and Water Not Waste. The forum took place at the R.K. Finn Ryan Road Elementary School. This video was recorded by Lachlan Ziegler and is 55 minutes long.



The At-Large City Council candidates are Jesse Adams, David Narkewicz, and Kathleen Silva. They are competing for two seats.


See also:

Northampton Media: “Council Race Debate, Interviews, Statements”

Gazette: “Both Northampton council seats up for election: Three seek two at-large positions” (10/28/09)
“The number one thing I heard is that decisions are made that they [ordinary citizens] don’t know about,” said Adams, a lawyer who was educated at Western New England College and the University of Massachusetts…

Narkewicz is supporting Clare Higgins in the mayor’s race, although he says no matter who the mayor is, he believes it’s important to have strong, independent people on the council…

…[Silva has] zeroed in on three things that need to be addressed: term limits, a zero-based budget to make it easy to understand where every dollar is spent, and more money for the school system.

Silva believes that imposing term limits on the mayor’s office, City Council and all appointed boards throughout the city will lead to fresh ideas and keep the boards from becoming stagnant.

Video: Bay State Village Forum for At-Large City Council Candidates, 10/21/09
Jesse Adams: “What I would give priority to would be to review the city charter. I believe that we have a very strong mayor form of government that is antiquated–that is by design of the charter. We have a mayor who chairs the council, the mayor chairs the finance committee, mayor chairs EDHLU, and I think that with a better separation of powers, with more power to the council, I think the whole city will benefit.”

Northampton Media: “At-Large Candidates Forum” (10/15/09)
Silva noted that she would prioritize the institution of term limits and a zero-based budgeting policy. “It will be important in the coming years to know where every dollar is spent.”

Gazette: “Northampton at-large council candidates spar” (10/15/09)

Video: At-Large School Committee Candidates Forum, 10/27/09

“Dollars & Sense: The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools”
(KnowledgeWorks Foundation, 2002)
School size is arguably more important than either racial makeup or class size, according to at least one analysis. The Report Card on American Education (2001) noted that higher outcomes on standardized tests, such as the SAT and the ACT, as well as higher rates of graduation, may be connected more with school size than with race (LeFevre & Hederman, 2001, p. 3). The study also found that school size, not classroom size, was the key to student performance. Children performed better in schools where the principal knew their names. Schools with fewer than 300 students showed the best performance, even though class size in these schools was higher than the national average (RCAE, 1994). Similarly, Bickel and Howley show that the effects of class size and school size are different and to some extent separate. It is true that smaller schools tend to have smaller class sizes. But even when the influence of class size is included in studies, the influence of school size remains strong. District size also generally exerts a distinct influence (Bickel & Howley, 2000)…

“Back to School for Planners”; “Why Johnny Can’t Walk to School”; “The Cost Effectiveness of Small Schools”

Gazette: “Push for school mergers ‘fizzles'” (10/28/09)