What’s happening in Williamstown during the holiday week.

Hello Civics Corner Cool Cats – and Happy Sunday!

Happy end of June and almost Fourth of July! We hope you’ve been enjoying the post–heat wave mountain summer and staying cool.

Next week is a light(ish) one due to the holiday, so we wanted to take this opportunity to share some exciting updates here at Civics Corner.

Meet Our First Youth Correspondent: Jack!

We’re thrilled to introduce Jack, our first-ever Youth Correspondent. Jack will be covering the Williamstown School District and sharing regular commentary on civic issues that impact the youth of Williamstown. We'll let him introduce himself below.

As our team grows, we’ve also taken a moment to reflect on our values and reaffirm our commitments to you—our readers—and to our role in the Williamstown community more broadly. We’ve put together a Civics Corner Ethics and Guidelines document, which you can read in full here: [Civics Corner Ethics and Guidelines]

Key Highlights:

• Authorship and Attribution: All our posts and newsletters include author tags so you know who’s writing.
• Labeling Non-Objective Content: Posts containing opinion, editorial commentary, or advocacy will be clearly labeled with the tags #opinion or #advocacy.
• On Donations: Several of you have reached out about pledging support through Substack. While we’re not accepting donations yet, we deeply appreciate your encouragement and are continuing to think through how that might work in the future.

Thanks for being part of this with us!

Meet Jack

I’m an aspiring campaign manager, a rising senior at Mount Greylock, and I have lived in Williamstown my entire life. I recently completed a semester at The School for Ethics and Global Leadership in Washington, D.C., where I had the opportunity to interact with numerous government officials and refine my leadership skills, as well as develop objective and critical thinking skills.

I was an administrator for the Harris campaign’s phonebanking operations and have dabbled in local politics, creating/advocating for the “pride flag bill” and working with Greylock’s administration on policy issues facing students. 

If you catch me outside my job as a barista, I’m likely either reading the news or playing with my two cats–Scout and Fatneck. I’ll mostly be covering Greylock’s School Committee meetings, but I’m excited to further my civic engagements within Williamstown!

— Jack

Williamstown Week Ahead June 30th to July 6th

School Committee

Tuesday, July 1 | 5:30 PMPolicy & Governance Subcommittee MeetingVirtual via Google Meet

Mount Greylock’s Policy and Governance Subcommittee will meet virtually via Google Meet on Tuesday, July 1, at 5:30 p.m. 

Policy Item Up For Vote:

• A proposed language change to Mount Greylock’s graduation requirements, adding a breakdown of required credits per subject area to “align with practice,” for students to receive a diploma. The updated policy also removes language requiring students to comply “with all state accountability requirements” after Massachusetts voters opted to eliminate the MCAS test as a graduation requirement.

Discussion Items:

• Changes to the school’s field trip policy, including adding language that addresses equitable financial access to field trips, such as adding a provision that field trips that do not involve air travel “must allow student access without regard to a family’s ability to pay.” It also proposes striking existing language, saying, “The School Committee will also encourage field trips as an integral part of the instructional programs in the schools.” 
• The district’s Student Absences and Excuses policy will also be discussed, although it is unclear what specific changes are being analyzed or proposed. As always, we will keep you posted. 

— Jack

Williamstown Committees

Monday, June 30 | 11:00 AMSelect Board Meeting (Zoom)

• Single agenda item: appropriating funds for the 4th of July fireworks

Tuesday, July 1 | 4:00 PMFire District Meeting (In Person: 34 Water St, Williamstown)

• Voting to appropriate funds. Agenda: view here
• We’ll be attending and will report back—this will be our first Fire District meeting!

Tuesday, July 1 | 4:00 PMBerkshire Regional Planning Commission (Virtual)

• Primarily reviewing grant submissions. Full agenda: view here

Bonus Mystery: Monday, June 30 | 9:30 AMBerkshire County Retirement Board

• Scheduled meeting going immediately into a closed executive session to discuss “litigation strategy for the LaBarbera matter.” We tried to look into this and hit a wall—if you know what’s going on, spill the tea!

Getting Involved in Williamstown

Contribute to Civics Corner

Now that we’ve started looking at contributor guidelines, we’re excited to invite community voices into the mix. If you’ve attended a town meeting, have thoughts on a local civic issue, or are interested in becoming a regular contributor, we’d love to hear from you! Reach out and let us know how you'd like to get involved.

Town Job Opening

Community Development Administrative AssistantWe spotted this opportunity on Berkshire Jobs, but didn’t see it on the Town website, so glad we spotted it so we can share it here. It's a great role for anyone interested in working within Williamstown town government. View job listing

Open Committee Seats

Williamstown still has several open seats on various town boards and committees. If you’re ready to get more involved in local government, check out the current vacancies here: williamstownma.gov/vacancies

Thanks for Reading

As always, thank you for staying engaged and informed with Civics Corner. Whether you're attending meetings, sending us tips, or just reading along, you're part of what makes this community stronger. We’ll see you around town—and in your inbox next week.

Until then,The Civics Corner Team (Today’s letter was written by Ky, “School Committee” contributed to by Jack, and edited by Kimma!) 

PS - Shout out to my Mother-in-Law Rose who I know reads all of these all the way to the end and reminds me to get them out when we’re running behind schedule

Cat Tax in Honor of Jack