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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015
VOL. 84 NO. 042 POWDER MILL MIDDLE SCHOOL
Lawmakers approve bill to close budget gap
Peloquin to retire By HOPE E. TREMBLAY Staff Writer SOUTHWICK – Longtime Powder Mill Middle School Principal Ronald Peloquin will retire at the end of this school year. Peloquin has been with the Southwick-TollandGranville Regional School District for 19 of his 36 years in education. The Southampton resident said he still has some years left in him, but the timing to leave Powder Mill is right. “My decision comes down to the transition of the structure to a (grade) three to six building,” said Peloquin. “The administration should be there at its inception – it will take on a new structure and a new vision.” Powder Mill is slated to become an intermediate school now that grades seven and eight have merged with the high school. Woodland Elementary School will become a school for preschool through grade two, and Woodland Principal Kimberly Sasso will be the new powder Mill Principal. Superintendent John Barry said a search committee has been formed for a new Woodland principal and they hope to have a new principal in place this spring so there is some overlap. Peloquin praised Sasso. “She will do well,” he said. “She has the experience and vision to succeed.” As for Peloquin, his immediate retirement plans include no plans at all. “This has been such a big part of my life, I just want to take some time and see what life’s like without it,” he said of his almost four decades in middle school education. See Peloquin, Page 3
“The world has no sympathy with any but positive griefs; it will pity you for what you lose, but never for what you lack.”
MICHAEL ROEDER
Candidate Roeder to focus on fiscal reform By PETER FRANCIS Staff Writer WESTFIELD – With his hat all but officially thrown in the ring for the city’s upcoming mayoral race this fall, Michael L. Roeder appeared on The Westfield News Radio Show on WSKB 89.5 FM yesterday morning to speak with host Patrick Berry on his plans for his upcoming campaign against City Council President Brian Sullivan. Roeder, who made his first foray into politics in 2013 when he lost a nailbiter to incumbent Mayor Daniel M. Knapik by around 300 votes, said he will be focusing on shaking more hands, meeting more voters, and raising more money than he did two years ago. A member of the Massachusetts Independent Party, Roeder is stressing fiscal austerity as a major theme of his latest quest for City Hall’s corner office. “In my opinion, $100 million in debt is about as far as we can go,” said Roeder. “The bank’s have cleared us to borrow up to $300 million but for Westfield, it wouldn’t be possible because it is costing us $8.5 million a year to pay down the interest on the money we’ve borrowed.” In addition to fiscal reform, Roeder said he will also be doing some staff housekeeping at 59 Court Street. “In dealing with different agencies in the city, some people would be asked to leave. There are a couple of people who have such a degree of loyalty to Knapik, that they couldn’t possibly serve under me,” said Roeder, though he wouldn’t divulge names. “A new President comes in, he replaces staff. A new governor comes in… look at Baker – he cleaned house.”
RONALD W. PELOQUIN
See Roeder, Page 3
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker praised House and Senate lawmakers for approving his proposal to close a projected $768 million state budget shortfall for the current fiscal year. The Senate passed the measure on a voice vote yesterday a day after the House overwhelming backed the proposal, which closely mirrors the plan offered by Baker. In one change, the House and Senate eliminated a Baker provision that lawmakers said would have given the administration more power to restructure benefits for some Medicaid recipients. The plan includes a $40 million cut in state transportation spending, of which $14 million would come from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Officials said the cut isn’t expected to effect service for the hard-hit transit agency. Baker had already moved to trim $145 million in executive branch spending, cuts that did not require legislative approval. The governor and legislative leaders had ruled out new taxes or local aid cuts to cities and towns to bridge the budget gap. “I’m thankful for the hard work of the Senate and House and am encouraged we will be able to move forward on next year’s budget and the issues that matter to the people of Massachusetts,” Baker said in a written statement. The bill would also create a tax amnesty program for Massachusetts businesses with overdue tax debts and use $131 million in anticipated capital gains tax revenue to reduce the deficit. Those funds would otherwise have been See Budget Gap, Page 3
Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, top left, Democratic legislative leaders Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, center, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, right, face reporters during a news conference January 12 outside the governor’s office at the Statehouse in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Trial of former teacher accused of child sexual assault underway By REBECCA EVERETT @GazetteRebecca Daily Hampshire Gazette NORTHAMPTON — A former middle school science teacher from Southampton admitted to his wife and police that he sexually molested a girl for approximately five years, but his lawyer contends that James L. Parks is not guilty of other accusations for which he is on trial in Hampshire Superior Court. Jurors yesterday began hearing testimony in the case of Parks, 56, of 60 Rattle Hill Road, who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape of a child aggravated by age difference, nine counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over, posing a child in a state of nudity, distributing obscene material to a minor, and attempting to commit a crime. Parks was a science teacher at
West Springfield Middle School when he was arrested June 21, 2013, but the alleged victim was not a student there. West Springfield School Superintendent Russell Johnston has declined comment on whether Parks is still employed, but has said that he is not allowed on school grounds while the court case is proceeding. The Gazette as a matter of policy does not identify the alleged victims of sexual crimes. Parks’ attorney, Jared Olanoff of Springfield, asked the jury to convict his client only of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, but said the other charges against Parks are not true. He said his client admits only to inappropriately touching the girl over her clothes from when she was between 11 and 15 years old. “This case is about what did happen versus what didn’t happen,” Olanoff said.
Assistant District Attorney Linda Pisano told that jury that while the assaults started with Parks touching the girl over her clothes when she asked for a back rub after a soccer game when she was 11, he later raped her, videotaped her without her knowledge, and showed her pornographic videos. The charge of attempting to commit a crime results from an incident in which the girl struggled and prevented an assault, Pisano said. “This is not a complicated, circumstantial, whodunit case,” Pisano said. “It’s straightforward.” Pisano said that when the girl was 15, she told a friend that Parks was molesting her. Several days later, on June 21, 2013, Parks’ wife got a call about what the girl had said. Julie Parks, who now lives in Easthampton and said she plans to divorce her husband, testified that she confronted him immediately. He admitted to it and told her he was
going to kill himself, and she called police. Parks was trying to get in a car and leave when Easthampton and Southampton police approached him in his driveway. “I told him he needed to tell them what he had done,” she said. Easthampton Staff Sgt. Christopher Patnode testified that Parks told the officers that he had been “doing things” with the girl since she was in the 6th grade, and that “most of the time it was consensual.” “He said he was ready to face the consequences,” Patnode said. Patnode testified that Parks never said he had sex with the girl, but Southampton officer Scott Gove said he remembered Parks saying they had sex. Parks was taken to Cooley Dickinson Hospital due to his suicidal statements, Patnode said, and then was arrested. Five days later, Pisano said, police
James Park in Hampshire Superior court. (Photo by Carol Lollis) searched Parks’ home and seized a video camera and the computer and tablet that the girl said he had used to show her pornography. While police were there, Julie Parks told them that she did not know where her husband was and that she See Sexual Assault, Page 3