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School department preparing pink slips By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The School Department is preparing to lay off teachers and staff as administrators attempt to reduce payroll for the 2016 fiscal year budget which begins on July 1, 2015. School Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan said that the department requested $60 million for its FY16 “budget of need” but that it will go into the new fiscal year with a budget of $58,272,000 after two rounds of budget cuts and only a $110,000 increase in the Chapter 70 funding from the state. “We were hoping that the increase in state aid would be over a million, 10 times what it is this year,” Sullivan said. “Based on that state aid number and the city’s snow and ice deficit, the mayor has to come up with around $800,000 to balance that account. We anticipate it will result in layoffs.” “Any attrition will not be filled, so there will be no new hires,” Sullivan said. The union contracts require that teachers and staff being laid off have to be notified by June 15, but typically more “pink slips” are sent out than the actual number of staff being cut. School Finance Officer Ron Rix said this morning that the $60 million budget of need “replicated next year what we’ve had this year.” “We had to cut $1,727,793 to balance the 2016 fiscal year budget, cut people and resources,” Rix said. The personnel line item, the largest part of the See School Budget, Page 3

Sting results in warnings, suspensions Westfield High School fine arts teachers Karen West and Ann Marie Picard recently won the school’s new Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award and the Autonomy to Innovate Grant. The award and grant will focus on dialogue journals that students will create, providing an opportunity for personal communication with the teacher. (Photo by Lori Szepelak)

Westfield High School teachers given grant By LORI SZEPELAK Correspondent WESTFIELD – Strengthening literacy and building trust among students at the onset of the school year are part of the framework for a new award and grant recently won by two Westfield High School teachers. During a late afternoon interview on June 8 at the high school, Karen West and Ann Marie Picard, both from the Fine Arts Department, shared their enthusiasm about winning the new Westfield High School Autonomy to Innovate Grant and the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Award, awarded by the school’s Instructional Leadership Team. Funding for both the award and the grant will be done through annual, private donations. Jonathan Carter, principal, had

announced both award and grant opportunities to faculty in early April. “We hope that both the award and grant become new traditions at Westfield High School that annually demonstrate our commitment to our teachers’ ‘autonomy to innovate,’” he said. “Dialogue journals will be created by each art student which will allow conversations from student to teacher throughout the year,” said West, noting that some students can be shy and uncomfortable asking questions in class. The women stressed that the journal making process will reach all learners including ELL, gifted learners, and students with specific educational needs. See Grant, Page 3

Legion continues long-time fundraising for foundation

RON RIX

we are usually looking for an accomplice.” — SAUL BELLOW

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2015

VOL. 84 NO. 145

“When we ask for advice,

WESTFIELD – The American Legion Post 124, 38 Broad Street, held its 68th consecutive benefit dinner for the March of Dimes Foundation earlier this year. This year marked the first year that the Post 124 family (Legion, A.L.A. And S.A.L.) collectively sponsored this benefit. The March of Dimes is celebrating their 77th anniversary of helping parents of children afflicted with life threatening illnesses. The Post 124 American Legion family presented a check $1,000 to the March of Dimes Foundation on Monday. The 69th annual benefit spaghetti dinner to benefit the March of Dimes has been scheduled for February 5 & 6th, 2016. This traditional benefit dinner started in 1947 by a group of WW II Post 124 veterans to combat the dreaded polio disease Post 124 is the longest American Legion consecutive fundraiser for the March of Dimes in the country. See March of Dimes, Page 3

School Finance Officer

HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) — State police say a construction worker has been struck and killed by a dump truck in work zone on Interstate 91 in Holyoke. State police say on Twitter that the worker was struck Tuesday morning in a work zone on the northbound side of the highway near Exit 15, which is near the Holyoke Mall. Two travel lanes were closed for a while during the investigation but have since reopened. The worker's name was not immediately disclosed. No other information was available.

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SCHOOL STREET IS RE-OPENED!

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By DAN MORIARTY Staff Writer WESTFIELD – The License Commission took action Monday night against three businesses licensed to serve alcohol after those establishments failed a police department sting operation by selling alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21. The Community Policing unit of the WPD conducted a sting operation on April 15, consistent with guidelines set by the License Commission and the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC), with volunteers under the age of 21 who were instructed to provide their drivers’ license if asked by the staff of a business licensed to serve alcohol. The License Commission meted out punitive action Monday night ranging from a four-day suspension, the most severe, to warning letters stating that further sting failures may result on a suspension of the liquor license. The commission voted to enforce a four-day suspension give to the Pop The Cork package store earlier this year and to impose a second six-day suspension to be held in abeyance for a year and then dismissed unless the establishment fails another sting before June 8, 2016. The four-day suspension, which had been held in abeyance following the store’s failure of an earlier sting, is slated for June 15, 16 17, and 18. The commission also issued a three-day suspension to 76 Discount Liquors on Southwick Road but also voted to hold that suspension in abeyance for a six-month period. The business had failed an earlier sting, but the board felt the owner had instituted a number of training and testing program, such as mystery shoppers, persons under the age of 21 intentionally sent into the store by the owner to test staff members, a program which the commission has referred to other package store owners who have failed a sting. The board voted to issue a written warning to the Shaker Farms Country Club on Shaker Road because this was that first sting failure by that business. The board also voted to grant one-day licenses to Amelia Park for a fundraising event this Friday, WOW for the summer concert series on Park Square Green and the Rotary Club which plans a two-day foodfest in August. The Amelia Park fundraising event, at which wine and beer will be served in the garden, is slated to begin at 5 p.m. and conclude at 9 p.m. on Friday. The WOW concerts, at which beer and wine is sold, are tentatively slated for Thursday night on June 25, July 16 and Aug. 20. The City Council voted to approve a waiver of the city ordinance prohibiting consumption of alcoholic beverages on city streets and in city parks at its meeting last week. The Rotary Club is planning a two-day Westfield Festival of Food on Aug. 29 and 30. That event will take place downtown on Elm Street which will be closed to traffic from Franklin Street to the Main/School streets intersection with Elm Street. The Rotary Club will also be seeking to sell beer and wine at that event which will also feature concerts with a number of food truck vendors selling various cuisines.

Family of stabbing victim suing police, city for $10 million SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — The family of a Chicopee woman who was fatally stabbed has sued the city, police department, former chief and several officers over the unauthorized distribution of cellphone photos of the 20-year-old victim's body. Amanda Plasse's family says in the federal suit that they suffered emotional distress stemming from the photo sharing. They are seeking $10 million in damages. Plasse was found dead in her apartment in August 2011. The suit says a sergeant and officer took photos of her body with personal cellphones, then shared the photos with other officers as well as members of the public. The suit said their actions were "intentional, reckless, extreme and outrageous." Police had no comment. A message left with the city law department was not immediately returned. Plasse's neighbor is awaiting trial on a murder charge.

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