greylocknews

Progress: The sign goes up on the new Wild Oats location

Opening day is getting closer.  Driving past the new location of the  in Williamstown on Thursday, GreylockNews.COM noticed that a new copy of the familiar Wild Oats sign has been fixed to the top of the former Dox store where Wild Oats will relocate in July.  The customer-owned cooperative foodstore is nearly doubling its floor space. On Thursday, there were already shelves in place with non-perishable goods neatly positioned. Two check-out counters are set up and some lighting was in place.  Wild Oats Cooperative Inc., the Williamstwn coop, is not connected with the national whole-foods chain, Wild Oats Markets, Inc., and actually took the name "Wild Oats" in retailing years before the national group.  On May 17, Williamstown voters at town meeting approved tax-increment financing for the $1-million Wild Oats move.

Q&A: Piechota reflects on his tenure at Mount Greylock

A stoic Mark Piechota wrapped up nearly a decade at the helm of the Mount Greylock Regional School District in mid-June. Before he left, he sat on June 6 with reporters for a tape-recorded interview during which he was asked to reflect on his period at the 600-student school in Williamstown. In the interview, he regards the inauguration of the "senior project" as one culmination of what he sought to achieve. While most would rank Piechota's relationship with the Mount Greylock teachers' union as close to a failure, during his period the school put in place an enduring vision statement and spent a good deal of time working on issues of educational philosophy.  Piechota is now head of the Crefield School, near Philadelphia. Among points covered in the interview: What would happen if students were rated on other than math/reading criteria; the implications of changes in regionalization; schedule changes; on "taking sides"; on the role of middle school; the nature of teacher burnout; and on the "endgame" of promoting vouchers and charter schools.

Read the full Q&A from the interview  by clicking HERE.
Read Greylock Echo co-Editor Carl Kubler's story about the interview by clicking HERE.

MGRSD board, teachers' union appear closer on settling contract

The Mount Greylock school committee is proposing a 6% wage increase over three years for teachers at the regional high school in an offer made public on Wednesday.  This compares with the request of the Mount Greylock Faculty Association for 7.25% in a four-year contract, or an average annual wage increase of 1.81%. The school committee says its offer amounts to an average annual wage increase of 2.0%. "We are very close on most items," Committee Chairman Robert Petricca said in a statement. For more information click to the FULL STATEMENT by the school board.

NYTimes columnist, Thomas Friedman, offers Williams grads six tips for success

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas L. Friedman's graduation keynote address at Williams College today is being noted for his words about finding "joy, passion and optimism" in work. "Bringing joy and passion to your world is how you get to the top," said the New York Times foreign-affairs columnist. In his address, he also ticked off off six axioms for success and happiness. Here they, are paraphrased:

1. The best way for graduates to avoid having their chosen career job "outsourced" to another country is to pick a career based on your heart, not your head. "Listen to you heart," he said. "It's the best career counsellor you can have."  Friedman studied Arabic in college, without any sense of why. He ended up a Middle East correspondent.

2. Recognize that the ability to listen to people is the best way to learn something. "People want to feel they're being heard," said Friedman. "Show them the respect of listening."  He said one-time fellow foreign correspondent Bob Schieffer of CBS News once told him that Schieffer's biggest missed scoops were the result of having been talking when he should have been listening.

3. To avoid having their job "outsourced" -- or to become "untouchable" (Friedman's usage) -- the journalist advised graduates to "learn how to learn."  Drawing an analogy to the title of his just-published book, "The World is Flat," Friedman told the graduates: "The enduring ability you need in a flat world is the ability learn."  He said the impetus for the book, published in April, was Friedman's realization that he needed to take a leave from his New York Times job because "I realized my own [mental] software was out of date." The learning he undertook as a result, produced the book, he said.

4. Judgement is not included in modems, or other techno-gadgets, said Friedman. Graduates should avoid "getting carried away with the gadgets" and should instead use "imagination, passion, zest and creativity" -- things which cannot be downloaded.

5. Learn the difference between approaching the world with skepticism, rather than cynicism. The cynic thinks he knows the answer and sets out to prove the world conforms to it, said Friedman, while the skeptic asks questions, then seeks to learn the answers which result from his quest.  "So much more creative juice comes from skepticism, and not cynicism," said Friedman.

6. "Call your mother, you wil always be glad you did," said Friedman. The Mideast correspondent described how his 86-year-old mother, who's memory is failing, still clips his Times columns and shows them to fellow residents in a retirement community where she lives.  But he also recalled that his father died at age 19, and he still wishes he could call his dad.

Artist documents the people of North Berkshire -- with 200 portraits

The faces of Northern Berkshire County -- 200 of them, to be exact -- are the passion of Edward Cating.  The Williamstown painter has completed 44 oil paintings on baltic-birch plywood forms -- each 12"x16" of adults, children, grandparents, muti-generation family residents, and summer visitors, from plain folks to celebrities -- including the grand-daughter of the actor Richard burton. In each case, he has a written history of the subject for what he calls his "Portrait of the Berkshires" project. He's taken all 200 photos and had another 150 or so paintings to complete as of a couple of weeks ago. "These are paintings of neighbors and friends, visitors and passersby tht will produce a portrait record of this region that is in dialogue with traditional paintings passed down by early-Amerian itinerant painters," says Cating. When the former mechanical engineer moved to the area with his family from New Hampshire a few years ago he didn't know anybody. The Portrait of the Berkshires project has allowed him to find the diversity in the region -- and to celebrate it.  When all 200 oil-on-wood works are done, he hopes to have an exhibition which includes the portraits and the stories behind them. (Click on the photo to enlarge.) 

EXCLUSIVE: Williams students, profs to study percholorate issue at Mount Greylock RHS

A team of faculty and students at Williams College will spend the summer trying to develop theories or facts on the sources of measured perchlorate contamination to the water supply at Mount Greylock Regional High School. The group, which includes chemistry professor David Richardson, will begin their work in mid-June.  Prof. Richardson describes the effort, and lists the other team members, in an email sent to GreylockNews.COM on Friday. You can read it by clicking HERE.   The Williams group's work has the potential to add to national dialog on perchlorate contamination of water supplies, which is an issue nationwide. The subject line of the email refers to a new research study (Download PerchlorateArticle.pdf), which found that lightning strikes to a water-storage tank in one instance was suspected to have caused a chemical reaction that can create percholorate. There is no evidence, that this has occured at Mount Greylock, but the researchers are hoping to consider a variety of hypotheses for why percholorate readings in the school's well-water system have been higher than would be expected for general background. In February, the trade journal "Waterweek" reported that a panel of National Research Council (NRC) experts has concluded that humans can safely ingest perchlorate at rates up to 0.7 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, which is more than 20 times the safe exposure rate USEPA estimated in its draft risk assessment of 2002. In a report released Jan. 10, the NRC's Committee to Assess the Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion found that a reference dose of 0.7 micrograms/kg "should protect the health of even the most sensitive populations."

NEW: Arts/Theatre review and schedule site for Berkshires/Vermont/NYS linked here

GreylockNews.COM readers who are trying to making plans for theater and events can find comprehensive schedules, with links -- and reviews -- by visiting "GailSez.COM" , the website of free-lance writer, director and theater buff Gail Burns, of Williamstown.