To the Editor:

I am writing to encourage all of your North Adams readers to vote Yes on Tuesday to invest in our school district, our students, and the future of our community.

I moved to North Adams in 2021, and I have been overwhelmingly impressed by the spirit of collaboration on perseverance that I have experienced here. New England is littered with small factory — or mill — towns that were decimated by the loss of one singular employer, and North Adams still feels the absence of so many families that no longer call this place home. But the people here now — the entrepreneurs developing new industries, the artists finding inspiration among the mountains, the new families seeking community outside of the big city — make obvious to me that our City's greatest days are more likely ahead of us than 50 years in our past.

Since joining the North Adams School Committee this year, I've had the privilege to work closely with Dr. Malkas and other administrators. I have observed our teachers and staff working tirelessly to provide our students with quality instruction, leveraging outside resources to create new opportunities all the time, including free college enrollment and 21st-century programming all year round. I'm proud to be part of a district that is ever-improving, which makes it all the more troubling to see our students' learning perpetually disrupted by heating system failures, building leaks, and the constant patchwork maintenance demanded by our antiquated elementary schools.

Over the past five years, our community has developed a plan for a Greylock School that is safe, clean, and will allow our staff and students to focus on teaching and learning. What's more, they have found a path to build this school that is less expensive than any comparable renovation of the Brayton School, and secured 70 percent of the necessary funding from the state. This state-of-the-art facility will be the space that students use to grow into the next entrepreneurs, artists, and community members that make North Adams thrive.

Now, in the final stretch of this effort, a small-but-vocal minority of property owners has come out of the woodwork to oppose this investment. Some are criticizing the process that has been years underway, despite their own lack of engagement. Others cite projections that would have our student body dwindling to nothing, as though they cannot imagine our city growing and thriving again. But at the root of these efforts is a desire to save a few dollars a month at the expense of our children and families.

I have struggled with money often enough to know what a difference these few dollars can make when bills come due, but we have this rare opportunity to use State funds for a once-in-a-generation investment in our students, and our city's future. I hope you will join me in voting Yes for the Greylock School this Tuesday.

Cody Chamberlain
North Adams, Mass. 

Chamberlain is a member of the North Adams School Committee.

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