A very Special Town Meeting
In just over a week, Phase 1 of the campaign for a new Wakefield Memorial High School will be complete.
On Saturday, Jan. 28, the Special Town Meeting will be called to order and hundreds of people will pack the high school field house to hear school administrators and other town officials drone on at length about the dire need for a new high school.
Most of those present will have never attended a Town Meeting before and likely never will again. They will be there at the behest of the local education lobby, which has put out an urgent call for warm bodies to come out and vote “Yes for WMHS” on Jan. 28.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 10 Comments
Tags: accreditation, Central Committee, Climate Change, cost, Critical Race Theory, CRT, curriculum, development, Dolbeare School, education, educators, Greenwood School, home values, housing, Mark Sardella, natural gas, NEASC, Opinion, Politics, School Committee, schools, special election, students, taxes, teachers, Town Meeting, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Memorial High School, Wakefield Warrior Logo, WHS, WMHS, Yes for WMHS
Here comes Santa Claus
I’ve taken to heart recent advice from readers that I should “do a little investigative journalism.” And since it’s my firm conviction that the public has a constitutional right to know what their local officials and others will be receiving in their stockings and under their trees on Christmas morning, my digging has uncovered Santa’s secret list.
Due to inflation, Santa’s list is shorter than usual this year, which will come as a relief to those who didn’t make the list.
To Sam Stella: a bright red MAGA hat.
To Jonathan Chines: the Beatles’ Taxman on vinyl.
To the 2022 Wakefield Warrior football team: a trip to Superbowl LVII on Feb. 12.
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Tags: Amy McLeod, Beatles, Christmas, copyright, Donald Trump, Dr. Douglas Lyons, Fence Viewers, Humor, Jason Lewis, Jeff Kehoe, Jonathan Chines, MAGA, Mark Sardella, Mehreen Butt, News, Northeast Metro Tech, Ohio State University, Politics, Sam Stella, Santa Claus, Shaun F. Beasley, Smart Brevity, Taxman, Unitarian Universalist, Voke, voters, Wakefield Bowladrome, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Human Rights Commission, Wakefield Police Department, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Town Council, Warrior logo, Winter Solstice, WMHS
The art of the sham
Well, at least now we have confirmation that, when it comes to replacing the old Wakefield Warrior logo, what we knew all along was in fact true.
The logo that was plagiarized from Ohio State University, which the School Department tried to quietly roll out in 2019, is the one that they wanted all along to replace the original Wakefield Warrior logo and they never had any intention of considering any other option.
So, the entire three-year process leading up to this point was a sham and a total waste of everyone’s time and effort.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: Art, Art Department, attorneys, Dr. Doug Lyons, high school logo, law, lawyers, logo, Mark Sardella, Native Americans, Ohio State University, Opinion, OSU, plagiarism, policy, Politics, School Committee, School Superintendent, schools, students, teachers, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Memorial High School, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Warrior Logo, WHS, WMHS
Election central
For the past few years, we’ve been subjected to endless lectures informing us that voting is incredibly difficult and we must do everything in our power to make it easier for voters to participate in elections.
Anything less would be VOTER SUPPRESSION!
We’ve been told that democracy shouldn’t place even the slightest burden on the voter, for whom casting a ballot must not require any effort whatsoever.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Politics, Wakefield | 7 Comments
Tags: ballot, centralized voting, democracy, disabled, drivers license, early volting, Election Day, elections, Galvin Middle School, high school, illegal aliens, mail-in ballot, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, News, Opinion, parking, Politics, polling place, polls, precinct, professional development, schools, senior citizens, teachers, vote, voter suppression, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefielld MA
School choice
Most of us know at least one person who grew up in Wakefield, attended Wakefield Public Schools and then had to reluctantly leave his hometown as it became increasingly unaffordable.
Well, living in Wakefield is about to get even more expensive, if the current plans for a new high school go through.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: 1960, Andy Bray, ballot committee, building, building project, cost, Dolbeare School, economy, Galvin Middle School, inflation, Ken Duval, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Michael Scollo, Opinion, Politics, Robert Bradley, senior citizens, taxes, Television, Town Election, Town Meeting, TV, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools, WMHS, Woodville School, working families, Yes for WMHS
Imitation game
If it’s “cultural appropriation” when you use a drawing of a Native American as a school sports logo, what is it called when you knowingly appropriate a logo design from another school?
If you’re Ohio State University, you might call it “copyright infringement.”
The endless saga of the Wakefield Warrior Logo just keeps going and going and going. Every time it appears that this wholly unnecessary affair is finally coming to a merciful conclusion, something happens to drag it out longer.
This time, the snag came from a city 700 miles away: Columbus, Ohio.
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Tags: attorney, copyright, copyright infringement, cultural appropriation, dilution, football, Indians, Indigenous People, law, lawyer, legal, logo, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, meeting., Native American, Native Americans. Mark Sardella, Ohio, Ohio State, Ohio State University, Opinion, OSU, paleface, plagiarism, Politics, sports, uniform, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Warrior, WMHS
Columbian exposition
Not so long ago, Italian-Americans were actually seen as a disadvantaged group that faced real discrimination.
For that reason, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the first federal observance of Columbus Day in 1937 to recognize the contributions of Italian-Americans and to assure them of their rightful place in American history.
“We are celebrating today the exploit of a bold and adventurous Italian,” FDR said, “who with the aid of Spain opened up a new world where freedom, tolerance and respect for human dignity provided a refuge for the oppressed of the Old World.”
Eighty-five years ago, even progressives believed that.
Today, not so much.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 7 Comments
Tags: 1492, America, American History, Christopher Columbus, colonizers, Columbus Day, conquerors, European, FDR, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Galvin Middle School, holiday, Humor, Indians, Indigenous Curriculum, Indigenous Peoples Day, invaders, Italian-Americans, Italians, Mark Sardella, Megan Webb, Native Americans, New World, North America, October, Opinion, Original Sin, Politics, progressives, U.S. history, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield Warrior
Dangerous liaisons
School is back in session and it seems that a little adult education is also in order.
Nearly half of Wakefield’s taxpayer-funded budget already goes to the schools. In the next few months, Wakefield taxpayers will be asked to vote for a new high school at a total cost of $273.7 million. Even at that cost estimate, it will mean (at minimum) an additional $1,384 in property taxes on the average single-family home in Wakefield every year for the next 30 years – or $115 a month.
Do you think you’d miss $115 a month? That’s on top of the $300 a year that you’re still paying for the Galvin Middle School, which now looks like a bargain at a mere $74 million.
A Special Town Meeting to vote on the funding for the new high school is scheduled for January 28, 2023. If it passes Town Meeting, a Special Election will be held in March.
But before you vote to hand over another big chunk of your paycheck to the schools, you might want to know what those schools are teaching and who is influencing the curriculum, i.e., the courses offered at the schools.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
Tags: Barack Obama, children, colonizer, consultants, Critical Race Theory, CRT, culturally responsive teaching, curriculum, education, Franklin D. Roosevelt, History, Indians, indigenous, Jamilah Pitts, JFK, John Collier, John F. Kennedy, Mark Sardella, Marxism, Mishy Lesser, Native Americans, News, Opinion, parents, Politics, professional development, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, schools, socialism, students, taxpayers, teaching, United States, Upstander Academy, Upstander Project, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Warrior Logo
Lady killer
Tony Costa is the most vicious serial killer you never heard of, which is all the more remarkable considering he plied his trade right here in Massachusetts.
He didn’t just murder his victims. He eviscerated and dismembered them. And like so many other serial killers, Tony Costa was a real tough guy. He preyed on girls. He was suspected of killing at least eight young women.
Costa’s story is the subject of Helltown, a new book by Casey Sherman, who takes a novel approach to telling this tale of horror on Cape Cod.
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Tags: 1960s, 1969, book, book review, Cape Cod, Casey Sherman, Chappaquiddick, Charles Manson, Charlie Manson, Edmund Dinis, Edward M. Kennedy, Helltown, hippies, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Sardella, Mary Anne Wusocki, Mary Jo Kopechne, Massachusetts, Moon Landing, murder, NASA, Norman mailer, Patricia Walsh, Provincetown, review, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Sixties, Susan Perry, Tony Costa, true crime, Truro, Wakefield Daily Item
Developing a climate plan
The state of Massachusetts wants more control over municipal decision-making and is threatening to withhold state funding from cities and towns that do not comply with its social and climate goals disguised as zoning.
New state guidelines based on a law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last January require that every community with MBTA service (like Wakefield) must have at least one zoning district near a transit station in which multi-family housing is allowed by right.
“By right” means that developers can come in and build multi-family residential buildings without the bother of getting a Special Permit, variance or other relief from the local Zoning Board.
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Tags: automobiles, batteries, building, bus lines, buses, cars, Charlie Baker, China, Climate Change, commuter rail, developers, development, electric vehicles, environmentalists, EVs, forced labor, fossil fuels, housing, Humor, lithium mining, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Legislature, MBTA, Mike Kennealy, multi-family, Opinion, parking, Politics, public transportation, railroad, Town Meeting, traffic, trains, transit, Wakefield Daily Item, zoning
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