Folks, in early August I sent a Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Section 10 Public Records Request to the Sterling Select Board and Town Clerk with cc to the Sterling Finance Committee, the text of which is reproduced here:
Select Board
Municipal Building
1 Park Street
Sterling, MA 01564
and
Kathleen Farrell, Town Clerk
Municipal Building
1 Park Street
Sterling, MA 01564
RE: Public Records Request in Accordance With Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec.10
To the Sterling Select Board,
In accordance with Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 66, Sec.10, request is hereby made for copies of any and all:
1. Applications made by the Town of Sterling, from 1 January 2015 to 10 August 2025, for funds from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, the MassWorks infrastructure program, and/or the HousingWorks infrastructure program, those funding sources being described in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A.
2. Documents showing all sums received by the Town of Sterling, from 1 January 2015 to 10 August 2025, from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, the MassWorks infrastructure program, and/or the HousingWorks infrastructure program, those funding sources being described in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A.
Please advise me of the costs for producing and mailing to me those copies.
Failure to respond to this request in a timely manner may result in a Superior Court enforcement action.
I thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Sincerely,
James F. Gettens, Esq.
cc:
Town of Sterling Finance Committee
(Apologies for WordPress spacing errors at top). Since our spineless, pandering Sterling officials are eager for the Town of Sterling to get steamrolled under Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A–
— the bogus ‘MBTA MultiFamily Zoning Districts’ statute, without filing a Worcester Superior Court challenge to that statute and its subsidiary, bogus ‘Compliance Guidelines’ despite clear limitations to the reach of that statute set forth in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision in Attorney General vs. Town of Milton et al.— https://www.mma.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SJC_AG_Milton_1.8.25.pdf — I wanted to see just how much money in grants the Town of Sterling has received, from 1 January 2015 to now, from the Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts funding sources referred to in that statute.
The Town of Sterling’s document copies produced in response to my Public Records Request show that in June 2022 the Town Administrator, Mr. Caldwell, submitted an application for “funds for the engineering and design of downtown underground infrastructure i.e. water and stormwater” as part of an overall plan to enhance “downtown viability.” Mr. Caldwell, on that form, acknowledged that Sterling is a so-called “MBTA Community.” The grant application sought $135,070. In response the Town of Sterling was granted $135,000 in 2023.
Next Mr. Caldwell, in June 2024, submitted a grant application for the Big Kahuna– $2.6 Million—seeking to tap the MassWorks Infrastructure Program and the Rural and Small Town Development Fund for the “construction phase” of the downtown infrastructure and revitalization plan. Again Mr. Caldwell acknowledged on the application form that Sterling is a so-called “MBTA Community.” THAT application was REJECTED.
After that, in June 2025, DPW Superintendent Ryan Mouradian filed a grant application in the amount of $67,500 for MassWorks Infrastructure Program and Rural Development Fund money in order to ameliorate PFAS contaminants in Town well water. Mr. Mouradian acknowledged, on the application form, that Sterling is a so-called ‘MBTA Community.’ That grant application is pending.
SO, thus far, since 1 January 2015, the Town of Sterling has received a GRAND TOTAL of $135,000 from the Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts funding sources referred to in Mass.Gen.Laws Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A. That’s absolute CHUMP CHANGE when one considers that during that span the Town budgets, collectively, have totaled more than $130 Million. This Fiscal Year the Town’s budget is $14,971,317.34.
For the Sterling Municipal Building MBTA Zoning CHUMPS, however, hope springs eternal, and, accordingly, they will always kiss Commie Commonwealth of Massachusetts officials’ asses in the false hope that someday the Town of Sterling will tap a taxpayer-funded state grant jackpot.
Clearly, then, it will be up to Sterling’s townspeople to vote down the so-called ‘MBTA MultiFamily Zoning District’ Warrant Article that will be on the upcoming Special Town Meeting Warrant, just as voters in Holden, Dracut, Marblehead and other towns have done to protect their respective Towns’ characters and local sovereignty.
Sterling DemocRAT Town Committee member and Select Board Chair Kirsten Newman wouldn’t recognize fiscal restraint if it bit her in the ass. Likewise DEI queen and new Select Board member Patricia Ward, who came over from the Sterling Cultural Council. This is from the Cultural Council’s webpage–
Cultural Council
The members of the Cultural Council are appointed by the Select Board for a 3-year term. Each member may serve (2) consecutive terms.
This Board operates in accordance with State mandates and regulations of the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Mission: To promote excellence, inclusion, education and diversity in the arts, humanities, and sciences to foster a rich cultural life for all Massachusetts residents and contributes to the vitality of our communities and economy. The council pursues this mission through a wide range of grants, initiatives , and advocacy for artists, communities, organizations, and schools.
Board Members
Name
Title
Judith Doherty
Chair (1/06/2024)
Patricia Ward
Member (04/29/2023)
Christine Corff
Member (06/10/2024)
Julia Doherty-Meehan
Member (06/30/2025)
Melissa Warren
Member (06/07/2026)
See, you have to be a DEI queen to be on the Sterling Cultural Council.
And then we have the reckless, profligate, out-of-control Sterling D.P.W. Board members pushing for construction of a luxurious new D.P.W. ‘Garage Mahal’ that would increase Sterling property taxes by a whopping 11% over the multi-year life of the bond that would be required to pay for that utter BOONDOGGLE.
THEY ALL WANTED JOE KING KICKED OFF THE STERLING FINANCE COMMITTEE DURING THE SELECT BOARD’S 16 JULY 2025 JOINT MEETING WITH THE TOWN MODERATOR AND THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.
Apparently Mr. King isn’t a fan of the D.P.W.’s outlandish and outrageous ‘Garage Mahal’ proposal. What thinking person is? For his failure to go along the D.P.W. sent a letter to the Select Board labeling Mr. King “unnecessarily contentious.” The D.P.W. prefers someone “respectful and collaborative,” meaning a spineless wimp willing to go along with the D.P.W.’s proposed rape of every Sterling property taxpayer.
MEMO TO THE D.P.W. BOARD: Go screw yourselves and the goats upon which you rode in. Go ahead, label me “unnecessarily contentious” because I oppose your hosing of every Sterling property taxpayer. Badge of honor in my book.
According to that spineless blob Kirsten Newman, several people in Town had conflicts with Mr. King. Yeah, I bet–those who want unconstrained feeding from the taxpayer-funded Town of Sterling public mammary gland. My heart bleeds for those grifters, dontcha know.
Apparently Mr. King opposes outright raids on the Sterling public fisc so, according to Kirsten Newman, that constitutes “disrespectful behavior.” However, for the sane people in Town that constitutes doing what the Finance Committee is supposed to do.
Oh yeah, Select Board member Maureen ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Bullshit’ Cranson chimed in and told Mr. King that he had “scared off” some “younger people the town has been trying to recruit” for the Finance Committee. I take that to mean that the Select Board has been trying to recruit younger, relatively naïve people that the Select Board can push around so at Annual Town Meetings the Select Board can say “See, the Finance Committee supports us on these Warrant Articles by which we are screwing you taxpayers some more.”
This is from the Finance Committee’s webpage:
Mission
Provide financial leadership and guidance to the town organizations and general public. Ensure Town organizations deliver services while optimizing financial resources.
Sterling Finance Committee Guiding Principles
Minimize year over year tax levy changes.
Treat all departments, committees and individuals consistently and respectfully.
As a guideline, maintain the Capital Fund at a level equal to the total annual capital asset depreciation or greater.
As a guideline, items considered for the Capital Fund should have a useful life of greater than 5 years and a cost of $25K or more.
As a guideline, items considered for bonding should have a useful life greater than 10 years and a cost of $100K or more.
Maintain a 3-year planning horizon.
Focus on the fiscal aspects of all Town issues and remain neutral to the “politics” of issues.
Maintain a strong fiscal discipline and continue to emphasize the importance of healthy reserves.
Make decisions that will serve to maintain and increase the taxpayers’ and voters’ trust and respect, paving the way for confidence in future Finance Committee decisions.
Vision and Mission Statement Adopted December 1, 2022
MEMO TO MAU-MAUING KIRSTEN NEWMAN AND PATRICIA WARD:
Try reading items 8 and 9.
In the end, Mr. King was re-appointed to the Finance Committee and the Capital Committee, just barely, no thanks to Newman and Ward who, undoubtedly, will support a massive Proposition 2 ½ override in 2026 necessitated by the failing, substandard, parasitical, out-of-control Wachusett Regional School District.
Well folks, you just knew this was coming. Here’s the Notice for the Planning Board’s 16 September 2025, 6:30 p.m. ‘MBTA Zoning’ Public Propaganda Session—
Doubtless the smarmy, evasive, fact-omitting, smoke-blowing, dead-weight drone ‘Town Planner,’ Stephen Wallace, will be Sterling Municipal Building’s mouthpiece on this while self-dealing developer weasel Carl Corrinne, Planning Board Chair, will be sitting there at the laptop table advancing the Power Point slides. That’s the same Carl ‘Multi-Family Housing’ Corrinne who claimed as required ‘Open Space’ for ‘walking, horticulture, agriculture, forestry,’ etc., under Sterling’s Multi-Family Zoning By-Laws, in order to build his ‘Multi-Family’ development at 100 Clinton Road, Sterling, his land under the triple-parallel high voltage towers/lines there. New England Power Company/National Grid has the power line the easement. In a letter to Sterling’s virtually useless, developer-friendly Zoning Board of Appeals during the Special Permit process, I warned that NEPC/National Grid controlled that easement and could undertake additional infrastructure work there in the future, thereby limiting or eliminating purported ‘Open Space’ there. That’s EXACTLY what is taking place there now. The place looks like a sun-baked ecological wasteland. OF COURSE, the Sterling ZBA, employing its usual intellectual dishonesty, ignored my letter and granted Corrinne the Special Permit. You’d have to be a moron to buy a Corrinne duplex unit there now. That property is UGLY.
At the 16 September 2025 Planning Board ‘MBTA Zoning’ Propaganda Session you may have questions but you won’t get any straight answers setting forth the ‘MBTA Zoning’ legal constraints, limits, and nuances set forth in the case interpreting the controlling statute, Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A, that being Attorney General vs. Town of Milton et al.. You can read it here—
INSTEAD, Wallace/Sterling Planning Board will harp on the ultra vires, completely bogus ‘Emergency Compliance Guidelines’ that the Mass. Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (an Oxymoron) ‘Guidelines Team’ pulled out of their asses soon after the Supreme Judicial Court, in that decision, ruled that their original ‘Compliance Guidelines’ were promulgated in violation of the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act.
VOTERS in MANY Massachusetts towns have voted down bogus so-called ‘MBTA Multi-Family Housing Zoning Districts,’ the latest being in Dracut, Marblehead, and next-door Holden. This map DOES NOT show any post-March 12, 2025 rejections, including those by Dracut, Holden, and Marblehead annual town meeting voters—
KNOW that the ‘MBTA Zoning’ propaganda peddled by the Sterling Select Board, Planning Board, and out-of-town blow-in paycheck patriots Bill Caldwell and Stephen Wallace, Town Administrator and ‘Town Planner,’ respectively, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT IS LEGALLY CORRECT. IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THEM GROVELING FOR POTENTIAL FUNDING THE COMMIE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS WILL CUT OFF IF STERLING REJECTS BOGUS ‘MBTA ZONING.’ Those funding categories are set forth in Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A—
As Spectrum News 1 reported after 2025 Holden Annual Town Meeting voters shot down bogus ‘MBTA Zoning’—
“Ultimately, it seems like it all comes down to funding. According to the MBTA Communities Law, cities and towns who fail to comply will not be eligible for funds from the Housing Choice Initiative.”
Voters in all the Towns that have rejected bogus ‘MBTA Zoning’ KNOW that preserving local autonomy and character is more important than MERELY POTENTIAL state grants, BUT STERLING’S TOWN GOVERNMENT WHORES DO NOT.
NOTE: Two or three (2-3) years ago I served a Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 66, Section 10 Public Records Request on the Town of Sterling for all Town documents showing funds received by the Town of Sterling, in the previous five (5) years, from funding categories listed in Ch. 40A, Section 3A. Town Administrator Bill Caldwell replied in writing that there were NONE.
It will be up to Sterling voters to REJECT bogus ‘MBTA Zoning’ at an upcoming Special Town Meeting. Let us do so as have voters in the towns of Dracut, Holden, Marblehead and others at their recent Annual Town Meetings.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that in recent months the Sterling Select Board, its Out-of-Town blow-in paycheck patriots Bill Caldwell, Town Administrator, and Stephen Wallace, dead-weight so-called ‘Town Planner,’ and the Planning Board, chaired by self-dealing weasel developer Carl Corrinne, none of whom gives a rat’s ass about degrading the Town of Sterling’s semi-rural character, have not placed any so-called “MBTA Multi-Family Zoning Districts” propaganda items on the Town website’s “NEWS” webpage. Instead, that stuff has been confined to the Planning Board section.
SO, let’s examine the lies and falsehoods set forth on the Planning Board’s ‘MBTA Zoning’ propaganda webpage, reproduced below, shall we?
The State Legislature passed the MBTA Communities Zoning Act four years ago. The Act requires all MBTA communities and communities adjacent to MBTA communities to create overlay zoning districts that allow multi-family housing By Right (as opposed to by Special Permit).
At its meeting on May 22, 2025, the Planning Board chose Option #3 for the following reasons:
the close proximity of the Leominster sewer line,
the nearby Northgate multi-family housing development,
Route 12 being a MART (Montachusett Regional Transit Authority) bus route,
and the district being located on both sides of the road so that any development that comes in will not channel traffic onto Route 12 from a single point of entry.
At its meeting on June 18, 2025, the Select Board voted to approve the Planning Board’s preferred option and a pre-adoption review request was submitted to the State the following day. You can read the Town’s pre-adoption review request HERE.
The State should respond by the end of the summer. The Town will then convene a Special Town Meeting on the MBTA matter towards the end of the calendar year.”
STERLING PLANNING BOARD FALSEHOOD NO. 1: “The State Legislature passed the MBTA Communities Zoning Act four years ago. The Act requires all MBTA communities and communities adjacent to MBTA communities to create overlay zoning districts that allow multi-family housing By Right (emphasis added).”
THE TRUTH: Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A, the controlling statute, was enacted in January 2021. That statute makes NO REFERENCE WHATSOEVER TO “ADJACENT COMMUNITIES” AND ONLY REQUIRES “MBTA COMMUNITIES” HAVING LAND WITHIN ONE-HALF (1/2) MILE OF AN MBTA TRAIN STATION, BUS STATION, FERRY TERMINAL, ETC., TO ADOPT AN ‘MBTA Multi-Family Zoning District’ WITHIN ONE-HALF (1/2) MILE—WALKING DISTANCE– OF SUCH AN MBTA TRAIN STATION, BUS STATION, FERRY TERMINAL, ETC..
The ’adjacent communities’ language is a contrived concoction of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (an Oxymoron) ‘Compliance Guidelines Team’ who pulled the term ‘adjacent communities’ out of their asses and stuck it in their COMPLETELY BOGUS ‘Compliance Guidelines’ falsely purporting to implement Ch. 40A, Section 3A. The language in Chapter 40A, Section 3A overrides the bogus ‘Compliance Guidelines,’ NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Chapter 40A, Section 3A is set forth here:
An MBTA community shall have a zoning ordinance or by-law that provides for at least 1 district of reasonable size in which multi-family housing is permitted as of right; provided, however, that such multi-family housing shall bewithout age restrictions and shall be suitable for families with children. For the purposes of this section, a district of reasonable size shall: (i) have a minimum gross density of 15 units per acre, subject to any further limitations imposed by section 40 of chapter 131 and title 5 of the state environmental code established pursuant to section 13 of chapter 21A; and (ii) be located not more than 0.5 miles from a commuter rail station, subway station, ferry terminal or bus station, if applicable (emphasis added).
(b)
An MBTA community that fails to comply with this section shall not be eligible for funds from: (i) the Housing Choice Initiative as described by the governor in a message to the general court dated December 11, 2017; (ii) the Local Capital Projects Fund established in section 2EEEE of chapter 29; (iii) the MassWorks infrastructure program established in section 63 of chapter 23A, or (iv) the HousingWorks infrastructure program established in section 27½ of chapter 23B.
(c)
The executive office of housing and livable communities, in consultation with the executive office of economic development, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, shall promulgate guidelines to determine if an MBTA community is in compliance with this section.
In the case of Attorney General vs. Town of Milton et al., decided January 8, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said twice that MBTA multi-family zoning districts MUST BE WITHIN ½ MILE OF AN MBTA TRAIN STATION, MBTA BUS STATION, MBTA FERRY TERMINAL, ETC..
All of this brings up the issue and meaning of Ultra Vires in the law. Black’s Law Dictionary, the go-to legal dictionary, 2nd Edition, defines Ultra Vires thusly:
“A body exercising an invalid excess or power of authority” (emphasis added).
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (an Oxymoron) bogus so-called ‘Compliance Guidelines’ are Ultra Vires in that they exceed the scope of the explicit parameters set forth in Chapter 40A, Section 3A, as interpreted by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and are therefore unenforceable.
STERLING PLANNING BOARD FALSEHOOD NO. 2: “Sterling is considered an “MBTA- adjacent small town” and is required to find enough land to accommodate a housing district at a density of 15 units per acre, which equates to 156 multi-family units in the overlay district (approximately 12 to 15 acres of land)(emphasis added).
THE TRUTH: Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A, the controlling statute, refers only to “an MBTA community,” NOT an “MBTA-adjacent small town.’ The bogus term “MBTA-adjacent small town” was concocted by the MAEOHLC ‘Guidelines Team’ who pulled it out of their asses. As noted, that bogus term is Ultra Vires and, therefore, unenforceable. MOREOVER, Sterling has NO LAND within 5-6 miles of the nearest MBTA train station in Leominster, is well beyond the ½ mile MBTA zoning districts limit, AND, THEREFORE, IS NOT REQUIRED TO ADOPT ANY MBTA MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING DISTRICT.
THE STERLING PLANNING BOARD’S FALSEHOOD NO. 3: “The law requires that the Town allow for the possibility of creating 156 multi-family housing units…(emphasis added).”
THE TRUTH: That assertion is false for the reasons stated above. MOREOVER, NOTHING IN CHAPTER 40A, SECTION 3A MENTIONS A MINIMUM DISTRICT SIZE OF 12-15 ACRES OR SO. The MAEOHLC bogus ‘Guidelines Team’ is using arbitrary and capricious computer-generated size requirements pulled out of their asses. They are ULTRA VIRES and unenforceable.
THE STERLING PLANNING BOARD’S FALSEHOOD NO. 4:
“Municipalities that fail to comply with this section shall not be eligible for a variety of State grant programs, including:
THE TRUTH: For the reasons set forth above, Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 40A, Section 3A DOES NOT APPLY TO THE TOWN OF STERLING. THEREFORE, THE TOWN OF STERLING IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR GRANT CATEGORIES REFERRED TO. THE STERLING SELECT BOARD, PLANNING BOARD, TOWN ADMINISTRATOR, AND TOWN PLANNER ARE ALL FALSELY EQUATING THE BOGUS ‘COMPLIANCE GUIDELINES’ WITH THE ACTUAL LANGUAGE SET FORTH IN THE CONTROLLING STATUTE, CH. 40A, SECTION 3A. IF THEY HAD ANY INTEGRITY AND GUTS—AND THEY OBVIOUSLY DO NOT—THEY’D HAVE TOWN COUNSEL FILE A WORCESTER SUPERIOR ACTION CHALLENGING THE ‘COMPLIANCE GUIDELINES’ APPLICABILITY TO THE TOWN OF STERLING. INSTEAD, THEY PREFER TO STICK THEIR HANDS OUT, TAKING THE TAXPAYER-SUPPLIED-STATE-MONEY-GRUBBING EASY WAY OUT, THEREBY SUBVERTING THE TOWN OF STERLING’S SOVEREIGNTY AND CHARACTER BY PUSHING FOR APPROVAL OF A BOGUS SO-CALLED ‘MBTA MULTI-FAMILY ZONING DISTRICT’ ON BOTH SIDES OF ROUTE 12 IN NORTH STERLING NEAR THE GIGANTIC “NORTHGATE MEADOWS” APARTMENT COMPLEX AND THE BUSINESS PARK HOUSING THE REGISTRY OF MOTOR VEHICLES OFFICE. YEAH, JACKASSES, AS A PUBLIC SAFETY MATTER WE NEED MORE CARS ENTERING ROUTE 12 FROM BOTH SIDES IN THAT AREA.
SIDEBAR: The Kirsten Newman-Patty Page Connection to the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission.
The following is on the Sterling Planning Board webpage re-printed above:
“In November 2024, the Select Board directed the Town Planner to work with Town Counsel and the regional planning commission (Montachusett Regional Planning Commission – MRPC) to take another look at the Northgate area for Sterling’s MBTA-overlay district. MRPC came up with five options for locating the MBTA-overlay district near its border with Leominster:
Sterling’s Select Board Chair, Kirsten Newman, a DemocRAT statist lemming if there ever was one, and Patty Page, another Sterling Municipal Building paycheck patriot–
–JUST HAPPEN TO ‘REPRESENT’ STERLING ON THE MONTACHUSETT REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION. The Montachusett Regional Planning Commission is entirely a creature of the State dependent on government funds–
–HELPING TO PUT OUT THE FALSE INFORMATION ILLUSTRATED ABOVE.
SEE HOW STERLING TOWN GOVERNMENT BULLSHIT IS SPREAD ON MULTIPLE LEVELS???!!!
HELP MAINTAIN THE TOWN OF STERLING’S SOVEREIGNTY AND CHARACER BY VOTING DOWN BOGUS ‘MBTA ZONING’ WHEN IT COMES UP AT THE SPECIAL TOWN MEETING THIS AUTUMN.
The MassResistance warning article is reprinted in its entirety. Read on:
Teachers’ Union and State School Committee orgs are already working to subvert SCOTUS Mahmoud v. Taylor ruling.
Court ruled that elementary schools must allow opt-out for LGBTQ books.
MassResistance is going further: Coaching parents around the country how to stop the entire radical subversion.
July 15, 2025
America’s largest teachers’ union is working hard against parents and their children. But we’re organizing to remove the entire agenda from schools!
On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled 6-3 in the Mahmoud v. Taylor case that parents in Montgomery County, MD, have the right to opt-out their elementary school children from “LGBTQ-inclusive” storybooks if the books conflict with their religious beliefs. The Justices cited the First Amendment’s religious freedom clause. The parents in this case had lost before the Federal District Court and Appeals Court.
The school district had previously allowed opt-outs but then revoked that option, forcing children to participate without parental notice or consent.
Although the ruling appears to only apply to elementary school children, it is being celebrated by parents across the country as a big win. But how big a win is it really?
School districts pushing LGBTQ storybooks on young children has been a problem since at least 2005, when the David Parker case (in Massachusetts) made national headlines. As we reported at the time, Parker was arrested and briefly jailed when he protested his six-year-old son being read a “gay marriage” book in kindergarten. He sued the school district in Federal District Court and the Appeals Court using the same First Amendment argument – and lost. However, SCOTUS would not take the case.
In handcuffs, David Parker, parent of kindergartner, stands before a Judge in District Court on, April 28, 2005, after spending the night in jail. His “crime” was objecting to the homosexual curriculum in son’s kindergarten class. He was barred from all school property for a year.
Leftist groups immediately work to subvert Mahmoud v. Taylor ruling
Within days of that ruling, the powerful leftist organizations that support the radical agendas in our schools got to work to exploit any possible loophole in the text to subvert it, and find ways for schools to continue to push the LGBTQ agenda on young children without parents’ consent. The National Education Association (NEA) – the country’s largest teachers’ union – and various state School Committee Associations are leading the way.
National Education Association
On July 6, days after the Mahmoud ruling, the NEA approved a resolution in response. It was not meant to be seen by the public, but school choice activist Cory DeAngelis got a copy and posted it in his X account.
The NEA is pledging to “protect educators in the classroom who are teaching LGBTQ+ curriculum/content,” and help them avoid any disciplinary action when they mix it into other subject areas.
From the NEA’s resolution. They want their members to feel “safe” pushing this poisonous agenda on elementary school children, no matter what the US Supreme Court says.
The NEA also announced its plans to publish a “Know Your Rights” document about the ruling, and hold “virtual town hall” meetings to help its members safely push the LGBTQ agenda “in this new political climate.”
Massachusetts Association of School Committees
The statewide school committee associations across the country, which are unfamiliar to most parents, are ostensibly run to help school committees across the state keep up with important current issues, training, and new committee member orientation. But in recent decades, most of them have become poisonous leftist advocacy groups that push and normalize virtually all the radical agendas to school committee members.
The Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) sent an email to school committees throughout the state on July 3. (It is also reprinted on their website.)
MASC didn’t mince words about the Mahmoud ruling’s order to allow parents to opt out. It said, “this case has been viewed as an attack on the LGBTQ+ community,” and is a “direct challenge” to school districts’ “responsibilities” to present this material to young children whether the parents agree or not.
The various school committee associations around the country keep in the background, and have become terribly radicalized with leftist ideology.
In the memo, MASC recommends against adopting a universal opt-out policy. Instead, they provided a list of ways that schools could circumvent that requirement and avoid granting any opt-out requests by parents. They also offered to provide legal assistance to their “questions and concerns.”
Here’s what we really need to do
As good as the Mahmoud ruling is, it unfortunately just serves as a stopgap measure. It applies to elementary school students, only certain books, requires opt-out (versus opt-in), and applies to parents claiming religious beliefs. Moreover, the leftist forces that are already in the schools are working overtime to find loopholes and sleazy workarounds. It will take more litigation by parents to fight those.
Moreover, bad books in elementary schools are just the tip of the iceberg. Schools from K-12 are infested with toxic propaganda and radicalism. From “gay clubs” to gender ideology, comprehensive “sex-ed,” anti-Americanism, DEI, transgenderism, Marxism, pro-Hamas lessons, and more. Students are learning less actual academics, reading skills, thinking skills, etc.
In other words, whether parents like it or not, we are at war! It’s a war that we must win.
Schools need to deliver what parents and taxpayers actually want and expect when they enroll their children. MassResistance is working with parent groups in school districts to:
Completely get rid of all the radicalism and propaganda from the schools.
Replace it with actual academics and legitimate learning.
Remove teachers and staff members who work against that goal.
It’s a big job that involves confrontation with bad leftists. If parents don’t win the battle this way – completely – the assault on children’s minds will never end.
This fight can definitely be won. If you want to start this battle in your district, contact us!
Half-baked measures will never work
The conservative movement is famous (or infamous) for not having the fortitude to fight this battle the way it needs to be fought. They want to testify before their school board, elect a few “good” school board members, or “inform” the community. In practice, this never succeeds. Testifying falls on deaf ears. “Good” school board members can rarely change things. Just because the public is “informed” doesn’t mean that they will actually do anything effective.
It’s ironic that about a month before the Mahmoud ruling came out, MassResistance was attempting to help a parents’ group in Montgomery County, MD – where the Mahmoud lawsuit originated – deal with these issues in their schools. (They did not know when or how SCOTUS would rule on this.) The parents we worked with did not want to actually fight. They were afraid of the teachers’ union. They wanted to try and elect good school committee members. But mostly (they told us), they wanted to inform the public about what was happening in the schools.
Final thoughts
We have a lot of problems with the “religious freedom” argument when fighting LGBTQ propaganda in the schools. What about people who don’t have “sincere religious beliefs” on the LGBTQ issue but still don’t want their children exposed to it? (And how does someone prove his beliefs are “sincerely held”?) Most parents we talk to simply find it to be disgusting perversion that harms children. It perpetuates behaviors that cause disease and mental health problems. This is the real argument – which parents for hundreds of years would have immediately made. But unfortunately, too many conservatives today are too cowardly to use it.
And finally, we’re tired of this “opt-out” nonsense. None of this toxic material should be there at all. Contrary to the left’s absurd talking points, none of it does any child any good. In particular, pornography (and most certainly LGBT pornography) is destructive to everyone, especially children.
Our uncompromising work is made possible by people like you!
Please help us reach our $500K goal to keep it going!
The Sterling Finance Committee, already a WRSD lapdog if not outright WRSD cheerleader, on Wednesday night, 16 July 2025, in conjunction with the Capital Budget Committee, will become an official department of that bloated, profligate, out-of-control, DEI-obsessed, LGBTQ-grooming, incompetent, failing government school district exploiting, shamelessly, the district property-taxpayer-funded public mammary gland.
What happens Wednesday night, 16 July 2025? That’s the night the gutless, witless, profligate Sterling Select Board appoints Marina Meehan to the Sterling Finance Committee and Linda Woodland to the Capital Budget Committee, although the posted agendas don’t make it clear exactly whom is being appointed to what. No matter, the two Committees spill over into each other
In case you need reminding, Linda Woodland is the execrable, shameless, verbose WRSD shill who was a Sterling WRSD Committee member until May 2025. She’s the Sterling member who blew WRSD smoke at Sterling’s annual town meetings because Sterling’s other two WRSD Committee members were too vacuous to even blow WRSD smoke. As I’ve noted previously, Linda Woodland blows more WRSD smoke than a U.S. Navy smokescreen generator.
As for Marina Meehan, she’s the young unknown who ran for Sterling Select Board this year and lost. BUT, her mother was a WRSD teacher. That tells us all we need to know about her WRSD allegiance.
So, when you wake up Thursday morning, 17 July 2025, the Sterling Finance Committee, in conjunction with the Capital Budget Committee, will be a new WRSD department excluding, perhaps, nominal member John Kilcoyne because he’s just a blundering, blabbering, incoherent idiot.
MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT—A LARGE WRSD PROPOSITION 2 ½ property tax override Warrant Article will be on the 2026 Sterling Annual Town Meeting Warrant. It will be up to us to PACK that Annual Town Meeting and shoot it down.
The Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals conducted its initial hearing on the completely BOGUS plan filed by Out-of-Town Blow-Ins to build 30 so-called ‘multi-family’ housing structures, all apparently duplexes, at 121-125 Flanagan Hill Road. Sterling ‘Multi-Family’ developments are governed by Sterling Zoning By-Law Section 301-4.2 et seq. SEE https://ecode360.com/37344979
The Sterling land in question consists of two (2) parcels totaling 9.9 acres, or 431,244 square feet. In Sterling sixty per cent (60%) of the land area upon which a ‘Multi-Family Development’ is built MUST be preserved as ‘open space,’ leaving forty per cent (40 %) of the land available for dwelling structures, access road(s), septic field(s), etc.. In this instance that leaves a total of 172,497.6 square feet available for infrastructure construction.
Sterling Zoning By-Law Section 301-4.2.2.1 under NOTES provides: “Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 301-4.2.2.1, the lot area per dwelling unit for any multifamily dwelling consisting of only two units [a duplex] shall be 20,000 square feet per dwelling unit (emphasis added).”
One hundred seventy-two thousand four hundred and ninety-seven point six (172,497.6) square feet divided by 20,000 equals 8.6 dwelling units, OR FOUR (4) DUPLEXES ONLY, NOT THE THIRTY (30) UNITS SET FORTH ON THE PLAN PROPOSAL REPRINTED BELOW.
IF the ENTIRE lot area of 431,244 square feet is taken into account and divided by 20,000 the result is 21.5 dwelling units OR TEN (10) DUPLEXES ONLY. Nothing in the Zoning By-Laws says that these Clowns are entitled to claim a round-up to 22 dwelling units or 11 duplexes.
NOTE that this COMPLETELY BOGUS plan submitted by the proponent ‘LANCASTER STERLING LLC’ of West Greenwich, Rhode Island, and its engineering firm, J.M. Grenier Associates, Inc., Southborough, MA, in the legend, refers to 1 unit x 30 units, meaning that the plan is FOR 30 SINGLE-DWELLING-UNIT STRUCTURES THAT DON’T QUALIFY FOR MULTI-FAMILY DEVELOPMENT TREATMENT. The plan shows four (4) of those units encroaching on the unbuildable wetlands buffer zone on the southerly side of the property. That is a display of BOTH UTTER ARROGANCE AND STUPIDITY.
NOTE also that the purported soil percolation and deep hole testing records for this proposed development’s septic field, on file with the Sterling Board of Health, has an illegible soil tester, an un-named purported Sterling Board of Health ‘witness,’ and a date of January 23, 2025.
Ya’ think any reputable soil testing is done in the dead of winter??? ME NEITHER.
NOTE FURTHER: The purported soil testing was done on the Northwest corner of the property not far from the Spotted Turtle culvert crossing under Country Club Road. The Spotted Turtle was on the Massachusetts Endangered Species List until 2006.
The Sterling Zoning Board of Appeals continued the hearing on this completely BULLSHIT PROPOSAL to 12 August 2025. I assume that a revised plan will be filed before then showing duplexes instead of single-dwelling-unit structures.
In a waaaaay overdue legal rebuke to government school LGBTQ propagandists-brainwashers-groomers, including their Wachusett Regional School District ilk, the U.S. Supreme Court, on 27 June 2025, ruled that parents of kids in government schools have the right to opt their kids out of government school LGBTQ propaganda/brainwashing.
OH, THE HORROR!!! Just think of it—government school LGBTQ administrator and teacher groomers feeding from the taxpayer-funded public mammary gland will be forced to focus on teaching English, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, civics, foreign languages, science, music, etc., instead. Among the sciences is basic biology and, for them, the uncomfortable, irrefutable FACT that there are ONLY TWO SEXES AND THAT AN INDIVIDUAL HAS EITHER XX CHROMOSOMES OR XY CHROMOSOMES.
Just now tranny pearl-and-feather boa clutching has reached EPIC proportions, and the Wachusett Regional School District Committee and Administration have been traumatized severely and will probably enter echo chamber group therapy. Serves they/them right!
Stay tuned.
Moi? I can’t wipe the smile off my face as I ponder their predicament.
My copy of Sterling’s useless fluff-piece, The Sterling Meetinghouse News, arrived in today’s mail and, lo and behold, on the last page appeared the article entitled “Sterling Town Meeting Draws Large Turnout and Advances Key Initiatives,” authored by the Sterling Finance Committee. Lest you forget, the Sterling Finance Committee, collectively, is supposed to be the Town’s fiscal watchdog. Problem is, its members are appointed by the useless, vapid, gutless, irresponsible, gladhander media hounds known as the Sterling Select Board.
Since 2012 a grand total of TWO Sterling Finance Committee Chairs, Larry Pape and George Handy, have displayed the acuity, guts, and resolve to lead Sterling’s Finance Committee, at the 2012 and 2024 Sterling Annual Town Meetings, respectively, to recommend AGAINST passage of the Wachusett Regional School District’s usual exorbitant and outrageous budget requests. Their recommendations were heeded and Sterling Annual Town Meeting voters rejected the WRSD’s requested Sterling school budget appropriations shares at those two Annual Town Meetings. BUT, to the useless, vapid, gutless, irresponsible, gladhander media hounds known as the Sterling Select Board,making recommendations against the WRSD’s perennially out-of-control, outrageous budget requests is politically incorrect and a political lability. SO in 2012 the useless, vapid, gutless, irresponsible, gladhander media hounds known as the Sterling Select Board voted NOT to re-appoint Larry Pape to the Finance Committee and in 2024 did likewise with George Handy.
The result? Lessons learned. The Sterling Finance Committee is not a fiscal watchdog protecting Sterling’s property taxpayers, rather it is a collection of Select Board lapdogs of the Shih Tzu variety—
I Shih Tzu not!
So let’s get back to the above-referenced Finance Committee article, shall we?! I start with “On the education front…the Wachusett Regional School District… budget[ ] [was] approved. The WRSD budget reflects a $7 million increase district-wide, enabling important improvements in early education, including the hiring of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) teachers and interventionists across the district elementary schools. Once again, WRSD was placed in ‘hold harmless’ status by the state—a designation that freezes the district’s Chapter 70 aid close to prior year levels….”
That’s right Sterling Finance Committee ASSCLOWNS—UNLIKE YOU, the state acknowledges that since Fiscal Year 2010 WRSD total student enrollment has dropped by 936, from 7493 to 6557, or 12.5%, MEANING THAT UNDER MASS. GEN. LAWS CHAPTER 71, SECTION 42 THE WRSD SUPERINTENDENT SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTING CORRESPONDING “REDUCTIONS IN FORCE,” NOT ADDING TO THE WRSD’S BLOATED PAYROLL THAT TOTALLED 1040 DURING THIS FISCAL YEAR.
The WRSD now has 1 employee for every 6.3 students and the student-teacher ratio is down to 14:1.
While WRSD student enrollment has been falling like a stone, the WRSD budget has increased from $81.3 million in FY 2015-2016 to $129.2 million for FY 2025-2026—a $48 million increase, and $7 million over last year’s WRSD budget.
Here is the key language in Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 71, Section 42—
“Nothing in this section or section 41 shall affect the right of a superintendent to lay off teachers pursuant to reductions in force or reorganization resulting from declining enrollment or other budgetary reasons.”
BUT, BUT, BUT THE WRSD JUST HAD TO HIRE 17 NEW “STEAM” TEACHERS AND SOME “INTERVENTIONISTS” BECAUSE THE WRSD COMMITTTEE IS SO INCOMPETENT THAT IT OMITTED PHONICS FROM THE WRSD CURRICULUM FOR YEARS SO THAT READING LEVELS ARE 3 FULL GRADES BELOW WHAT THEY SHOULD BE. OTHER PERFORMANCE LEVELS ARE BELOW GRADE LEVEL TOO.
Question for the Sterling Finance Committee— HOW DOES WRSD COLLECTIVE BARGAINING UNIT ASS TASTE???
MEMO to the Sterling Finance Committee: If we want to watch WRSD cheerleaders we can do that at football and basketball games. We don’t want to see you doing it at the Sterling Annual Town Meeting Finance Committee table at taxpayer expense.
Moving on, this also appeared in that Finance Committee article: “Two significant public works projects also gained approval. First, an $800,000 borrowing authorization for long-needed drainage improvements on Swett Hill Road passed at both the Town Meeting and subsequent debt exclusion [ Proposition 2 ½ tax limit override] ballot… The second project authorizes $500,000 for initial design work and project management…[for] a potential new …[DPW] facility…[whose] associated debt exclusion [Proposition 2 ½ tax limit override] did not pass at the ballot….”
First off, there isno Swett Hill Road drainage or erosion problem. At the Annual Town Meeting Sterling D.P.W. reps showed NO photographs depicting ANY damage to Swett Hill Road. And if there were, it could be rectified easily by putting a larger diameter culvert under the roadbed. THE REAL ISSUE, AS DEPICTED IN THE D.P.W. PHOTOGRAPHS, IS THE INTERMITTENT STREAM THAT RUNS DOWNHILL AND CARRIES SAND AND SILT THROUGH THE SHOLAN PARK/TOWN BEACH PROPERTY DURING HIGH-RUNOFF/SNOWMELT PERIODS.
That’s what happens when an intermittent stream runs through your property into a pond or lake. Too effing bad!
Yeah, so the Finance Committee recommended passage of that $800,000 misrepresented boondoggle— Warrant Article 26—at the Annual Town Meeting. So much for truth in advertising and spending. That was a win for the ‘East Waushacum Lake Association,’ not for Sterling Property taxpayers. Barbara Roberti, Chair of the Sterling Conservation Commission, just happens to live on East Waushacum Lake. Quelle surprise!!!
And yeah, the Sterling Finance Committee recommended passage of Warrant Article 25, to the tune of $500,000, for the Sterling D.P.W.’s proposed ‘Garage Mahal’ boondoggle. The Sterling Finance Committee wants Sterling D.P.W. trucks to live large, very large, in luxury, dontcha know. At the Annual Town Meeting the Sterling D.P.W. reps admitted that they never checked out ANY of the MANY steel buildings all along Pratt Junction Road and Chocksett Road seeking a cheaper alternative to the sought-after ‘Garage Mahal’ that Mr. Gauthier of the Finance Committee estimated would cost $33 million and drive up Sterling property tax rates by 11% during the multi-year life of the borrowing bond that would be required. THANK GOD STERLING TAXPAYERS WERE SMART ENOUGH TO VOTE DOWN ARTICLE 25’s PROPOSED PROPOSITION 2 ½ OVERRIDE, NOTWITHSTANDING THE UTTER GUTLESS STUPIDITY DISPLAYED BY THE STERLING FINANCE COMMITTEE.
ALAS, people, TAKE HEART! The Finance Committee also wrote that its recommended local option meals tax and local option room tax increases passed at the Annual Town Meeting “with the Massachusetts DOR projecting they could generate $80,000 annually.”
SO, FOLKS, THE STERLING FINANCE COMMITTEE IS HAPPY TO RECOMMEND STIFFING STERLING TAXPAYERS BY $MILLIONS, BUT THEN PATS ITSELF ON THE BACK FOR GETTING LOCAL MEALS AND ROOM TAXES INCREASED MARGINALLY CONSTITUTING AN $80,000 FINGER STUCK INTO THE FLOODED SPENDING DIKE. AND THEY HAVE THE UTTER TEMERITY TO CALL THE RESULT “IMPACTFUL.”
“IMPACTFUL” MY ASS.
THE STERLING FINANCE COMMITTEE ARE DELUSIONAL ASSCLOWNS.
THE PROPOSITION 2 ½ OVERRIDE TIME-BOMB WAS KICKED DOWN THE ROAD TO NEXT YEAR.
America’s largest teachers’ union is working hard against parents and their children. But we’re organizing to remove the entire agenda from schools!
From the NEA’s resolution. They want their members to feel “safe” pushing this poisonous agenda on elementary school children, no matter what the US Supreme Court says.
STERLING, MASSACHUSETTS, OVERWATCH 