Amherst School Committee Meeting
Tonight, Tuesday, January 19th
5:45 pm, ARHS Library
Tonight, the Amherst School Committee (SC) is set to vote on a preferred option for the proposed elementary school consolidation & reconfiguration. The elementary School (Wildwood) Building Committee has been considering options for a number of months. These options include renovating or rebuilding Wildwood, creating a new building that would house two K-6 schools to replace Wildwood & Fort River, or creating a new district-wide school(s) for grades 2-6, and then having Crocker Farm become an early education center with the current district preschool program & all district kindergarten & 1st grade students.
A few weeks ago, parents & teachers/staff were asked through online surveys for their feedback on the project & options under consideration. The survey results & comments are available at the links below:
(links provided by the Daily Hampshire Gazette,
Surveys conducted & survey results compiled by McBassi & Co.)
At a School Committee meeting last week. three of the five Amherst School Committee members read statements indicating that they plan to support the option in which Crocker Farm becomes an early education center (preK-1st grade) & a new building is created for grades 2-6 district-wide.
Here's a link to a Daily Hampshire Gazette article from that meeting:
http://www.gazettenet.com/news/schools/20540578-95/majority-of-amherst-school-committee-members-support-replacing-wildwood-and-fort-river-with-750-stud
Tonight, the Amherst School Committee has before it two motions regarding the elementary school project & configuration. These proposed motions were provided to the SC by the SC chair, Katherine Appy, at the end of the last SC meeting:
Proposed Motion - 750 Students: Move to change the grade configuration of the Amherst elementary schools to have Crocker Farm become a PreK-1 school and for the result of the MSBA process to be a 750 student, grade 2-6 school, thereby closing Fort River School, assuming a project scope and budget agreement and funding agreement are enacted. We request that the grade configuration section of the educational plan be updated to align with this official vote of the Amherst School Committee.
Proposed Motion - 670 Students: Move to approve a 670 student K-6 school to be the result of the MSBA process, thereby closing Fort River School, assuming a project scope and budget agreement and funding agreement are enacted. We request that the grade configuration section of the educational plan be updated to align with this official vote of the Amherst School Committee.
--------
The SC meeting agenda for tonight also includes other items such as a presentation on next year's (FY2017) school budget & a vote on the new Wellness Policy. The school budget narrative & figures and the language for the Wellness Policy are included along with the agenda & other materials for tonight's meeting in the agenda packet. Here's the link: http://www.arps.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_926729/File/Kim%20SC%20materials/ASCAgendapacket1_19_16.pdf
