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Amherst Regional High School
Kathy Mazur (left) addresses Regional School Committee
Last night an animated Director of Human Resources Kathy Mazur updated the 9 member Regional School Committee about the ambitious plan. Both buildings are owned by the Region and are bound by the Regional Agreement signed by all four towns: Amherst, Pelham, Leverett, and Shutesbury.
And according to their attorney Giny Tate, there's nothing in the Regional Agreement that precludes such a reorganization.
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Amherst Regional Middle School
The plan involves a major collaboration with Greenfield Community College, who will use the former Middle School building as a satellite facility in exchange for below market rate rent and offering Amherst Regional School students reduced rate college courses.
And the main niche they would fill is in vocational training. In the upcoming fiscal year (FY16) the Region will lose 55 students to out of district vocational schools (mainly Smith Vocational in Northampton) at a cost to the Region of $18,000 per student or a total cost of $990,000.
The High School was renovated/expanded in 1996 when enrollments were at a high water mark so the building is capable of handling 1,725 students. Current enrollment in both Middle and High School is 1472 and five years from now is projected to be only 1,372.
In the Fall (2015) Amherst Regional Public Schools will host an "Educational Summit" (facilitated by state Representative Ellen Story) to discuss strategies for dealing with education in 21st century with of course particular emphasis on this collaboration.
Why?
ReplyDeleteIs the regional school committee and adminstration doing anything to address the many high performing students leaving the district to go to Chinese Charter School, private schools, and homeschooling looking for more academic challenge and support?
ReplyDeleteWell they did talk about "closing the achievement gap."
ReplyDeleteCertainly streamlining operations, thereby saving money, will help.
This is simply brilliant. My hat is off to Team Maria.
ReplyDeleteSo it sounds like ARPS will get some sort of payment for using the MS, which reduces the school budget, or rather gives them more money to add high level administrators. At the same time maybe they can cut some redundant staffing (ie custodian, bldg and grounds, etc) and add more high level administrators. This allows the team to ignore the damage they are causing to education (especially in math, IMP, really!, what a joke, it sucks, that is why less than 25% of the kids take it, yeah Jackson mislead the paper) by claiming that kids now get to take college courses in Amherst. When is that every bad?
Of course kids can already do that now but have to drive to Greenfield, ie only for rich white elitists. Even better is that kids who are “encouraged” to go to smith voc (you know the problematic kids) can hang at the MS and save the district money, which allows good pay raises for all of those high level administrators. It’s good to live in Mayberry.
You make it sound like being rich and white is a bad thing
Delete"Last night an animated Director of Human Resources Kathy Mazur..."
ReplyDeleteLOL!
$$$nake
oil.
http://alifeofthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/sinking-ship-inequality-cartoon.jpg
-Squeaky Squeaks
p.s. May I ask for some money?
I'm broke.
Oh, Larry,
ReplyDeleteDo you really think anyone in the administration cares about "closing the achievement gap". Streamlining operations, is that double speak for laying off low level employees so we can get higher than average raises.
People who can afford a different school or who can drive out of Amherst are doing so to charter, choice, and private. It seems like the only ones staying have kids on the sports teams, are just to busy to see what is happening, or are muscling through those last few years.
What does the teacher's union have to say about this? Seems as if they will be impacted.
ReplyDeleteTo 12:57 pm,
ReplyDeleteDo you have any direct knowledge of the IMP curriculum? For example, have you ever tried doing one of the problems from it?
People who would like to know more about IMP and see what it really entails should come to the family math night on Wed May 20 next week at the ARMS library (6:30 pm).
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/massachusetts/districts/amherst-pelham/amherst-regional-high-9262
ReplyDeleteSo, students will be able to take voc tech classes that were cut from their elective choices over the years. But now they will have to pay for them. Having them be at a reduced rate is supposed to make us happy and forget these should be offered for free in a school system with such a high per pupil cost. Nice spin there.
ReplyDelete>> Current enrollment in both Middle and High School is 1472 and five years from now is projected to be only 1,372.
ReplyDeleteSo the district thinks that only the MS & HS population will drop by only 100 students in 5 years.
That seems low to me, quite low. The district has been significantly underestimating the number of students who will be enrolling in charter schools & voc ed programs each year & this year had a significant budget shortfall when charter & voc enrollments were higher than expected.
The Chinese charter school offers many things that the ARPS does not, including more access K-12 to a world language for which classes are being discontinued in-district, a proven, challenging math curriculum & now an IB high school diploma. The district is going to continue to lose students to the charter school & will never effectively compete with the voc schools either. more and more families with means are looking outside of Amherst to educate their children.
Sometimes I feel like the administration just keeps changing the rules so no one can ever get a sense of where or what education in Amherst is. It is always a new program. No word on what happened to last years flavor, it's just gone. For over a decade the parents have been complaining about math, now we have IMP coming. More to learn before you can complain. I just read about IB, maybe it is good maybe not. Definitely feels very valley. Again change that takes a few years to get used to before you can honestly assess.
ReplyDeleteSo as long as the district keeps changing everything, no one will be able to complain on any solid footing.
Oh, and I do like Anon 9:45's comment. Seems rather valid.
Yes. I agree with 12:18. To quote B. Dylan's "Who Killed Davy Moore": 'Why? And what's the reason for?'
Deleteanon 12:09, is ARPS going to offer an IB diploma? I hadn't heard that.
ReplyDeleteOn the money thing~17.5 fte were let go and yet--a twenty six thousand program, avid, was put into the same budget and a new (another) secretary was hired for central office. It's a sham. It's big bucks, big, big bucks $$$$, to work in administration in this district(s). The education our children receive--well that's another story. The 'achievement gap' will always exist. It is simply getting deeper and deeper. This is class 'warfare' and the wealthy are winning--I mean isn't it obvious by now???
ReplyDelete