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Date: 2/21/2023
AMHERST – The Amherst School Committee decided to delay the Amherst Public Schools (APS) sixth grade’s move to Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS) at its Feb. 16 meeting. Sixth graders were scheduled to start at ARMS in the fall of 2023; now, they will start there beginning in either the fall of 2025 or 2026. The final decision as to whether 2025 or 2026 will be the start date will be made by Nov. 2024.
APS Superintendent Michael Morris initially suggested that the move be delayed to 2026 due to issues of space, staffing and budget. He spoke of an impending “fiscal cliff” coming over the next few years which will lead to budgetary cutbacks; these cutbacks will be harder to make and more negatively impactful with a separate sixth grade due to an additional need for resources.
“We’re going to have to make reductions [over the coming years]. We are stretched tighter with the Sixth Grade Academy than we are without it because we have more staff between schools and more part time staff…We are less efficient when we have staff going back and forth between buildings…My professional prediction is that like Occam’s Razor, you’re stretching more people further in terms of travel, part-time staff, and when we’re making reductions, it’s going to be harder to make those reductions…Across all my districts next year, we are going to be making decisions that are going to talk a lot about efficiency and how to preserve as best we can the models we have because of the fiscal situation, and so having an additional site to manage…constricts us budgetarily and also practically,” Morris said.
By delaying the move, the School Committee saves money that it had already committed to spending, which allows them to maintain access to other government funding streams such as American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
“The other budget things I should mention are, one, in this budget it reduced by about $30,000 that we expected for utility use. You might say that’s a small number, but that’s a position or two, depending on the role. It also doesn’t take up all the ARPA funds that the town has given us for this change…Taking the time to do more planning and more integration if possible…It’s something that, looking back, we will be glad that we’re not tapping the appropriated budget because we’ve already overtapped the ARPA funds that the town has given us for this change,” Morris said.
Regarding space, he said that enrollment figures do not necessitate an immediate move, with a year or two of wiggle room in the current Fort River and Wildwood Elementary buildings. He also said that proper airflow can be maintained in the buildings with some reformatting, as well as classrooms devoted to the arts.
“In more conversations with our Facilities Director Roy Clark…he does feel that with HVAC specialists reformatting the HVAC system and multiple purifiers that it is possible to maintain ventilation…It’s also the case that if the committee and the community want to go down that road for more classrooms and preserve an art and music room, or at least some combination of an art-music space, we could do that on more rooms. I’m a little hesitant because of the implications [larger class sizes] so there’s some push-pull there, but that’s one of the implications of space that I wanted to update people on,” Morris said.
In terms of staffing, the impacts having a separate sixth grade would not necessarily be felt this year, but more so in the next two years, according to Morris. The coming budget reductions will mean either less money for salaries or less money for resources. Having a separate sixth grade would require more positions, which would require more compensation, which Morris does not foresee in the coming years’ budgets.
“Staffing, we just took a look at…we’ve been able to make a budget recommendation that probably has low impact on whether sixth grade is here or not this year. The concern is the next two years. Where our budget’s our going to be, I don’t want to keep on saying ‘fiscal cliff’ and ‘fiscal hill’ but I’m going to keep on saying it because it’s true, and our reductions are going to be felt more across the board…I hate to predict the future in a negative way, but I don’t see without $565,000 in ESSER [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] funding, how we don’t have that scenario. If you look at our old staffing model with sixth grade and the middle school, that’s where we get into lots of shared staff between sixth grade academy, and that’s where we lose a lot of flexibility to make reductions…For next year, we’ve been able to craft a budget using every single penny we think we’ll have on ESSER where the implications are, but the next two years I don’t think its going to go like that,” Morris said.
After discussion with the rest of the committee Morris amended his initial suggestion to simply delay the move without a definite date, to allow for flexibility in the decision-making process.
“My recommendation remains the same. One adjustment that I’d certainly be open to is amending that to moving the sixth grade students at a time later than fall 2023. Maybe the committee wants to come back to this next year ... Me personally, I think we can make it work…I still think it’s the right thing for staff and kids, but I think I’m more open, based on feedback received in the last couple weeks, to maybe not making a determination tonight about fall ’26, but just to suggest a later date than Fall ’23,” Morris said.
The committee was receptive to this idea, and eventually it was decided that sixth graders will make the move in either fall 2025 or fall 2026. The committee must decide which year it will be no later than November 2024 to allow parents, students and faculty alike time to prepare for the transition. The motion passed 3-1.