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Date: 3/9/2021
WESTHAMPTON – After a three-hour meeting, the Hampshire Regional School Committee approved their fiscal year 2022 (FY22) budget, announced the superintendent finalists, approved a new phased-in approach to get students back into the classrooms, and approved their tuition agreement with Worthington.
The committee voted 12-2 to approve their $15.1 million budget for FY22, a 3.92 percent increase from last year’s $14.5 million budget.
Hampshire Regional High School Principal Kristen Smidy told Reminder Publishing that $94,900 includes one-time curriculum work for this summer to reidentify and realign standards to be taught, particularly given the loss of learning after COVID-19.
The FY22 budget includes an additional $5,000 added to support the musical that was proposed to take place in June, a week after graduation.
At their Feb. 1 meeting, Myka Plunkett, the musical director, and Jenneka Reynolds, an HRHS parent, and the Musical Boosters Club president, proposed to move forward with having a musical only if the committee could financially support it. Plunkett said without additional funding they will not be able to put on the musical this year.
The district will also pay an estimated additional $247,524 in out-of-district tuition in FY22.
Smidy reminded the committee and public that there is a $307,063 increase in instructional spending which was attributed to changes to teacher salaries and contractual steps, cost of living adjustments, and increased stipends, technological expenditures related to 1:1 computing, and professional development.
“Just to note, there are no capital items that are included in this year’s budget. Given that there are so many moving targets with COVID relief grants and other funds that we may incur, we felt that it was in our best interest to not include any capital items but if we do happen to have line items that are not spent, then that is the time we can come back and discuss if it makes sense to do those capital items at that time,” Smidy said.
Initially, Smidy proposed two additional staff professional development days to focus on anti-racism. Smidy shared that although there is still $4,400 budgeted to pay a trainer and pay the support staff, she plans to embed the anti-racism professional development in the general half days that they have planned instead of having two additional days. This saved them a significant amount of money.
Business Administrator Bobbie Jones announced that they had received notification that they will receive some Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. They still do not know an exact amount. Jones shared that because there are things that they have to work out, they will have a future joint meeting with all five School Committees, Finance Committee, and Selectboards just on the grant because there is an allocation that the towns can access if they choose to.
Jones said they would not hear the local contribution until mid-March. She believes they can have the joint meeting before they receive their final amount.
The finalists for the superintendent vacancy were also announced. According to a document shared with Reminder Publishing, the district received 11 applications for the superintendent position and has narrowed it down to four finalists.
Dr. Diana Bonneville was the interim superintendent of the South Hadley Public Schools, where she also served as the high school’s principal since 2012. Bonneville was previously a social studies teacher and served in Hadley and Northampton’s principal and principal assistant positions.
Dr. Beth Choquette is currently the principal of Bridge Street School in Northampton, and she has served as principal since 2012. Previously she served as the principal of Stamford Elementary School in the Windham Southwest Supervisory Union, Wilmington, VT. Choquette began her career as an educator as a music teacher in the Plunkett Elementary School and serving as co-founder and co-director of the Windsor School of Music in North Adams.
Dr. Susan Henrichon is the Oxford Public Schools’ assistant superintendent, a position she has held since 2018. Previously, she served in the roles of director of special education, pupil personnel services, and student services in the Oxford, Monson, Easthampton and Granville Public Schools. Henrichon has also served as a special education team leader in the Holyoke Public Schools and as a special education teacher at the Monson Developmental Center in Palmer.
Stacey Jenkins, a graduate of Hampshire Regional High School, is currently the principal of Anne. T Dunphy School in Williamsburg. Previously, she served as a principal of Bernardston Elementary and Pearl Rhodes Elementary, both in the Pioneer Regional School District. Jenkins began her career as an educator in the Gateway Regional School district as a classroom teacher and music specialist and a teacher in the South Hadley Public Schools.
Interviews in the joint committees’ public session will be conducted with each finalist on March 23 and 24, with the new superintendent’s selection taking place the week of March 29.
School Committee Chair Margaret Larson also shared that town elections are coming up, and there will be several available seats on the School Committee. Southampton’s town election is May 18.
She announced that Corey Braastad resigned. Tammy Walunas also revealed that she would be leaving and not returning for another term.
During her student update report, Emily Godden, a senior at the high school, reported that she received 251 responses to a survey from both remote learners and hybrid learners.
She shared that 59 percent of students said their stress levels increased, 46 percent said their sleep decreased, 65 percent said their workload increased, and 56 percent said their time connecting with friends fell since September.
Godden did note that the decrease in socializing has been a result of the pandemic as a whole.
The hybrid group of students was asked how they felt the students and school were doing to follow the rules that they must follow to be in person.
The survey showed that 96 percent said Hampshire Regional High School is doing well with mask-wearing, 73 percent said they are doing well with hand cleaning, 64 percent said they are doing well with social distancing, and 97 percent felt that the school is doing good with desk cleaning in between classes.
Godden admitted that she feels that social distancing is a weakness because it is difficult during passing periods due to how many people are in the transition periods. She noted that they miss each other, so people do socialize in between classes.
She also informed the committee that students shared that there is an increased workload which is making it harder for them to keep up and turn their assignments in.
During Smidy’s report, she said that the anti-racist leadership team had completed an equity audit of their learning community that assessed the readiness and ability to be more anti-racist.
At the last faculty meeting, staff were given time to answer a survey on their readiness and prior knowledge in the area of cultural responsiveness, equity, and anti-racism.
The curriculum director and Smidy have narrowed down professional development activities and speakers for the rest of the school year.
Smidy also announced that she secured Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How To Be An Antiracist,” to give a presentation to the staff on being an anti-racist secondary educator. Smidy clarified that this would not be paid for through the FY22 budget.
In Smidy’s report, she also presented student failure rates.
In quarter one, information showed that 7.4 percent of students were failing; Smidy noted that that is three times what it usually is.
In quarter two, the failure rate declined to 6.1 percent. Smidy said that this is significant because the students’ failure rate usually goes up in quarter two.
“Although our failure rate is higher than it typically is, the gap between what we typically expect and what is happening this year is lessening, and I think that is due to a number of factors, including teachers getting in the groove of our schedule and model,” she said.
Smidy then broke the failure rates down into cohorts, there are currently 469 students participating in in-person learning and 197 who are learning remotely. 15 percent of students in the hybrid model are failing one or more classes compared to 17 percent of students in the remote learning model failing.
To continue to support students’ academic performance, the school will continue to accept assignments late, give clarity for weekly assignments and due dates, credit recovery options for over break, and offer counseling and COVID-19 support check-ins.
The school will now implement additional interventions such as offering April vacation credit recovery, and an in-person component will now be available to students. Smidy explained that typically students take a class for a full year earning one credit if they pass, and this year, they will break the course into half credits. Students will now be able to earn a half credit for year-long classes if they pass two quarters and then struggle during the other quarters. Full credit recovery options will be available to students over the summer and next academic year. They are looking at the possibility of having full-day support offered to their most at-risk students.
When a student tests positive for COVID-19, they now need to have clearance from both the Board of Health (BOH) and their pediatrician. The change stems from the fact that the BOH might not know about the student’s underlying conditions before contracting coronavirus.
“If a student has a heart condition, asthma, or something that would contribute to their challenges around recovering from COVID, it is important that our nurses are aware of that, particularly as students participate in physical education (PE) or athletics,” Smidy said.
If there is a financial burden that restricts a family from visiting their doctor, Smidy suggests that they reach out to the school.
The committee voted to allow the student’s cohorts to combine, meaning each grade level will have all of its students again rather than split into two different cohorts. They also approved for a phased-in return for four half-days of in-person learning instead of the two half days.
“The half days allow us to maintain our current schedule, which supports all our learners, including our remote students, and provides them with classes with their Hampshire peers and teachers,” Smidy said.
Hybrid students will come for in-person learning on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Teachers will teach half of their period one class in-person and then instruct the other half of the class in the afternoon remotely. On Wednesday, the full class will learn together, remotely.
Remote students will attend class in the second part of the day online.
On March 22, all juniors and seniors will be brought back into the classrooms for four half-days of in-person learning.
On April 6, grades 8-10 are scheduled to cohort combine and begin four half-days of in-person learning.
Seventh graders are scheduled to return for four half-days of in-personal learning and cohort combine on May 24 because seniors will be gone, and there will be more space in the school building.
Eighth graders, freshmen, and sophomores cohorts are scheduled to cohort combine on April 6.
Things that will be done when the cohorts are combined are, new COVID-19 support groupings, seating charts, room, bus arrangements will be updated, teachers will adjust grade books, minor scheduling changes will happen, and music class adjustments as well.
Smidy expressed to the committee that the administration is committed to hosting senior events as close to normal as possible.
“We have talked to the Board of Health about having a modified graduation and prom. They are willing to work with us to make sure that we can do these things instead of canceling,” Smidy said.
She acknowledges that the idea of a prom might be concerning to people, but she has ideas on how they can make it memorable for the students and safe at the same time. Regarding graduation, she announced that Smith College has already told them that they are not planning on hosting any events, so Smidy is now looking to have graduation outside where all the students can be together.
The committee also voted not to limit how many students can attend one of the two virtual schools in the state, Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School in Greenfield or TEC Connections Academy Commonwealth Virtual School in Boston. As of last October, they had 10 students who attended one of the virtual schools.
“I would recommend that you do not have a cap, especially right now during a pandemic and its aftermath. I think there may be a number of reasons students may want to go to that virtual school, maybe, for the time being, we like to let them do that,” Superintendent Michael Sullivan said.
The cost to attend one of the virtual schools is currently $8,700 a year.
After three hours, the committee went into executive session to vote on the Worthington School District’s tuition agreement. They approved the agreement.
The Worthington district does not have a high school, so HRHS formed a tuition agreement with the town to allow students to attend the high school.
According to a document that the committee shared, the contract’s length increases from three years to five.
Beginning in FY22, the tuition will increase 10 percent for three consecutive years, and starting in FY25, the increase would be five percent for two contracted years that follow.
Currently, the tuition cost is $7,500. The 10 percent increase will go up to $8,250 for FY22, $9,075 for FY23, and $9,983 by FY24. In FY25, it will be $10,482, and in FY26, the tuition cost will be $11,006.
After FY25, the contract will be renegotiated with the intent to have a predictable increase that mirrors HRHS per-pupil percentage cost increases.
In a previous school committee meeting, Worthington School Committee Chair Alison Todd said nurturing a long-term relationship will benefit both districts. She added that if they build a consistent annual increase into the contract rather than one steady number for five years and then meet again to rework it, it would be easier for people to plan their budgets ahead of time.