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Date: 6/8/2022
AMHERST – The Amherst School Committee heard an update on the new elementary school building process, discussed the discontinued supply of COVID-19 tests from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and passed a resolution focused on keeping schools safe while opening a space for conversation around the recent shooting in Uvalde, TX, during its meeting on May 31.
Superintendent Michael Morris said DESE has told districts and the public that they are discontinuing their support of COVID-19 testing programs in schools as of this summer.
Rapid tests mostly for symptomatic individuals will continue to be distributed until the services end completely in the fall.
“I think when we do get back in August, there will probably be a lot of community thoughts and feelings about that and I do want to have that conversation,” Morris said. “We are able to purchase rapid tests through the state purchasing program which is at a reduced rate but it’s still an expensive purchase. They recommended for districts that do want to continue to do that, it’s much more of a symptomatic tool for nurses as opposed to going home with students so I want to queue that up that we should have continued dialogue about that topic across the three districts.”
Morris also told the committee that a recent ALANA (African-American, Latino, Asian and Native American) cabinet dinner saw 71 people having fun and having discussions about how to increase support and retention for staff members of color. One of the main functions of the ALANA cabinet is to share concerns they may have or be hearing from staff members of color and planning events and actions to support said members.
“The ALANA cabinet is a group of staff members who identify as staff members of color of any role in our organization. They meet on a monthly basis with me, they also facilitate meetings at their sites and the explicit goal is that we, collectively we on this call but also the we in the district, have an interest and a long-term interest in not just recruiting staff of color but also retaining staff of color,” Morris said. “It’s not just about the numbers. It’s about people staying because they feel respected and honored in the profession.”
The first business item on the agenda was an update on the elementary school building project, presented by Donna DiNisco of DiNisco Design.
DiNisco said it has been an intense several months, but her team has made great strides and will collectively make a decision on what is the preferred solution for the new elementary school in a couple of weeks.
“We’re working in concert with the Building Committee, the committees developed an evaluation criteria matrix to really base each of the options or concepts,” DiNisco said. “Right now, we have four remaining concepts: renovation-addition or new construction on either the Fort River site or the Wildwood site. All of the design options will achieve your net zero energy goals, it will of course meet the building codes including ADA and life safety, and they also all meet your educational program.”
The Amherst Elementary School Building Committee’s (AESBC) evaluation criteria identified categories such as equity and transition, educational, building, community and construction impact as different areas of high importance.
“What has really risen to the top are the higher priorities that also maybe have a little bit higher weighting as opposed to some of the other items within each of the categories. As you can see, total cost rises to the top as does the construction duration and the impact of construction on staff and students,” DiNisco said. “Optimizing energy efficiency, does a two-story or renovation-addition have more or less efficiency than a compact three-story building. We talk about how each of the options impact the site and is there sufficient outdoor space for play and education, those are going to be important considerations as we talk about each of the criteria. Lastly was to provide flexibility for future growth. This asset will be with the community for 50 plus years.”
Amherst School Committee Chair Allison McDonald said, “We do appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and understand and I think at least my personal perspective is I trust the committee to sift through all of the data and perspectives and come to a decision and that’s their decision to make. If it gets us the great building that we are doing, to me it’s irrelevant where it is. I support the decision of the committee and do not envy the task in front of them.”
The AESBC is hosting a community forum on June 9 and a pair of meetings on June 13 and 24 before submitting the preferred schematic report on June 27. The anticipated bid date for finalized construction documents is August 2024 with the students in the new facility by fall of 2026.
“This entire conversation is completely dwarfed in my perspective by the absolute urgency of the need to address these two buildings as soon as possible,” said Committee member Peter Demling. “What an educational blow it would be if this project didn’t succeed, what a financial disaster for the town it would be if it didn’t succeed so I’m happy that you’ve been as robust as you’ve been with regards to gathering public input and engaging the community and having the evaluation matrix. I fully, wholeheartedly support whatever the decision of the committee is, even if it’s not the site I want or the stories I want or the net zero weighted implement that I want. All of that is really overshadowed in my view by this need for this project to succeed.”
McDonald said she felt the need to draft a resolution regarding the safety of the schools and to open the floor for discussion after an email sent to the community following the mass shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School that resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers reminded her about how much the district, staff and educators do every day to support their students but that they haven’t always made the space in committee meetings to have those conversations about what the district is doing to keep students, staff and the community safe.
“Our district is doing a lot of things that get cited in multiple reports as making a difference and being most important,” McDonald said. “The most important is that trusting environment where students feel safe, have trusted adults and strong relationships both with each other and their peers and adults in their building. This resolution is mostly about stating and re-stating and having that conversation here about our support of the work and continued commitment to supporting that work.”
Included in the resolution are clauses citing gun violence being the number one cause of death and continued commitment to avoiding armed school resource officers as they have not been shown to reduce gun-related violence, but instead can cause students to feel less safe, lead to more suspensions, and have minor misbehavior criminalized, particularly of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) students.
The document resolves to ensure resources are available to provide mental health supports for students, provide staff training in mental health, first aid and safety protocols and continuing efforts to create trusting school environments among other commitments.
“I think this is obviously a hard topic to approach for a resolution because you don’t want to just say something so general that doesn’t have a pragmatic effect,” Demling said. “I like the way that it’s framed here in terms of continuing to focus on what we do in terms of reemphasizing what we already voted a couple years ago around school resource officers. I really like the last bullet about providing education and resources for families and caregivers around children and teen mental health and around secure firearm storage. I like that because it’s education and resources, it doesn’t just say to tell parents that guns are bad. That might be something that we individually feel, but the reality is that there are legally acquired, legally purchased firearms in many houses in our community.”
As the meeting neared a close, Demling turned the attention to Pride month and implored the committee to spend time focusing on how to further support and attention toward LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning) students in the district.
“Given the unfortunate increase [in] national hostility toward the inclusivity of LGBTQ, particularly in the schools at the younger grades, I would appreciate a brief discussion or update, Dr. Morris, on how we include and support children especially in the younger grades,” Demling said. “We hear a lot about it, rightfully, at the older grades when there’s some more student activism, but how we support students and how do we teach and include that important part of identity in students.”