We have many reasons to be proud of our Amherst schools.
From a focus on social-emotional well-being to strong academic and extracurricular activities, our local schools are state leaders in building a solid foundation for our young people.
Even so, our schools face new challenges that we must deal with if we hope to ensure the lifelong success of our students. And it is some of these challenges that we hope to address with the recent proposal made by Superintendent Michael Morris to introduce a Spanish/English dual-language program into the Amherst elementary school district.
But, first, a little background.
At our meeting on March 14, Dr. Morris asked for support from the Amherst School Committee to explore the implementation of a dual-language program in our district. His thinking was informed by the work of the Enrollment Working Group, a group of 25 parents, educators and administrators who volunteered last summer to help us find solutions to various enrollment challenges in our district.
Over a period of six months, the Enrollment Working Group divided into five subgroups, each with a specific focus area: declining enrollment; preschool demand and access; achieving socio-economic balance among our schools; special education programming; and research on dual-language education.
The subgroups studied their focus areas and then prepared compelling reports that they presented to the Amherst School Committee during the winter. Their findings reinforced much of what we had already been discussing, but also offered research-based solutions that included parent and educator perspectives.
Dr. Morris’ recent proposal is based on these findings, as well as on conversations he had with other educators, administrators and parents. In short, the deliberate introduction of a dual-language program in our elementary school district could help retain students in the district, open space for another preschool classroom, allow for more flexibility in the location of some special education programming, and help to balance the socio-economic demographics of the three schools by creating space and shifting resources among our schools, instead of requiring new ones. It’s a creative approach to a tricky problem, and our committee has expressed enthusiasm for the general idea.
However, this proposal is not set in stone, and we’ll have to examine the details of such a program closely to ensure that it will meet our goals, and maintain our focus on the well-being and academic excellence of our youngest learners. We also want to make sure that we manage expectations for the community around dual-language programming: if implemented, it would take time to roll out properly, and would by necessity not include all elementary school students right away.
A dual-language program also would not solve the severe infrastructure problems facing our district schools. At our recent meeting, we approved two statements of interest submitted to the Massachusetts School Building Authority to begin applying once again for funding to rebuild or renovate our aging schools.
With sharp budget cuts made to our schools and town this year due to increased health insurance costs, and in the face of multiple expensive repairs made to fix leaking roofs and replace boilers, we must pursue aid for long-term solutions to ensure that our students and educators will be able to work in healthy, educationally sound buildings in the future.
Our committee and superintendent want genuine input during the exploration of a dual-language program. We won’t make any final decisions until the fall, and will use the time from now until then to conduct site visits, attend conferences and host community meetings, specifically targeting Spanish-speaking families and families with preschool-aged children.
Dr. Morris also is in communication with comparable districts with dual-language programs throughout the country, and has engaged the Multistate Association for Bilingual Education to guide this exploration.
The next public event on this issue will take place at the Jones Library at 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on April 4. Thereafter, there will be a Special Education Parent Advisory Council-led event for families of children with special needs at 4 p.m. April 23 at the Amherst Regional Middle School , and one for Spanish-speaking families at 11 a.m. April 25 at the school district’s Family Center.
We invite you to attend these meetings, to attend Amherst School Committee meetings, or reach out to us via email at schoolcommittee@arps.org to share your thoughts or questions.
Members of the public who are interested in the proceedings of the Fort River Feasibility Study School Building Committee can also email that committee directly at fortriversbc@amherst.gov.
Meetings of both committees are available for viewing on Amherst Media’s website at amherstmedia.org/, and meeting minutes can be found at www.arps.org and www.amherstma.gov/frsbc, respectively.
We look forward to continuing this work together.
Phoebe Hazzard is chairwoman and Anastasia Ordonez is vice chairwoman of the Amherst School Committee.