AMHERST — An Amherst School Committee member is blasting school administrators for how they are approaching the reconfiguration of the Amherst Regional Middle School to accommodate sixth-grade classrooms.
Describing that she would “dispute hard” the current draft layout for the Chestnut Street Academy, committee member Laura Jane Hunter said there appears to be a disruption to the middle school learning environment so that sixth graders can have their own dedicated bathrooms. Hunter contends this has been done with limited input from those who work in the building.
“I’m really disgusted by the lack of inclusion in the voices of the educators and the staff in this district. Period,” Hunter said.
Hunter said the possible layout of classrooms is not fair to the seventh and eighth graders, from Amherst, Pelham Leverett and Shutesbury, who will be have more limited access to bathrooms.
“To give the seventh and eighth grade one boys bathroom and one girls bathroom so the sixth grade gets one boys bathroom and one girls bathroom, is completely inequitable,” Hunter said.
During the several years of discussion over moving Amherst sixth graders to the middle school, necessitated by the K-5 Amethyst Brook School under construction, a concern from families and caregivers has been the possibility of sixth graders having to share bathrooms with the older students, and various problems in the bathrooms, such as vaping and vandalism.
Committee member Sarah Marshall raised a point of order during the meeting, saying that the committee doesn’t have oversight authority over how classrooms are used. Marshall said Hunter was bringing up a matter out of the scope of dealing with budgets and the superintendent evaluation. “I don’t think it’s an appropriate topic for our discussion,” Marshall said.
Committee member Deb Leonard suggested bringing the issue to the regional school committee, as well, since the middle school is the leasing entity.
Committee member Bridget Hynes agreed this would be a good approach, noting that the Amherst committee wants to make sure sixth graders have a great experience in the new space.
“I think it’s important to ask questions about how is this for the sixth grade, and to bring our questions about how is it for the seventh and eighth grades to the regional committee,” Hynes said.
Hunter said she feels the committee could direct Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman to change and edit the layout map.
Herman responded to the concerns and challenged the narrative Hunter was creating.
“Some of the conversation may border on conflict of interest when talking about educators,” Herman said, implying Hunter was raising issues because her husband teaches at the middle school.
Hunter said because her concerns are for students and don’t affect her husband’s salary or position, the state has informed her there is no conflict of interest.
Herman said that the district will have to show the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that the changes to the building are not impacting existing education.
The district looked at what is the best flow for sixth graders and the other students, and also took extensive feedback and input from educators, Herman said.
“This is not about adults, this is about children, but we have to hear the voices of adults and educators to make the best possible decision,” Herman said.
Herman will also meet with students in the coming weeks and will continue listening to their voices, as they have throughout the whole process.
Hunter said she’s not arguing that teachers didn’t have an opportunity to weigh in.
“While I don’t dispute that surveys went out, I do dispute the value of those surveys,” Hunter said.
But she also believes it wasn’t a comprehensive process and the timing of meetings with teachers, during their free time, wasn’t right.
“If we’re going to actually do a meaningful assessment of what educators, staff and students feel, it has to be done in a neutral way, not by the district,” Hunter said.
Seventh graders who are part of the middle school student council addressed the school committee at its March 17 meeting, bringing forward three issues they want addressed.
One issue, they said, is why seventh graders might have to move classrooms in the fall, meaning they would be moving a second year in a row.
Another issue is whether there are enough resources, such as chromebooks, pencils and Wi- Fi, and buses for all students, and possible impacts on the exploratory schedule, including languages, band, chorus and orchestra, and how the organization of clubs might change.
Finally, they wanted to know if the budget will be sufficient to support an increase in custodial staff to keep the building clean with 140 more students in the building each day.
