In response to the July 18 Gazette article “No vacation here,” I applaud and express my appreciation for the incredibly hard and tireless work of school districts’ maintenance staff.
Across the commonwealth, maintenance workers are readying schools for September.
In Amherst, however, no matter how dedicated and hard-working our staff, there is nothing to be done about the open-classroom design and poor physical condition of two of our elementary schools. At Wildwood and Fort River, students and teachers will return in the fall to education spaces that do not support best teaching and learning practices. The open classrooms will continue to be noisy, with interruptions to learning all day long.
Some special education students will continue to be bused away from their siblings so they can attend great special education programs in other buildings, while other children, some from economically disadvantaged families, will continue to be bused away from their neighbors and their closest elementary school.
The Fort River community will continue to contend with leaks that cause ceiling tiles to fall to the ground during class time and buckets to be positioned next to lockers most of the winter and during spring storms.
And, no matter the hard work of the staff, neither building will allow children and adults in wheelchairs, or other assisted walking devices, to utilize all but one of the bathrooms in the building where they spend all of their school and work day.
Our current — and most optimistic — estimate for a time when every student, teacher and staff member in Amherst will have full access to resources and optimum learning and teaching environments, if we rebuild or renovate each school building separately, is 2036.
Katherine Appy
Amherst
The writer is a former chairwoman of the Amherst School Committee and member of the School Building Committee.