Letter: Families Want Julio Fernandez Back At Fort River

The following letter was sent to Acting School Superintendent Doug Slaughter on June 22, 2023.

Thank you for meeting with the families, students, educators, and Fort River Elementary staff yesterday for over two hours in your office. We appreciate your time and your engaged listening while we expressed our concerns. We understand that at this time you are not prepared to make a change in the decision communicated by Dr. Mike Morris, to appoint Julio Fernandez as Interim Assistant Principal at Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS). You also mentioned that if a change needs to be made, it must happen by the end of this week. You committed to looking into alternatives and being in touch with us during the week. Some questions that remain unanswered after the meeting are: 

• Reasons for the appointment of Mr. Fernandez. On May 5, Morris announced that “Julio Fernandez, current Assistant Principal at Fort River, and Rich Ferro, current ARMS science teacher, have been appointed as Interim Assistant Principals at ARMS.” However, on May 1, 53 educators and staff from ARMS wrote a letter to request that Diego Sharon’s request to rescind his resignation as Principal at ARMS be honored. Why did the ARPS leadership not honor Sharon’s and the ARMS educators’ requests and instead appoint Fernandez?
  
• Reasons for not investing in other leadership training options among the educators at ARPS and instead deliberately disrupting the already deeply challenged community at Fort River Elementary and depriving it of a stable leadership team.
  
• Reasons for honoring leadership decisions that have been made by an administration in which multiple “claims of negligence” and “misuse of power” have been raised by staff members.

We urge you to seriously reconsider the appointment of Fernandez, consult with the ARMS and ARHS educators to find a suitable leadership alternative, and allocate the necessary resources to Fort River Elementary in terms of staffing (in addition to keeping the current leadership team, not in lieu of) and infrastructure. We demand more transparency in leadership decisions and a real commitment to dual language education, equity, and social justice that goes beyond a public relations campaign. We know you have the power to make a difference. As done before, this letter will be shared with the families and educators at Fort River, ARPS staff and educators, and the members of the school committee, along with the press. We truly look forward to hearing from you this week, promptly addressing the needs of our children. 

Marialuisa Di Stefano on behalf of the families at Fort River Elementary