School Committees Approve Superintendent’s Goals,  Consider New Policies on Bullying and Harassment

Report on the Meeting of the joint meeting of the Amherst Regional School Committee, Amherst School Committee, and Pelham School Committee, September 10, 2024

The meeting was held in the Town Room of Town Hall and was lived streamed and recorded by Amherst Media. The recording can be viewed here.

The first topic of discussion for the joint meeting of the Amherst School Committee (ASC), Pelham School Committee (PSC), and Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee (RSC) on September 10, was the Superintendent’s Goals for the 2024-25 school year. 

In her introduction to the topic, Superintendent Dr. Xiomara Herman indicated that she had received feedback on her goals since the last Regional School Committee meeting, and as a result moved some of her goals from year 1 to year 2. The goals include: 

(1) Develop and present a district improvement plan 

(2) Enhance district efficiency, data management, and equity

(3) Heal and stabilize the district while rebuilding trust through community engagement

(4) Establish a strong professional culture aligned with core values and equity.

Regional/Amherst School Committee member Sarah Marshall asked Herman about how she would distinguish the goals and strategies in the plan in terms of the elementary schools versus the regional schools. Herman explained that the same steps would be done in each district, such as the curricular review. In response to another question by Marshall, Herman shared that she has hired a new communications staff person in the Central Office, Seth Keevaenthal, who started two weeks ago and is already sending out press releases, Parent Square, and Facebook updates. She also shared that due to budget cuts, she was being very thoughtful about how to restructure the Central Office staff and that she will reevaluate titles, division structures,  job duties, and skills of existing staff so that they can better fulfill the needs of the district. She highlighted that they need a compliance officer, administrative position, and an HR (Human Resources) position and that she is posting all positions for the sake of transparency.

Regional/Amherst School Committee member Irv Rhodes applauded Herman’s work and said her goals are very much in line with what is needed. RSC/ASC member Deb Leonard added her appreciation, but indicated that she would like to see more “triage” of issues such as the World Language Program, the possible extension of Caminantes, absenteeism, student mental health, retention of staff of color, planning for a new fiscal year, and follow up to the work of the Title 9 subcommittee. Herman responded that she believes those issues were indeed covered in her goals and strategies, particularly in the action steps around each one. She also said that Leonard would be able to find much of those specifics in the artifacts to be presented. She stressed that a lot of the work started before she got here, and she needed time to delve into it more deeply and figure out if some of the “band-aids” put in place to solve problems are actually sustainable practices. 

Herman also outlined some action steps she had already taken, such as hiring Maureen Fleming as the Director of Health and Behavioral Services, and updating the anti-bullying policy. In addition, she plans to walk through all of the schools now that they are in session,  meet with the principals, and give instructional feedback to ensure that our curriculum is aligned with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). She also will work to create a Student Opportunity Act plan for DESE, which she said the district has not had since 2018. She will also work with schools to create a functional dashboard to track data on absenteeism and attendance of staff and students.

After this discussion, all three school committees voted unanimously to approve the superintendent’s goals.

Bullying and Harassment Draft Policies
The School Committees then moved to discuss two draft policies presented by the Policy Subcommittee: JICFB:Anti-Bullying and JICFC:Harassment of Students. Subcommittee Chair William Sherr asked if there were any questions. 

Bridget Hynes asked if the subcommittee had included a timeline for bullying reports, and Sherr said they had adopted the timeline in the student handbook, which is more stringent than the one they had come up with. Marshall requested that a definition of the term “caregiver” be added to the JICFB policy, which was received favorably. With that, both the RSC and the ASC unanimously passed the policies, with the PSC postponing their vote so that they could have the opportunity to give the policies a second read.

Next, the agenda turned to the topic of the creation of a Joint Policy Subcommittee of the Regional School Committee. Sarah Marshall proposed that the committee be formed of two members of the RSC, two from the ASC, and one from PSC. Anna Heard amended the motion to have only one member from the ASC, which was accepted by Marshall. Through a prolonged back and forth conversation, it was clarified that this committee would deal only with policies that would affect all three districts or the region. For policies that would affect only one district, the respective school committee would be responsible for determining their own process for drafting the policy.

The amended motion to create the Joint Policy Subcommittee was passed unanimously by all three school committees, and the respective committee chairs appointed the following members: 

William Sherr – Representing PSC

Jennifer Shiao – Representing ASC

Deb Leonard and Anna Heard – Representing the RSC.

All three school committees then voted in favor of dismantling the existing Policy subcommittee, given that it would no longer be necessary given the new Joint Policy Subcommittee.

New Payroll Account For Employees of More Than One District
Next on the agenda, Herman requested that the school committees vote to approve the creation of a payroll account for school employees that work for more than one district (Pelham, Amherst, and/or Regional schools). She said that currently those multi-district employees receive multiple paychecks, one from each district they do work for, and this creates difficulties for them when filing their taxes. With this new account, to which all of the districts would contribute, these employees could receive a single paycheck. Chair Sarahbess Kenney indicated that she had spoken to Mark Terry, legal counsel for the district, to get legal advice, and he recommended that the school committees vote to create this account. All three school committees voted unanimously for this account to be created and for the Regional Schools to be in charge of its administration.

At this point the ASC and PSC adjourned. The RSC proceeded to review and approve a large backlog of meeting minutes, several receiving minor edits/changes. The Warrant report and the acceptance of gifts went quickly and without incident.

RSC chair Sarabess Kenney nominated Tilman Wolf as the regional representative to the school budget coordinating group, and he accepted. Everyone on the RSC agreed the work of this committee is extremely serious and important.

Herman then gave her superintendent’s update, in which she highlighted her casual walks of the schools with her academic portion team, observing classrooms. She shared highlights from the middle school, Summit Academy, sports, and the Central Office. There was an extended conversation about the planning for next year’s budget and the Four Towns meeting coming up on September 28 on this topic. They will be looking at four scenarios and making projections for the region for the next three or four years. Leonard and Hynes both spoke of the importance of making sure this and all budget meetings be accessible to the public for comment, as well as being recorded and live streamed.

The committee then put up the following agenda items for their next meeting: update on Track and Field project, review final budget for FY 25, review of student handbook, and prepare as a committee for the upcoming Four Towns meeting. Dr. Herman agreed to share the four scenarios with the RSC prior to the Four Towns meeting to help them prepare. The RSC then adjourned.