Favorable Response from School Committee to Proposal for Private Elementary School

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst School Committee, October 15, 2024

This meeting was held remotely because of a lack of heat in much of the high school, due to the malfunctioning of one of the boilers. The meeting was recorded.

Highlights

• The committee heard a presentation regarding the proposed K-4 80 Acres Climate Justice Cooperative school.
• The superintendent is evaluating the Caminantes bilingual program at Fort River to make it more sustainable.
• State assessment scores, including MCAS scores, show a wide discrepancy between white and Asian students and Black and Hispanic students.
• Early budget projections indicate a $1.4 million deficit for the elementary schools next year.

Present
Sarah Marshall (Chair), Jennifer Shiao, Irv Rhodes, Bridget Hynes, and Deborah Leonard

Staff: E. Xiomara Herman (Superintendent) and Nyby Douglas (Assistant)

80 Acres Climate Justice Cooperative School Planned for Amherst
The Amherst School Committee  seemed ready to approve the curriculum for a private elementary school to be located in Amherst. Adrienne Wallace, CEO of 80 Acres, gave a detailed presentation of the curriculum plan for a K–4 private elementary school that will be aimed at BIPOC children and will stress climate justice. The proposed 80 Acres Climate Justice Cooperative School will offer an experiential curriculum that integrates all subjects. The school has been operating as a home school cooperative, but getting approved as a school would allow it to have field trips and other activities.

According to Mass. General Law (Chapter 76, section1), the curriculum of a private school must be approved by the school committee of the town in which it resides. The 80 Acres school received approval by the Northampton school committee in 2021, but because most of the staff and students lived in Amherst, Wallace decided to locate the school there. Current home school parents have applied and been awarded approval for the curriculum by the Amherst school administration. 

Wallace explained that the home school now and future private school will be grounded in the Black Panther Party’s ten-point plan and the liberation pedagogy of Paolo Freire. The home school currently has 11 students, and plans are for the school to remain a micro school with small classes and an individual learning plan for each student, but she eventually wants to expand the grade offerings and even have a college program. She said that 80 Acres already runs cooperative programs with the Middle School and High School, and the school will assure that students have a sufficient foundation when or if they return to public school.

ASC member Jennifer Shiao said she supported the philosophy of the school and didn’t see any red flags in the application. Bridget Hynes noted that other criteria, such as health, safety, parking, and fire prevention were not evaluated, but Chair Sarah Marshall said that the school committee is not required to approve those aspects, only the curriculum, and it was not fair to change the requirements after the application has been filed.

Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman noted that the educational approach of the 80 Acres school seemed sound. She said that she aims to develop a standardized approval for home schooling plans, and offered that the curriculum directors Mary Kiely and Tania McIntyre evaluate the proposed curriculum for the school and make a recommendation to the school committee. Herman said that the evaluation of this application could serve as a basis to standardize evaluation home school applications in the future. 

McIntyre agreed to examine the curriculum and said she could have a recommendation by the end of the week. Marshall suggested calling a special meeting of the Amherst School Committee the following week to vote on approval of the school, but Shiao thought waiting until the regularly scheduled meeting in November was timely enough.

In public comment, several employees of 80-Acres and parents of students in the cooperative advocated for the approval of the school, citing the innovative education provided.

Superintendent Evaluating Caminantes Dual Language Program at Fort River
Herman assured the ASC and parents in attendance that she wants the Caminantes bilingual program to survive, but that it cannot continue to run as a separate school located at Fort River, with little interaction between its students and the general students, which creates staffing and scheduling difficulties. 

She said that although research has shown that students in well-implemented bilingual programs often outperform other students, most of the successful programs are run as a closed school, not a school within a larger school. She acknowledged that the program improves language development, parent engagement, and cultural competency, but pointed out that staff turnover has been high and there have been gaps in evaluation and monitoring. She asked if the schools have adequate staff and budget to support the program, and emphasized that it has to be sustainable.She suggested that the program’s teachers be adequately trained to conduct class in both languages.

School Committee members spoke strongly in support of Caminantes. Shiao noted the robust public comment received in favor of the program, saying that “people fear losing what is important to them”. Irv Rhodes said that he has a loved one participating in the program, and appreciates that Herman is looking into making it sustainable. Hynes felt that maintaining the program was important in protecting against decreases in enrollment. Deb Leonard was concerned about discussing the program piecemeal, noting that the School Committee had received a presentation about the program in June and recommended changing to having 90% of the instruction in Spanish, as opposed to 50%. She said that the committee made a commitment to the program, and that she would like to develop a conversation about it in a “thorough and systematic manner.”

Herman emphasized that no decisions have been made regarding Caminantes, and that she is still conducting her evaluation of the program.

MCAS Data Shows Wide Discrepancy in Scores
As in the assessment of the regional schools, the MCAS scores at the elementary schools showed a wide disparity between the number of white and Asian students achieving scores, which achieved or exceeded expectations, and those of the Hispanic and African American students. Kiely and McIntyre stated that all three schools made progress in academic achievement and attendance from the prior year, but all lagged behind in MCAS participation, which the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) requires to be 95%. 

The composite MCAS scores for each school were above average, with Crocker Farm approaching the top quartile, but among Black and Hispanic students fewer than 20 percent achieved satisfactory scores in many areas at all schools. Herman pointed out that the scores of Hispanic students at Fort River were not higher than at the other two schools, despite the presence of the dual-language Caminantes program there. High-need and low-income students also scored lower than their counterparts.

Kiely and McIntyre concluded that the district is doing well overall but is failing with some subgroups, and that it needs to delve into the achievement of critical subgroups.  Rhodes termed it a crisis for minority students.

Budget Projection Shows a $1.4 Million Shortfall for FY2026
Review of the first quarter of FY2025 shows the elementary schools budget tracking fairly closely to projections with some overruns for transportation and special education. However, the initial projection for FY2026 indicates a shortfall of $1.4 million with the 2.5% budget increase proposed by the town. The shortfall would be about $1.01 million with a 4% increase.

Contributing to the shortfall are a 13% increase in health insurance premiums, transportation cost increases, the loss of $500,000 of COVID relief money, and deferred maintenance on the school buildings. There has also been an increase in legal costs for personnel cases. In addition, next year is a contract negotiation year for the Amherst Pelham Education Association. Herman said she is conducting an audit of salaries in the district in order to develop a hiring plan to fill positions. She stated that she did not want to hire people, only to have to let them go because there was no money.

Marshall noted that the town’s budget indicators meeting, where predictions for all of the town’s budgets, will be at the November 4 Town Council meeting.

Crocker Farm School Recognized by DESE
Herman announced that Crocker Farm Elementary School was recognized by DESE for exceeding standards. She congratulated the staff, students, and families for their “great work.”

She also noted that the SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council) is working on parameters to integrate neurodiversity into educational programs. She reminded parents that the school survey was still open.

Of the 58 available school choice slots, Herman said that 31 were filled by out-of-district students this year. Hynes and Marshall plan to draft a letter to DESE to comment on the planned expansion of the Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley. The ASC will discuss the letter at the November meeting.

This meeting adjourned at 9:47 p.m.