Letter: ARMS Core Teachers Decry Proposed Staffing Cuts

The following letter from 14 veteran, core Amherst Regional Middle School teachers was sent to the Regional School Committee, School Superintendent, and interim Middle School Principal on February 24, 2025.

We, core academic teachers at Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS), ask you to reconsider the core teacher cuts announced by Interim Principal Michael Sullivan on Friday afternoon, February 14. We respect Interim Principal Sullivan’s eight months of leadership at ARMS, but we deeply wish he had talked with us before this quick decision. Together, we represent over 200 years of teaching young people in this district and have a comprehensive understanding of what our school and our middle school students need. It is a mistake to cut core teaching positions. 

Last year, School Committee member Irv Rhodes urged Amherst Regional Public Schools (ARPS) decision makers: make budget cuts furthest away from the classroom. Inexplicably, Interim Principal Sullivan has done the opposite: he has begun cuts with the core classrooms: the teachers who teach Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. When classroom teachers are sick, the school needs to find substitute teachers: the school day can’t go on without us. When students are in school for six hours a day, we represent ⅔ of their daily learning. Core teaching positions are all-day student-facing positions. These are the positions you should cut last, not first. 

In the past few years, the district has cut core teaching positions twice. In 2005, we had 32 core subject teachers. Interim Principal Sullivan’s proposed cuts would leave us with a core teaching staff of only 12. While these Tier 1 positions have been reduced over the past two decades, Tier 2 and 3 Special Education and support staff positions have ballooned. We urge you to look at the number of positions and the numbers of student-facing hours for all the staff at ARMS and in other areas of the district budget. When the Tier 1 foundation is amply staffed with classroom teachers, class sizes are more manageable, students can receive more direct support from teachers, and we need fewer Tier 2 and 3 interventions for students. 

It is our understanding that when Interim Principal Sullivan was tasked with making a schedule for ARMS that was more aligned with ARHS, he instead created a schedule, without staff input, not data-driven, that cut teams and core team teachers. These cuts eliminate teams, a foundational middle school practice designed for preadolescents that has been in place for over 40 years at ARMS. Additionally, since Interim Principal Sullivan’s proposed schedule did not follow our union contract and was therefore unable to be accepted, the cuts embedded in that unusable schedule need not be followed. For the sake of next year’s and future middle schoolers, please keep teams at the heart of our middle school. 

We understand budget cuts must be made. We are the people who have the privilege of educating hundreds of Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury, and Leverett’s young people for hundreds of hours each year; please consider all of this before making a drastic decision. 

A legendary ARMS guidance counselor, the late Barry Brooks, used to have a wooden sign in his office that read: This is a school. That sign now lives on in the office of his mentee, ARHS principal Talib Sadiq. ARMS is, foremost, a school: a school where we educate young people and help them to grow academically in music and arts, in world languages and exploratories, and in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. We support them socially, emotionally, and physically, but our purpose is to help them to grow academically. Please make cuts the furthest away from students’ learning in classrooms. 

Sincerely, 

The ARMS veteran core team teachers 

Heather Sullivan-Flynn, 22 years in the ARPS district 
Jennifer Jensen, 16 years in the ARPS district 
Patrick Hunter, 18 years in the ARPS district 
Irene LaRoche, 21 years in the ARPS district 
Mick O’Connor, 19 years in the ARPS district 
Ben Levy, 15 years in the ARPS district 
Joe Costello, 6 years in the ARPS district 
Kimberly McDowell, 4 years in the ARPS district 
Jonathan Newman, 18 years in the ARPS district 
Robin Clifford, 20 years in the ARPS district 
Elliott Kelly, 20 years in the ARPS district 
Jodi Stevens, 15 years in the ARPS district 
Rich Ferro, 21 years in the ARPS district 
Kerrita Mayfield, 6 years in the ARPS district