Hundreds call on Amherst school officials for open meeting
Amherst-Pelham Regional High School GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 12/21/2020 7:57:41 PM
AMHERST More than 200 residents, many of them parents and guardians of Amherst public school students, are calling on the Amherst School Committee to hold a special public meeting focused on how to safely reopen buildings for in-school education.
Under a section of the Amherst town charter that provides mechanisms for public participation, 240 people of voting age signed the petition submitted Monday to the committee, as well as the town clerk’s office, asking for an Open Meeting of the Residents.
“We feel excluded from the decision-making process and would like a public airing of the issues related to this absence,” states the petition.
Amherst superintendent: Safer to help high-needs students at school than at home
Amherst School Superintendent Michael Morris speaks Monday, Jan. 30, 2017 during a special Amherst Town Meeting held for a revote of the proposed 67.2 million school project. It failed again.
Published: 12/20/2020 5:40:16 PM
AMHERST Amherst school officials are being advised by the town’s health director that moving in-person services for high-needs students to school buildings would be safer than delivering those services at home.
Superintendent Michael Morris informed the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee this week that Health Director Emma Dragon suggested that these high-needs students would be at less risk of COVID-19 spread and exposure if brought back to a classroom.
Amherst educators join other teacher unions in criticizing state handling of pandemic
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
At issue is the difficulties faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement releases earlier this week, the Amherst union leadership said, “the Amherst-Pelham Education Association’s Representative Council voted overwhelmingly to declare ‘no confidence in the judgment or professional leadership capabilities of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and its Commissioner Jeff Riley.’ In doing so, the APEA educators stand together with over 100 other educator unions across the state that have expressed their dismay at Riley’s leadership during this pandemic.”
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy told The Republican that “educators’ unions, like all unions, have an obligation to stand up for the health and safety of their members. Defending the health of our members also protects our students, their families and
Amherst gets private help to support 13 students with in-person learning
Amherst Regional High School GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST Almost all of the 2,400 students in the Amherst, Pelham and Amherst-Pelham Regional schools are being taught remotely, but a privately run distance learning center is allowing some students to be at the high school.
Superintendent Michael Morris told the school committees last week that 13 students, all of whom have intensive needs, are able to be in the building for the K-12 program and have “access to distance learning with that in-person support.”
Since health metrics in a memorandum of understanding between the school district and the Amherst Pelham Education Association have been triggered, based on the rising caseload of COVID-19 in the region, all teachers, paraprofessionals, and other union staff are not able to teach in person. That prompted turning to a private entity to run the program.
Ditching remote: Dozens of Amherst-area families make other school choices
First grader Sebastian Sienkewicz of Pelham plays with twirlies with Learn at Morse Hill science teacher Rosa Whelpley during a period of free play for kindergartners and first and second graders at the outdoor school in Shutesbury on Dec. 3. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Second-grader Jasper Hoxie-Golding, left, and first-grader Sebastian Sienkewicz listen to Learn at Morse Hill Director Corinne Shaw read from Chapter 5 of “The Hobbit” during the after-lunch community read at the outdoor school in Shutesbury on Thursday. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING
Olive Barber of Pelham picks up her son, Sebastian Sienkewicz, after his day attending Learn at Morse Hill in Shutesbury on Dec. 3. STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING