Funding formula remains hot-button topic for regional schools
Amherst Regional High School GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Published: 2/9/2021 12:34:09 PM
AMHERST Amherst officials are becoming increasingly concerned with efforts to revise the formula by which the four Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools member towns contribute to its operating budget. The options take into account not only enrollment but each of the four towns’ ability to pay.
At a meeting of the four towns Saturday to discuss the projected $32.01 million budget for fiscal year 2022, and what each town should pay to educate students at the middle and high schools, Amherst At-Large Councilor Andy Steinberg said moving away from the formula of a 5-year rolling average of enrollment to a more complex method determined by the state could lead to the district’s demise.
AMHERST – At least 16 staff positions in the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools could be eliminated in the next school year based on the initial version of the fiscal year 2022 budget.“What we’re proposing is we’re spending less money next year than we.
Wendell Selectboard discusses concern contracted officer won’t get vaccinated
Published: 2/4/2021 5:25:00 PM
WENDELL The town’s Selectboard used a portion of Wednesday night’s meeting to address a resident’s letter expressing concern after learning that at least one police officer in a contracted neighboring town does not want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Sam Hathaway authored the letter after reading that two full-time Leverett police officers have declined the COVID-19 vaccination. Wendell is in a short-term agreement with Leverett regarding calls for policing service until July 1, by which time a longer-term inter-municipal agreement is expected to be in place.
AMHERST A commitment to having some instruction in school buildings in Amherst and Pelham beginning in February is the focus of ongoing discussions between elected representatives and the union for teachers and paraprofessionals.A joint statement.
AMHERST Classes for students at Amherst Regional middle and high schools could start later in the morning if and when in-person education resumes in the fall.
The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee is pursuing a plan that, by the end of February, would determine the feasibility of essentially flipping the start times for the regional schools and the elementary schools in Amherst, Pelham, Shutesbury and Leverett.
“It’s worth a go spending the next six weeks deciding,” said Pelham School Committee member Ronald Mannino at a recent joint meeting of the committees.
Amherst Superintendent Michael Morris told committee members that under one possibility, the school day would start at 9:05 a.m. for middle and high school students, or 80 minutes later than the 7:45 a.m. start in place before the COVID-19 pandemic.