Dear Everyone Learning at ARPS:
Happy New Year! While the real "new year" for us is in September, the calendar New Year and break gives us time to pause and reflect, to review our goals, and to insure we are on course with our planning and work for children.
From the district perspective, this month brings to the forefront of our work on the budgets, a more aggressive and intentional effort on the state tests (MCAS), and other initiatives.
As I am sure you have read, early projections for all three budgets are not good. Amherst and Pelham have placed a 1% increase limit on budgets while basic "cost of doing school" - continuing our current effort - illustrates an increase in the range of 5 to 7%. That means we must make deep cuts, again. We are beginning our process with an extremely conservative, worse case scenario plan to report to everyone immediately the magnitude of these limits.
As in the past, we will communicate with you and the community through several means. I have developed a "Budget 101" ACTV presentation to illustrate the process and context of building our budgets. Meetings have been scheduled for parents and the community to provide input regarding our principles, priorities, and potential cuts and areas for restructuring. Building "walk throughs" have been scheduled for the community to see schools in action, especially for those who do not have children in the schools. Updated dates and information will be emailed again next week.
Thank you for your interest and support.
Jere Hochman
The January 9 School Committee meeting has been posted as a meeting of the Regional Committee and Amherst and Pelham as the budget overview is provided for all three districts.
AGENDA for REGULAR Meeting of REGIONAL School Committee
6:30 PM, TUESDAY-January 9, 2007
High School Library
1. Call for Executive Session
2. Welcome
• A. Call to Order
• B. Agenda Review
• C. Minutes-December 12 & 19, 2006
3. Announcements and Public Comment
4. Superintendent's Update
5. Unfinished/Continuing Business
• A. Policies
o 410.20 Students: Field Trips and Overnight Travel
The School Committees have been reviewing policies at all meetings this year to insure policies are up to date and reflective of expectations and legal regulations.
• B. Budget Meeting #2: Assumptions and Variables
The Superintendent and Business Manager will review information for Budget development. This session introduces BUDGET ASSUMPTIONS - in other words, what assumptions can we make about revenues and expenditures. This packet of information is a working document that will be modified as more information is reported from the towns, the state, and federal government. This information will be posted on the district website, www.arps.org on Wednesday.
• C. Discipline
This will be a brief report on secondary school discipline for the first trimester and to illustrate the reporting system being used for clarity and monitoring of progress.
6. New Business
• A. AYP Improvement Plan
AYP is Adequate Yearly Progress. The schools and the districts (Amherst and Region) have been developing plans to address student performance on the state test, MCAS. This report will highlight a few of those strategies and steps to be taken in the next few months.
• B. High School Handbook
The High School Handbook is to be approved by the School Committee annually. In addition, the School Committee will be asked for input related to policies early this spring to incorporate into Handbooks rather than the usual August review.
• C. Parking Lot Lights
A School Committee member has a suggestion for conversion of parking lot lights as a cost saving measure.
7. Reports-None
8. Sub-committee reports
• A. ABCG Report
School Committee members representing the schools on the Amherst Budget Coordinating Group will report on the most recent meeting and next steps to be taken.
9. School Committee Planning
• A. Calendar review
• B. Items for upcoming meetings
10. Adjourn
Jere Hochman
Superintendent