Dear Everyone Learning @ Amherst, Region, and Pelham Schools:
"Have you ever seen a fish make a wish... Down by the Bay?"
"Have you ever seen a dog eat a log... Down by the Bay?"
And so concluded the all school assembly at Mark's Meadow today with everyone singing after a morning of celebrating student achievements and accomplishments. Kindergartners read poems they had written to the entire assembly and were embraced in applause. 5th graders did their rendition of a Bill of Rights Rap with more content than even MCAS could cover.
Similarly, last night I had the pleasure of seeing the sixth grade musical at Wildwood. Every student participated, sharing their musical, acting, and other talents. And the key word in that sentence, for me, is not about music or acting talent but the word "every!"
And every school has these events, and those behind the scenes daily in classrooms, that most of our public rarely gets to see. As you have read often in these newsletters as I try to portray school for those who are not in them routinely, this is the "School the way it oughtta be" part of what makes Amherst and Pelham, well, Amherst and Pelham!
We balance it out with recent MCAS testing after a year of preparation, with exciting and yes, even routine lessons and homework, and much, much more. I guess I can't say that often enough.
Thank you for your interest and support of our children's learning and endeavors.
Jere Hochman
Superintendent
Search for Potential Interim Superintendent
As you may be aware, I am the finalist for a superintendent position in another school district. I anticipate this being finalized soon. The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee discussed this possibility at their meeting last Tuesday. In attendance was Dr. Bill Erickson, former superintendent of the Hampshire Regional Schools and a current member of the staff at the Hampshire Educational Collaborative. Dr. Erickson will work with the School Committee in identifying potential candidates for the position of Interim Superintendent. They have established a timeline that will, hopefully, identify an Interim Superintendent by mid-June. I know the School Committee will be sharing more information with you about this as the weeks proceed.
I am very confident that the challenges ahead, the ambitious goals we've established in each district department and school, and the issues to be addressed will be well managed. As is the case every spring, I have shared these goals and our "to do" list with the School Committee. We are working to ensure that all of our administrative and staff positions and all of our organizational expectations are clearly established and that all work will proceed well.
School Committee Meetings
The meeting of the Pelham School Committee scheduled for Thursday, June 5 is being postponed. The new June date is still to be determined.
The next regular meeting of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee is scheduled for June 10. This meeting, however, will be our annual recognition of employees years of service and of our retirees. The School Committee will be scheduling additional meetings for the month of June and those will be posted once they are determined.
Math Text Selection
The administrators and math teachers of Amherst Regional Middle School are considering the adoption of a new textbook series in mathematics. The textbook selection committee (which also includes two sixth grade teachers and one high school math teacher) have reviewed a dozen math text/programs and, through a careful evaluation process, identified three textbook series for possible selection. These three are now available for community examination and comments. The texts will remain on reserve at The Jones Library from May 28th to June 9th. A new textbook series will be adopted if that series strengthens our math curriculum and the delivery of instruction. We invite you to examine these texts and use the scoring rubric to provide feedback on each.
Here are some notes from the committees discussion of the three selected textbooks that you may find useful as you look them over:
CMP2 - This series is very similar to CMP1. The committee likes the conceptual understanding and problem solving approach it takes. It needs to be supplemented with more practice and is not challenging enough for students on pace to take Algebra H as 8th graders. (The MS math department has rewritten most CMP lessons to address these issues.) If we continue with CMP, we would not buy the new student books since almost all CMP lessons have been rewritten. However, we would buy some of the resources and use summer curriculum work time to create parent handbooks for each unit. (One of the drawbacks to CMP is that parents have trouble helping their children with the material.)
Impact Mathematics - This series has a challenging curriculum that matches up with the current units we teach. It has a strong conceptual understanding and problem solving approach and more practice than CMP. Course 3 could be used with our Algebra Honors course in 8th grade. The series would work if we were changing the K-8 structure to have more students take Algebra in 8th grade. We would be able to use it in 7th grade even though students will still be using CMP in the 6th grade. The question for the committee is how successful students who are working behind grade level would be with this series. The MS math department would need to work on how to address this issue over the summer. There was also a question in the committee as to whether this series could be used in combination with CMP - i.e., more CMP in 6th grade leading to more Impact by 8th grade.
Holt Mathematics - This is a more traditional textbook (less conceptual understanding and problem solving imbedded throughout than with CMP and Impact). It is stronger than some of the other traditional textbooks because of the math labs built into the curriculum.
Thank you for your time and thoughtfulness. Your comments will help inform the selection committees recommendation to the Superintendent as to which text series (if any) should be adopted at the Middle School.