Fort River School Building Committee Update

In the spring of 2017 Amherst Town Meeting voted to move forward with a feasibility study of the Fort River Elementary School. The goals of the study are to evaluate the site and building in order to determine what are the possibilities for improvement. The School Administration asked for, and Town Meeting approved, up to $250,000 to accomplish this task that should include a structural analysis, initial schematic designs, and implementation of a “community engagement process”. The committee work is anticipated to take approximately 12 to 18 months.

The Fort River School Building Committee is committed to communicating with the public about its progress and getting a great deal of input along the way to inform decisions. Members of the public are welcome to attend the meetings, the location of each meeting will be published in the town website. Public comment is welcomed at the beginning of the meeting or via email at fortriversbc@amherstma.gov. The public is encouraged to visit the committee’s website www.amherstma.gov/frsbc where documents, schedule, agendas, minutes, and other information are available. Additionally, meetings are recorded and will be broadcast by Amherst Media.

If interested in regular email updates, the public can opt-in to our list-serve by signing up on our website. A copy of these email updates and other documents will be kept on the website and in a binder at Jones Library so that anyone can access our documents and notes. Community listening and information sessions will be scheduled at key points of the process. 

Members Sought for Fort River School Building Committee - Deadline October 13

The PGO is still accepting applications for the PGO appointee position to the School Building Committee. The deadline for applications is 12 noon on October 13 (THIS Friday). Thank you to all who have applied thus far.

For background see this post: https://ftriver.blogspot.com/2017/10/members-sought-for-fort-river-school.html

FORT RIVER COMMUNITY MEMBERS INTERESTED IN SERVING AS THE FORT RIVER PGO APPOINTEE SHOULD COMPLETE THIS FORM. The Fort River PGO Board will select a representative from the pool of applicants. The appointee will be expected to provide School Building Committee updates to the Fort River PGO on a regular basis (minimum monthly). 

Here is the URL for the Fort River PGO appointee application: https://goo.gl/forms/kdg07j59K66mmJ632

There are other ways to apply to join the Committee; please read on for details or visit arps.org.

Community members are encouraged to complete the application available here for the following positions:  

1) Community Member with Green Energy Expertise and Architectural Background; 

2) At-Large Parent/Guardian/Caregiver; 

3) At-Large Community Member (2 positions).

Community members interested in serving as the SEPAC representative should email Nancy Stewart, SEPAC President at sepac@arps.org.  Please include your name, contact information and brief description (two paragraphs or less) explaining your interest in serving.

The deadline for applications to all positions is 12:00 Noon on Friday, October 13. All applications will be considered; however, preference may be given to women and people of color, parents/guardians/caregivers, and those with Amherst town government experience.

Monica Colley Chosen as New Fort River Principal

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette:

Fort River School in Amherst gets new principal
By NICK GRABBE
Staff Writer

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

AMHERST - Monica Colley has been chosen to be the next principal of Fort River Elementary School, according to the office of Superintendent Maria Geryk.

Please click here to view the rest of the story.

Amherst Bulletin Article on Fort River 6th Grade Teacher Mr. Wallace

In case you haven't seen it, the Amherst Bulletin published a profile of Fort River's own Mr. Wallace in yesterday's edition.

You can read the article online here: http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/198004/

Latest Fort River Newsletter

Asst. Principal Susan Kennedy-Marx has posted the latest school newsletter (Dated Dec. 2) on the Fort River School website.


Please click here to check it out! 

Daily Hampshire Gazette Article about the Ft. River 6th Grade Art Opening

Editor's note: Congratulations to the 6th graders and art teacher Teri Magner for the awesome art exhibit. The portraits are all still on display in the school lobby. I encourage everyone to come in and take a look! This article appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wed., Dec. 10th. -- Ann McLaughlin.

Young Artists in Bloom at Fort River By Mary Carey

AMHERST -Fort River sixth-graders see their own likenesses in the world's most famous paintings, thanks to art teacher Teri Magner's inspired assignment combining traditional artist's techniques with a little cut-and-paste.

Magner got the idea after visiting a recent National Portrait Gallery exhibition of artist Kehinde Wiley's portraits of contemporary hip-hop artists in poses and backdrops from well-known historical paintings.

The students spent almost a month, which works out to about six or seven classes, choosing from 200 portraits that Magner had cut out of old art books and downloaded from the Internet. They recreated them with acrylic paints, pasting a photograph of themselves in place of the faces.

All 82 charming portraits are on display in the school's main hallway. "I never tire of looking at them," Magner said of the sixth-grader's works of art. She has been a teacher at Fort River for 32 years but doesn't admit to being a day over 32 years old.

So many of the student's choices were surprising, Magner said. "I think the kids were so brave."

Color-mixing was a huge part of the artistic process, "taking those risks," to create new colors from existing ones. Magner just encouraged them, she said. "They can all do it. They need to be reminded of that."

Magner said she would have had a hard time deciding on a portrait if she were to do the assignment.

But on further thought, "All of my paintings have a shoe theme," she said. For instance, her painting of Mona Lisa wearing shoes in a shoe store.

Student Juliana Brissette picked a painting of a woman in a pink dress by artist Anne Adams.

"I like the dress," Juliana said, although it was "hard making the bows look 3-dimensional." She also enjoyed putting the cut-out of her own face in the painting.

"I just think it's a great example of the art program being innovative and appealing to all of the kids," said Juliana's father, Jim Brissette.

Chapin Duffy picked a painting of a woman amid foliage by Berthe Morisot.

"My friend Veronica said she almost looks like Princess Diana," Duffy said of Morisot's subject. "I like the way she looks like she's in nature."

Now, the students are working on an "art quilt" that's been in the works since they were in fifth-grade, composed of many thumbnail size re-creations in colored pencil of famous paintings like Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night," Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and, of course, "Mona Lisa."

"Miss Magner's a great teacher," Duffy said. "Personally, I had an awesome time doing this."

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.

Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2008 All rights reserved

---

Click on the link to see some pictures! http://www.gazettenet.com/2008/12/11/young-artists-bloom-fort-river

Fort River Climate Survey results

Here's a link to the Fort River Climate Survey, which was conducted in June 2008: http://is.gd/3bKr. I have also added the link under the "Fort River Links" section on the right-hand side of the page --Ann McLaughlin

Welcome (Back) to the Parent Council Website!

Dear Fort River Families, Welcome (back) to Fort River and the Parent Council Website! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and a great start to the new school year. It was wonderful to see so many of you at this morning's Coffee With a Principal, where we all got to greet Ray Sharick. I'm sure you all join me in wishing him well as he gets to know us and our children. Welcome to the Fort River Community! I am looking forward to working with our new Parent Council President, Sue Borden, and the rest of the Parent Council officers and members this year. Please bear with Sue and me as we work out a schedule for updating this website. I have already made quite a few updates, but you may find that some of the links and features may not be functioning yet. Please be patient: I intend to get them working as soon as possible! If you haven't already subscribed to our Parent Council email list, you can easily be added to the list by sending me an email at: damclaughlin@comcast.net. You'll get weekly email reminders to check the updates on this blog, and you'll also get automatic calendar reminders before the various Fort River events such as the Family Fair and Parent Council meetings. All Fort River families, staff and faculty are welcome to sign up! Have you been getting Parent Council emails this year? Make sure I have your latest email address or else you won't! Once again, just send me an email with your updated address. Also, please let me know what your old email address was so I can remove it from the list. If you no longer wish to be on the list, please send me an email as well, and I'll unsubscribe you. Or, send any email to: fort_river_parent_council_newsletter-unsubscribe@npogroups.org and you will be automatically unsubscribed. And finally, as always, I make every attempt to keep the website and calendar up-to-date and accurate. If you notice a mistake or omission, please feel free to send me an email with the correction and I'll fix it as soon as possible. Thanks, Ann McLaughlin Fort River Parent Council Secretary and Website Editor

Amherst Bulletin Articles About Retiring Principal Russ Vernon-Jones

"Two principals, 36 years of service, countless lessons: Departing Amherst educators look back" by Mary Carey: http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/97989/ "Vernon-Jones to focus on anti-racism education" by Mary Carey: http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/97980/

Parent Council Activities and Events for 2007-2008

As the school year comes to an end, we wanted to update all families on the various activities and events that were brought to you by Parent Council this year:

Field Trips
· Subsidized the 5th grade trip to Lowell
· Subsidized the 6th grade trip to the Boston Science Museum
· Subsidized the 4th grade trip to Plimouth Plantation
Paid for the 3rd graders to see Tony Vacca’s African Rhythms performance (Trish Farrington and Rachel Davis’s classes)

In-School Educational Events and Assistance
· Funded the Kindergarten storyteller for all three kindergarten classes
· Funded the Museum of Science presentations for all classes in all grades
· Funded the Birds of Prey presentation
· Provided funding for library books
· Organized the Book Fair
· Organized the Book Swap

Staff/Teacher Support
· Provided each classroom and specials teacher with money for classroom set-up expenses
· Provided each teacher with funds to buy classroom books
· Organized and funded the Teacher/Staff Appreciation luncheon
· Organized and funded the Bus/Van Driver Appreciation breakfast

Social Events
· Subsidized 6th grade graduation
· Organized and funded Field Day
· Organized and funded the Beach Party (band and dinner)
· Organized and funded the monthly Coffee with a Principal
Funded end of year events for each grade

Community Building and Support
· Provided a free directory for every child
· Provided a free yearbook for every child (distributed the last day of school)
· Organized Picture Day
· Funded the Jump rope club
· Provided funds to Guidance Counselors to help Fort River families in need
· Provided a High School Scholarship (for a Fort River alum)
· Organized and funded the new Parent Handbook
· Organized and funded the new family welcome event

18 Years of Public Service (By Jerrey Roberts, Amherst Bulletin, May 30, 2008)

Pat Ononibaku offers a hug after giving a West African kente scarf to Fort River School Principal Russ Vernon-Jones during a retirement party for him May 23 at the school. He was the school's principal for 18 years. The event was coupled with a dedication of a brick walkway for the school's playground, which was installed last year. The bricks bear the names of donors for the playground project.

Link to article.

School Committee Election Results

Congratulations to Fort River Parent Council President Catherine Sanderson for winning a seat on the Amherst School Committee in yesterday's election! On a personal note, I would like to thank both Catherine and Chrystel Romero (also a Fort River Parent!) for their willingness to take on such a big and important challenge. Thanks also to Chrystel Romero for her past year's service on the School Committee. It was great to see the involvement of so many Fort River parents in both of the campaigns. I believe it shows the dedication of the Fort River community as a whole to the quality of our public schools and to the welfare of all of our children. --Ann McLaughlin, Parent Council Secretary The Amherst Bulletin has posted a short summary of the election results here: http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/927205500229/. Unofficial Town-Wide Tallies of all the votes for various offices are posted here: http://www.amherstma.gov/TownWideTally.pdf.

Two Principals Picked, Two More to Go in Amherst (Article From the Daily Hampshire Gazette)

By MARY CAREY, Staff Writer Friday, March 7, 2008 AMHERST - Superintendent Jere Hochman announced his selection for two of four principal posts and expects to fill the remaining positions soon. Michael Morris will succeed Paul Wiley as principal of Crocker Farm Elementary School, Hochman said Tuesday. On Wednesday, he named Ray Sharick to the Fort River Elementary School principal's post. Now, only Wildwood Elementary School and Amherst Regional Middle School await news of who their next principal will be. The other finalists for the elementary post are Sandra Delaney, a Newton schools administrator; Jill Pasquini-Torcia, a former Brockton teacher and administrator; and Catarina da Silva, a doctoral candidate at New York University. Michael Hayes, currently the interim co-principal at ARMS, and Glenda Cresto, a Boston teacher trainer, are in contention for the middle school post. At Crocker Farm, secretary Kathy Aldrich said faculty and staff were delighted with the choice of Morris, who is currently assistant principal at the school. Morris was the unanimous choice of the school's interview committee, Crocker Farm parent Yaniris Fernandez said. "We actually really didn't have a second choice. He's going to be awesome," Fernandez said. Fernandez said Morris is "energetic, extremely smart, a go-getter, responsive. He's very compassionate and he understands the community." At Fort River, parents were similarly pleased with the choice of Sharick. An Amherst resident with children in the public schools, he is current principal of Fisher Hill Elementary School in Orange. "I think he'll be an excellent principal, and I'm happy that he's going to be our principal," said Ann McLaughlin, who was on the school's interview committee. "I think he's a good choice for Fort River. " Hochman said, "I am convinced that Ray will build upon all of Fort River's strengths, that he will build upon what is right and good at Fort River, and that he will keep the standards and focus on achievement for all learners high."

Ray Sharick Named Fort River's Next Principal

The following is an email sent to the Fort River Principal Interview Committee:

Dear Fort River Interview Committee:

I have selected Ray Sharick as the next principal for Fort River School. Ray has accepted the position. I introduced him to the faculty this afternoon and they applauded and applauded and welcomed him with open arms.

I will send a letter home to parents with students on Thursday. Again, thank you for your dedication to this process. I am convinced that Ray will build upon all of Fort River's strengths, that he will build upon what is right and good at Fort River, and that he will keep the standards and focus on achievement for all learners high.

Thank you. Jere Hochman

Principal Candidates Nights--Strong Parent Turnout

Fort River had an excellent turnout this week on each of the three evenings with the principal candidate finalists. It's great to know that so many parents are taking an interest in the process of finding our next principal! Superintendent Jere Hochman is hoping to make offers to the top finalists as early as next week. He assured the Fort River parents on Wednesday evening that he will take all of our feedback into consideration as he makes his decision. I'll keep you all posted! --Ann McLaughlin

Principal Search News

From Today’s (Feb. 18, 2008) Daily Hampshire Gazette (please note the first meeting will take place on MONDAY, Feb. 25th):

Amherst narrows field for principals BY MARY CAREY, STAFF WRITER AMHERST - School officials have identified two finalists for the Amherst Regional Middle School principal post and five finalists for three elementary school principal positions, all of whom will visit the schools in the coming three weeks. Kathryn Mazur, human resources director for Amherst schools, said the finalists' names will be released Monday, Feb. 25 to allow candidates time to tell their current employers they are seeking the job and while background checks on the candidates are being performed. One of the two finalists for the Middle School position is local, Mazur said and one is from eastern Massachusetts. Twenty-two people applied for the position. One of the two candidates will spend the day at the school on Thursday, Feb. 28 and meet with parents and community members at the Middle School Library at 7 p.m., with the other candidate doing the same thing on Monday, March 3. Acting Principal Fran Ziperstein and Co-Principal Michael Hayes are in the second year of their two-year interim positions, succeeding Mary Cavalier, the former principal.

Elementary School Schedule.

Four of the five candidates for the three elementary school positions are from Massachusetts and one is from Rhode Island, Mazur said. Thirty people applied for the positions.One of the elementary school candidates will visit the schools on Monday, Feb. 25, meeting with community members that evening; two candidates will visit on Tuesday, Feb. 26 and two on Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Russ Vernon-Jones, principal of Fort River Elementary School and Paul Wiley, principal of Crocker Farm Elementary School, who both became principal of their respective schools in 1990, announced they were retiring last year. Mark Prince later said he would not return as principal of Wildwood Elementary School after this year, after serving two years there.

Fort River Principal Search

In case you missed the letter in that came home in the backpacks last week, please note that the Superintendent of Schools, Jere Hochman, has announced the formation of an interview committee to include 5 or 6 Fort River parents. Click here for a copy of the letter with the survey on the back. The deadline for submitting your survey is this coming Friday, January 11th. Here is the text of his letter:

January 2, 2008 Dear Parents and Guardians: As you may be aware, I will be selecting a new principal for the Fort River School within the next few months. An interview committee will work with me to review applications, conduct interviews, and review the responses received about candidates. In late January and early February, we will hold an open meeting for parents and community members to meet the finalists. I will send information about that at a later date. I would like your thoughts about a prospective principal for the Fort River School and have posed three questions on the back of this letter. I hope you will take some time to respond and to return the survey to Fort River Principal’s Office by Friday, January 11, 2008. The information I receive from these surveys is valuable in determining the desired characteristics of the principal candidate and the priorities he or she will be addressing in the next few years. While the interview committee will be a small group in order to make the process manageable, I would like to invite your participation. The committee will include five to six parents. If you are interested in participating, you can send a note, addressed to me, to the Fort River Principal’s office or send an email to my assistant, Debbie Westmoreland, westmorelandd@arps.org. Please indicate the grade your child is in and any particular interest you have. The time commitment for this committee will include after-school meetings and a few full days to interview candidates. If you are not selected for the committee, you can still be actively involved in the process by attending the open meetings with the candidates. Thank you. Jere Hochman Superintendent