Fort River Math Night, Thurs. Feb. 12th, 6:00-8:15pm

Principal Ray Sharick has sent out a flyer about next week's math night. (If you are on his email list, you should have gotten this by email. If not, a paper copy should be coming home in your child's backpack.) This night is meant for parents to find out about the math curriculum at Fort River. There will be limited childcare provided by Parent Council. (Contact Sue Borden at FRPC.sborden@gmail.com for more information about childcare.) A detailed schedule for the evening is at this link: http://www.arps.org/fr/Newsletters/Fort_River_Math_Night.htm.

Stop & Shop A+ BonusBucks Update: January Numbers Are In!

Fort River is continuing on a record-breaking pace in the Stop & Shop BonusBucks program! The total amount we have raised as of Jan. 31st is $1119.33, which means we earned another $383.33 in January. We have also increased the number of cards which are designated for Fort River to 111 (up 17 from last month). I'm expecting that we should exceed last year's total during the month of February. Thanks to everyone who is participating in this program. It's still not too late to sign up if you haven't already. Click here for information on how to do it. It's easy and costs you nothing. If you sign up, all your February purchases will be counted toward Fort River's total.

Upcoming Community Events

Please note that these events are not sponsored by Parent Council. Winterfest '09. Saturday, Feb. 7, 12noon-6pm. Cherry Hill Golf Course. You're invited to enjoy indoor and outdoor winter activities for children, families and adults. More info here. Gift Basket Silent Auction for Local Libraries. The Friends of the Jones Library announce the 12th Annual Valentine Gift Basket Silent Auction featuring Baskets, Books, and Chocolate on display in the atrium of the Jones Library, Amherst, starting Thursday, January 29th and ending at 4pm on Saturday, February 7th. This fundraiser for library books offers over one hundred beautifully wrapped gift baskets filled with books, chocolates, goods and services donated by local businesses and loyal patrons. There are baskets to catch anyone's fancy, from pet lovers to gardeners, parents to children, movie buffs to lovers of music. Last year’s gift basket auction raised over $5,000 to buy new library books for the Amherst Town Libraries. Come to the Jones Library on Saturday, February 7th, enjoy a free family-friendly concert with Nerissa and Katryna Nields at 10:30 a.m. sponsored by the Friends, and then bid on your favorite baskets. Visit the Jones Library website for more information: http://www.joneslibrary.org/. Multi-Arts Play-Writing Competition. As a way to inspire children and young adults to create stories and promote their imagination, Multi-Arts invites them to enter a play-writing competition. The winner will receive $200 and the staging of their play by children in our summer program. Rules can be found on our website: www.multi-arts.org. A note from Parent Council. We will publish information about non-Parent Council sponsored events with the following conditions: 1. The event should be of interest to Fort River families.

2. The information should be sent to Ann McLaughlin at damclaughlin@comcast.net in the form of a short description. 3. Contact information (website or name, telephone and/or email address) must be included. We add new information to the blog every Friday during the school year. Please note that we do not accept announcements of items or services for sale (with the exceptions of children's classes/lessons). Inclusion in this section does not imply any guarantees or endorsements by Fort River Parent Council or Fort River School.

Ongoing Fundraisers

Click here for information on easy ways to help raise money for Fort River.

Amherst School Panel Girds With Much at Stake

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Feb. 4, 2009 By Mary Carey

AMHERST - The Amherst School Committee has formally requested specific details from school administrators on potential budget cuts - as well as a change of venue for next week's meeting in anticipation of a big community turnout.

The board met briefly Tuesday so that Chairman Andrew Churchill could read aloud a memorandum to interim co-superintendents Alton Sprague and Helen Vivian requesting a prioritized list of potential savings, personnel cuts and the impact on classroom size under several elementary school reconfiguration plans. The board is also asking for estimates of the costs of redistricting and potential cuts in next year's school budget.

About 30 parents and community members attended the meeting, including all three candidates currently running for two seats on the School Committee. More are expected to come to the Feb. 10 meeting when the committee begins debating whether to close Mark's Meadow or otherwise reconfigure the four elementary schools.

Churchill said the committee would seek a great deal of public input before making a decision and probably would not narrow down the choices until a month or so from now, when more is known about how much state aid the schools can expect and how much money from the federal stimulus plan potentially will be targeted to the schools.

School officials have estimated that keeping the schools running would require an increase of 7 to 8 percent in the $20.6 million budget. The schools will instead be aiming to increase the budget by no more than 2 percent over last year. And there is a chance that the budget might have to be even tighter than that, Churchill said, which is why the committee is also asking administrators to outline "worst-case scenarios."

Superintendent Visit Postponed

Due to a death in his immediate family, the visit of Superintendent finalist Dr. Alberto Rodriguez scheduled for February 4th and 5th has been postponed. Details of the rescheduled visit will be posted as soon as they become available. Link to Amherst Regional Public Schools website

ACAC Sale

Amherst Community Arts Center is closing and selling all art materials, office supplies, equipment and furniture. For further information or an inventory list, please contact Hillary Milens at hm.acac@gmail.com Or, stop by during the following hours: Tuesday 11am-5pm Wednesday 10am-3:30pm Friday 10am-3pm -- Hillary Milens Executive Director Amherst Community Arts Center