Upcoming School Events

Report Cards sent home for Grades 1 - 6. Friday, Jan. 30. Superintendent Search Public Forum: Dr. Alberto Rodriguez. Wed. Feb. 4, 7pm. High School Library. 6th Grade Graduation Planning Meeting. Tuesday, Feb. 3, 7-9pm. In the Fort River Library. Click here for more information. School Council Meeting, Thursday, Feb. 5th, 7pm. Principal's Office. Fort River Roasters by Dean's Beans Coffee Orders Due. Friday, Feb. 6th. Click here for order form. Coffee With a Principal, Friday, Feb. 6th, 8:30am. Fort River Cafeteria. Superintendent Search Public Forum: Dr. Isabelina Rodriguez. Monday, Feb. 9th, 7pm. High School Library. School Committee Meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 10th, 7pm. High School Library. Superintendent Search Public Forum: Dr. David Sklarz. Thursday, Feb. 11th, 7pm. High School Library. Winter Recess, Feb. 16th-Feb. 20th. No School. Box Tops For Education Collection Deadline, Wed. Feb. 25. Please send in your Box Tops by this day for the last collection of this school year. All box tops received after this day will be held until next Fall's submission. See below for more information. Note: Items in teal are sponsored by Fort River Parent Council.

Article from the Republican: "Northampton school superintendent named 1 of 3 finalists for Amherst post"

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/northampton_school_superintend.html

"Northampton Superintendent a Finalist for Top Amherst Education Job" By Mary Carey, Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Friday, January 30, 2009

AMHERST - Northampton's superintendent is one of three finalists for the top schools job in Amherst.

Isabelina Rodriguez, superintendent of schools in Northampton since 1994; Alberto Rodriguez, a principal in the Miami-Dade school district; and David Sklarz, superintendent of schools in West Hartford, are contenders for the Amherst post, officials announced this morning.

Amherst Regional School Committee members interviewed semi-finalists last weekend from a pool of 20 applicants.

"These three, I think, are very interesting, " Andrew Churchill, chairman of the Amherst School Committee, said this morning. "I think it's going to be a really good array of choices for the community to give us input on."

Sklarz has run an extremely high-performing district in West Hartford," Churchill said.

Alberto Rodriguez has served in one of the most diverse districts in the Miami area and overseen 55 schools in his former post as assistant superintendent there, Churchill said.

And Isabelina Rodriguez is very strong in special education and bilingual education and has been successful in forming partnerships with area institutions of higher education, he said.

"Northampton is really working well with Smith College and they also have a really well developed volunteers-in-the-schools program. We were excited about her potential to really make better connections with all the resources we have," Churchill said.

Rodriguez began her work in Northampton as director of pupil services in 1994 and worked in the Springfield public schools before that as a bilingual education teacher.

If chosen, she would follow Department of Public Works Director Guilford Mooring and Assistant Town Manager and Finance Director John Musante in leaving posts in Northampton for Amherst.

Box Tops for Education Update

Thanks to everyone who has been clipping those Box Tops. We just deposited our largest check ever--$339 which means 3,390 Box Tops!

We have surpassed the total for last year for both fall and winter submissions ($296) and 2006-2007 the total was $98.29. The last submission to receive a check for this year is the end of February. (Any sent in after this date are saved for the fall submission.) I would ask that all box tops be sent to school by Wednesday February 25th to give me time to bundle and send. I already have $85.00 in hand so we are at $424, only $76 away from our goal of $500 and way above our past years! --Jan Kelly, janandkevink@comcast.net

Upcoming Community Events

Please note that these events are not sponsored by Parent Council. 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. National Girls and Women In Sport Day Youth Clinics at Smith College. The 18th annual sport clinics for girls 3rd through 5th grades are being held Sunday, February 1, from 12:30-4 p.m. in the ITT. Girls have the chance to try out different sports with Smith College athletes (from track & field, field hockey, crew & more). Wear comfortable clothes & sneakers. Snacks, certificates & t-shirts are provided for free. Pre-registration is required. Call 585-2708 to sign up with the athletics department. Registration form here. 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.

Superintendent Finalists to Visit; Public Forums Scheduled

The information about public forums for the 3 finalist candidates has been posted on the ARPS website. Biographical information on each candidate has also been posted. Please make plans to attend. Also, please remember that although we will be evaluating these candidates, they will in turn be evaluating us. We need to convince them that they would like to come work here in our community!

Save these Dates!

The School Committee is anticipating that three finalists will be visiting the district over the next two weeks. Each will spend 2 days in the district and participate in public forums as follows:

Dr. Alberto Rodriguez - February 4 Dr. Isabelina Rodriguez - February 9 Dr. David Sklarz - February 11.

Each of the public forums will be held in the High School Library at 7 p.m. All members of the community are invited to meet the candidates, ask questions and offer written feedback to the School Committee about the candidates.

Daily Hampshire Gazette Article About the Regional School Budget

Amherst schools budget whittled

By Mary Carey

Created 01/24/2009

AMHERST - Regional school officials say they expect the fiscal 2010 budget they submit to spring Town Meeting this spring will be $1 million less than needed to maintain current services.

"In general we're trying to pare a little bit here and a program there, we're taking cuts from the central office. We're still working on it," Interim Co-superintendent Helen Vivian said Friday.

School officials were relieved, however, to learn that Gov. Deval Patrick has said in recent days that he is not planning to cut state education aid for the current year and plans to suggest that the state level-fund education aid next year.

Vivian declined to be more specific about the preliminary regional school budget but said school officials would announce likely specific cuts at the next Regional School Committee meeting on Feb. 3.

A week after that, the Amherst Elementary School Committee will revisit a controversial proposal to close Mark's Meadow Elementary School to save money in the similarly strained elementary school budget.

"We're not going to have the same school system when we have to take this amount of money out of it," Vivian said. "We're trying to examine ways we can cut and then prioritize what would cause the least damage."

A 7 percent increase in spending over this year's $28.1 million budget would be required to maintain the current level of services. But the Finance Committee has recommended that Amherst school officials submit budgets with a 2-percent maximum increase in tax-supported spending on elementary schools and no more than a 3.5 percent increase in spending on the regional schools.

John Musante, the town's finance director, explained in a memorandum this fall that elementary schools would need a 5.8 percent increase and regional schools an 11.7 percent increase to maintain existing services.

The news that further cuts in state education spending are not imminent was encouraging, Vivian said. "But cutting a million dollars from the regional schools is still a very significant cut. We have spent more time than I care to think about trying to find ways of cutting the budget while still protecting our core mission."