Now on view through May 31, 2020

September Letter to the Editor: 

Schools are open, busses are running, and kids are sitting in classrooms while teachers present lessons in front of them.  In other words, it sounds like a normal September is underway for Amherst School District.  If only it were that simple.

After the more bizarre summer most of us can remember, Amherst schools are open for learning.  To get to this point, there have been hundreds of people spending thousands of hours determining the best way to provide the best possible education for our kids.  They have produced hundreds of pages of detailed plans and protocols to ensure this is done as safely as possible.  You can view all the plans at www.sau39.org but, in a nutshell, this is the current state of affairs:

1. Administrators of SAU 39 announced a plan to open schools in early August.  The plan gives students, parents, and teachers the choice – based on their personal health, safety, and comfort – of returning to in-person learning five days a week or learning and teaching remotely.

2. The school year will be divided into approximately month-long segments, with parents AND educators being asked prior to each segment if they will attend remotely or in the classroom.

3. Prior to each segment, the SAU will set a status for how ‘open’ the schools will be for the upcoming session based on COVID-19 conditions in our community and state while following any guidance or orders issued by the governor. 

4. This color-coded system ranges from red (100% remote learning) to orange (25% capacity) to yellow (70% open) to green (90 percent open), and blue (99 percent open, all systems near normal).  We are currently operating in a yellow status, meaning schools are open to any student who wishes to return to campus.

5. Approximately 70 percent of students and teachers opted for in-person learning for the introductory two-week segment.  Decisions on segment two, another two-week session, will be made after press time.  The first lengthier session begins at the end of the month.

To make the above work, the district has put in place strict cleaning and safety procedures.  These include:

• Mandatory masking for all students and teachers in orange and yellow status.

• Upgrades to the heating and air systems for air quality and air flow.

• Limited capacity on school busses with students wearing masks and occupying every other row.

• Intensive hourly, daily, and weekly cleaning in every building.

• Daily verification that teachers and students are symptom-free and feeling well before entering a building.

• New classroom arrangements limit the number of interactions each teacher and student has during the day.

• Children eat lunch in the class and spend recess with their cohorts outside.

• Teachers will be encouraged to use outdoor classrooms as much as possible.

• Strict quarantine plans for students or teachers who have symptoms, have had exposure, or are diagnosed with COVID-19.

Now you would not be wrong to ask the question, how much does this plan cost?  In short, over $1.3 million for supplies and staffing, plus hundreds of thousands more for HVAC modifications that are being prioritized now rather than scheduled down the road in our master facilities plan.

To pay for this, we have petitioned the New Hampshire Department of Education (DOE) to utilize the unreserved fund balance (UFB) from the 2019-20 school year.**  In April, Governor Chris Sununu foresaw many districts in the state needing additional funds to cover the additional costs of opening schools safely during the pandemic.  In lieu of this information, he signed Emergency Order 38, which allows school districts to apply to the DOE to access these funds.

This was not our original intent with the UFB.  When we got word in June that the UFB balance would be about $1.4 million, we approved $400,000 for the district to use on a variety of projects while $1 million would be returned to taxpayers.  When the fiscal year officially ended June 30, and after some of that $400,000 was expended, more than $1.5 million remained in our UFB.  In a normal year, this money would have been returned to taxpayers as planned.  However, after a lengthy discussion, the board voted to allow the administration to apply to the DOE to utilize these funds for our 2020-21 school year reopening plan.  We chose this option for a variety of reasons:

1. Overseeing the education of the children of this community is our elected purpose.  Countless experts across the world have repeatedly stated this summer there is no proper substitute for in-person learning, no matter how robust the remote system is (and ours will be robust!).

2. Those same experts have said there are safe ways to open with proper protocols in place.

3. The social-emotional impact on kids in the last six months is unprecedented. Returning to schools can mitigate this.

4. New Hampshire is in a good place in the battle with COVID-19.  Had the numbers been more extreme, our plan would be different.  If they numbers change, our plan is adaptable.

5. This plan satisfies the needs of most of the families in our district.  Those who want to return to school can, while those who want or need to stay home for health reasons have that choice.

6. As the state and economy continue to open, parents need to return to work and not everyone can do so if schools are remote only.

7. There is no additional tax impact if we use the UFB funds.  In the face of economic hardship, huge unemployment, and an uncertain fall and winter, we did not want to place another tax burden on the community. 

We did not relish taking this decision out of taxpayers’ hands but we did so unanimously for the reasons listed above, plus dozens of others.  Had the board not chosen this route, we would have brought the request to the public for a special meeting, which entails a warrant article asking for the money followed by public hearing, deliberative session, and an official vote.  This process would have resulted in an additional tax impact and taken months to organize.  And if it failed, we would likely have had to close schools and go fully remote for the duration of the year.  As mentioned above, we did not think this the best option for our students or community.

There is no easy way to navigate the current state of our world but we made the best decisions we could make with the health, safety, and education of our community firmly in mind.  Let’s hope that New Hampshire continues to put up the good fight against COVID-19 and that science comes to our aid sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, our next meetings are scheduled for September 14 – Amherst School Board at 4 p.m. and the SAU join-level board at 6:15 p.m.  During the SAU meeting, we will be appointing community members to the SAU budget committee.  If you are interested in assisting with the development of the SAU budget, email SAU board chair Stephen O’Keefe at sokeefe@sprise.com.  The Amherst district will get a first look at the 2021-22 budget in October.

**At press time, the DOE and our district were still discussing the legitimacy of the district’s funding request based on ambiguity in the executive order.

 

Amherst School Board

Elizabeth Kuzsma Chair  

Terri Behm 

Tom Gauthier Vice-Chair

Ellen Grudzien 

Joshua Conklin