Regional School Committee Approves Bid for ARMS Roof Repairs. Hears Calls for Advanced Spanish Classes at Middle School

Report on the Meeting of Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee, April 14, 2026

This meeting was held in the library of the Amherst Regional High School and simulcast over Amherst Media Channel 9, and was recorded.

Present
Regional School Committee: Sarahbess Kenney (Chair, Pelham), Andrew Hart (Amherst), Laura Jane Hunter (Amherst), Anna Heard (Shutesbury), Bridget Hynes (Amherst), Deb Leonard (Amherst), Sarah Marshall (Amherst), William Sherr (Pelham) and Tim Shores (Leverett)

Staff: E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi, Superintendent of Schools) and Shannon Bernacchia (Director of Finance, Amherst Public Schools) 🏫

Meeting Highlights
The district is one step closer to replacing the Amherst Regional Middle School (ARMS) roof repiar with the unanimous approval of the initial bid for construction in addition to unanimously approving accepting a donation from the town of Amherst for the middle school auditorium roof portion of the project.

Other than the two and a half hour executive session to discuss collective bargaining or litigation, the majority of the meeting was spent, taking public comment and accepting gifts from the town or other organizations.

The committee also talked about the future Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) review with Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi). Additionally, they postponed discussion of the integration of Chestnut Academy to ARMS until the next meeting on May 12 because the documents in the pocket (see here and here) were not posted sufficiently in advance. 

Public Comment
A total of 40 parents from the Caminantes dual language program as well as additional supporters, wrote a letter to the superintendent asking for advanced Spanish courses for students entering ARMS. 

The 32 sixth-grade students in the Caminantes program have taken bilingual classes in Spanish and English since kindergarten, allowing them to learn Spanish immersively for half the school day. Currently, the middle school does not offer courses beyond the introductory level, which would be detrimental to Caminantes students’ learning, according to their parents.

Karla Sarr, parent to one of the students in the Caminates program, said, “We’re just asking that you help bridge them, help provide them a walkway from elementary to high school where they’ll have even more options.”

ARMS Auditorium Roof
The School Committee voted unanimously to accept the $1,600,000 donation from the Town of Amherst for the ARMS auditorium roof. These funds were provided from free cash for appropriation, according to a document from the Town Council.

Shannon Bernacchia, Director of Finance for the Amherst Public Schools and Jeff D’Amico, Managing Director of Owner’s Project Management at Vertex Companies, presented two bids for the “base scope” of the roof construction (without the auditorium roof), according to the memo presented. One from Silktown Roofing, LLC was for $5,570,412 and a second bid from Titan Roofing, Inc. was for $6,772,000.

Silktown Roofing also submitted the lowest bid of $1,162,221 for Alternate #1 – for the auditorium roof replacement –which fell within the district’s budget. 

Both Bernacchia and D’Amico recommended that the committee accept both bids from Silktown Roofing.

The HVAC portion of the construction is being rebid. The general contractors have included an allowance for this work in the bids that they submitted. Any deviation from the allowance will be addressed through a change order. This bidding will close in two weeks, and the updated information will be presented to the committee then.

D’Amico pointed out that the anticipated price was $8.4 million, but is now expected to come in well under that, based on the bid from Silktown Roofing. There will be minor adjustments to the final cost, but as of now, the district appears to be looking at about $2 million in savings.

The vote to accept Silktown Roofing’s bids passed unanimously.

Additional Gifts
Along with the donation from the town of Amherst for the roof, the town also donated $150,000 of free cash for track and field maintenance.

Ahold Delhaize USA, parent company to grocery stores like Hannaford and Stop & Shop, continued the spirit of giving back by donating $936.25 to the Middle School at the principal’s discretion.

Amherst Education Foundation also donated two grants: $9,070 for Personal Fitness-Cardiovascular Infusion and $4,740 to the ARHS Table Tennis Club. 

Acceptance of all donations and gifts was unanimously approved by the committee.