School Committee Receives Update on Sixth-Grade Move to Middle School
Photo: amherstma.gov
Report on the Meeting of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee, October 14, 2025
This meeting was held in the library of the Amherst Regional High School and simulcast over Amherst Media Channel 15, and was recorded.
Present
Regional School Committee: Sarabess Kenney (Chair, Pelham), Anna Heard (Shutesbury), Bridget Hynes (Amherst), Deb Leonard (Amherst), Sarah Marshall (Amherst), Irv Rhodes (Amherst), Jennifer Shiao (Amherst), William Scherr (Pelham), Tim Shores (Leverett)
Staff: E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi, Superintendent of Schools) and Shannon Bernacchia (Director of Finance, Amherst Public Schools)
The district is closer than ever to moving Amherst sixth graders to the regional middle school building, planned for Fall 2026. The majority of the meeting was dedicated to updating the committee about the sixth-grade move and seeking approval to amend the Regional Agreement to update the terms of the lease and allow the use of space in the Middle School for the sixth grade academy. (View the superintendent’s report on the impact of the creation of the sixth grade academy on the region here).
While the committee unanimously agreed to support Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi) in working toward updating the agreement, the committee had questions about the time frame and logistics of the move, specifically with regard to enabling sixth graders to be in the same building as middle schoolers, but not to integrate with them.
Sixth-Grade Move
Dr. Xi presented an update to the committee on the Sixth-Grade Academy at the Amherst Regional Middle School.
To have proper space for eight to nine classrooms for the projected 144 sixth-grade students next fall, the district business office and professional development center, now located in the middle school, will be relocated to create more rooms. There will be separate hallway assignments for six graders and middle schools students. Dr. Xi explained there are sufficient bathrooms for all grade levels to share.
The sixth graders will start and end their day at the same time as the middle school, with a separate lunch time. For transportation, Amherst will pay a portion of the fees to the region and the sixth graders will ride the same buses as the middle schoolers. Dr. Xi reassured the committee that the students will not participate in middle school sports with seventh and eighth graders.
In regard to special education for the sixth grade, there will continue to be Special Learning Services and English Learning Services.
Amending the Regional Agreement
While the planning and preparation for the transition continues, Dr. Xi requested the committee authorize her to change the language in the lease agreement amendment in order to enable the leasing of space to the Amherst Elementary School District to house the sixth grade academy. The terms of lease arrangements will also need to be amended to allow for leasing at market rate. The current agreement specifies that the maximum charge per classroom per year cannot exceed $100. Also requiring amendment will be the approving authority in Amherst as the agreement now designates the Amherst Select Board as that authority. (Amherst adopted a Town Council/Manager form of government in 2018).
Dr. Xi will also need to inform the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) of the proposed changes. The amended agreement will require approval of all four towns in the region.
The committee unanimously approved the updating of the 1961 lease agreement amendment to properly match market rates, to remove the specific costs that are listed, and to grant the Regional School Committee approval authority for the lease. Dr. Xi will update the committee when a draft of the amendment is ready.
Dr. Xi’s report was followed by a whirlwind of questions from the committee about the timeline and the relationship of sixth graders to middle school students.
Jennifer Shiao and Bridget Hynes both expressed concern about the ability of each of the towns to approve the amendment in time for the students to move into the school.
For others, the concern was the integration of the sixth graders in the middle school and on the bus. Sarah Marshall asked if there would be one or more bathrooms just for sixth graders and what it will look like when the students are mixing in the halls.
Dr. Xi said there will be no bathrooms restricted only for sixth grade and pointed out that in the past there were 800 students in the Amherst Regional Middle School. Last year, there was a total of 366 middle schoolers. She assured the committee that sixth graders would only be on buses with middle schoolers, not high schoolers.
“For me, they will not operate as one school building. The region will have their seventh and eight graders. To me, they’re all within the same social emotional age range,” Dr Xi said.
William Scherr asked about access to sixth-grade books and resources in the library. In response, Dr. Xi explained that the library discussion started recently and that they will provide books for different reading levels and may even hire a library paraprofessional for support.
Cost Centers
As part of an initiative to better organize the school budgets, Dr. Xi explained the use and importance of budget cost centers which, in In K–12 public education, are organizational units—such as a school, department, or program—assigned fiscal responsibility for managing expenditures within an approved budget. Each cost center is used to track spending, ensure accountability, and align financial decisions with district goals. (See Dr Xi’s cost center memo and further explanations here and here.
The committee was asked to vote on formalizing the 15 cost centers already used by the district (see here).
In her memo, Dr. Xi described cost centers as “the foundation of fiscal management and transparency within the Amherst, Pelham, and Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools.” The centers themselves are divided by school, department, or function within their own budget and demonstrate how the school budgets are organized, the memo clarified.
Organizing the budget by cost center is an ongoing conversation for the committee and district, so for the time being Dr. Xi recommended that the school district keep the current framework for cost centers because of the big projects already undertaken by the district (See Dr. Xi’s memo on budget reporting here).
With the majority of the committee asking clarifying questions about the cost centers, Hynes questioned the purpose of this discussion and the time spent on understanding cost centers.
“Why,” she asked. “That sounds like a really big project and we have such big priorities as a school committee. We’re still having bullying issues, we’ve got a huge budget in front of us,” she said.
The vote to formally adopt the cost centers passed with five members voting in favor (Kenney, Shores, Rhodes, Marshall, and Shiao), three opposing (Leonard, Scherr, and Hynes) and one abstaining (Heard).