AMHERST — Sixth graders at Amherst’s three elementary schools won’t be joining seventh and eighth graders at the Amherst Regional Middle School until fall 2025, at the earliest.

In a reversal from a fall 2021 vote in which this year’s fifth graders would be heading to the middle school this fall, the Amherst School Committee voted 3-1 Thursday to have the sixth-grade classes move to the regional building either in fall 2025 or fall 2026. A decision on which year sixth graders would move is to be made by the committee no later than November 2024.

The vote comes at the request of Superintendent Michael Morris, who last month presented reasons for the delay, including the costs associated with starting up a new school, the challenges of rebalancing staff across the district and a determination that there would be sufficient space at the elementary schools to educate students.

“Given the variables of space, staffing and budget, as well as other considerations, I recommend that the Amherst School Committee vote to change the timeline for moving 6th grade students to the middle school from fall 2023 to fall 2026,” Morris wrote.

School Committee member Jennifer Shiao, who proposed the motion that gives the School Committee more discretion, said she feels bad about making the change so late in the current school year. Next time the committee takes up the matter, she said, a more definitive decision needs to be made.

Shiao was joined in the vote by Chairwoman Allison McDonald and member Peter Demling. Irv Rhodes, also a member of the panel, proposed to go with the recommendation from Morris and have the move be in fall 2026, which would coincide with the opening of a new 575-student elementary school, for grades K-5, to be built at the Fort River School site, pending approval by voters in May. At that time, such a move would be mandatory.

Any uncertainty that remains in the meantime, Rhodes said, is unfair to families.

Committee member Ben Herrington was absent from the vote.

McDonald said that criticisms from some families for changing course are fair and that the committee should have been more thoughtful in its approach. “I accept that criticism,” McDonald said.

In a survey of families about the school budget and a delay in the potential move, there was a range of responses, including some who worried it would harm the Fort River student experience, in part due to the space limitations there, but others cited it as a positive impact for all families. Some expressed appreciation that the delay would mean the sixth graders being more integrated in the middle school, rather than being separated, when they get there, though a comment indicated that the “delay reflects poor planning around budget and logistics.”

The lone public comment for the meeting came from Jim and Astrid David, who wrote that their 10-year-old daughters, fifth graders at Crocker Farm, are upset about the sudden change.

“This does not look good,” they wrote. “It doesn’t reflect well on our leaders, it does not reflect well on the town of Amherst and it does not do any good for our 5th grades mental and emotional health.”

McDonald said new information came from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the need to introduce additional administrators and staff for the 6th Grade Academy that hadn't been anticipated. There were also incremental costs and inefficiencies of a school within a school.

While Morris offered a mea culpa, he also pointed out the pandemic’s lingering effects.

“Two years ago, the world was a very different place,” Morris said.

At that time, there was a need to get students back into the buildings, and that enrollment changes were unpredictable and what could be done to the existing buildings to get more space was unknown.

Four fewer classrooms are needed next school year. “That’s a significant change, that really opens up space,” Morris said.

McDonald said she understands concerns about adding more uncertainty. But administrators haven't explored the idea of embedding sixth graders more fully into the middle school.

There might also be more input from the regional towns, Leverett, Shutesbury and Pelham, and potential revisions to regional agreement, including a possible amendment, even though none of the other towns had expressed interest in regionalizing sixth graders.

“Give us that time to explore the willingness of the region to have that limited amendment and understand better what those cost implications would be," McDonald said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>