I also have to say this is the most damaging school committee in the history of this school. Your neglect of what PVRS stood for and your lack of consideration for students and teachers is also appalling.Not to mention your laziness concerning how Miller was hired.
It doesn't stop with just them, parents and taxpayers you had a hand in this as well by YOUR SILENCE. You allowed this destruction and you did nothing to stop it.
PVRS HAS LOST IT'S PRIDE!
Losing such great teachers and the Dean of students who kids depended on is a disgrace. But what is worst is what YOU as TAXPAYERS are allowing for salaries! Miller, Bacon, Healey, nor the VPrincipal are worth this unbelievable salary, that could have saved many jobs, and me as a parent do not find having kids learn off of skype as a learning experience a fundamental one for children. Nor having 20 plus kids per Teacher per room a valued learning experience.
You had these kids stand before you crying and telling you how important these teachers were to their education and you heard nothing.
Well hear this, kids in 6th/ grade wanted PVRS as school choice, now you have NONE, parents are looking into charter schools, and other options to remove kids from this school. What happens when you finally wake up and realize your too late?
PVRS is on a downslide and I predict within 5 to 6 years will be closed.
BERNARDSTON — With tears in her eyes, Pioneer Valley Regional School senior Annalise Holesovsky stood before the School Committee and recounted her early days at Pioneer, when she first got to know Dean of Students Cathy Hawkins-Harrison.
Though students had nicknamed her “the hawk,” Holesovsky said she found support through Hawkins-Harrison, who holds one of 18 full-time positions being cut in next school year’s budget.
“I came and she made it comfortable for me,” Holesovsky said. “It wasn’t the hawk, it was my mother … Not only are we losing teachers, but we’re losing our role models.”
Holesovsky was one of several students who stood before the School Committee Thursday night at Bernardston Elementary School to express dissatisfaction with the proposed staff cuts. More than 75 students, parents, faculty and community members crowded into the school cafeteria.
Figures presented at the March 7 School Committee meeting — at which the School Committee approved a $14.2 million budget — indicate Pioneer would lose 12 teachers, the dean of students, one custodian and four instructional assistants. Additionally, one districtwide technical support staff member and Librarian Fiona Chevalier would be reduced to half-time. Pioneer Principal Jean Bacon said previously that there are now 88 total staff members at Pioneer.
“Without these teachers, I would not be who I am today,” added Pioneer senior Amelia Marchand. “To have one-third less love than I have every day is hard to imagine.”
When the cuts were first proposed in January, Bacon explained that Pioneer’s enrollment had decreased by 25 percent over the past eight years, though few adjustments had been made to staffing levels. Bacon said in the past five years, Pioneer’s enrollment has declined by 140 students, having 409 students at the start of the 2016-2017 school year.
“There’s a big misalignment,” Bacon had said. “We just don’t need as many teachers to deliver education to a population that’s 140 less.”
McRae spoke of a lack of communication regarding staffing and curriculum changes at Pioneer, which he feels has created a “damaged school culture.” For example, the names of teachers who will be laid off have not yet been announced, he said.
“How are we to choose our classes next year when we don’t even know who’s going to be around to teach them?” McRae asked.
Pioneer’s recently adopted five-year School Improvement Plan emphasizes offering more advanced placement and online classes in heterogeneous groups, and the School Committee has discussed employing distance learning, whereby two classrooms in different countries could unite to have class together using audio-video software, like Skype. During Thursday’s meeting, students expressed their preference to keep their current teachers rather than have a more rigorous or more diverse curriculum.
“I don’t want to take a class with teachers in Japan or India,” said Pioneer junior Alyks Kostecki. “I want to take a class with teachers I know, like Ms. Boulay and Mr. Killeen.”
Kostecki said Pioneer’s teachers “become sanctuaries” for students across social cliques.
“They connect with students in no way that teachers from Africa could,” he said.
In response, the school district’s Director of Technology Karen Scanlon said the curriculum changes were “not brought in to replace teachers.”
“It was to give (students) the opportunity to take anything in their interest,” Scanlon said.
The proposed staff and curriculum changes have some students exploring different schools and dual enrollment at Greenfield Community College, the students said.
“I’m disappointed in how Pioneer has changed,” said Pioneer junior Christina Cunningham, a dual enrollment applicant. “A lot of students are going to leave, including me.”
Though the School Committee is aiming to keep a fiscally conservative budget in response to pushback from North County residents, McRae asked the School Committee to reconsider where money is going in the next school year.
“I ask you — what’s more important?” he said. “The school’s budget, or the futures of more than 400 students?”
