THE AMHERST, PELHAM & AMHERST-PELHAM REGIONAL

PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Serving the Towns of Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 413-362-1810 (PHONE)

170 CHESTNUT STREET 413-549-6108 (FAX)
AMHERST, MA 01002 WWW. ARPS.ORG

February 22, 2017

Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148

Dear Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Members:

I strongly urge you to vote against allowing Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (PVCICS) to
increase its enrollment by 452 students. There are many reasons to reject this expansion:

The demand for PVCICS does not remotely justify such a large increase; in fact, the schools current
enrollment is less than 81% of the current maximum enrollment.

There is no legitimate basis to grant increased enrollment. In actuality, the schools current maximum enrollment
of 5841 is greater than the sum of the current enrollment of 4712 and the current student waitlist of 1093. There is
no need for the increased enrollment requested, and the data shows that such a request is clearly unjustified.

Charter Schools are public schools mandated to serve all students regardless of race, ethnicity, disability
status, or economic status, among other demographic indicators. PVCICS is currently not meeting that
mandate. Expanding the school is not in the best interest of all students, particularly those who are most
underserved in the Commonwealth and most vulnerable in our current education system.

The student demographics of PVCICS are very different from sending districts in a variety of areas, such as
economically disadvantaged, race/ethnicity, special education, and ELL population, among others. For example,
the special education numbers are dramatically disparate. The Amherst-Pelham Regional School Districts
student population includes 19.5% special needs students, similar to the state average. Special needs students
comprise only 5.9% of students at PVCICS, roughly of the state average. Additionally, a significant number of
students with special education needs or 504 Plans have returned to our district from the school because they did
not feel that their needs were being met at PVCICS. The ELL student population at PVCICS is also dramatically
lower than in Amherst or the state. The data is clear: ELL and special needs families are choosing to not send
their students to PVCICS, which should be troublesome to those invested in educational equity for all students.
There is simply no justification for the state to support expanding a school that is not serving critical underserved
populations. Key demographic comparisons between the Amherst Public Schools and PVCICS can be seen in the
table below:

1
http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=22832
2
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=04970205&orgtypecode=6&
3
http://www.doe.mass.edu/charter/enrollment/fy2017UpdatedWaitlist.html
 2016 State Amherst4 PVCICS 5

ELL 9% 16.8% 2.5%

Students w/Disabilities 17.4% 19.5% 5.9%

Economically Disadvantaged 30.2% 31.8% 15.5%

African-American/Latino 28.3% 32.3% 10.9%

PVCICS is drawing selected students from specific subgroups from districts where these subgroups are
performing highly, thus contributing to increased segregation and decreased performance of schools in the
local area.

PVCICS is not a school that is improving the education of students from failing districts. The vast majority of
PVCICS sending districts have strong academic standing. For instance (as just one data point), our district is in
the Top 20 for SAT scores in the Commonwealth out of 284 reporting districts and charter schools.

Furthermore, like many districts in our area, we are seeing an increase in students requiring additional
assistance to access the curriculum, such as students with intensive special needs, students acquiring English
language skills, and students coming to our district with limited preschool experience. These students benefit
from an integrated environment, which will be compromised by an expansion of PVCICS. The students who
attend PVCICS do not have the experience of being in an integrated environment, which research suggests is
beneficial to all students6. Ironically, unlike the sending districts in the area, the percentage of specials needs and
ELL students at PVCICS has dropped this year, further reducing the diversity of the student body.

Expanding PVCICS will have a negative financial impact on local districts ability to meet the needs of
their students more diverse needs, effectively sending resources from a more diverse to a less diverse
student body. This action thwarts the goals of the funding formula in Massachusetts and negates the
notions of educational equity in the Commonwealth.

This year, the Amherst-Pelham Regional School districts are sending $2,241,386 to PVCICS from our towns' and
districts coffers. These public funds are spent to pay non-unionized faculty and staff through contracts that are
not negotiated by elected officials. As this number grows, it will continue to reduce our towns and districts
capacity to fund (and, frankly, to keep in operation) our own local schools, which are, in fact, governed by locally
elected officials who are accountable to their constituents.

Our smallest district, Pelham, would face incredibly difficult choices about maintaining its elementary school if
the four charter school students currently on the waitlist for PVCICS were admitted. The financial charge to the
town of Pelham for those students of $87,588 is roughly equivalent to all new funding that comes into the Town
annually (not just for the schools, but for the entire Town). The residents of Pelham are deeply passionate about
and proud of their Level 1 School, but it is highly questionable whether the school could remain open and
sustainable under this scenario. Furthermore, raising taxes further to maintain the high quality education the
school offers is unlikely since the town already has a high tax rate of over $21/$1,000 that will soon approach the
state-mandated levy ceiling of $25/$1,000. The existence of small, rural schools like Pelham is put at risk by
increases in charter school enrollment7.

4
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=00080000&orgtypecode=5&
5
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=04970205&orgtypecode=6&
6
https://tcf.org/content/facts/the-benefits-of-socioeconomically-and-racially-integrated-schools-and-classrooms/
7
http://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/rural-schools-caught-indeath-spiral/
In the two larger districts of Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional, schools would remain open but with greatly
reduced services, not only for students who require additional services and support to access the curriculum, but
for all students. The districts would be forced to choose between greatly increasing class sizes or greatly
reducing services and elective programs. None of these choices would be educationally sound nor popular in our
community. However, given the already high tax rate in these communities, it is unlikely that the residents could
support more funding to maintain the quality of their schools in this scenario.

Furthermore, PVCICS has different mandates that reduce the cost of operating school. For example, the school
does not have an integrated preschool program, which research has proven to be critical to supporting student
success for those with identified special needs as well as their typically learning peers 8. We are proud of the
preschool program in our community which has supported our youngest students for many years. However, the
state funding that supports this program via the Inclusive Preschool Learning Environments Grant is being
reduced each year for the next three years, at which point it will be eliminated altogether. PVCICS does not
provide this critical (and mandated) service for students in our communities; therefore they are not impacted by
the lack of state funding to support this work.

To summarize, expanding the enrollment of PVCICS is unwarranted by enrollment data, is inconsistent with state
goals of inclusion and integration, and will not only reduce the educational quality of our local districts but also
potentially result in the closure of our small Level 1 School. I, therefore, respectfully request that you reject the
request to expand the enrollment of PVCICS until the school can show that it can attract and successfully educate
a student body with similar demographics to sending districts in the areas of special needs students, ELL students,
and African-American and Latino students and that the demand for the school exceeds its current maximum
enrollment. The evidence clearly shows that these two criteria have not been met by PVCICS at the current time.

Sincerely,

Dr. Michael Morris

Superintendent
Amherst, Pelham, and the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools

cc: Senate President Stan Rosenberg
Representative Stephen Kulik
Representative Solomon Goldstein-Rose
Amherst School Committee
Pelham School Committee
Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee
Paul Bockelman, Amherst Town Manager
Becky Torres, Shutesbury Town Manager
Marjorie McGinnis, Leverett Town Manager
Amherst Select Board & Finance Committee
Leverett Select Board & Finance Committee
Shutesbury Select Board & Finance Committee

8
https://www.fcd-us.org/assets/2013/10/Evidence20Base20on20Preschool20Education20FINAL.pdf