TURNERS FALLS — Emotions ran high at the start of the Gill-Montague Regional School Committee meeting where parents and community members from Gill advocated against cutting the fifth grade teaching position at Gill Elementary and combining the fifth and sixth grade classes at the school.
The proposed cuts are because there were several late expenses the district had to account for before the next school year.
About 20 parents and several students holding signs were in attendance during the start of the meeting. District superintendent Michael Sullivan had met with members of the Gill Elementary community on Monday night to discuss the reductions.
Gill parent and selectboard member Greg Snedeker said this would have a significant impact on the elementary school’s students and said the impact on the 27 Gill students would be the same, percentage wise of impacting 50 Sheffield students.
Current fifth grade students in Jackie Chase’s class attended the meeting with their parents and held up “Save Ms. Chase” signs.
Katia Williford, a parent at the school, said the move would be detrimental to incoming fifth and sixth graders at the school. She said if they cut Chase, who she called a fantastic teacher, that they would likely need to hire another fifth grade teacher after next year and that the district may be less desirable to someone of Chase’s caliber.
“I don’t think this school district is the kind of place where a fantastic teacher would want to be,” she said.
The cut is also concerning from the perspective of state testing, according to parent Kelly Stevens. She said that given the high expectations on students and teachers, this would only make things worse.
“In a public school setting that is the right thing to do for any child or any educator,” she said.
The School Committee plans to vote on the proposed cuts at its next regular meeting, May 23.
In other news, the Committee moved forward with discussions on the Turners Falls High School mascot criteria. It further refined those criteria Tuesday night, aiming to give a clear list of recommendations for when new mascot proposals are submitted. The rest of the process beyond determining criteria, has yet to be set by the board.
“These are challenges to be met, not obstacles to prevent,” School Committee chairman Michael Langknecht said of the criteria.
Earlier in the meeting, Alana Martineau, a parent who has advocated on behalf of keeping the Indian as the mascot, asked the School Committee to refrain from saying disparaging remarks about the upcoming referendum.
“The people of the town do not feel like they’ve had their say,” she said. “Does it change anything? Probably not. But it does provide some closure for us.”