The Chinese Charter School chose an Amherst location?

The founders said several times that the school would not be located in Amherst, and that students would be drawn from many communities in the Pioneer Valley so the Charter School wasn't going to be in as direct competition with Amherst Schools as the Amherst district said.

Good school buildings are hard to find. I'm sure they looked at other places besides the nearby Hadley buildings mentioned in the Gazette, but Amherst was the only location available?

So much for Larry's earlier reassurance about the Charter School being farther away and therefore that it would not have a big financial effect nor draw off the very kids and families needed to sustain the Chinese program at Wildwood. Minor in the scope of all the other problems the town and school are facing, but I'm disappointed that the Charter School did choose to locate in Amherst after all.

Sheessh. Obviously Elaine only read Stephanie’s headline and didn’t bother reading my blog. Yes we looked at a bevy of places--but we’re a Public Elementary School, and the days of circumventing ADA requirements (as Pioneer Valley Performing Arts managed to do when they were in Hadley) are long gone.

And this location in bucolic South Amherst is TEMPORARY (we signed a one-year lease). We are opening in September with only Kindergarten and First Grade and will ramp up by adding one grade per year until we are at full capacity K-8. Thus we will rapidly outgrow this location.

The Wildwood Chinese program is so exceedingly low key--with kids only getting twenty minutes, three days per week of instruction--that even if we draw off half the families needed to “sustain the Chinese program” then simply give the remainder forty minutes of instruction three times per week. It is, after all, a Federal Grant (and only good for three years).

Ms. Brighty’s disappointing at PVCIC locating in Amherst will probably be matched a couple years down the road by some other school official in some other town expressing the same disappointment.

For instance, Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins (who also chairs the School Committee) and South Hadley School Superintendent Gus Sayer also wrote letters to the Department of Education attempting to undermine our Charter proposal,

So maybe we should locate for a year or two in every community where officials attempted to kill us.

As of right now, 3:30-ish on 7/11, Larry's original and follow-up posts about this are no longer on his blog. Hmmmm.

Well, that has nothing to do with the truth of the matter.

As I pointed out to you in an email shortly after posting my original blog disclosure: “I’m going to catch Hell from the Trustees”

It’s one thing to do battle with those who would kill your dream; it’s another thing altogether to end up taking fire from those who share your dream.

And one of those Trustees (my wife) resigned a few hours ago.

fortunately for the Amherst historians Google cached the entry.

I never did trust that darn Google.