help with elementary schools in Amherst MA (Salem, South Hadley: house, neighborhood)

[vburbano]

I could be moving to this area and I am a bit concern about the elementary schools. Someone knows which are good schools? Thing to do with small children from 2 to 7 years of age?

[ScituateAl]

Amherst and Hadley are known to have very good districts vs. the surrounding towns. I do not know if they participate in school choice (allowing kids from outside towns) but you can check the MA DOE site for a list. There's been other threads about MCAS test scores and whether they are a good indicator or not of the quality of education. Whether you love or hate the idea of standardized testing, I believe you'll find that Amherst and Hadley have relatively good MCAS scores as well. The one downside I've heard is that Hadley may really really push the test preparation and may feel a bit too narrow-focused.

The area is blessed with the Five Colleges, so there's lots of professionals and interest in education - but there's an equal number of less well off hill towns not too far away also.

[vburbano]

Thank you so much for the information . It was extremely helpful. I hope more people from the area give me their opinions.

[ScituateAl]

FYI that our info comes from friends who lived in Hadley for 2 years with their 5 & 2 year old. They just bought a house and moved down to South Hadley.

[Pioneer Valley Girl]

The schools in Amherst are very good and the district is widely considered one of the best schools systems in the area. The elementary schools are neighborhood based but there is an open enrollment program if you're willing to transport your child to school yourself. This is available on a space only basis. The exception to the neighborhood school program is the preschool at Crocker Farm which serves the entire Amherst/ Pelham district.

There is a lot of talk about redistricting at the moment. The plan may consolidate the four Amherst schools into two or three schools or it may create a K-4 system with an intermediate 5-6 school. Depending on when your move is that may change your childrens' school assignment.

What specifically concerned you about Amherst's elementary schools?

[vburbano]

Well as far as I know my daughter would have to attend Marks Meadows School, but the school told me that they are closing their doors this summer and that all children in that school are going to be moved to Wildwood, I am concern because my daughter is not used to big schools, and the classroom size is going to be extremely big and I don't know how good the education is going to be with such big classrooms.

[teachertype]

The Hatfield, Belchertown, Shutesbury, Leverett, New Salem/Wendell and Easthampton schools are also good at the elementary level.

I don't know why you think classroom size will be extremely big. Amherst parents would flip out, organize, and change things if the schools were extremely bad anything.

[Xenos]

The redistricting plan was approved a couple weeks ago, and it is official. The maps are available at the schools website at arps.org

The new arrangement, on the whole, is good. There were several problems with the old system, and with an entrenched political system resisting changes the closing of Mark's Meadow finally forced the new redistricting to be done.

Wildwood is a great school. I can't imagine that there will be serious problems there next year.