Beverly teachers and parents press School Committee over proposed 3-person middle-school teams and cut to German program

Beverly — Multiple teachers and parents urged the Beverly School Committee on May 14 to preserve the district’s two-person middle-school team model and to reconsider a proposed elimination of the middle-school German program.

Stephanie Andrews, a high-school German teacher, told the committee she first spoke on the issue in 2018 and warned that cutting middle-school German “will have far reaching consequences” for the high-school program and reduce students’ long-term access to the language. Allison Nichols, a seventh-grade Spanish teacher, said eliminating German “not only limits choice, it also diminishes the strength and diversity of our world language program as a whole.”

Teachers described the two-person team model at Beverly Middle School as a core mechanism for building consistent teacher-student relationships. Several fifth- and sixth-grade teachers, including Scott Sattera and Chandler Davis, said the district’s proposal to replace some two-person teams with three-person teams would “undermine” collaboration and student continuity. Sattera said two-person teams “effectively build strong relationships with our students” and urged the committee to “maintain this model.”

Why it matters: teachers said the proposed three-person structure could fragment grade-level communities, shorten class times, and increase transitions — all outcomes they warned would reduce instructional time and student stability at a key developmental stage. Chris Melanson, a sixth-grade teacher, said the proposed change would create “an imbalance both structurally and emotionally for students and teachers” when teams are split between two- and three-person configurations.

Program impacts: speakers said the middle-school changes are linked to wider staffing and scheduling proposals and to efforts to balance the district budget after one-time ESSER funds step down. Teachers pointed out that the middle school feeds the high school, and weakening feeder programs could depress future high-school enrollments for electives like German and music.

District view: administrators said principals were consulted in building FY26 proposals, that principals had options in how to use building resources, and that some shifts reflected attempts to reduce overlapping roles while maintaining services. The superintendent asked committee members to submit specific questions in advance so administration could provide prepared data at the next meeting.

Community notes: teachers and parents urged the committee to hold a careful review before finalizing any team structure or cutting language offerings. “Are we a district that believes in two-person teams in grades 5 and 6 or not?” asked Chris Melanson. Several speakers requested that the committee preserve two-person teams in grades 5 and 6 where they remain in place.

Ending: Committee members agreed to continue discussion at a scheduled follow-up meeting and asked administration to provide explanatory data on enrollment projections, team configurations and scheduling trade-offs before a final vote on the FY26 budget.