About Union #28 Central Office Community Partnership for Children Family Network Exemplary Projects Professional Development Job Opportunities MCAS Home

About Erving School Union #28 The Erving School Union #28 is a 700 pupil school system with four elementary schools serving five towns - Erving, Leverett, Shutesbury, New Salem, and Wendell. The governing structure provides for a local school committee for each town and, therefore, each elementary school (because new Salem and Wendell operate as part of a legislatively created type of regional district). Representatives of each school committee serve on the Union School Committee, which hires system-wide personnel, but which exercises relatively little direct authority for the actual operations of each separate elementary school. The local school committees have primary responsibility for governance of each school. The Schools The school populations range between 140 and 170, preschool through sixth grade. Three of the four schools are quite modern and are designed for some flexibility of use by virtue of their demountable classroom walls. All of the four schools have some elements of team teaching and mixed grade classrooms. All of the schools have a complement of learning specialists, both for special education and supplementary purposes; and all of them are committed to the integration of at risk children into regular classroom programs. All of the schools have a more than usual level of psychological services. All have part-time arts, physical education, speech and language, and nursing services. The schools in this system have earned a reputation for success with children. They each strive to create informal atmospheres for children, marked by high expectations for social and behavioral relationships among children and between children and adults, as well as high expectations for academic achievement. The teaching staff is unusually talented and includes members who speak frequently on education, who have published professional books and articles, who are recognized artists and composers. Particular instructional strengths include thematic instruction and an interest in good work by children, work that incidentally can be used to assess their achievements. The Communities These are a diverse group of rural communities. Leverett and Shutesbury are bordered by Amherst on the south and are heavily influenced by the universities in that town. The University of Massachusetts is the largest employer of people in those two towns. Erving, on the other hand, is primarily a blue collar town. Paper mills and similar industries are the largest employers there. New Salem and Wendell have diverse populations -- influenced somewhat by the university, by the local industry, and to some degree, by being further east near Route 2 and the growing population along that corridor. The area is growing in total population and school enrollment. School construction programs have recently been completed or are underway for New Salem and Wendell, Shutesbury and Leverett. Erving School Union #28 18 Pleasant Street, Erving, Ma 01344 Voice - 413.423.3337 | Fax - 413.423.3236 u28supt@ erving.com About Union #28 | Central Office | Community Partnership for Children | Family Network | Exemplary Projects | Professional Development | Job Opportunities | Home