Local News

South Hadley community celebrates Class of 2020 with sign for each graduate

Posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Jacquelyn Voghel, Hampshire Daily Gazette
Date: 5/20/2020
Link: Complete Article

SOUTH HADLEY — While South Hadley High School seniors won’t be able to walk across the stage in June to receive their diplomas, school officials are finding creative ways to showcase graduates in the community. Along Newton Street, a new display features signs honoring each of the 140 students in the Class of 2020. Every… [Read More]

Pioneer Valley Excellence In Teaching Awards Presented To 113 Educators

Posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: BusinessWest Staff, BusinessWest Magaine
Date: May 19, 2020
Link: Complete Article

SPRINGFIELD — School districts across the region participated in a rigorous process to select the winners of the 2020 Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards. The program, which is in its 18th year, celebrates outstanding educators who make a significant impact on their colleagues and school community. This past winter, the announcements were made in surprise… [Read More]

High School Seniors Are ‘Making Lemonade out of Lemons’ With Graduations Online, at Drive-Ins and on Racetracks

Posted on Friday, May 15th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Katie Reilly, Time
Date: 5/14/2020
Link: Complete Article

Briauna Leonard graduated from high school at home wearing pajamas and sitting at her kitchen table beside her cat, Mr. Pickles, watching the salutatory address that she recorded a week earlier in an almost empty auditorium. “It was a little heartbreaking, honestly, to work your way up for 12 years, and you look forward to… [Read More]

When Your Remote Classroom Is Your Car: How Some Rural Students Without Broadband Are Connecting

Posted on Friday, May 8th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Carrie Jung, WBUR
Date: 5/8/2020
Link: Complete Article

Even though school is closed, on a given day there are about a dozen cars lined up in the parking lot of Sanderson Academy in Ashfield with people using the school’s WiFi. Natalie Szewczyk is one of them. The 18-year-old has turned her Toyota Corolla into a mobile work station. “I stay in my driver’s… [Read More]

Making music: Pioneer students design homemade instruments for music, engineering project

Posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Zack DeLuca, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 5/6/2020
Link: Complete Article

Middle school students at the Pioneer Valley Regional School in Northfield showcased their musical talents and engineering design skills recently during a combined class project through which they built and played musical instruments using materials found at home. The project was coordinated by Engineering Teacher Dr. John Heffernan and Pioneer Music Teacher Maki Matsui. According to Heffernan,… [Read More]

The people’s principal: Jackson Street School leader says goodbye after three decades in district

Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Greta Jochem, Daily Hampshire Gazette
Date: 5/4/2020
Link: Complete Article

NORTHAMPTON — Gwen Agna initially hesitated when she was offered the role of interim principal at Bridge Street School in 1993. She stayed up all night writing a letter to then-school superintendent Bruce Willard “about all the things I couldn’t do,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t yell at children. I don’t fix boilers,’” thinking that was how she would… [Read More]

Easthampton High team wins national civics championship

Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Bera Dunau, Daily Hampshire Gazette
Date: 5/2/2020
Link: Complete Article

EASTHAMPTON — Before this week, Easthampton High School had never finished better than 19th at the national finals for the We the People competition. Yet on Monday night, a public school team from this small city learned that they’d done the unthinkable: They had won it all. “Never in a million years did I think that we would be… [Read More]

Sheffield Elementary School celebrates National Poetry Month with ‘poet trees’

Posted on Friday, May 1st, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Max Marcus, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 5/1/2020
Link: Complete Article

TURNERS FALLS — National Poetry Month at Sheffield Elementary School usually centers around second-graders, who learn about the art form all year long. But this year, it morphed into a community-building project. Second-graders learn how to read poetry by studying a new poem with their teachers every week from October through June, said Principal Melissa… [Read More]

Frontier Regional School Sign Project Honors Graduating Seniors

Posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Chris Collins, Franklin County Now
Date: 4/28/2020
Link: Complete Article

(South Deerfield, MA) — The Frontier Regional School District has found an innovative way to honor its graduating senior class. Adorning the front lawn of the South Deerfield School are a series of signs containing the names and pictures of each member of the FRS Class of 2020, which has been forced to forgo the… [Read More]

Franklin Tech to open nursing simulation lab next school year

Posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Max Marcus, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 4/23/2020
Link: Complete Article

MONTAGUE — Construction of a new nursing simulation lab that Franklin County Technical School had planned to open this fall has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the school still expects to have the lab available at some point during the next school year. The high-tech nursing lab will expand on Franklin Tech’s… [Read More]