Local News

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]

Turners Falls High School seniors surprised with parade

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

Source: Max Marcus, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 4/24/2020
Link: Complete Article

MONTAGUE — The Class of 2020 is grappling with what has become an unusual graduation season, due to restrictions on large public gatherings that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. Seniors at Turners Falls High School, probably like at most other high schools, are reportedly less than thrilled. “They’re heartbroken,” said Jen Luciano, a seventh-grade… [Read More]

Area officials respond to governor’s order students won’t return to regular classrooms

Posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Byrne, DeLuca, Poli, Marcus, Vine, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 4/22/2020
Link: Complete Article

To the surprise of few educators, public and private school students will not be returning to their regular classrooms this year. Gov. Charlie Baker announced Tuesday at his daily press conference that schools are ordered to remain closed as the state continues to manage the spread of COVID-19. He said the measure does not apply… [Read More]

An Epidemic Far Worse Than Coronavirus

Posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Genesis Rios, NEPR
Date: 4/7/2020
Link: Complete Article

It feels the world I was born into has been taken from me without prior notice, without warning. Coronavirus snuck in like a thief in the middle of the night while I slept in peace, and robbed me of my friends, my family, my education and — to an extent — my freedom. It provoked… [Read More]

Educators rising to remote learning challenges

Posted on Monday, April 6th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Chris Goudreau, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 4/4/2020
Link: Complete Article

Schools across the state, country and the globe are closed amid the coronavirus pandemic. Here in Massachusetts, schools are slated to reopen at the beginning of May, the state is now per Gov. Charlie Baker’s order. In the meantime, local educators in the Pioneer Valley are interacting with students on a daily basis remotely and… [Read More]

Gill-Montague selects Hopkins Academy principal Brian Beck as new superintendent

Posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2020 by Collaborative for Educational Services

Source: Max Marcus, Greenfield Recorder
Date: 3/25/2020
Link: Complete Article

MONTAGUE — Brian Beck, principal of Hopkins Academy in Hadley, has been chosen to replace Michael Sullivan as superintendent of the Gill-Montague Regional School District. Beck is a Montague resident. Before starting work at Hopkins Academy, he had been principal of Athol High School; before that, he worked at Mohawk Trail Regional School, as assistant… [Read More]