■The Rev. Francis H. Kaminski, 50, pastor of St. Valentine’s Polish National Catholic Church, collapsed Wednesday while at the rectory, and was dead on arrival at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. He assumed his first parish assignment at Holy Cross Church in Cambridge, coming to St. Valentine’s Church in 1944.
■The “overwhelming majority” of the Advisory Council on Health Education has recommended against inclusion of any course in sex education in the Easthampton school system. On the basis of the advisory council’s report, it is deemed unlikely that any courses involving sex education would be forthcoming in the foreseeable future.
■Raymond J. Cooke of Williamsburg, the new superintendent of the Smith Vocation and Agricultural High School, come to the post with a background both as an educator and a printer, trained through an apprenticeship in his native England. “I don’t have an agenda at the moment,” Cooke, 54, said on Friday, his third day in his new job. “I’m just trying to find out what’s going on.”
■Concern about the number and use of parking spaces could delay the opening of the Western Massachusetts Hilltown Cooperative Charter School in Williamsburg. Building Inspector James Lawrence told selectmen last night that the ZBA would schedule a hearing to discuss a change of use of the parking lot at the Brassworks Shops complex on Route 9.
■More rail trail users are coming forward with accounts of injuries suffered after striking small metal brackets on routes running through Northampton and Easthampton. The reports have emerged in the wake of a Gazette story that detailed two recent crashes involving a bicyclist and a man in a wheelchair.
■The Easthampton City Council gave the unanimous go-ahead Wednesday to a man who wants to open a clam shack on Northampton Street. Kevin A. Sahagian will now be able to pursue a special permit to create Captain Jack’s Roadside Shack in a building on land owned by and adjacent to Fedor Pontiac.