■Students gathered for the first time in the newly completed Hampshire Regional School in Westhampton where this week they have been having orientations on class schedules, homeroom and locker assignments and tours of the school and grounds.
■The formation of a Charter Commission to study how Northampton can be governed more efficiently will be the topic of a radio program to be aired on radio station WHMP on Monday. Mayor Sean M. Dunphy and University of Massachusetts Professor of Government David A. Booth will participate in the program, one of the continuing “Forward Northampton” series.
■At the Pines Theater in Look Park, the “transperformance” has become an annual performance of note — and it’s back on Tuesday night. This year’s theme — dreamed up by the folks at the Northampton Arts Council — pokes a bit of fun at the Grand Ole Opry of Nashville, Tenn.
■On Sept. 16, a home and building center on West Street in Hatfield will open again. Rugg Manufacturing Inc. is working steadily to open its new retail store in space formerly occupied by Grossman’s Inc. Rugg bought the building last spring, after Grossman’s closed that retail outlet and a number of others in March.
■Here’s something for your Twitter feed: “Tweet” has earned a spot in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Used as both a noun and a verb, the word describing a post made on the online Twitter message service is among more than 100 new terms revealed Thursday for the dictionary publisher’s newest edition.
■To serve what it sees as a growing unmet need, the Center for New Americans of Northampton is looking at offering English for Speakers of Other Languages classes beginning one year from now. With 2010 Census figures showing the Hispanic population of Turners Falls more than doubling since 2000, a coalition of groups met at the Center for New Americans to discuss how language classes can best meet their needs.