■A collection of artifacts for students of historic Northampton is being prepared by the Northampton Historical Society, following their summer of painting, sorting and cleaning in the Memorial Hall Museum. The society hopes to convert the Memorial Hall main floor into a full-scale museum.
■Charles A. Burch has been named an assistant student counselor at Smith College’s department of Health Services. Burch received his third-year certificate from the Smith College School for Social Work this year.
■The population of students who represent racial and ethnic minorities at the Jackson Street School is estimated at 48%, only 2% away from the school’s being considered “racially imbalanced” under general rules laid down by the state Department of Education.
■A milestone in the plan to redevelop the Northampton State Hospital comes Wednesday at 3 p.m. That is when proposals for the site’s redevelopment are due to the state’s Division of Capital Planning and Operations, the agency that oversees the vast property.
■The Springfield company redeveloping most of the historic Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech campus won a key approval from the Planning Board Thursday. The board signed off on Opal Real Estate Group’s site plan for the campus, green-lighting the mixed-use development that calls for commercial space on the west side of Round Hill Road and luxury apartments on the east side.
■Northampton school leaders have once again delayed a decision on changing the time of the school bell at Northampton High School, though proponents say they are encouraged by proposals on the table. By a vote of 7-2 Thursday, the School Committee agreed to decide next month on two of four later-start proposals they have been considering for the 2013-14 school year.