A Northampton teacher’s master’s degree project is a learning tool for students and resource for the community.
Northampton High School technology teacher Jeromie Whalen said his graduate studies in the learning, media and technology program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led him to consider a new website for the school district.
A needs assessment last spring asked questions like, “What does our community want? What does our faculty look for when using the site? What do students want on the site?”
He then began working with Molly McLoughlin, the digital literacy and computer science coordinator for the city’s schools, to develop and design the site. The goal was to produce an interactive district website to replace an old one that was not successfully engaging the community.
“It gives you a space you can go very easily to find your child’s school, and then find those other spaces that the staff and faculty are using to educate the kids,” McLoughlin said. “It’s much more interactive instead of static.”
The new site at www.northamptonschools.org officially went live Oct. 12. Whalen and McLoughlin are still tweaking it and involving students in making fixes and adding features.
Among them are students in the high school’s communications and media production course, including junior Gabe Sussman who hopes to study computer science at Northeastern University in Boston. His contributions include most of the pages for school sports.
Whalen also hopes to attract more students through events such as a “boot camp” on website work Nov. 28 at the high school, funded by a $1,200 grant from the Northampton Education Foundation.
The new website is also getting attention from outside Northampton, according to Superintendent John Provost. He has heard from other superintendents asking which vendor created the site. “I’ve found many of our colleagues to be quite surprised when they hear our vendor is our teachers and students,” Provost said.
That’s evidence that this learning experience will continue paying dividends for students, faculty and the community.
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The sun is now generating power for Northampton on top of an old dump.
A 3.17-megawatt, 9,899-module solar array began producing electricity earlier this month on top of the closed landfill on Glendale Road. Ameresco Solar designed and built the array and will maintain it and a smaller one at Florence Fields.
Ameresco will sell electricity to the city for 20 years, and Northampton is expected to save $8 million in energy costs during those two decades. The array at the landfill is expected to generate more than 4 million kilowatt hours during its first year, which is about 45 percent of the municipal electric use.
The solar array also will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city at a rate equivalent to eliminating electricity use in 444 homes or removing 634 passenger vehicles from the roads.
The project also satisfied neighbors of the former landfill that closed in 2013. The Ward 6 Neighborhood Association suggested using the site for solar energy.
“Our dream has come true,” Ward 6 City Councilor Marianne LaBarge said at the dedication ceremony last week. “I think this is great.”
Kudos to the city for generating goodwill — as well as solar power.
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A matching gift from an anonymous donor will continue to help fuel the recovery of Historic Northampton, which was on the brink of financial collapse three years ago.
The donor will match contributions, up to $150,000, made by March 1 to the museum that owns three historic homes on Bridge Street. That potential $300,000 is “coming at a terrific time for us as an organization,” said co-director Laurie Sanders.
That is true, particularly because until its revival began in September 2014, Historic Northampton had run operating deficits for five straight years and drained most of its trusts and cash reserves.
The latest contributions will be used to help preserve the museum’s 40,000-piece collection, acquire more artifacts and expand its programming.
“Historic Northampton is having a real impact on the community,” the anonymous donor said in an email statement released by the museum. “My hope is that this gift will inspire others to further the organization’s mission and its capacity to achieve its highest potential.”
That is a worthy goal for present and future generations who value the history of their community.