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By DOMENIC POLI

SOUTH DEERFIELD — Fifty-two students coming of age during a time enveloped by social media and online influence spoke with U.S. Sen. Ed Markey on Monday to discuss proposed legislation that would update a law enacted 26 years ago to better protect...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — All public school employees would forego raises next year, in addition to the elimination of more positions on top of those already announced in December, under a plan revealed in recent days by Superintendent Portia Bonner as the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Often during search-and-rescue efforts, emergency personnel in the field prioritize helping those lost, trapped or otherwise in trouble, rather than focusing on their own safety and well-being.Understanding the risks they take, a group...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Featuring a horn extending from its violet-colored head and a lower body resembling that of a lobster, with elements of a dolphin and turtle thrown in for good measure, the creature is quite a sight in its doll-like form.“It flies. It has...

By STEVE PFARRER

Can the arts help us reexamine our past and come to terms with injustice? Can music, film and other mediums become instruments for social change by helping us look differently at our history and our beliefs?Those are questions the Power of Truths Arts...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — When Giselle Ohm was in middle school, she enjoyed reading stories about the adventures and exploits of high school student councils, and she aspired to be on one someday. But when she began the transition to Northampton High School, Ohm...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — More Massachusetts families would become eligible for subsidized child care and “transformational” grants that kept the early education system afloat during the pandemic would be made permanent, under a bill the Senate unanimously passed late...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — Aaron Lansky, founder and president of the Yiddish Book Center, began his 2004 memoir about his work, “Outwitting History,” with a memorable anecdote: how he’d taken a dead-of-night train from the Valley to Manhattan in 1980 and, with the...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Despite a tightening state budget picture, the Senate this week plans to take up a pricey early education and child care bill aimed at expanding access to education for the state’s youngest learners and making it more affordable for families,...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — More money available to support the Amherst elementary schools budget should preserve the instrumental music program, as well as two special education instructors, one at Wildwood School and another at Crocker Farm School, next school year,...

By CHRIS LARABEE

GREENFIELD — School officials and community members from up and down the Pioneer Valley honed in on one of the most important local education issues — rural school funding — during a state budget hearing late last week that also included discussion...

By PAT JAMES

After moving from the city into a rural home with land 25 years ago, I was excited that the property was mostly bare ground that I could bend to my will and create beautiful gardens over time. As a kid, I’d helped in the garden a lot, so how hard...

By SAM DRYSDALE

Senators this week are expected to vote again on a bill to update the state’s sex education guidelines, something the chamber has already approved four times without getting buy-in from the House.The Senate Committee on Ways and Means polled the...

By TANISHA BHAT

The region’s paraeducators could receive additional support from the federal government when it comes to recruitment, training and retention as part of a bill proposed in Congress by Sen. Ed Markey.The bill — called the Preparing and Retaining All...

By DOMENIC POLI

GREENFIELD — Some two dozen aspiring nurses spent Monday morning rubbing elbows with four of the region’s top politicians, where they were able to ask what they could do to drum up support for single-payer health care to how to better protect medical...

By EMILEE KLEIN

SOUTH HADLEY — The sound from the high school’s music room Tuesday morning echoed down the halls with more volume than usual.South Hadley High School’s concert band currently consists of 12 people, three of whom play trumpet. Nathan Manly is one of...

By PEMA LATSHANG

Over the past three years, it’s become clear just how essential teachers are to the everyday lives of the western Massachusetts community. In remote and hybrid settings they were there for us throughout the pandemic, with many stepping up to do this...

By DOUG SELWYN

We are now a month away from MCAS season, and I urge readers to learn more about the Thrive Act, which would end the MCAS as a graduation requirement, would end district receivership, and would establish a commission to develop an assessment system...

By MADDIE FABIAN

EASTHAMPTON – After dropping out of high school, Easthampton resident Peter Morris, now 32 years old, went on to work for years at the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s distribution center, then Friendly’s for a couple of years, before going on disability to...

By MADDIE FABIAN

WESTHAMPTON — As Hampshire Regional School District teachers approach five months of working without a contract, over 115 community members showed up to an online forum Thursday night in support of the union’s fight for a new deal.The forum was held...