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UMass wants to privatize more than 100 jobs. Imagine having to reapply to a job you’ve had for 20 years. As a 29-plus year employee at UMass and witness to the anti-union sentiment for all those years, I can confidently state that if it took 20 years...

Dear Waldo,My Auntie Samantha has always hated her eyebrows because she thinks they make her look grouchy. So she plucked them all out and then she drew on fake ones, but the fake ones are I’d say at least three-quarters of an inch higher on her...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Sixth graders at Amherst’s three elementary schools won’t be joining seventh and eighth graders at the Amherst Regional Middle School until fall 2025, at the earliest.In a reversal from a fall 2021 vote in which this year’s fifth graders...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — A municipal building in town center that for 87 years served as the town’s library, and for the past two decades has been a repository for historic objects held by the Leverett Historical Society, continues to have an uncertain...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Anticipated soaring costs related to the capital needs of the middle and high schools, including a project to replace the middle school roof that has been put on pause, is prompting local officials to ask if a single campus for regional...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — More than $1 million in spending cuts, including approximately 15 staff layoffs, may be needed to bring the regional schools’ budget to a level that the towns of Amherst, Pelham. Shutesbury and Leverett are able to pay.At a four-towns...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A continued impasse in talks between the Amherst Pelham Education Association and the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee is prompting both sides to do outreach and make appeals to the community.The School Committee, in a letter sent...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Two bills focused on eliminating contamination from so-called forever chemicals, including legislation related to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances in sludge and fertilizer filed by Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, could soon be making...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Diego Sharon, in his third year as principal at Amherst Regional Middle School, is leaving the position at the end of the school year.Superintendent Michael Morris told the Amherst Regional School Committee on Tuesday that Sharon is looking...

By Gene Stamell

My mother was a big advocate for guilt. “Guilt builds character,” she would say. “If you feel some guilt, you will become a better person.”I’m not sure her opinion influenced my choice of spouse, but my wife of 43 years once told me that she has...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A 6-year-old project to diversify the teaching staff in the Amherst and regional public schools to better match the racial makeup of the student body continues to yield results.At the Amherst Regional School Committee on Tuesday, members of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — As the number of fights between students in the bathrooms at Amherst Regional High School appears to be declining, school administrators report that vape detectors continue to show that the number of students vaping in the lavatories is not...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A $4.74 million project to rebuild and reorient the track at the Amherst Regional High School, installing a synthetic turf playing field in its interior, can move forward, even though community fundraising is short of the amount needed to...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Despite significant planning over the past two years to relocate sixth graders from the town’s elementary schools to the Amherst Regional Middle School this fall, district leaders are broaching the idea of delaying the move, possibly for...

By Gene Stamell

In December, Andrea Ayvazian wrote a lovely column about the miracle of the human body. Her thoughtful piece reminded me of discussions I used to have with several third grade classes (I taught elementary school for over 35 years). I would pose the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Citing its duty to protect public health and the environment, the Board of Health is recommending against using artificial turf in a planned overhaul of the track and field at Amherst Regional High School.The board voted 4-0 at its meeting...

By DOMENIC POLI

GREENFIELD — An Athol man was sentenced to six to 12 years behind bars Wednesday after changing his plea to charges stemming from a fatal crash he caused while driving 102 mph on Route 63 in Leverett three years ago.Gary Gregoire, 44, appeared in...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Adjustments to the mathematics curriculum in Amherst’s secondary schools aim to give all students an opportunity to succeed in the subject, and, should they choose, pursue more in-depth studies as high schoolers.During a Regional School...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

LEVERETT — Despite Leverett police officers and firefighters and State Police completing another extensive search of Richard Drury’s property in late March, the missing man’s whereabouts remain unknown nearly four months after his disappearance.Police...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Students at Amherst Regional middle and high schools will begin their school days later in the mornings when the next school year begins in the fall, when most of them will return for in-person education for the first time since last March.A...