April West Named Principal of BArT

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April West
ADAMS, Mass. — Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School named April West as the school's principal. This decision is the conclusion of a rigorous four month process that included the input of the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students and parents.
 
April West joined the BArT faculty in 2006 as a Humanities and English Language Arts teacher. While at BArT, she initiated an Advanced Placement program and taught AP Language and Composition and AP Literature. She has served in a number of teacher-leader roles and, in her tenure, has demonstrated exceptional commitment to the mission of BArT and to BArT's students.
 
West holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bennington College in Social Justice, a Master of Arts in Comparative Studies from Ohio State University, a Master of Arts in Teaching in social studies and is currently completing a Certificates Of Advanced Graduate Study in educational leadership from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
 
"Ms. West was an exceptional candidate who has already demonstrated commitment to our school community, a deep understanding of our student population, and an eagerness and ability to drive continued improvement to our curriculum and instruction," said Executive Director Julia Bowen. "I am confident that she will be able to lead our faculty and students to greater achievements."
 
West will start in her new role as principal on July 1. Outgoing principal Ben Klompus is leaving BArT to pursue a doctorate in education at Harvard University.
 
"I'm excited to build on the tremendous success that BArT has achieved over the past five years under the guidance of Principal Klompus," West said. "I know that we have a team in place that will continue to prepare 100 percent of our graduates for college and the workforce and I am honored to lead this effort."

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Adams Welcomes New Officer; Appoints Housing Authority Board Member

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Officer Cole Desroches recently graduated from the Police Academy. 
ADAMS, Mass. — The Selectmen welcomed the newest member of the Adams Police Department, Officer Cole Desroches, on Wednesday evening. 
 
Desroches graduated from the Police Academy on March 22 in the top tier in his class. He's currently in the field training program and assigned to Sgt. Curtis Crane. He attended Hoosac Valley High School and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 
 
"He's going to serve and protect the town of Adams very well," said Crane, who with Sgts. Matthew Wright and Gregory Onorato stepped in to introduce the new officer while Chief R. Scott Kelley was on vacation. 
 
"We don't often get an opportunity to kind of talk about, frankly, some of the positive things that are happening in town and one of the many things that I feel are positive with are the Adams Police Department," said Town Administrator Jay Green. "We are right now at full staff. We have a full complement of officers. We have a chief who just resigned a three-year contract. ... We have four very capable sergeants (including Donna Malloy)."
 
The force consists of the chief, the four sergeants, a full-time detective and 11 patrol officers. It also has a new position in Cpl. Joshua Baker who is responsible for training and keeping staff equipped. 
 
"We're on the cutting edge of ensuring that we have proper training in a very changing environment with law enforcement," continued Green. "And we have a nice complement of officers and we have a well-respected detective who handles some very complicated cases."
 
He called out the half-dozen officers who attended the meeting for the work they're doing as well as the K9 unit. 
 
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