Williamstown Students Celebrate Power of Words

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Above, the littlest students at Williamstown Elementary School led the Words are Wonderful costume parade on Wednesday. Even the school's principal, Joelle Brookner, got into the spirit with her costume inspired by Olivia the pig from the series of children's books written and illustrated by Ian Falconer.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Harry Potter and Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz" made a surprise appearance at Williamstown Elementary School on Wednesday morning.

Actually, multiple Harrys and Dorothys joined countless other characters from beloved books as part of the costume parade as part of the school's annual Words Are Wonderful celebration of the power and magic of words.

The celebration kicked off last Friday with a school-wide trip to see Berkshire Theater Company's "Atlantis, Lost and Other Legends from the Strange Waves" at the '62 Center. It continued this week with community readers sharing stories with the students, as well as a special guest appearance by Amherst-based author Burleigh Muten, who wrote "Writing with Miss Emily," on Tuesday.


On Wednesday, the costume parade marches along Church Street and through the neighboring Harper Center as a treat for local senior citizens, featuring kids from pre-K through sixth grade showing off their favorite characters from books or their favorite words. Throughout the week, each grade also is exploring words in different ways through field trips and other guest authors.

The remainder of the celebration features some events open to the public, including the WES PTO Book Fair, which runs daily through from 8:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday in the school's auditorium. On Thursday night, the book fair will be open until 7:30 p.m. to coincide with a pizza dinner and the annual Scrabble Night tournament in the library; the tournament is also open to the public.

And wrapping up the week is an appearance of the Story Pirates on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Mass MoCA. Tickets are free but must be reserved and the public is welcome. Story Pirates is a nationally respected education and media organization founded in 2003 to celebrate the words and ideas of young people. By pairing world-class teachers with first-rate actors and comedians, the group offers a variety of tools to make learning more engaging and effective. The Story Pirates will perform some of their regular stories as well as stories created during workshops with the younger grades at WES on Thursday.

 

 


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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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