Williamstown Elementary School employees Bernadette Archibald, right, and Dolores Burns pose with Price Chopper chef John Winnek.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Ordinarily, it would have take Williamstown Elementary School some 200 years to accomplish what Bernadette Archibald did in just three.
Archibald recently won one million Tools for Schools points from Price Chopper when her recipe for Southwest Chicken Tortilla Soup was judged the best from among 80 dishes submitted to the supermarket's contest.
The Tools for Schools program allows shoppers to accumulate rewards points to benefit the school of their choice. The points can be redeemed for school equipment. Last year, the school accumulated about 5,000 points.
Archibald's winning recipe means that Williamstown will be able to acquire 16 new iPads and 30 sets of high-quality headphones for use either with the tablets or other computer equipment at the school, according to Principal Joelle Brookner.
"When they told us we'd won, I couldn't even process it," Brookner said last week.
Earlier this month, Archibald, an administrative secretary to the district's director of pupil personnel services, and Brookner's administrative assistant, Dolores Burns, traveled to Price Chopper's flagship store in Latham, N.Y., for an award presentation.
Archibald, an avid cook, said she has been tinkering with this particular recipe for about three years.
"It's just something I make up," she said. "I make it different each time. But when I submitted it [to the contest], I said, ‘OK, this is it.'
"I like it real spicy, so I made it mild when I submitted it."
She gave a copy of the recipe to the school's cafeteria staff, which may produce an even milder version for the children. And the official recipe will be featured in an upcoming Price Chopper flier and, perhaps, sold at the Latham store.
Archibald said the chain's chef instructor praised the recipe for its taste and the relatively short prep time.
"He tested all [the finalists] on his family, and he has a couple of teenage boys, and he said they loved this recipe," Burns said.
"I think what helped it win was it's easy and quick to make and very tasty," Archibald said. "Some of the other recipes might have been more time consuming but also delicious."
Brookner said the Price Chopper prize came fast on the heels of another windfall for the school: the anonymous donation of $10,000 from the winner of a contest sponsored by Stop & Shop. That money will benefit the school through its Parent Teacher Organization; Brookner said she is eyeing some cement chess tables for the playground.
"We had one out there that was a huge hit, but it was fiberglass and completely fell apart," she said. "But the kids just loved it."
Brookner expects to be able to order the iPads in the spring, after the regular July-March Tools for Schools promotion period ends. The new tablets — enough for a complete classroom set — should be at the school in time for the 2015-16 school year.
Bookkeeper Anne Donati was responsible for learning about the contest and steering it toward Archibald.
"When I got the email [from Price Chopper], I saw that you get 5,000 [Tools for Schools] points just for entering, and I said even if we just enter, we'll double our points from last year," Donati said.
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Williams Seeking Town Approval for New Indoor Practice Facility
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave Williams College the first approval it needs to build a 55,000-square foot indoor athletic facility on the north side of its campus.
Over the strenuous objection of a Southworth Street resident, the board found that the college's plan for a "multipurpose recreation center" or MRC off Stetson Road has adequate on-site parking to accommodate its use as an indoor practice facility to replace Towne Field House, which has been out of commission since last spring and was demolished this winter.
The college plans a pre-engineered metal that includes a 200-meter track ringing several tennis courts, storage for teams, restrooms, showers and a training room. The athletic surface also would be used as winter practice space for the school's softball and baseball teams, who, like tennis and indoor track, used to use the field house off Latham Street.
Since the planned structure is in the watershed of Eph's Pond, the college will be before the Conservation Commission with the project.
It also will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals, on Thursday, for a Development Plan Review and relief from the town bylaw limiting buildings to 35 feet in height. The new structure is designed to have a maximum height of 53 1/2 feet and an average roof height of 47 feet.
The additional height is needed for two reasons: to meet the NCAA requirement for clearance above center court on a competitive tennis surface (35 feet) and to include, on one side, a climbing wall, an element also lost when Towne Field House was razed.
The Planning Board had a few issues to resolve at its March 12 meeting. The most heavily discussed involved the parking determination for a use not listed in the town's zoning bylaws and a decision on whether access from town roads to the building site in the middle of Williams' campus was "functionally equivalent" to the access that would be required under the town's subdivision rules and regulations.
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