North Adams Teacher Writes Book On City's History

By Rebecca DravisiBerkshires Staff
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North Adams teacher Deborah Sala shows off the book she has just self-published on the history of North Adams.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Deborah Sala remembers the surprise on the face of the little boy who realized his current home at Brayton Hill Apartments sits on a historical site.

Sala, a reading specialist at Sullivan Elementary School, told the boy and his class that the housing development was built on a former brickyard in the manufacturing history of the city.

"The look of astonishment on his face! 'The history happened where I sleep?'" Sala recalled with a laugh. "He was somehow connected to what went on here."

That connection between kids and history is something Sala tries to foster, through her job, through her involvement with the North Adams Historical Society and through a new book she has just self-published called "Brick by Brick: History of a New England Mill Town - North Adams, Massachusetts."

The idea for the book came when working with third-graders at Brayton Elementary School last year. Part of the curriculum for third grade is to learn about local history, and North Adams students routinely visit the historical society museum in Heritage State Park. But Sala wanted to up the ante, so to speak, by planning hands-on research and activities.

"We needed some content so the kids could do some research," she said.

So Sala created some pages on North Adams history with the students. That was fun for all of them, she said, but didn't lead to anything until this past summer when she was trying to familiarize herself with an iPad, which are being used more regularly in North Adams classrooms. One of the apps she began playing with was "Book Creator."

"It's really a simple program to use, but it can do some pretty cool stuff," she said. "There's a lot of people making some neat content with it."

To populate her test iPad project, Sala pulled out the history pages she and the students had created last school year, adding illustrations and pictures. And suddenly it struck her: She had a book in the making.



"I've always wanted to write a book," Sala said. And she had toyed with the idea of doing it this past summer, although she really wanted to get up to speed on the technology.

"I should write that book. But I should learn this app," she recalled thinking. "It ended up forming together, which was really cool."

She hopes that students will find the book an engaging way to relate to local history, including photographs from the historical society as well as from her family's own collection.

"What I tried to do with my book is tell personal stories," she said.

Ssala hopes to make an iBook version free to teachers; interested teachers can email her at sala_deborah@yahoo.com. With the help of Adams Specialty Printing, she had 100 paper copies printed at her own expense that are now for sale for $9.95 at Berkshire Emporium and Antiques on Main Street as well as the North Adams Historical Society in Heritage State Park.

Sala also hopes to see to fruition a project that would put QR codes linking to pages of the book in the windows of downtown North Adams storefronts so people could walk up and down Main Street with their smartphones and learn about the city's history.

"When they click with the phone they could read the children's articles," she said. "I think a lot of people would use it."

And that's her goal: to introduce people, especially local students, to the history of the city they call home.

"Kids today don't feel as connected to their community," she said. "It's important for students to learn about the community they are in. They make connections and gain a sense of pride."


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Clarksburg Sees Race for Select Board Seat

CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The town will see a three-way race for a seat on the Select Board in May. 
 
Colton Andrews, Seth Alexander and Bryana Malloy returned papers by Wednesday's deadline to run for the three-year term vacated by Jeffrey Levanos. 
 
Andrews ran unsuccessfully for School Committee and is former chairman of the North Adams Housing Authority, on which he was a union representative. He is also president of the Pioneer Valley Building Trades Council.
 
Malloy and Alexander are both newcomers to campaigning. Malloy is manager of industrial relations for the Berkshire Workforce Board and Alexander is a resident of Gates Avenue. 
 
Alexander also returned papers for several other offices, including School Committee, moderator, library trustee and the five-year seat on the Planning Board. He took out papers for War Memorial trustee and tree warden but did not return them and withdrew a run for Board of Health. 
 
He will face off in the three-year School Committee seat against incumbent Cynthia Brule, who is running for her third term, and fellow newcomer Bonnie Cunningham for library trustee. 
 
Incumbent Ronald Boucher took out papers for a one-year term as moderator but did not return them. He was appointed by affirmation in 2021 when no won ran and accepted the post again last year as a write-in.
 
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