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New Brayton Principal Helps Celebrate Summer Science Camp

New Brayton principal Carolyn Wallace came to North Adams just in time to see the end of the Summer Science Camp and the students' projects.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — New Brayton Elementary School Principal Carolyn Wallace's first day on the job was the beginning of the last week of the district's Summer Science Camp.

And everything was running so smoothly in the 17th year of the camp that Wallace didn't have to do anything but watch as kindergarten through fourth-graders "reached for the stars" during the last week of the four-week space-themed program. A "kinder camp" program for incoming kindergartners also was running in the school at the same time.

"It's been wonderful," Wallace said from her office at Brayton on Wednesday after watching the students play kickball with members of the North Adams Police Department in the gym. 

The kickball game was part of a showcase display put on by the 200 students enrolled in the camp. Tables with the solar system and space-themed displays lined the main hallway, and families were invited to a barbecue to celebrate the last week of the program as well.

Campers played kickball with North Adams Police officers.

This year, thanks to partnerships with Williams College, Drury High School, the North Adams Public Library, Child Care of the Berkshires and many other local organizations, students were able to see planetarium shows, have books on the solar system read to them, receive free books, perform a play called "Vacation on Mars" and take field trips outside the Berkshires to places like the Connecticut Science Center and the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning.

"There's really a lot going on in the seven hours they're here every day," said Noella Carlow, the district's 21st Century site coordinator.

Bruce Hall can attest to that. The father of two rising fifth-grade boys and a rising third-grade girl, Hall said he donates to the program when he can because he sees how much his children love it and is happy to tout the program whenever he can.

"There's really excited about camp," Hall said. "It's a great thing for the kids. … They make friends because it's all three schools going together."

And that's something that new principal Wallace quickly learned. She said she had visited several classrooms over the course of her first week, specifically seeking out the Brayton students whom she will guide this fall, finding them mixed in with Greylock and Colegrove students.

"I tease them. I say, I'm new. If you see me wandering around, help me," she said.

Wallace is coming to North Adams from Webster, where she had been for the past seven years. She said she was drawn to the city because of the "positive energy" coming from the district.

"It has a lot of the same needs with a whole lot more supports," she said, naming initiatives like the new district "welcome center" being developed at Brayton. "I'm very excited to be part of it."

North Adams to Begin Study of Veterans Memorial Bridge Alternatives

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:21AM / Monday, April 15, 2024

Mayor Jennifer Macksey says the requests for qualifications for the planning grant should be available this month. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Connecting the city's massive museum and its struggling downtown has been a challenge for 25 years. 

 

A major impediment, all agree, is the decades old Central Artery project that sent a four-lane highway through the heart of the city. 

 

Backed by a $750,000 federal grant for a planning study, North Adams and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art are looking to undo some of that damage.

 

"As you know, the overpass was built in 1959 during a time when highways were being built, and it was expanded to accommodate more cars, which had little regard to the impacts of the people and the neighborhoods that it surrounded," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey on Friday. "It was named again and again over the last 30 years by Mass MoCA in their master plan and in the city in their vision 2030 plan ... as a barrier to connectivity."

 

The Reconnecting Communities grant was awarded a year ago and Macksey said a request for qualifications for will be available April 24.

 

She was joined in celebrating the grant at the Berkshire Innovation Center's office at Mass MoCA by museum Director Kristy Edmunds, state Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver, District 1 Director Francesca Hemming and Joi Singh, Massachusetts administrator for the Federal Highway Administration.

 

The speakers also thanked the efforts of the state's U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, U.S. Rep. Richie Neal, Gov. Maura Healey and state Sen Paul Mark and state Rep. John Barrett III, both of whom were in attendance.