North Adams - Two city public school pre-school programs and the city's kindergartens have earned accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The NAEYC is a nationally known, well respected organization of early childhood professionals.
"We are proud to be accredited by the NAEYC and to be recognized for our commitment to reaching the highest professional standards," said North Adams Public Schools Superintendent James E. Montepare. "NAEYC accreditation lets families in our community know that children in our program are getting the best care and early learning experiences."
Over 11,000 early childhood programs serving over one million young children are currently accredited by the NAEYC.
"In recent years, we've seen a growing number of child care and preschool programs earning NAEYC accreditation," said NAEYC Executive Director Mark Ginsburg in a prepared statement. "By earning accreditation, North Adams has become a leader in a national effort to raise the quality of early childhood education and to help give all children a better start."
Programs reviewed for accreditation must meet a wide range of criteria that speak to program quality. These include standards for the physical environment, health and safety practices, involvement of families in the education process,staff qualifications, and instructional quality.
As part of the evaluation process, the city's pre-kindergarten and kindergarten faculty completed an extensive self-study. NAEYC evaluators also spent several days observing North Adams programs and reviewing documents. Feedback about the city program provided by on-site evaluators suggests that quality of staff and instruction was particularly strong.
NAEYC created its' accreditation program in 1985 to set professional standards for early childhood education and to help families identify high quality childcare and early education programs.
Programs are accredited by the NAEYC for a five-year period.
Montepare said that to retain accreditation, city public schools must continue to review and improve their programs on a yearly basis.
"Continual improvement is our goal for the North Adams Public Schools. No matter how good we are, we're always looking for ways to be even better."
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Clarksburg Looking to Repair School Front Entrance
By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Plans for renovating the bathrooms are on hold, which means the summer camp will again take place at the elementary school.
Assistant Superintendent Tara Barnes informed the School Committee on Thursday that Tom Bona, who's been volunteering as lead on school repairs, said the work to bring the bathrooms up to Americans With Disabilities Act compliance couldn't be scheduled in time.
"I think the concern was, as it kind of pushed towards the end of the school year, that there wasn't enough time to post and hire a contractor to meet the timeline," said Superintendent John Franzoni, participating via Zoom.
He said the Berkshire Regional Planning Board considered the school could use the $30,000 in ADA grant money toward the purchase of the equipment and then schedule the work for summer 2027.
The town is expected to move forward with repairs to the front entrance. The concrete pad has cracked and heaved and poses a hazard.
"I think it's important to prioritize that entrance way, which is in pretty bad shape, and the town has already followed through to get some bids," Franzoni said. "We got good communication from [Road Foreman] Kyle Hurlbut today about how much he was recommending to the town to request through the stabilization, I think, was $19,500 to cover the high end of the bids and any kind of contingencies."
The town had agreed to use any funds leftover from the school roof project to put toward other repairs and renovations at the school. Town meeting last year authorized a debt exclusion to borrow $500,000 toward the project. The roof came in around $400,000.
The fund had grown immensely over the past 25 years, raising some $1.75 million during that period. But the 1960s would see the fund grow even more in both fundraising and the agencies it supported. click for more
As a long line of officials grabbed their shovels for the ceremonial dirt toss, the old school was being taken apart behind them and forms for the footings for the new school were being installed across the way.
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The board of trustees on Thursday voted 8-2 to offer the 13th presidency of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to a Pennsylvania higher education executive. click for more
