Grandson William Kolis, who grew up across the street, recounts some of the family's story at Saturday's reunion. Behind him is his grandmother's 90th birthday proclamation signed in 1985.
ADAMS, Mass. — More than three dozen members of the Kolis family stretching across at least three generations on Saturday celebrated 100 years in the home their dziadziu and babci built.
Mateusz (Matthew) Kolis and Katarzyna (Catherine) Strzepek sought their futures in America in the early 1900s and found work in the mills. The big house near the top of steep Haggerty Street was built by Matthew Kolis as a home for their 13 children. Eleven of their children would give them 36 grandchildren and 57 great-grandchildren and numerous great-great-grandchildren.
"We lived across the street and my dad, like dziadziu, built the house we lived in," said William "Bill" Kolis. "For me crossing that street was like going to Poland. It was language I didn't speak, with people I didn't really understand."
Kolis said he's been looking into the history of the family as his sister, Gail Kolis Sellers, has been documenting the genealogy.
"In my mind, genealogy is the skeleton. We know where everybody is. History is the story and the story of this family is fantastic," he said.
Matthew Kolis' shares a birthday with the nation he came to call home, though the July 4 date is a little iffy as its listed as his baptismal date. Bill Kolis, who was recorded as he shared the family story, said babies were usually baptized the day they were born because the death rate for infants in Poland was so high at the time.
The family patriarch was 14 when he arrived in America in 1906, following his older sister, Zofia Kolis Les, who arrived five years earlier. The Kolises lived in a poverty-stricken region of Poland then under Austrian rule, and the massive textile mills here were recruiting thousands of workers overseas.
Millions of Poles came to the United States during a great wave of immigration between 1870 and 1914. This would be stemmed after World War I as America sought to limit immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe.
"There was a strong movement from Congress when they passed legislation restricting the number of people who come from Poland, because those who lived here believe that the Polish people were polluting and diluting the bloodline of the country," said Bill Kolis, commenting that history doesn't repeat "but it rhymes."
"I hope we have just as much respect for the immigrants that are coming in today," said another family member. "You know, it was tough back then. It's tough now. Well, you gotta give them a break."
America represented opportunity, said Kolis. "It was the young, the brave, and it's really interesting in our family, in light of some of the discussions, it was the women who came first. ... he came here but there was already a Kolis woman here. There's strength in our women and I think I've heard that all through this day."
Matthew Kolis would marry Katherine and become a loom fixer in the Berkshire Hathaway mills.
The family didn't know much about their Polish relatives or how their grandparents had lived in the old country. Bill Kolis thinks it was because of the way Poland was treated in the history of the word: "the invasions, the borders changing, and when people came over, they were afraid to talk about their country. They were afraid they would be picked up and sent back."
Matthew never went back but Catherine Kolis did, twice, after his death in 1957. Her family had survived World War II but was still destitute. A photo she brought back of one her relatives barefoot in a sack dress with a young child had written on the back in Polish, "do you have any clothes or shoes?"
Saturday's reunion was the first major one since Catherine's 90th birthday in 1985, not long before her passing, said Gail Sellers. A birthday proclamation poster for that reunion was filled with signatures of the family members who had attended and Sellers had a new poster for everyone to sign this time.
The house has been owned since 2004 by grandson Daniel Kolis, whose father, Francis, had previously been the owner. The home had been separated into two apartments but he has since returned it to a single-family home.
"I'm not sure what's going happen after this. My two daughters, one lives in New York, in Albany, and the other's down in West Haven, Conn.," he said. "There's a lot of Kolises here. Might have to find one to buy it."
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Letter: Time to End the MCAS Graduation Requirement
Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
As a parent, public educator, and school committee member, I urge you to vote YES on Question 2 and eliminate the MCAS as a graduation requirement.
During my career, which includes four years as an MCAS administrator and national recognition for my contributions to the field of assessment, I've seen firsthand the significant resources consumed by this test and the stress it causes for students and educators alike. Modern assessment practices show that learning is best measured through meaningful, real-world activities, not high-stakes standardized tests. When used correctly, assessment empowers students as learners and teachers as professionals.
Instead, the MCAS graduation requirement has become a barrier to success disproportionately affecting students of color, low-income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities — widening achievement gaps instead of closing them. Some say that this is a non-issue because most students who initially fail the MCAS eventually pass through retakes or appeals. But marginalized students struggle with retakes more than their peers, creating unfair obstacles to graduation and increasing drop-out rates. To be clear, these students are not less capable: they are being failed by a system that isn't meeting their needs. The MCAS provides useful data to hold systems accountable for rigorous, fair learning outcomes in Grades 3-8 without making students bear the consequences of our failure to serve them equitably; why can't the same apply to sophomores?
Ending the MCAS graduation requirement wouldn't lower standards. Quite the opposite: schools could shift the time, energy, and money currently spent teaching to a narrow test toward more well-rounded learning experiences like those outlined in the grassroots Portrait of a Graduate initiative and the Mass Core program of studies, spotlighting classes like civics, the arts, social sciences, technology, and foreign language and competencies like communication, critical thinking, and lifelong learning.
This type of education helps students engage with real-world challenges in their communities and gain the skills employers and colleges value way more than test scores from two years before graduation. If the Legislature would like to adapt these models into an authentic assessment system — and fund it appropriately — I would be happy to volunteer my time and expertise to help design it.
Forty-two states have eliminated standardized tests as a graduation requirement. It's time for Massachusetts to do the same. Let's invest in authentic student success, not just test-taking skills. It starts by voting YES on Question 2 this fall.
Erin Milne Adams, Mass.
The author serves on the Board of Directors for the Association for the Assessment of Student Learning in Higher Education and is vice chair of the Hoosac Valley Regional School Committee. A version of this letter which includes hyperlinks to sources can be accessed here.
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